Pricing Increase

Quick summary: EverQuest monthly fees are getting hiked from $12.99 to $14.99 per month effective June 12, 2005. Original article from EQLive: =========================================== Due to the increased costs of running the EverQuest game service, we will be increasing our subscription rates in June. Effective June 12, 2005, the new monthly subscription rate will be $14.99/month. While this announcement may be unpleasant, the cost of operating a top tier MMO has increased significantly over the past three years and this change will help us achieve our goal of seeing that every player has a consistently enjoyable experience in the world of EverQuest. We will continue to offer discounts from the new rate plan on multi-month subscriptions. The new price for a 3-month subscription will be $41.97, a 6-month subscription will now be $77.94 and a 12-month subscription will now be $143.88. The 24-month subscription will continue to be $199.95. You don't have to do a thing; you will automatically be migrated to the new billing structure under your current subscription plan when your current subscription plan expires. Subscription rates are subject to tax and value-added taxes, as applicable. These price increases will not affect the SOE Station Access? subscription rate. New EverQuest rates as of June 12, 2005: $14.99 per Month $41.97 for 3 Months $77.94 for 6 Months $143.88 for 12 Months $199.95 for 24 Months Additionally we'd like to thank our current EverQuest players by offering a 6 and 12-month limited time promotional offer. For a limited time only, you can take advantage of 6 or 12-month promotional subscriptions and reap great savings. Between May 12th and June 11th, 2005, we're offering a special discount on the new monthly subscription price: A 6-month subscription costs only US$69.99 ? that's a 10% discount off of the new monthly plan. Even better, a 12-month subscription costs US$99.99 ? a 31% discount off of the new monthly rates. And for those customers subscribing to other great SOE games this is also an excellent time to become Station Access Members. The Station Access subscription provides an easy gateway for SOE fans to a variety of SOE titles for $21.99 a month. The Station Access subscription is good for EverQuest, PlanetSide, EverQuest Online Adventures, EverQuest II, Star Wars Galaxies and the Station Pass games. EverQuest subscriptions are recurring, meaning you will continue to be billed at the appropriate interval, until you affirmatively cancel your subscription. Note that purchasers of the full game will receive 30 days of game-play included with the purchase at no additional charge (subject to certain restrictions) after supplying valid billing information. If you cancel your subscription during the period of 30 days of game-play included with purchase, no charges will be made to your credit card. Subscriptions are subject to tax and value-added tax, as applicable. All subscription fees will appear on your credit card statement under the heading "SOE*EverQuest". Please note: The subscription charges are in addition to the cost of the game. You will need to purchase a copy of the game from a retail store or online at the Station Store (http://store.station.sony.com). The price of the game will vary depending upon the store.

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Steak and SOE
# May 17 2005 at 7:47 PM Rating: Decent
Let's say I own a restaurant. I grill steaks like nobody else in town can, and my business grows astronomically. I expand the menu. My steaks are so good, a lot of people eat here every day.

I end up building 28 or so restaurants over the course of time. I let slide the service I provide my customers, meanwhile continuing to expand the menu. Other companies are starting to build steak houses like mine.

I begin plans for a more up-scale line of restaurants and decide I'm going to charge more in the original restaurant chain, a relatively substantial increase. My customer service virtually disappears.

The majority of my customer base is addicted to my steaks, but I begin to lose some, anyway. I know the reason can't be my customer service (can't very well blame CS if you don't have any).

I launch my new restaurant chain. I get an initial flood of customers, until they realize that despite the hype, my new chain doesn't meet the expectations of my customers, based on what my advertizing promised. More than a few decide to return to the old chain, which means my new one is not as successful as thought would be. I've spent a lot of money creating the new line.

Around the same time, another company opens a chain of steak houses similar to mine, but offer things I don't. Partly due to this, partly due to my own new chain, and partly because people are becoming bored with my menu, they stop going to my restaurants altogether, or reduce how many times they eat here.

I now have restaurants that are no longer profitable, so I have to begin consolidating or closing quite a few of them. Did I mention I keep adding to my menu but never vary the items already on it? Some items people rarely order anymore.

None of my restaurant chains are doing as well as they could be, but I think the best thing to do about that is to increase my steak prices again.

