What are your thoughts if Hearthstone added in a $4.99 or $9.99 monthly subscription which would give you every card ever released? Packs could still be purchased with gold for the FTP players. Hearthstone could then add content that could only be accessed through gold so we have something to do with it.
Right now it’s tough to enter the game as a new player. My friends ask me how much would it cost to play. I tell them if you don’t mind playing one deck only, it’s free. If you want to be many meta decks, entry is about $150. It’s a tough sell for a mobile game.
That's about 40 dollars to get every expansion in full, for ever. I don't think that's gonna happen. F2p is daunting, moreso in the later part of the year when there are a lot of cards in standard, but it's not impossible to make some good decks to climb the ladder and then you start making quite a nice amount of dust per month (chest rewards + gold made through wins and quests). The other possible path you could take is starting to play arena, get good at it and spend your gold that way. Arena doesn't require a big collection nor a tier 1 deck, you just enter and play with the cards you're offered.
I do very well in arena, but you can grind away at arena to get gold for packs, then have no time to play standard because you need to keep grinding away. Yes, you get less money from those that aren’t FTP, but you will likely get more from those who refuse to spend money because the ceiling currently is too high.
Imagine if WoW forced every new player to purchase ALL 6 expansions. Wanna play WoW? $300 please and a monthly sub. Yea right
Well, WoW used to offer the older expansions in a bundle alongside the base game, so you weren't paying 60 dollars for each expansion. People just need to get used to how the CCG business model is, you but packs and get cards to make decks with. TCG also allow you to trade away your cards and get individuals cards through trading, so every cards has an innate value of its own. It has its pros and cons but the TCG model wouldn't work in Hearthstone. The subscription-based MMORPG model even less so.
That option would still be available to those who want it. Don’t see why a monthly sub couldn’t be a different option. Gold could then be used to buy golden copies or to enter the arena.
That option would still be available to those who want it. Don’t see why a monthly sub couldn’t be a different option. Gold could then be used to buy golden copies or to enter the arena.
Great.. monthly sub, what about those who own the entire collection and paid thousands over the years ?
A monthly sub would make the game hundreds of times cheaper, that will never happen.
One year worth of sub would be the equivalent of a single expansion pre-order. Guess what ? There are 3 pre-orders available per year (which makes it 150$) and people also buy packs past that.
This is the problem with ideas like this, people want a monthly subscription in order to have a *VERY* cheap option to play.
In other words, why in the world would Blizzard even think of taking a game that takes about $350 every 4 months to get every card and simply give it to everyone for $5-10? (that's not a random number: that's about people have calculated to every every card in an expansion)
It won't help the over 50% of players who pay $0 into the game because..well, they pay nothing for a reason.
That will ruin their entire point to making the game F2P: to have a small but dedicated base of players that pay millions combined into the game rather than the much MUCH *MUCH* smaller profits gained by trying to get everyone to pay a little.
In other words, it wouldn't happen. If something like this is set up it'll cost a LOT more, maybe $65 a month (thus $800 which would be a discount on paying it up front). And that would still be a downgrade in profit margins AND would probably piss off the community ("OMFG a full priced game every month!?!")
Makes less money for Blizzard and becomes annoying for the playerbase. I don't see this working in any way, shape or form.
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>Blizzard adding something to one of their games that would make them less money
Good one.
Funny thing is that many people do pay a lot more to buy packs and extensions and bundles than they would in monthly subscription (and that includes me) and that they still end up wanting to buy more to complete their collection...
It's not only Hearthstone, it's the case for all of these supposed FTP games. I have been a regular WOW player for years and started playing some of these "FTP" games, I've been amazed to see how much money some players spend on these when the same players would most probably be reluctant to pay a monthly subscription...
That'll never happen. Not only is it a huge middle finger to people that paid $500 for a full collection over the years, but it also basically tells players not to invest, not to think long-term.
That said, I could see a subscription where they charge you $10 a month or so and give you 15 packs or so on the first of each month. It's a better deal than buying bundles, but you won't have access to the cards into later on.
I hate the idea that this game "costs" anything to play. What as the player do YOU want to do with it? Ascend to Legend? Collect cards and have fun? Play solo content/Arena? Make wacky archetypes in deck format? Wild? You decide as the player what you want to spend to play the way you want to play. Want to grind to legend? Guess what... Players did it with a free to play hunter deck in 2017 and 2018. Get over this "Hearthstone is too expensive for new players". If you want to play a ton of different cards you need to spend money. If I want a ton of skins in a game I need to buy them. If I want champions in LoL... I need to buy them if they aren't on rotation. If I want cosmetics...I need to buy them. Yes as it turns out to bypass all the hard work other players have committed years to you have to pony up some money. Is that really such a cardinal greedy sin of a developer?
