Guild Wars 2

We get all sorts of ‘USEFUL’ sale in BLTC every week. Regular players like myself will be extremely happy if you could put up other useful stuff such as bank tab and storage upgrade on sale more often please. Correct me if I’m wrong, for the past 3 years bank tab and storage upgrade have gone on sale no more than once or twice per year.

During ‘Everyday sale in the month of March’ BLTC sale I noticed something, just about everything on BLTC was on sale excluding bank and storage upgrades. I’m curious to know your reason behind this decision. I do have few ideas but I’m going to keep that to myself.

If ANet believes they will make more in the long run putting bag slots, bank slots, character slots and collection expanders on sale and getting the fence sitters waiting for a sale or wait players out until they pull the trigger on full price.

Sales on popular items do boost short term income but at the cost of future full price income.

Still waiting for sale -_-

Thanks for clarifying Anet’s BLTC marketing strategy for everyone Behellagh.1468.
But I dont think there was any need for that, it’s not that difficult for everyone to see their underlining BLTC market strategy. In simple terms, MONEY! I don’t think anyone will be surprised if more than 70% of purchase made in BLTC consists of storage related upgrades.

I was trying to avoid calling out on what Anet’s behavior looks like which is exactly like any corporate gaming company putting profit before customer satisfaction. Hence the reason why at the end of my first comment I said ‘I do have few ideas…’.

The money question is the easy part to decipher. What I was trying to do is start community wide conversation and let anet be aware that we’re unhappy with their market strategy in the hopes of force them to change their BLTC market strategy to be more pro-customer satisfaction orientated.

I would be very surprised if these items comprised 70% of their sales.

There’s a relatively small finite number each player can buy, and based on anecdotal evidence when the discussion of adding more comes up on here many players don’t even purchase the current maximum.

But also I once heard (I think it was around the 1st anniversary) that in terms of both number of sales and profit made Black Lion Keys were actually their number 1 seller. Which I had a mixed reaction to: I think there’s very little in the chests worth paying for, but I’ve heard these types of items tend to sell extremely well in all games that offer them, and a lot of people seem to see them as a good use for “spare” gems. (E.g. buy a 800 gem pack to get a 600 gem item, use the remaining 200 on keys.)

I also don’t think you need to beat around the bush regarding their marketing strategy. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that the main purpose of the gem store is to make a profit – it’s a store. And one of only 2 sources of income this game has (the other being box sales which will be a lot less consistent). Of course they want to make money from it. And more importantly that is not a bad thing, or something they or we should be ashamed of, it’s what keeps the game running.

Having said all that I don’t think it should come as a surprise at all that bank tabs and storage expanders only go on sale a couple of times a year, and I don’t think there’s any reason to expect that to change. They’re the nearest the gem store comes to ‘everyday essentials’ – the things you need to buy to play the game (even then I’d be reluctant to call them essential, you can play without them). Just like supermarkets almost never have sales on bread and milk because they know it will sell regardless Anet are not going to offer regular sales on items they know people will buy at full price most of the time.

I admit I’m one of the awkward ones who does only buy bank tabs when they’re on sale, so I know how frustrating they can be. One year I decided at the start of August I’d buy one during the anniversary sale and ended up waiting until January for it to happen.

But in a way that just proves that they’re not something I really need. When they do go on sale it’s only 20% off, which equates to about £1.20 discount. If I really wanted one that badly I’d pay the extra.

So in summary I understand the frustration when you’re waiting for a sale, but I think it’s completely reasonable that they’re only discounted a few times a year and I wouldn’t ask for or expect it to change.

No. Pay full price for these Accountwide important Items! If you don’t want to support anet or don’t have the $$ then it’s your problem only

Anka.5086:

What I was trying to do is .. force them to change their BLTC market strategy to be more pro-customer satisfaction orientated.

How’s that working out for you?