Why is it $3 more expenseive per month to subscribe vs gametime???

[Mandrake of DF]

Why is it $3 more expensive per month to subscribe than to buy 1 month gametime code?

3 month gametime code costs $27 vs 3 months subscription $39

6 month gametime code costs $41 vs 6 months subscription $78

I dont see the logic in this - it totally make no sence at all....It should be cheaper to have a payplan than buying gametime codes....

@Mesanna

 

[cobb]

$3 convenience fee

 

[Mandrake of DF]

$3 convenience fee

or 37? Thats a ripoff...

 

[Slayvite]

Why is it $3 more expensive per month to subscribe than to buy 1 month gametime code?

3 month gametime code costs $27 vs 3 months subscription $39

6 month gametime code costs $41 vs 6 months subscription $78

I dont see the logic in this - it totally make no sence at all....It should be cheaper to have a payplan than buying gametime codes....

@Mesanna

Erm......Americans cannot do basic math?

 

[cdavbar]

It actually makes a lot of sense. Many places that do subscriptions do discounts like this, pay for more game-time up-front, get a discount. The only difference is here you can only do direct pay on monthly while if doing a bulk or longer subscription you must by a game time code.

I run a website (non-uo related). Our premium memberships run the same model. We have montly, yearly, etc. The more you pay for up front, the cheaper "per-month" price you pay.

 

[Dot_Warner]

FYI on the account mismanagement website, you can pay for a 6mo code for the same price as 6mo gametime: $59.99

Lower prices in the US are only obtainable through Origin's monthly sucker's ripoff subscription plan, where you pay $4 a month.

 

[Parnoc]

FYI on the account mismanagement website, you can pay for a 6mo code for the same price as 6mo gametime: $59.99

Lower prices in the US are only obtainable through Origin's monthly sucker's ripoff subscription plan, where you pay $4 a month.

How do I sign up to pay $4 a month please?

 

[Dot_Warner]

How do I sign up to pay $4 a month please?

Origin Access

 

[Parnoc]

Origin Access

That page tells me $59.99 for 6 months, 38.99 for 3 months, 12.99 for one month, where is the $4 one?

 

[Victim of Siege]

What Dot is saying is that you get a discount on everything in the store, if you pay the $4.99 monthly charge for the Origin Access plan.

 

[TheGrimReefer]

And they dont take into consideration the states that have gaming taxes.

 

[Slayvite]

Don't work for UK,
£9.99 for each version of a 1 month sub.
£3.99 for Origin access 1 month sub which gives you a 10% discount.
So discounted you would pay £9 a month for UO but it would cost you £3.99 extra = £12.99 (£3 more each month)

Yearly Origin access is £19.99 so that's £1.66 per month, still an increase of 66p each month.

So for UK, the Subscription model gives the best discount.

 

[ShriNayne]

After tax in the UK it is actually £11.66 per month, or 69.96 for six months, but if you buy six months Game-time from Origin it's £38.50.

 

[Slayvite]

After tax in the UK it is actually £11.66 per month, or 69.96 for six months, but if you buy six months Game-time from Origin it's £38.50.

I didn't go as far as to buy, but if that is the case then it needs to be changed urgently as it is breaking UK tax laws.
It states clearly on the options that they are "inclusive of Tax" so that means they cannot add "another" tax at checkout.
Tax law is very strict in UK and Europe.

@Mesanna

 

[ShriNayne]

It is actually very misleading, you only see the £9.99 change to £11.66 once you actually pay for it. I don't buy monthly any more for that reason, £11.66 is a lot more than most games nowadays, a total rip-off in the UK, it's a lot more reasonable if you buy the Origin codes. I think they are very out-of-touch concerning modern MMO payment models.

 

[Slayvite]

It is actually very misleading, you only see the £9.99 change to £11.66 once you actually pay for it. I don't buy monthly any more for that reason, £11.66 is a lot more than most games nowadays, a total rip-off in the UK, it's a lot more reasonable if you buy the Origin codes. I think they are very out-of-touch concerning modern MMO payment models.

