In Planetside 2, SOE was apparently too relaxed with the cash shop. The game only became profitable in the last month, as SOE’s president John Smedley mentioned in a letter to the fans.
We have reported several times that SOE chief John Smedley seeks a close connection with the fans. He visibly enjoys this and everything is cool and fluffy when he has good news and when things are going well. He maintains this habit even when there is trouble and he has to announce rather negative news.
Now he went into the lion’s den, into the subreddit for Planetside 2. There, fans have been upset in recent weeks as they felt that SOE had “secretly” twisted the price spiral. And a so-called “hidden nerf”, a hidden change, was introduced regarding the implants.
Smedley apologized for the fact that this was not communicated properly. In the future, they want to be more open. However, the change that is currently causing such a stir brings the team “200 dollars” more per day. Overall, Planetside 2 has only been profitable for a few months. Anyone who thinks this is a huge business and that they are swimming in money is mistaken.
They want to continue making almost everything that players could buy with “Station Cash” (real money currency) also available through “Certs” (in-game currency). However, in the past they took a wrong approach, leading to players literally swimming in “Certs”. They want to change this, so that players would have to think about what to spend their Certs on.
And the majority of people have a ton of certs. Why? Because we didn’t balance it perfectly. In every case we erred on the side of giving away too many or making things cost too little so we don’t make you grind too hard.
Smedley said that he doesn’t see many companies speaking as openly about monetization as he and SOE do. However, communication still needs to be improved.
Mein MMO says: This is the exciting part about opening communication channels to the fans. That they also tell them things they do not want to hear, and where other companies hide behind platitudes.
Monetization is a sensitive issue for every free-to-play game. It seems that Planetside 2 has been too generous in the past and is now intensifying purchase incentives. In the reddit community, Smedley’s posts are received positively, although there are differences regarding the details of whether implants are the right approach.
