Special Offer Bundling.

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octal9
octal9 Posts: 593 Critical Contributor
in MtGPQ General Discussion
I think it's high time we started a discussion about special offers. I'm obviously aware of the NAD crowd, but there are plenty of others that are still willing to throw a buck (or several) D3H's way.

I'll be using the following equivalencies (all $ in USD):
200 jewels = 1 mythic card (see Mythic offer in card vault)
200 crystals = 45000 runes (see deck slot cost)
200 crystals = $10 (see crystal value in vault)
1 fat pack = 180 crystals (see value in card vault)

So, special offers. Every time there's a card offered, it's offered in a bundle. Most recently is Herald of Anguish, which is being offered for $39.99. The bundle includes 10000 runes (44.4 crystals = $2.22), 150 crystals ($7.50), a premium pack (180 crystals = $9), and 160 jewels (80% of a mythic).

The bundle without card & jewels is worth $18.72 (or, slightly less than half of the bundled value is tied up in crystals, runes, and a card pack).

This leaves $21.27 for 1.8 mythic cards. This prices a single mythic card at just under $11.82.

So, why not give three different tiers of offers? Offer simply the card ($15), the card with jewels ($25), or the full bundle with everything for $40? 
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Comments

  • morgue427
    morgue427 Posts: 783 Critical Contributor
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    sounds like a decent idea to be but why let something like that happen? lol
  • Phase
    Phase Posts: 157 Tile Toppler
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    More purchase options is always better for the consumer. I would welcome the chance to buy a single card for $10-$15 once in a while to treat myself. Especially a house like Herald. But $40 is a tough pill to swallow.
  • Sorin81
    Sorin81 Posts: 545 Critical Contributor
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    It would seem logical to do this and I've never understood why it hasn't been done. There is more money to be made by allowing the bundle to be unbundled.

    Currently I'm on the Not.Another.Dime train, however D3 may be getting on the right track with the Amonkhet update. Perhaps I'm being overly optimistic but only time will tell.
  • wickedwitch74
    wickedwitch74 Posts: 267 Mover and Shaker
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    D3 needs to implement an "a la carte" system for purchasing. Micro transactions would more than make up for the cost of these bundles.

    I would drop $3-5 for cards here and there, and before you know it... I've spent $50 on this game.

    But, more importantly, if we look at this breakdown, $40 is a large amount of money.. for one guaranteed mythic... and some stuff (that may or may not be useful to you).

    It's like buying popcorn at the movie theater... they've got you, and they are the only vendor in town, and price these "deals" accordingly.

    Compared to paper magic, or other video games, the cost is excessive.

    Please implement a system that lets a player purchase individual cards using smaller transactions, and rein in the prices to something reasonable ($1U, $3R, $7M, etc...)



     
  • babar3355
    babar3355 Posts: 1,128 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I mean, even if they are running a monopoly they should be looking to maximize their profits.  I find it very hard to believe that the profit curve maxes out at $40 bundles for individual mythics.  And oddly they have doubled down since the onset of jewels and seem to think and extra 100 jewels is worth another $10.  Confusing business model.
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2017
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    If it looks stupid (what I can't tell without having a look at the cash flows of this company and compare it with a similar game using microtransactions), but it works (they're still here after years), it ain't stupid.

    They would get more money from me if the prices were lower. But I've never been at the top of the spenders, so using myself as calculation base would be nuts..
    Also, I'm kind of glad that the prices are that high: fewer p2w cards to face. If Baral had cost 20 bugs, I'd have quit until the nerf.

    @octal9 for your calculation :
    The directly purchased card is a guaranteed non dupe, and exactly that card, so you should calculate the value differently compared to a random mythic

    Also, I don't like the calculation of the golden currency and the other one : you can buy deck slot for 200 crystals. The other one costs 45k runes plus x (60k/120k) to level the pw to 60.so lets keep it simple and say 135k. As a endgame player you could say "meh, they're sunken costs" or that you benefit also from leveling the pw - but they're additional costs fit the deck slot
  • Dsagent
    Dsagent Posts: 73 Match Maker
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    If they sold individual cards they might make more money.
    I would never buy random packs.
  • Thuran
    Thuran Posts: 456 Mover and Shaker
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    I have been thinking the same thing for a LONG time. They insist on making us pay for items that are largely worthless, because they gamble that people will want the mythic so badly that they have no choice.

    But we do have a choice, and they are missing out on a LOT of potential revenue. I would gladly buy an awesome card for 15 bucks once in a while, but I will certainly never pay 40$ to buy it even once!

    Sadly, the business model seems to be designed by howler monkeys that have no real clue of how microtransactions work ;) Guess they must have been former Blizzard employees.
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Dsagent said:
    If they sold individual cards they might make more money.
    I would never buy random packs.
    They do. Right now.

