Do you have an example of how they are being pushed?
Yes, they are pushed directly every time you click on a car to buy, whether you can afford the car or not, the option to top up your credits appears. That is very much a push, it is pushed in front of your face. It might be easily ignored, you might barely notice it, as I don't, but it most certainly is pushed. They are indirectly pushed through the limited timed availability of rare cars in the LCD or from invitations too. You can interpret any indirect pushing differently, but it will encourage some players to go the MTX route.
It’s extremely unlikely that the current price is set at the optimal price point.
It might not be, hence the reason I put that it either was, or the metrics may have suggested so. It will be priced by metrics, but as you may know there are lies, damn lies and statistics, and statistics and metrics can be twisted to represent or prove many things.
It could certainly be incompetence, but only if the goal was to maximise profit from MT.
It could be incompetence, I wouldn't rule that out completely, but I think that's less likely than it being metric driven. Even if it is wrong, it'll likely be wrong due to an incorrect analysis of the metrics, which isn't incompetence by itself as with these things there is always the risk that just because a metric suggests something will keep doing x, that it can do y instead in your scenario.
Whales are not immune to optimal price theory. The number of whales and the amount they spend is influenced by the price and how much value they get for their money.
Based on how the discussions are going there seems to be a general consensus among the players that the MTs are way too expensive and that you’re much better off just playing the game. That’s a very clear indicator that we’re not seeing optimal price here.
Sure, but that doesn't dimiss optimal or a genuine attempt at optimal pricing.
I agree with the general consensus that the prices are too high, but the general consensus doesn't really matter here. I'm sure if you asked the world if they thought cars were too expensive nowadays it would be, yes they are, it doesn't stop cars being purchased in high volume. Now, I know, that's not an apples for apples comparison, people need cars more than they need Cr in a videogame, but a general consensus that a cost is high, doesn't prevent a purchase, it might just reduce the number of people who take you up on the offer.
We've recently increased the cost of our key tax service at work, and part of that was conducting an analysis of how many clients we might lose, and working out if we would be net negative or positive from the change. We're net positive, by a fair chunk, though we did have a few clients who said they were going elsewhere/would do it themselves. It is a balancing act, they could have got it wrong, I'm not dismissing that possability, but they won't have deliberately got it wrong if they have infact done so. The real issue with either of our points is we can only back them up with our own logic. We don't have, nor will likely ever have the actual metrics and sales figures for GT7's MTX's.
Let’s talk about the chart below. It’s for mobile gamers so it might not translate 1:1 to console, but at least it’s some kind of basis for a discussion. The killer whales spend an average of $68 per month, if they spend that on GT7 MT that would net them 7 million credits per month, which is equivalent to around five hours of game time, or around one hour per week. There’s just no reason to spend that kind of money and get so little value for it - even if you are a whale.
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Yes, the whales make up the bulk of revenue in all games with MTX's, but as you acknowledged, those metrics are representative of mobile games. The metrics are different for fully priced console games, and what you'd see there is an increase in non-payers and a decrease in Minnows and Doplphins, but the Whales will still make up the majority of spending by a considerable amount.
Sadly, as per the earlier comment, as interesting a topic as this is for discussion (for me at least), we'll probably never see the actual sales figures, but there are people doing what you think there is no reason to do. I know you're being general, and from a purely logical perspective, I completely agree with you, I'm not spending that much on 7m Cr, but then again, I'm also a non-spender. I'll considering buying DLC, but I've never paid for MTX's and I wouldn't in GT7 even if the price was 20 times lower.
I can guarantee you that a majority of players would spend a lot more on MT if they divided the price by ten.
More players, I can accept that, a majority wouldn't. The majority are non-spenders and minnows. They aren't chagning their habits no matter what the prices are. So you'd be looking at an increase of activity from the dolphins, but that increase would have to offset the decrease in revenue per transaction across the Dolphins and Whales. There is a logic there, they might not have got it correct but it is a legitimate pricing model. Like any, it can be done wrong, but without the sales figures it's difficult to say either way for certain.
I take exception to this in particular. Cocaine is there, it exists, but I've never once in my life felt encouraged to do it. I'm not the target consumer for cocaine, sure. But there's also sooo many things to buy at the grocery store, even with ads and sales I don't buy everything in the store. These things are arguably more useful and necessary than GT7 Credits. I mean, if I don't eat i could literally die.
Just because they are there does not mean they are encouraged.
I encourage you to look up the psychology behind product placement in a store and how that influences peoples purchases. What a store/supermarket places where, is 100% an attempt to push specific items on specific people. It's more interesting than it sounds
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