________________________________________________

I know this little scenario is a little simplistic, and doesn't take into account every little variable and timeline of MMORPG's, but let me ask you two questions.

Are you willing to keep paying increasingly higher prices for a lower quality steak, while dealing with debatable customer service?

Where are YOU going to get your steak from?

My final comment is this: SOE can only blame itself for losing customers, yet it remains determined to stay the course, regardless.

SOE, you shot yourself in the foot. It happens. But only fools keep pulling the trigger.

Pikya
/pout
# May 17 2005 at 7:07 PM Rating: Default
IMO if you dont like it then STFU and quit playing and save room on the forums for those of us who do play and continue to enjoy the game.
TYVM
RE: /pout
# May 18 2005 at 7:09 PM Rating: Default
You are entitled to your opinion as is everyone else...that being said...you should STFU and move to a different thread, this one was created in regard to the price hike so anything said here would be related to that particular subject. TYVM
go play WoW or Guildwars
# May 15 2005 at 10:25 PM Rating: Default
1999 EQ is released at 9.99
2002 Sony releases the first of 4 crappy expansions called luclin a price hike to 13.00

among all of you most of ya probably hang out in 3 expansion velious(cause its fkin cool) OOW and PoP if your not afk or sitting in PoK that is (worth the 15.00 bucks huh)

Go play WoW or Guildwars EQ is dead seriously I gave up after GoD crappy progression and PoTimes lame let down of a boss.

Delete EQ save your money Buy another MMoRPG

ps Guildwars has no monthly fee so spend it on dime bags or dubs
#Anonymous, Posted: May 14 2005 at 11:38 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) EQ should use that money to get more GMs (guides whatever can host events) or send some of those GMs on Stormhammer to other servers. I only see GM events once in a blue moon and I do play almost everyday(for good portions of the day) and then when they are having events its either high level melee FFA, high level caster FFA, or lvl 1 FFA (I have seen 2 halfling highdive events ). But if they did more events with some better variations I would consider paying more to see that happen. (well if I am wrong slap me)
SoE &#R%$
# May 14 2005 at 9:17 AM Rating: Default
I hate SoE more and mroe every day! they cant just leave it alone they have to make us hate them so bad that if we saw them on EQ everyone in the game would crowd and shout and spam! SoE your horrible changes will be your downfall!!!!
price
# May 14 2005 at 9:10 AM Rating: Decent
come on its bad enough i had to pay $13 a month to play a game but now i gotta pay more? and what do you mean increased price of running EQ? all you guys have to do if flip a switch and its on how tough is that? and how is that spending money? I dont see how you can spend money on this besides buying new equipment for computers and stuff or electricity bill.
april fools revisited
# May 13 2005 at 6:11 PM Rating: Default
LOL i find this actually funny. On april 1 Allakhazam posted a joke saying that the rates will be increasing to i think it was 15 dollars too and yet here it is..... the April fools joke revisited with some realism now. Heh, do us a favor allakh no more april fools jokes that include detrimental effects :) as for the 2 dollar increase.. get over it. I have 5 accounts. Yeah grant it thats 10 more dollars a month but ill sacrifice a meal at my favorite spot one less time a month instead of eating there 20 times a month :)
*Sigh*
# May 13 2005 at 4:44 PM Rating: Decent
Granted everyone has valid points here. I'm not exactly thrilled about this increase in subscription rate for one reason; I have 4 accounts to maintain. Mine, my husbands, our daughters and an additional alts account. It wouldn't be so bad if they included some kind of discount for multi family accounts. But that would be asking to much of SoE Right? *laugh*

Price drop needed
# May 13 2005 at 4:35 PM Rating: Decent
You all have good points imho. But I tend to agree that the price should be coming down, not going up.

We now (or very soon) will have 14 main servers instead of 28. Now, over the past 6 years I have to believe that EQ has made enough money to pay for the initial cost of the 28 servers. Now pending maintancece, upgrades, and power, the servers are probably very profitable for SOE. Working on servers myself, I realize that disks go bad and are fairly expensive to replace. Given that 1 73GB disk from Dell for a server array costs about $1200 to replace, it would take 92 users paying monthly 13.00 fees to pay that off. I think they have that down cold. So now that they have half the servers to maintain, the price is going up...logical? This is just an example of how profitable this system is. Of course the are lots of other costs to running a business and server farm (well not really a farm anymore lol).