  • AngelForge
    AngelForge Posts: 325 Mover and Shaker
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    I'd be happy with just a single card offer.

    40 USD is just to much for my personal taste (especially with all the dead weight to it).

    This may sound weird but with 3 times 15 USD, I would be fine.
  • octal9
    octal9 Posts: 593 Critical Contributor
    edited May 2017
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    Laeuftbeidir said:
    @octal9 for your calculation :
    The directly purchased card is a guaranteed non dupe, and exactly that card, so you should calculate the value differently compared to a random mythic

    Also, I don't like the calculation of the golden currency and the other one : you can buy deck slot for 200 crystals. The other one costs 45k runes plus x (60k/120k) to level the pw to 60.so lets keep it simple and say 135k. As a endgame player you could say "meh, they're sunken costs" or that you benefit also from leveling the pw - but they're additional costs fit the deck slot
    While your point on non-dupe is valid, I wholeheartedly disagree on runes. 45k runes have the same purchasing power as 200 crystals; restriction to lvl60 PW is not relevant here.

    $40 is a significant amount for many people, especially for a mobile game. It's not been years - mtgpq just hit ONE year and their current price is higher - used to be $30. They may currently be staying afloat at this price point, but I'm very willing to bet that revenue would increase with more purchasing options. 
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Okay, let's just disagree on the purchasing power of runes part - in the end its just a remark that would change the calculation base, but would not affect the conclusion on a bigger scale. And I totally like the general attempt to try and spilt up the package regarding the value of individual parts!
    MTGPQ might be a year old, but not the companies behind it ;)

    I agree that the short term revenue would benefit from lowering the price, especially since the marginal costs (how much money the company needs to invest for each additional unit sold) equals nearly zero.

    The long term profit on the other hand is something different :
    The product the players are purchasing is a competitive advantage against other players.
    ( Since the players don't collect cards just to fill their collection (some probably do, but they're not significant).)

    From the buyers perspective:
    The fewer units sold, the higher the competitive advantage of the individual player who purchased the product becomes.
    Now lets lower the price by 50% and assume that four times that many cards are sold:
    What happens? The profit would double. That's the easy part.
    But since more copies of the card find their way into the game, the actual value of the offered package shrinks. Shrinking value makes offered products less attractive, affecting the long term profit in a negative way.

    Of course they could split up their packages like you said, but selling them as a full package for a higher price adds more value than the products have on an individual level: the value of exclusivity. (a bit abstract : you could compare it to the strategie of Porsche : they could sell their cars cheaper and produce more, but they don't want to devalue the product for their premium customers)

    Taking the guaranteed mythics in qb and events away by the way, already increased the value of their vault offers.
  • EDHdad
    EDHdad Posts: 609 Critical Contributor
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    It may or may not have increased the value of the vault offers, since it also decreased the incentive some people had to purchase high-powered cards.

    There's a reason you see so many Olivias.  They sold a ton of them, because owning an Olivia gave you a good chance of being in a high-ranked coalition.  And that mattered because of the rewards.

    In paper Magic, it's possible to win tens of thousands of dollars in a Magic tournament.  Very few people do, of course, but the fact that you can is one of the things that helps prop up the secondary market value of tournament-playable cards. 
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
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    EDHdad said:
    It may or may not have increased the value of the vault offers, since it also decreased the incentive some people had to purchase high-powered cards.

    I never said that it worked well :wink: You mean because the event rewards aren't worth competing on highest levels anymore? I agree on that, there needs to be a better motivation than a rare. More pink currency things maybe, plus more options to use them. So let's agree on : the nerfed reward system was probably intended to increase the relative value of vault offers?
  • Dsagent
    Dsagent Posts: 73 Match Maker
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    Laeuftbeidir said:
    Dsagent said:
    If they sold individual cards they might make more money.
    I would never buy random packs.
    They do. Right now.


    They do? How do I access this?
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Dsagent said:
    Laeuftbeidir said:
    Dsagent said:
    If they sold individual cards they might make more money.
    I would never buy random packs.
    They do. Right now.


    They do? How do I access this?
    In the vault, the section on the right side, two offers with specific cards
  • Dsagent
    Dsagent Posts: 73 Match Maker
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    Are you talking about the bundles? I am talking about selling individual cards like rates and uncommons will show up in the vault for a while.
    This bundles are so expensive I can buy a full game for that price.
  • Phillmoore
    Phillmoore Posts: 207 Tile Toppler
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    You pay $40. We pay £38.99. I think that's like $50.26.  Seems they screw the UK market.  Also means that the US market has an advantage again as it's cheaper for all of you in US to play.   Doesn't seem fair to me? 
  • Phillmoore
    Phillmoore Posts: 207 Tile Toppler
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    Would be interested in knowing Euro cost

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