1600 Gems for a Jade Bot Skin

[Minjin.8259]

1 hour ago, Eloc Freidon.5692 said:

Which is exactly the opposite of how you would make money on such a thing. If you want to make the most money out of a digital product, you focus on quantity sales.

Exactly, 400 gems I would have bought one for each account.  800 gems I would have bought one for one account.  1600 gems...no thank you.

[Kaliwenda.3428]

I think the cost is way too high for this item. 

[Kaliwenda.3428]

2 hours ago, Eloc Freidon.5692 said:

I was expecting glider prices for a Jade bot skin. Not mount skin prices.

This would actually make a lot more sense as a glider.

[Vavume.8065]

2 hours ago, Caitmonster.9036 said:

Guess if people want to break the game's immersion, they may as well pay out the nose for it. 😆

This game has no immersion.

[Walle.6045]

soooo the new jade bot skin you don't even have to pay for it 

Press H > select jade bot > select locked skin and observe its the same thing as the current jade bot you don't see ever 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Walle.6045

[akipappi.3917]

just remember that even if the price gets changed they tried it

[Smoky.5348]

Did someone already make the "small indie team, please understand" joke?

[Ultramex.1506]

With that price, it should be both a mail carrier and more visable

Until then, NOPE even if it goes on sale

[Ashen.2907]

Don't buy it. Vote with your wallet. Players have the power in this sort of situation. A product that no one buys will either have its price reduced or not see further development. Want to have an even greater impact? Let ANet know that you will not be spending money on the game as long as this item is priced as it is...and stick to it.

Otherwise, every single purchase is evidence that ANet chose the correct price. If it meets projected sales numbers then it will be followed by new options at a similar price. 

[blakeryan.2018]

This is getting bad and sad. For a game with paid expansions, there is way too much content and utility that costs extra. An expansion releases, with a few armor sets, a couple weapon sets, but has some sort of new mechanic that will have skins to gouge on gem store. HOT & Gliders, POF & Mounts, now EOD with Skiffs, Turtles, and now Jade Bots. The cost creep is getting up there. Now you want 1600 gems for something you don't even get to see more than a few SECONDS every hour or two at most. I don't think ya'll are hurting for income this bad with the constant influx of cash shop things being produced. You'd sell more at lower price points and player base would be more than happy to support you and get their fill of cosmetics and extras. 

[Gorem.8104]

Really Anet? Really? $20 for a skin no one can see, including yourself most of the time? 
The Jade Bot is the games worst new addition from an expansion next to pointless skiffs, it is alt unfriendly, the mastery is boring, it is boring, it makes the land look worse by existing, and all it does most of the time is a stat boost or drop some extra loot. 

Unless this is just a monetary tactic, make something so utterly garbage expensive so that other things look better by comparison, I mean what are you, Diablo Immortal now? Don't do this. The Jade bot is incredibly pointless to exist, it should not cost that much for a skin no one sees. 

It should have just been from personal achievements. You should be able to play and earn this. Not spend real life money or gold that takes most people awhile to earn. 
And this is SOOOOOOOOO low priority that if a newbie did buy it over say, infinite tools or shared slots.... like just, why does this exist? 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Gorem.8104

[Gorem.8104]

7 hours ago, Danikat.8537 said:

As far as I'm aware there's only been lawsuits for pay-to-win or indirectly pay-to-play games, where players are given the impression the base price of the game will get them everything they need, then find it's pretty much unplayable without spending more (often several times more) on additional items, often via loot boxes. Even then it's technically not the in-game items which are the problem but the dishonest marketing for the game itself.

No country I know of requires costumer goods to be sold at cost price (or just above it), otherwise luxury brands wouldn't exist. Not to mention things like people trying to sell Beanie Babies on eBay for thousands of dollars because in 1995 someone told them it would be worth that much today.

This is no more dishonest than anything else in the gem store - you know exactly what you'll get and what it costs and if you choose to buy it you're guarenteed to get it. The problem is that makes it obvious it's absurdly over-priced.

 

Hey, at least there is 2 countries in the world ahead of the rest of them by banning loot boxes entirely, just wish the rest of the world would follow suit there so we could finally entirely remove RNG from all games when it comes to child gambling. 
But you are indeed getting something exactly for the money put in here. You have to decide manually if you buy it or not and it is not required for game progression. This is just Anet being terrible. 

[Justine.6351]

6 hours ago, Eloc Freidon.5692 said:

Inflation is pretty invalid when it comes to a product that doesn't have to worry about shipping or material costs. A product like this can be sold until the end of time.

They have to pay their workers and keep the lights on.

[Teratus.2859]

It's 1600 gems?!!

Seriously?

For a Jade Bot Skin...

 

Wow... that's just.. wow...

[lezbefriends.7516]

Sub fee would be cheaper...

[Jukhy.2431]

Have to agree that the pricing is bit off on this one. I might spend up to 1k gems for a cool jade bot skin, but overly adorbs flying kitten is not really my thing.

[Geckoo.6018]

I don't like this particular skin, but even if i did,1600 gems is excesive pricing for this kind of item. With a more reasonable pricing i would probably end up buying it, but with this kind of pricing for this kind of item i will never buy a jade skin bot even if i like it.

For 1600 gems i would expect this to be a pack with a mini, jade bot skin and mail carrier. And hey, maybe that's the course of action they should take with the jade bot and future jade bot skins.

I have to wonder if players and devs have a different perception about the jade bot, because at least for me is nothing more than a short irrelevant animation that i usually don't notice when it happens. I like the jade bot as a system, but the visual relevance and cosmetic value is essentially the same as a mail carrier.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Geckoo.6018

[Julischka Bean.7491]

Lisa skulks into the thread.