Point is clear. They are rakin in the dough on us at 13.00/ month. The costs of running thier product for a year is well below thier profit line no doubt. Is the cost really going up? Doubtful...likly the people paying monthly is going down. At anyrate, they should not be raising the price. They should be lowering the cost to attract more business to an age old game. They should, like many of you said stop expanding the zones and perfect the ones they have. They should be making this the greatest experiance out there, after all they have a huge head start on the competition right...?

This said, plenty of people will pay the $99.00 or the $15.00 and keep on playing. There will be no mass boycot of EQ. Some will quit playing. SOE realizes this will happen, and obviously feel they will benefit from this even still.

Whatever the case, most of the quiters will move on over to another SOE product anyhow. SOE wins no matter how you slice it.

The thing that gets me, and maybe I am crazy here. They offer up this price hike information 2 days after the special $99.00 for one year ended...just seems kinda sly to me. And yes I know they extended the offer into June, but if they hadn't alot of people would be really ticked.

Anyway, there is my 2 cp. Tata

Sarbath
no increase on all access yet
# May 13 2005 at 2:05 PM Rating: Good
45 posts
Well you could always try all access and enjoy all the games... over the years I have tried planetside, eqoa, eq2, and swg and though I used to get bored with them and switch back to regular eq (not since eq2).... I finally chose all access and am able to switch to my personal flavor at will now with no monthly incease at all.... and I have actual variety in gameplay style.
Give Stormhammer a chance!
# May 13 2005 at 8:13 AM Rating: Default
I am going to put this out there because the article fails to mention this.

If you play on the Legends server, Stormhammer, you also get everything that the station pass gives you, as well as scheduled GM events every day (with the exception of some patch days). Stormhammer is a very low population server, but they make up for it with the awarding of AA points on many (not all) GM events as well as some nice gear. If you are a casual EQ player or if you want to see a lot of GM interaction check Stormhammer out.
Hmmm....
# May 13 2005 at 5:55 AM Rating: Good
The increase is Im sure to compensate for the massive decline in player population. truely WoW is the place to be now ( for most ) I know my server is dead and it will not come back to even a small part of what it once was.

Face it folks this will be the last price increase before SoE pulls the plug on EQ1 so suck it up get the 1 year and ride out the last days of the first great MMORPG.

Sigh I just wish I could have gotten a BoC before everybody left :(

Safe hunts and Rare drops!
What Costs?
# May 13 2005 at 5:10 AM Rating: Default
Scholar
**
539 posts
Quote:
the cost of operating a top tier MMO has increased significantly over the past three years and this change will help us achieve our goal of seeing that every player has a consistently enjoyable experience in the world of EverQuest.


Um, ok. What costs? If costs are so high, why did it take three years to increase? And, why wasn't it a gradual increase? And how much revenue is this actually going to produce? Also, if costs are "so high", how can they afford to put into place a year subscription for $100? Won't that bankrupt them?

For all of you making lame excuses for a $2 price increase, all I can say is how far will it go? Are you willing to pay $20/month? How about $30? Hell, if they could charge $1000/month and make the same amount of money with 1% of the players, then what's stopping that? As long as they are selling a quasi-addictive product the sky is the limit.

I feel bad for those people that have multiple accounts. Surely, they make up a decent percentage of SOE's EQ profits. It is reasonable to assume that if they are not happy they will simply eliminate an account or two, which will, in turn, cost SOE money in subscription and expansion fees. Thus, I ask again, how much will this generate cost/benefit-wise?

Whatever the case, it's pretty lame to say that "oh costs are so high", when the real reason is "we're pretty sure most of you addicted fools will pay and a gaggle of you idiotic lemmings will even come to our defense." I've never seen so many people happy to pay more for something that isn't increasing in value in any way.

Hey, I've got a better mission for you: Go stand on the streets and defend the oil companies for raising gas prices consistently and expeditiously to help hide the fact that they are making record profits.

____________________________
"Citing your sources isn't spoon feeding, it's basic 101 if you're making an argument."-Jophiel
Shad up
# May 12 2005 at 10:32 PM Rating: Excellent
Annnnnnnnyyyyyyyyhooooooo

Think of it this way folks:

2 accounts at 14.99, lets round it up to 15. That's 30 dollars.