>Blizzard adding something to one of their games that would make them less money
Good one.
Funny thing is that many people do pay a lot more to buy packs and extensions and bundles than they would in monthly subscription (and that includes me) and that they still end up wanting to buy more to complete their collection...
It's not only Hearthstone, it's the case for all of these supposed FTP games. I have been a regular WOW player for years and started playing some of these "FTP" games, I've been amazed to see how much money some players spend on these when the same players would most probably be reluctant to pay a monthly subscription...
Yes, I fully agree with that assessment. And in my opinion, it's because "rich" people or people, willing to spend money on a game want to have bigger, juicer e-peens than the rest of the community, so they can distinguish themselves. When you pay a monthly subscription, you are paying just for the ability to play the game, like everyone else. But if you get those shiny perks, skins, golden cards, card backs, alternate skill effects, pets, mounts, etc. people can "notice" you and know, that you have spent money on the game.
That's how game developing companies make loads of money nowadays. Not through the sale of the game itself. Only WoW is making good money still with the monthly subscription. That's how the market functions.
So, while I understand, it will be good (cheap) for some people to pay a monthly subscription and get all the cards, it will NEVER happen in HS.
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“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” ― George Bernard Shaw
EU Legend: S52 (ZooHeal Lock); S76 (Highlander Hunter);
You could do this for the Wild sets, that way you don't have to dust craft old sets you can't buy packs for. 10 bucks a month subscription with auto-renewal allows full access to the wild collection, but any sets in standard would have to be purchased like they are now.
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-It's better to have something you don't need, than to need something you don't have
The game makes money primarily through whales, who drop hundreds every expansion to get every card. The game's F2P setup is designed to be possible, but mostly there to push you into spending money or become a whale yourself.
Having a subscription would be throwing away a ton of money the whales bring in. That's a move for a struggling game, not one at the top of the market.
You could do this for the Wild sets, that way you don't have to dust craft old sets you can't buy packs for. 10 bucks a month subscription with auto-renewal allows full access to the wild collection, but any sets in standard would have to be purchased like they are now.
I guarantee the population would switch heavily to just playing wild and then Blizzard would lose money on their strongest IP. Then once this game, overwatch, and WoW finally died together Activision would just scrub off Blizzard and it would all cease to exist. $120 a year per player pales in comparison to the upwards of $500+ they make on idiots every year who don’t care about blowing tons of money on a card game they aren’t even competitive in. Seriously I’ve seen horror stories of people claiming to dropping $1000 on purchases through 2018 alone. That’s 10 of your players who only want wild in 1 standard player who wants every card and gets between rank 5 and dumpster legend every month.
The idea in principle would have be a good one if it had been implemented from the start. However, too many players have made too much of a financial (and personal) investment into the game to this point, that to suddenly allow something like that would be quite insulting to them; I don't know how many people would stick around after that.
It simply wouldn't work any more now; the game's come too far to suddenly up and change the whole payment model in such a dramatic fashion. It would also mean that they would actually be enforcing the idea of a P2P model over that of F2P, which I doubt they would want to do.
Why would they want to offer something that loses them money? They make far more in selling packs and all the little pack promotions that they have. It also throws off all the free pack quests and Tavern Brawl. Also, if there was a subscription, people would just sub for a month get all cards and then cancel subscription.
>Blizzard adding something to one of their games that would make them less money
Good one.
Funny thing is that many people do pay a lot more to buy packs and extensions and bundles than they would in monthly subscription (and that includes me) and that they still end up wanting to buy more to complete their collection...
It's not only Hearthstone, it's the case for all of these supposed FTP games. I have been a regular WOW player for years and started playing some of these "FTP" games, I've been amazed to see how much money some players spend on these when the same players would most probably be reluctant to pay a monthly subscription...
No they wouldn't.
The people who dislike monthly subscriptions play F2P games ...for free. In fact, well over 50% of the players of any F2P game never pay a dime into it. I THINK I remember 80% of the paying folks putting no more than $20 throughout the lifetime of their play.
That's not an accident or something smart F2P companies complain about. That's baked into the pie of F2P. Only foolish 'AAA' companies who have no F2P experience think of "turning players into payers."
The folks who whale either have enough money that $2000 every few months is considered chump change for them and well worth some entertainment (que "how rich do I gotta be to think like that") or folks with addiction tendencies that can't control themselves.
Those people make up an extremely small portion of the playerbase, but they pay for the majority of the content. And, again, they wouldn't have a problem with the cost of a subscription. They WOULD have a problem with not having anything to 'get' afterwards.
