Blizzard Adds Another Scarcity To Sell Around World Of Warcraft: 3D Figurines
from the it's-the-little-things dept
We're always looking for interesting examples of companies using infinite goods to sell scarcities, and George Johnston points us to one side business that Blizzard Entertainment seems to have gotten into to make more money from World of Warcraft. The company already gives out its basic software for free, but sells the (scarce) service of connecting to its game servers to play (even though there are "free" servers out there, many end up paying for the official one, because it's better, more stable, and has many more players). However, Johnston noticed that Blizzard has also done a deal with a 3D printing company (usually used for things like rapid prototyping) to allow game players to buy 3D models of their players. This is unlikely to ever become a really big business, but it highlights, yet again, that there are numerous different scarcities around any particular product -- and a good business is one that goes out and explores that wide variety of options to figure out what they can sell.
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Filed Under: 3d figures, online worlds, scarcity, virtual games, world of warcraft
Companies: blizzard
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Free Software
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Re: Free Software
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Re: Free Software
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Depends on which ... geographical location.
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Depends on the geographical location.
US and European players have to buy the game - which includes a free month of play, but the game is (US figures) $30 compared to the monthly subscription of $16. Additionally, the two (so far) expansion packs have both cost an extra $20 without granting a free month. Its possible to buy the x-packs online directly - but its still a purchase that needs to be made over and above the monthly subscription for the account.
Asia - there the game is as described - the download is free and subscription time is purchased separately. You're still paying for time whether or not you actually login and play though.
China's billing is similar to Asia except there time can be purchased in even smaller increments effectively enabling a pay as you play (as I understand it).
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Very old news
This is nothing new, but it's not using free as a model, as you have to pay for the software, pay for the subscription, pay for realm transfers, pay for character re-customization. Nothing about WoW is free, at all. Not even close.
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Re: Very old news
What's being said is that it is *possible* to run the game for free (i.e. "pirated" servers) and that non-scarce goods such as the play experience on an official server and the 3D models are being used to encourage people to pay for the game rather than using the free services.
It's the same argument that's always here. Instead of complaining that people are "pirating" your product, give them reasons to pay. Blizzard are just another example of a company who understand that unlike, say, EA who are still trying to punish paying customers to try and cut down on "piracy".
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Re: Re: Very old news
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That is entirely wrong. The software, which is the game client, is what can be downloaded for free. No one said the service was free or the server software was free, but the game it's self is free for download. Rather than the article being misleading, I think you do not understand what constitutes a "product". The game client is in fact a product. It contains everything you need to run the game, all you lack is a server to point it at. If you want to use theirs, pay the subscription for the service, otherwise, point it at your own server and use their product without their service.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Very old news
You still need to spend money to get anything at all.
The only thing is you DONT NEED to have a physical cd.
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Re: Very old news
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That's not true, maybe you haven't explored enough, but I download the full client all the time, without CD keys or an active account.
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Re: Re: Very old news
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Has basic fact checking become obsolete?
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Re: Has basic fact checking become obsolete?
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Old News Mike
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Ha, there has been a waitinglist for these figurines since day 1!
At the moment it's still only available in the US market I think. But there are other options through different companies not especially affiliated with blizzard that can also provide figurines of your wow characters.
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I can go to the website, download the client, and never have to enter information (I have done it many times on many systems). That is the game, it is free. Just because you can't play it on their systems without a subscription, doesn't change the fact that the software is free to download.
Nothing about the price of the game is really relevant here. The point is that a non-scarce product (Software) is being leveraged to sell a scarce product (figurines). The software being given out for free is in reference to the download of the client, which, is in fact free. The stipulation happens to be that you have an active account to reach the easy download site for it. It doesn't change the business model, or the point of the article.
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The figurines aren't made by Blizzard
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Re: Software for free...
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Re: Re: Software for free...
What? The CD key is used to generate an account. You don't have to have one at any step other than a CD install and account creation via CD install. Beyond that, if you create a test account and make it a full account, all you do is pay the $19.95 and it changes up. It never asks for the CD key. They do provide one when you pay for the upgrade, but it is just for your records to prove you purchased a full account subscription.
The CD is more or less just to validate your CD, so if you do everything via the digital download, there is no need for a CD key at all. Likewise, if you download the software, then run it on another server, you never need a CD key... therefore the software is a complete product and all you need a CD key for is to validate the account your are setting up for the subscription.
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Old news
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Re:
How is it greedy to offer another service to your fans? Isn't this the kind of thing we keep complaining that the music and movie industries fail to use to capitalize on their infinite goods with a scarce good? To me this a just like the t-shirt concept. You are leveraging an infinite good to sell something your customers want, that is a scarce good. If there is a market in the World of Warcraft customer base for figurines, I would expect Blizzard to look to fill the niche or contract with someone to do so. Not to leave their customers "under served".
Now, if they required you to buy one of them to keep playing the game, it would be greedy.
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Re:
The company that makes the figures isn't Blizzard. They have Blizzard's blessing, but they are their own company. They are advertised on the WoW website, but so is J!NX. They also are not Blizzard.
How is it exploiting a fan if the fan chooses to pay for their product? I suppose you think that all the places selling NFL jerseys are exploiting football fans?
Someone filling a demand is not exploiting. And trust me, the demand for these figure prints is there. I bought one, after being on the waiting list for about 6 months, and I don't feel exploited at all. Rather, I have a nice souvenir of my time in WoW.
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As many have noted, it's twenty bucks to download the game or twenty bucks to buy a CD and install the game. Either way, it's twenty bucks to play.
Further, you generally need to buy the expansion packs to follow most of the story lines and, in some case, to level above certain amount. The expansions are anywhere from twenty dollars (Burning Crusade) to forty bucks (Lich King)
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bad example
The client without an server account is of less use than a proverbial electronic paperweight
There is really nothing of use that bliz don't charge for.
"Not really. the expansions are completely optional, and if you're truly "new" to the game, why would you need to get the additional content past level 60 anyway?"
They are optional, but unless you go to "end game" you will be playing most of your time solo, which pretty much kills the whole point of a MMO
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Oh yeah..
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The more important result...
For instance, the little plastic bracket (purely ornamental) around my inside car door latch is broken. It's 25 cents worth of plastic, but would probably cost me $100 to get fixed. Once on-demand 3d printing takes off, I could just whip out a version in a cad program and get the piece in the mail a week later.
Unless they put some law in place forbidding that, of course.
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Scarcity backfiring?
I'm not quite sure how the scarcity thing is working for these guys when they can't convert it into production. As has been mentioned above the service has been around for a long time - a year or more.
I would pick that with 12 million players around the world it could be a very lucrative market for these guys if they bothered to put the effort in. As such my money sits in my account and I've stopped playing WOW since.
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souvenir
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Something Tangible
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World of Warcraft action figures & statues
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