Skulks because everything I have read is negative...and I bought the thing 🤔

No I am not skulking...Yes, it is priced too dear,  and, well, yes it could better be served being priced same as mail carriers, but, I suppose the Devs have to recoop their development costs  although this is a bad way of doing so.  If this skin was cheaper in price they would actually, probably, make more money.

That said, I have it.  (1) I love cats, (2) l love cute things, (3) I want to support Anet and (4)  I use the ziplines, charge the batteries and fill up on the buffs multiple times every day,  so I do see the kitty quite often.  Often enough that I felt somewhat comfortable buying it at the price listed.

It has very cute buff-filling  and battery- filling animations which make me smile...I am my mom's 24 hour caretaker (Dementia) and am still self- quarantined as I don't want her to catch COVID. Where I live the new variant is on the rise and making the local newspapers headlines...stupid college town bringing in students from all over the world 🙃.

So, to me, something that makes me smile, and feel joy, is worth the 20 bucks.

 That said, other than the price, I wish the kitty escorted the Zipline platform same way as the original Jade Bot does.  

It sits at my character's feet enjoying the ride when it could be using its wings and cute animations to escort the disc.

If it escorted me on the disc, I would see more cute animations, plus, the chonky kitty might lose some weight 🥰

There, my  thoughts of the new Jade Bot kitty 🤗

 

 

 

Edited July 20, 2022 by Julischka Bean.7491
Paragraph spacing...need more coffee

[Mungrul.9358]

3 hours ago, Julischka Bean.7491 said:

I suppose the Devs have to recoop their development costs 

I was going to say that if that was the case, they'd be better off pricing it at 200 gems, as then I reckon almost everyone would have bought it.

But at that price point, 200 gems is currently ~60g, which is well within reach of a LOT of the population. So I'm not sure they actually would make more selling it for that much.

Taking that in to account, I think 400 gems is probably the right price point, making it a little too uncomfortable to convert gold for.

 

But 1,600 gems?

I think they're actually going to minimise sales at that point, as then you're pricing it for only the most enthusiastic players or TP barons.

 

Edit: BTW, while I don't agree with the pricing for this skin, I can appreciate your reasons for buying it Julischka Bean.7491 , so have a thanks 🙂

Edited July 20, 2022 by Mungrul.9358
The feels

[Trejgon.9367]

5 minutes ago, Mungrul.9358 said:

But at that price point, 200 gems is currently ~60g, which is well within reach of a LOT of the population. So I'm not sure they actually would make more selling it for that much.

The one neat thing that alot of people don't realize, that gems in the currency exchange have been payed for by someone else - the ystsem is basically this: you have two boxes, one has gems other has gold, when someone buys the gems for gold, the gold land into the gold box, and gems are withdrawn from it, if you buy gold with gems, you put the gems into the gems box, and withdraw gold from gold box, and conversion rates are determined by the ratio of gold and gems within their respective boxes.

So aside from initial stockpile to get the system running in the first place, the fact that you can buy 200 gems for those approx 60g, means that people have paid for gems, to toss it into the gem box you are taking them out of 😉

Conversion rates could have gone haywire for a bit.....

 

The real question is how many people out there are willing to buy the skin at this price, unfortunatelly there is a chance, that enough of people, not visiting forums or other social platforms outside of the game, did buy the thing to the point where additional sales from lower price mark, would not be able to beat the end profits. I would hope it is not a case, but the possibility exists 😕

[Sleepwalker.1398]

Mainly aimed at PVE players? Normal bot doesn't even show in WvW.

[Shiina.4192]

I'd rather feed myself for a few days with 20 euros than buy a tiny skin that I can't even see for longer than 3s.

That aside, I don't think it'd be too wise to buy the skin at its current price. Because remember - the more people that buy it at 1600 gems, the more likely it is that ANet will normalize this price threshold (for future jade bot skins, at the very least). Of course, it's not absolute that this will happen, but it's one of the more common business practices.

Please, don't settle for this.

Edited July 20, 2022 by Aselia.1325

[Zok.4956]

17 hours ago, Lottie.5370 said:

Curious what others' thoughts on this are?

I just ignore this and other/future jade bot skins and will not buy it.

[crepuscular.9047]

17 hours ago, ZaxanRazor.6235 said:

Anet, this pricing is predatory. You've been going aggressively predatory with your gem store pricing since before EoD launched.

 

Stop it. This is seriously not a good look.

 

$20 for something that is only seen on your screen, intermittently, is nothing but pure predation that even EA would think twice about.

 

This is not OK.

 

Do you want me to keep giving you money for gems? Yes? Stop doing this.

 

If you're worried that more and more players are getting obscenely rich in game, then decouple gems from ingame currency. It would be better than embracing macro-transactions.

 

I've bought my best mate PoF for less than this stupid skin.

 

How is it predatory when Anet does not implement mechanics to deliberately hinder your progress?

There is nothing wrong with Anet charges how much they want to charge for a cosmetic, just vote with your wallet.

 

[Zebulous.2934]

Just speculating: It could be that the western devs deliberately sabotaged the product by listing a price greater than their audience is willing to pay.  If it doesn't sell well, then the western branch won't be expected to sell Jadebot skins in the future.  
If so, they had better be careful, If they had done this with proper swimsuits I would have paid an inflated price, expecting them to never return.

A more mundane explanation is that later, when the skin goes on "sale," they can say that it is half off or 70% off and sell it for the proper amount.