Whales WANT to spend. They WANT that armor set that looks like a maid outfit. They want that extremely rare rifle. They want that blond drill haired girl with the whip-sword who's ultimate has her looking half sadistic and half erotic.
(I know at least ONE of you get that last reference and you KNOW I'm right)
If anything hearthstone isn't doing near enough to offer ways for them to pay which I think they are fixing with things like the new adventure system.
So yeah, if a subcription were to show up, whales would just buy that instead. Or just move on to where they can whale more. It's folks who play the game without paying that'll balk at a subcription model, since they DON'T want just a discount on getting things: they want (or need) to not pay anything at all.
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One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
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What are your thoughts if Hearthstone added in a $4.99 or $9.99 monthly subscription which would give you every card ever released? Packs could still be purchased with gold for the FTP players. Hearthstone could then add content that could only be accessed through gold so we have something to do with it.
Right now it’s tough to enter the game as a new player. My friends ask me how much would it cost to play. I tell them if you don’t mind playing one deck only, it’s free. If you want to be many meta decks, entry is about $150. It’s a tough sell for a mobile game.
That's about 40 dollars to get every expansion in full, for ever. I don't think that's gonna happen. F2p is daunting, moreso in the later part of the year when there are a lot of cards in standard, but it's not impossible to make some good decks to climb the ladder and then you start making quite a nice amount of dust per month (chest rewards + gold made through wins and quests). The other possible path you could take is starting to play arena, get good at it and spend your gold that way. Arena doesn't require a big collection nor a tier 1 deck, you just enter and play with the cards you're offered.
I do very well in arena, but you can grind away at arena to get gold for packs, then have no time to play standard because you need to keep grinding away. Yes, you get less money from those that aren’t FTP, but you will likely get more from those who refuse to spend money because the ceiling currently is too high.
Imagine if WoW forced every new player to purchase ALL 6 expansions. Wanna play WoW? $300 please and a monthly sub. Yea right
Well, WoW used to offer the older expansions in a bundle alongside the base game, so you weren't paying 60 dollars for each expansion. People just need to get used to how the CCG business model is, you but packs and get cards to make decks with. TCG also allow you to trade away your cards and get individuals cards through trading, so every cards has an innate value of its own. It has its pros and cons but the TCG model wouldn't work in Hearthstone. The subscription-based MMORPG model even less so.
That option would still be available to those who want it. Don’t see why a monthly sub couldn’t be a different option. Gold could then be used to buy golden copies or to enter the arena.
Great.. monthly sub, what about those who own the entire collection and paid thousands over the years ?
A monthly sub would make the game hundreds of times cheaper, that will never happen.
One year worth of sub would be the equivalent of a single expansion pre-order. Guess what ? There are 3 pre-orders available per year (which makes it 150$) and people also buy packs past that.
This is the problem with ideas like this, people want a monthly subscription in order to have a *VERY* cheap option to play.
In other words, why in the world would Blizzard even think of taking a game that takes about $350 every 4 months to get every card and simply give it to everyone for $5-10? (that's not a random number: that's about people have calculated to every every card in an expansion)
It won't help the over 50% of players who pay $0 into the game because..well, they pay nothing for a reason.
That will ruin their entire point to making the game F2P: to have a small but dedicated base of players that pay millions combined into the game rather than the much MUCH *MUCH* smaller profits gained by trying to get everyone to pay a little.
In other words, it wouldn't happen. If something like this is set up it'll cost a LOT more, maybe $65 a month (thus $800 which would be a discount on paying it up front). And that would still be a downgrade in profit margins AND would probably piss off the community ("OMFG a full priced game every month!?!")
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.
Makes less money for Blizzard and becomes annoying for the playerbase. I don't see this working in any way, shape or form.
Funny thing is that many people do pay a lot more to buy packs and extensions and bundles than they would in monthly subscription (and that includes me) and that they still end up wanting to buy more to complete their collection...
It's not only Hearthstone, it's the case for all of these supposed FTP games. I have been a regular WOW player for years and started playing some of these "FTP" games, I've been amazed to see how much money some players spend on these when the same players would most probably be reluctant to pay a monthly subscription...
That'll never happen. Not only is it a huge middle finger to people that paid $500 for a full collection over the years, but it also basically tells players not to invest, not to think long-term.
That said, I could see a subscription where they charge you $10 a month or so and give you 15 packs or so on the first of each month. It's a better deal than buying bundles, but you won't have access to the cards into later on.