Cost for two to go to the movies: 7.50 per, for tickets. That's 15 right there. 2 each for drink, that's 4, 3 each for snack, that's 6. 25 bucks. Add in gas. That's about 30 bucks.

For a 2-3 hour, tops, movie.

OR, you pay that same amount, and get 2 accounts, for a MONTH, of EQ.

It's simple economics folks, inflation alone explains it. Quit... *********
RE: Shad up
# May 13 2005 at 12:49 PM Rating: Good
35 posts
Quote:
Cost for two to go to the movies: 7.50 per, for tickets. That's 15 right there. 2 each for drink, that's 4, 3 each for snack, that's 6. 25 bucks. Add in gas. That's about 30 bucks.

Your thinking is as faulty and shortsighted as SOE's, which will be their demise soon. There are ALTERNATIVES to the pitiful logic...

1) You can wait 3 short months and RENT the same movie for 3 dollars. Add 2 bucks total for some soda and popcorn and you've saved a ton of money.

2) You have to WANT to see the 30-dollar movie, rather than go see a newer, better, and cheaper movie.

3) VERY few people will pay full price to see a 5 year-old movie.

There is absolutely no way to justify a price increase on a dying game. The flaw with all Multi-player games is that THERE MUST BE ENOUGH OTHER PLAYERS. If you ever lose them, your game is dead. IF you push them away yourself, well then you are just a clueless idiot with bad business sense (see 'SOE').

Get a clue... The only way to save EQ is to REDUCE the amount of zones and compact the smaller player-base together, so that more players desire the same zones and it is easier to group together.

The glut of expansions has made short-term cash, while destroying the long-term potential of the game by spreading the players across too many zones. Add the fact that SOE cut it's own throat by letting it's own players go to a game it made to compete WITH IT'S OWN PRODUCT and you have business idiocy.

An addictive game has become a boring game. Change the name from EQ to 'LFG'. Bye, SOE, you just have no clue on how to retain customers. Hey, go make EQ3 real fast so we can quit that one too.
RE: Shad up
# May 13 2005 at 9:26 AM Rating: Decent
**
508 posts
Two accounts is $360/year. We look at what we get for that. The accounts with our mains are worth that, the others just aren't.

Also, EQ is dying off fairly quickly. If it was priced as an entry level gave with older graphics and older game engine, some people would still be attracted to it. But, when its priced in with the other new competition then the money is better spent on those games, since their future is a bit more positive.

I think it closes off more newcomers than a lower price would; they may as well just go to EQ2 if the price is the same. The bazaar and mule accounts become harder to justify, so they get shut down.

As for the movies, we cut that down 3 years ago. We don't like the cell phones, people who talk, people who are sick, overpriced food and drink, parking issues, uncomfortable seats, and lack of a pause button. Renting videos is far superior bang-for-the-buck, and we spend about as much on that as one EQ account each month. The 5 additional EQ accounts become harder to justify, not easier.

Its not the $2, its that there is a lot of comepition in that price range and EQ only has true value to established players. New players start new in any game they select, and EQ has no advantages then.
!!!!!!!!!
# May 12 2005 at 9:38 PM Rating: Default
DOH!!!!!!!! I would not complain if I could ever get a GM to respond to my petitions.
#REDACTED, Posted: May 12 2005 at 9:17 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Gaaah! That's so not cool.
RE: Drat
# May 12 2005 at 9:56 PM Rating: Excellent
Uh, Thats 2 extra dollors a month.
RE: Drat
# May 12 2005 at 10:15 PM Rating: Default
Wow, you just made my day... I have a weird sense of Humor... Anyway... If we get the one year subscription now, next year will it cost the same, or the new price?
RE: Drat
# May 12 2005 at 10:45 PM Rating: Default
the new price. if they continued to let people pay less, what would be the point in raising subscription prices? they would not effectively be raising the price at all.
2$ a month isnt that bad. i just know before its done it'll be more than that, but who's going to throw away up to 6 years worth of work? they could be really cruel about it and really jack the prices up, but all that would accomplish is cover the cost for the people who will qind up quitting for financial reasons.
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