That also is very suspect, you cannot change the price you pay for an item 'after' you click the buy button, all taxes and other costs must clearly be shown 'before' the buyer clicks OK and accepts the conditions.

@Mesanna, can you verify this? it is after all you as Producer, that would be the person in trouble if you are deemed to be guilty of Tax Fraud?.

 

[ShriNayne]

Hahahaha that made me laugh! I think it does mention tax somewhere, but I think it should say the full price including tax before you sign up, a lot of people probably don't think online games have import tax, if that is what it is...
We spent years over-paying for Everquest 2 because SOE didn't use official exchange rates, just their own made-up ones which obviously had no resemblance to the actual one!

 

[Slayvite]

Yeah, Tax is a nightmare at any time but just at the moment in Europe, it's a big thing with the authorities going after anyone that's been "fiddling the books".
Even my local baker shop was done as they drove to France to get their bulk flour instead of buying it in UK and paying VAT.
Governments have realized it's a quick easy way for them to get more cash........basically like an in-game cash shop....

 

[GarthGrey]

thankfully, being gainfully employed myself, I don't really need, at this time in my life, to have to save 4.00/mo doing anything.

 

[Ox_AO]

Origin access cost $29.99 a year plus you have to pay for the six month game time plus tax?

 

[Lord Arm]

for some, its worth paying more $ than having to deal with origin store lol. they should pay me to use.

 

[Alex"Drake Iron Heart"CS]

In Europe its always and will always be cheaper to get game time codes, by far, than getting the 6month CC bill

 

[Tyrath]

I have always paid my accts subs in 6 month blocks on recurring payments for $59.99, with no problems, the wife knows that every 6 months $1200 is going to come out of my acct and arguing about it only leads to me advising here that I could drop UO and start spending $100 per night at the bar.

 

[Mervyn]

okay i've been sitting on some info for a while, thought i may aswell share it, when you access the origin store, it directs you to a page depending on your country i.p so i decided to shop around (the world) using a vpn to see which countries offer us the cheapest 6 month game time code. Here are my results. Conversion rates are current to this date, please note currency conversion rates change daily.

USA US$59.99
EUROPE MAINLAND (€45.99) = US$51.41
AUSTRALIA (AUS$64.99) = US$49.20
UK (£38.50) = US$48.96
CANADA ($59.99 CANADIAN $) = US$45.28
HONG KONG (HONK KONG$340) = US$43.59
SINGAPORE (SINGAPORE $56.90) = US$40.96

but the winner is SAN JOSE Costa Rica!
MEXICO = US$39.99

so in short, always VPN through a mexican server when accessing the origin store to save yourself US$40 per year. Please share with us if you find any cheaper as I didn't check every country.

Regards

 

[Captn Norrington]

It's really a miracle UO makes any money at all, there are so many loopholes they haven't fixed to save money like that.

Only have to pay for an account once every 3 months to keep a house, can save 30% or more on gametime just by using a VPN as shown above, third party sites sell everything the UO store sells for a cheaper price etc.

All of those loopholes have been known about for years, yet nothing was done to fix them. What other company sees themselves losing money multiple different ways and just goes "meh, who cares". It's truly baffling how determined EA is to avoid making money from UO for some inexplicable reason.

 

[MalagAste]

It's really a miracle UO makes any money at all, there are so many loopholes they haven't fixed to save money like that.

Only have to pay for an account once every 3 months to keep a house, can save 30% or more on gametime just by using a VPN as shown above, third party sites sell everything the UO store sells for a cheaper price etc.

All of those loopholes have been known about for years, yet nothing was done to fix them. What other company sees themselves losing money multiple different ways and just goes "meh, who cares". It's truly baffling how determined EA is to avoid making money from UO for some inexplicable reason.

I've wondered that myself and they fail to realize that people play MULTIPLE UO accounts and don't allow you to buy multiples of things like Blackthorns and such... as I would really like that for more than ONE of my accounts.