I hate the idea that this game "costs" anything to play. What as the player do YOU want to do with it? Ascend to Legend? Collect cards and have fun? Play solo content/Arena? Make wacky archetypes in deck format? Wild? You decide as the player what you want to spend to play the way you want to play. Want to grind to legend? Guess what... Players did it with a free to play hunter deck in 2017 and 2018. Get over this "Hearthstone is too expensive for new players". If you want to play a ton of different cards you need to spend money. If I want a ton of skins in a game I need to buy them. If I want champions in LoL... I need to buy them if they aren't on rotation. If I want cosmetics...I need to buy them. Yes as it turns out to bypass all the hard work other players have committed years to you have to pony up some money. Is that really such a cardinal greedy sin of a developer?
so i suscribe just right after new expansion for 1 month later i cancel until the new expansion comes, i think isnt worth for blizzard.
Dr7 its back!
Yes, I fully agree with that assessment. And in my opinion, it's because "rich" people or people, willing to spend money on a game want to have bigger, juicer e-peens than the rest of the community, so they can distinguish themselves. When you pay a monthly subscription, you are paying just for the ability to play the game, like everyone else. But if you get those shiny perks, skins, golden cards, card backs, alternate skill effects, pets, mounts, etc. people can "notice" you and know, that you have spent money on the game.
That's how game developing companies make loads of money nowadays. Not through the sale of the game itself. Only WoW is making good money still with the monthly subscription. That's how the market functions.
So, while I understand, it will be good (cheap) for some people to pay a monthly subscription and get all the cards, it will NEVER happen in HS.
“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” ― George Bernard Shaw
EU Legend: S52 (ZooHeal Lock); S76 (Highlander Hunter);
You could do this for the Wild sets, that way you don't have to dust craft old sets you can't buy packs for. 10 bucks a month subscription with auto-renewal allows full access to the wild collection, but any sets in standard would have to be purchased like they are now.
-It's better to have something you don't need, than to need something you don't have
The game makes money primarily through whales, who drop hundreds every expansion to get every card. The game's F2P setup is designed to be possible, but mostly there to push you into spending money or become a whale yourself.
Having a subscription would be throwing away a ton of money the whales bring in. That's a move for a struggling game, not one at the top of the market.
I guarantee the population would switch heavily to just playing wild and then Blizzard would lose money on their strongest IP. Then once this game, overwatch, and WoW finally died together Activision would just scrub off Blizzard and it would all cease to exist. $120 a year per player pales in comparison to the upwards of $500+ they make on idiots every year who don’t care about blowing tons of money on a card game they aren’t even competitive in. Seriously I’ve seen horror stories of people claiming to dropping $1000 on purchases through 2018 alone. That’s 10 of your players who only want wild in 1 standard player who wants every card and gets between rank 5 and dumpster legend every month.
The idea in principle would have be a good one if it had been implemented from the start.
However, too many players have made too much of a financial (and personal) investment into the game to this point, that to suddenly allow something like that would be quite insulting to them; I don't know how many people would stick around after that.
It simply wouldn't work any more now; the game's come too far to suddenly up and change the whole payment model in such a dramatic fashion.
It would also mean that they would actually be enforcing the idea of a P2P model over that of F2P, which I doubt they would want to do.
Why would they want to offer something that loses them money? They make far more in selling packs and all the little pack promotions that they have. It also throws off all the free pack quests and Tavern Brawl. Also, if there was a subscription, people would just sub for a month get all cards and then cancel subscription.
no
No they wouldn't.
The people who dislike monthly subscriptions play F2P games ...for free. In fact, well over 50% of the players of any F2P game never pay a dime into it. I THINK I remember 80% of the paying folks putting no more than $20 throughout the lifetime of their play.
That's not an accident or something smart F2P companies complain about. That's baked into the pie of F2P. Only foolish 'AAA' companies who have no F2P experience think of "turning players into payers."
The folks who whale either have enough money that $2000 every few months is considered chump change for them and well worth some entertainment (que "how rich do I gotta be to think like that") or folks with addiction tendencies that can't control themselves.
Those people make up an extremely small portion of the playerbase, but they pay for the majority of the content. And, again, they wouldn't have a problem with the cost of a subscription. They WOULD have a problem with not having anything to 'get' afterwards.
Whales WANT to spend. They WANT that armor set that looks like a maid outfit. They want that extremely rare rifle. They want that blond drill haired girl with the whip-sword who's ultimate has her looking half sadistic and half erotic.
(I know at least ONE of you get that last reference and you KNOW I'm right)
If anything hearthstone isn't doing near enough to offer ways for them to pay which I think they are fixing with things like the new adventure system.
So yeah, if a subcription were to show up, whales would just buy that instead. Or just move on to where they can whale more. It's folks who play the game without paying that'll balk at a subcription model, since they DON'T want just a discount on getting things: they want (or need) to not pay anything at all.
One does not simply walk into Mordor,
unless they want to be the best they can be.