Welcome back friends!
When I started this blog, all I wanted was a place so modestly speculate and discuss the things Blizzard Entertainment had coming our way. I chose the name Blizzard Forecast partly because it was a weather pun, but also because regardless of what they have released over the last few years, I was excited about it. Hearthstone blindsided me as something I did not expect them to foray into. Heroes of the Storm made big changes to many of the things I disliked about the MOBA genre before. And Overwatch was a new IP that has created a level of excitement I haven't had for many games. With all of that in mind, it's disheartening to now have a second post in as many weeks that will be focused on a negative view of decisions made by Blizzard. Last week we talked about the decision to possibly discontinue flying in the future expansion of World of Warcraft. This week we are going to talk about their announcement of new Hearthstone hero skins.
Hearthstone's popularity is right up there with the League of Legends and WoWs of the world. With that kind of player base comes a microscope, analyzing every decision and release that you make. The outrage surrounding the hero skins was immediate and plentiful. The big arguments seem to be these; "You can't give us deck slots but you can give us this?" and "Holy shit $10 for nothing but a reskin?". While I understand the desire for new deck slots, I don't think the first complaint is legitimate. Deck slots is a UI change, where as hero skins is a art asset change. But I couldn't agree more with the pricing for these to be excessive. While we don't know all the content and changes coming in the patch containing these skins, given the information we have, we can assume that a full set of these reskins will cost us a whopping $90 USD. That's more than 3 full adventures and 75 packs. At $5 each I wouldn't bat an eye at picking these up as they are released. A change of scenery while climbing the ladder, along with another card back, which Blizzard does so well, would be a no brainer to me. At the current price however, I feel guilty about wanting to pick them up. No player should have to be ashamed for spending money on a game they enjoy. But this isn't the only game where Blizzard is "guilty" of these missteps.
Heroes of the Storm has been gaining a ton of momentum since the "launch". Twitch numbers are up and new players are coming in droves. But since the technical alpha one big criticism of the game has been the price of heroes and mounts in the shop. $10 for a mount that you will see maybe half of the game seems excessive. Compare that to $10 for every new hero that is released. At least the heroes come with a new kit of abilities and the team composition changes that come with it. A mount is purely a cosmetic item but cost the same as something that literally changes the game. Even the skin prices are on the high side. I'm not as bothered by the skin prices for two reasons. The more expensive skins come with new ability animations and voice effects, and the overall quality of even the lower level skins, is better than other games offer. Come on, if you play Tychus often, the Infested skin is worth it. That doesn't mean that the prices couldn't stand to be reduced by 20 or 30 percent. $10 for a "Legendary Skin" the quality of Infested Tychus seems about right. But that brings up my biggest issue with how they chose to price all of these items.
Blizzard has backed themselves into a corner in Heroes of the Storm and could potentially do the same with Hearthstone. By setting the price for these items high to start, they prevent themselves from lowering the price later without alienating the portion of the player base that already purchased them. Now their only option is to use sales to lower the prices temporarily. If they had started low on these prices they would have the option to increase them over time. Players who purchased initially feel like they got a deal, and players who didn't are urged (begrudgingly at time) to purchase items they want in the event the prices go up in the future. While increasing price may alienate players who feel like they missed out on their opportunity for the "right price", it's not much different than how Blizzard is removing mounts from the shop entirely. When the mounts return to the shop, player will feel like they need to purchase a mount they want in fear of never being able to obtain it, rather than the alternative of having to pay $2 more for it. The goal for Blizzard is for their free to play titles to earn money and we can't forget that. But I think they have ways to earn that money without alienating their player base that they didn't take advantage of. Like I said before, we want to be satisfied with our purchases. Part of me wonders if due to their popularity as a company, Blizzard sees the number of purchases coming from their free to play titles and are happy with that number and therefore assume nothing is wrong.
I hope Blizzard sees the reaction to the Hearthstone skin announcement and takes the opportunity to lower the price before they are faced with the same situation as Heroes of the Storm. At the end of the say, we as players want to pay for content they enjoy.
Thanks again for reading. Please leave your thoughts or opinions in the comments. I'd love to discuss it further with the community. Have fun!
Chris
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