Bugsy VanHalen
Society of lost Souls
548
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Posted - 2013.04.16 19:10:00 -
[1] - Quote
0Lona 0ltor wrote:Not really as they were plex that had been paid for and thus CCP loses nothing on PLEX for Aid or Cards. Things like that just drive up the price of Plex while PLEX sales drop it. Mass bans of bots will also drive down PLEX while allowing botting to slide will drive it up.
Well actually if you consider the fact that those graphics cards were not top of the line only worth say $200-250, they cost what 20 PLEX which even at the discount price of $17.95 rather than the normal $20 is still about $350 per card. So really CCP made $100 of each card slod, and each EVE player paid 50% over market value for those cards. They were just able to buy them with in game isk thru PLEX that other players have paid real $ for.
My point is, if, when CCP was selling new graphics cards for PLEX someone was to buy the needed 20 PLEX with real money. Then Used those purchased PLEX to trade for the card. It would have cost them much more than just going to tiger direct and buying an even better graphics card. I am sure CCP got a nice bulk discount on those cards as well. So they defiantly made a profit off that deal.
Was this a scam on CCPs part? NO. It was a great deal for many players that do not have a lot of real money, but spend a lot of time playing EVE. Players that pay their sub every month with PLEX they bought in game. Players who used isk they earned playing the game to buy those PLEX and trade it for something that they would other wise have had to buy for real money. It was a great deal for both sides.
CCP not only took a big load of PLEX out of circulation, but did it in a way that saved them real money. For example even if we take PLEX at its non sale value of $19.95 USD. it is actually worth only one months game time which is around $15 or less for a long term subscription paid with real money. So they already make a few bucks per PLEX sold. Not only do they get that money now rather than when the game time is actually used, but they get more than a regular monthly subscription. A win win for CCP and for the players who buy PLEX to sell in game for isk.
Now they take some of those PLEX and offer graphics cards or Fanfest tickets for a specified number of PLEX. The graphics cards for example are worth about $200, in fact CCP probably got them even cheaper, but for this example we will stick with a $200 value. 20 PLEX at normal price is about $400. So CCP basically bought those PLEX back for half of what they sold them for. $19.95 each for 20 PLEX is $399. 20 PLEX for a $200 graphics card is only $10 per PLEX. CCP effectively sold those graphics cards for at least double what they paid for them. |