 

[Dot_Warner]

okay i've been sitting on some info for a while, thought i may aswell share it, when you access the origin store, it directs you to a page depending on your country i.p so i decided to shop around (the world) using a vpn to see which countries offer us the cheapest 6 month game time code. Here are my results. Conversion rates are current to this date, please note currency conversion rates change daily.

USA US$59.99
EUROPE MAINLAND (€45.99) = US$51.41
AUSTRALIA (AUS$64.99) = US$49.20
UK (£38.50) = US$48.96
CANADA ($59.99 CANADIAN $) = US$45.28
HONG KONG (HONK KONG$340) = US$43.59
SINGAPORE (SINGAPORE $56.90) = US$40.96

but the winner is SAN JOSE Costa Rica!
MEXICO = US$39.99

so in short, always VPN through a mexican server when accessing the origin store to save yourself US$40 per year. Please share with us if you find any cheaper as I didn't check every country.

Regards

Hmm.. Interesting that Mexico has the cheapest price.

Using a VPN isn't necessarily the perfect solution though, some credit and debit cards charge extra for foreign currency transactions Worth a try though.

 

[Dot_Warner]

It's really a miracle UO makes any money at all, there are so many loopholes they haven't fixed to save money like that.

Only have to pay for an account once every 3 months to keep a house, can save 30% or more on gametime just by using a VPN as shown above, third party sites sell everything the UO store sells for a cheaper price etc.

All of those loopholes have been known about for years, yet nothing was done to fix them. What other company sees themselves losing money multiple different ways and just goes "meh, who cares". It's truly baffling how determined EA is to avoid making money from UO for some inexplicable reason.

I think UO makes a profit in spite of EA.

Think about all the things EA does to make it harder to give them money for UO. The code shortages, hiding UO stuffs on Origin (so that not everything shows up in the search page), the lack of sales on 10+ yo expansions/boosters THAT PEOPLE STILL BUY, the inexplicable inability to purchase all expansions/packs in some countries, sovereigns having a horrid pricing scheme, the random delays is getting codes to people (CC transactions are INSTANT these days). Then there is the account (mis)management site to deal with and the ingame store that is randomly inaccessible.

If these problems continue to exist when the Endless Trial(F2P) gets out of development hell, they will cost UO tons of potential revenue.

 

[MalagAste]

I think UO makes a profit in spite of EA.

Think about all the things EA does to make it harder to give them money for UO. The code shortages, hiding UO stuffs on Origin (so that not everything shows up in the search page), the lack of sales on 10+ yo expansions/boosters THAT PEOPLE STILL BUY, the inexplicable inability to purchase all expansions/packs in some countries, sovereigns having a horrid pricing scheme, the random delays is getting codes to people (CC transactions are INSTANT these days). Then there is the account (mis)management site to deal with and the ingame store that is randomly inaccessible.

If these problems continue to exist when the Endless Trial(F2P) gets out of development hell, they will cost UO tons of potential revenue.

Sadly many folk won't put up with the BS that we do.... they will say "This game is soooo not worth the headache..." and move on to something easier to deal with.

 

[Dot_Warner]

Sadly many folk won't put up with the BS that we do.... they will say "This game is soooo not worth the headache..." and move on to something easier to deal with.

People keep paying EA despite the number and/or difficulty of the hoops they have leap through. Thus, EA doesn't give a F...we've proven ourselves to be trainable, masochistic seals who eagerly que up for a clubbing.

 

[ShriNayne]

Well they probably figure that getting paid one month in three on second or third accounts is better than getting nothing at all, I don't think they will be rocking that boat any time soon....

 

[Mervyn]

If you're in the US, the mexican site's price is already in US dollar so there shouldn't be a charge for currency conversion, and if there is, i highly doubt it's greater than 30%.

Then again, the OP on this thread started off with (39-27)/3 = 3??

So feel free to chuck any random figures out...

 

[Mandrake of DF]

If you're in the US, the mexican site's price is already in US dollar so there shouldn't be a charge for currency conversion, and if there is, i highly doubt it's greater than 30%.

Then again, the OP on this thread started off with (39-27)/3 = 3??

So feel free to chuck any random figures out...

I only compared vs having montly subscription....