Posted 03 January 2016 - 12:43 AM

Ultimatum X, on 03 January 2016 - 12:06 AM, said:

Its interesting data for sure, but they aren't really giving anything away.



Giving away a few MC here and there, or a mechbay, is like getting a coupon from a store or $5 of <STORECASH!>.



It costs them nothing, the product is virtual - what are you going to do with 270mc?



Mostly it incentivizes purchases.





The other aspect is people playing, more people playing will generate even more people playing - some one will buy something.





Effectively, this helps them cast a larger net and is very likely built into their pricing scheme which is why prices are on the high side for many things.





So just like a store will mark up product by some amount and then put it on "sale" for a reasonable amount, they didn't really lose anything or give anything away.



Not sure about you, but I haven't felt more inclined to spend money (or more than I already do) because of these types of events.There's a bit of difference between "receive $5 store credit for every hour you spend in our store" and "receive $5 off your next purchase". One lets you build up that credit at the cost of spending time in their store (or, playing MWO), while the other requires you to pay money.That's partially why I feel like these evemts aren't exactly an incentive like coupons are. As you've said, what PGI is giving are virtual goods, but it's 270mc less than you needed to start with. If that's all you needed to get what you wanted, it could be seen as a loss, as PGI is not seeing a return on that MC, apart from your participation. But that's looking at it as an individual. Their loss on you could be offset by a larger return from someone else.Things can get vague/confusing when trying to find an accurate comparison between physical goods vs virtual goods, and the differences behind their business models. As the $ value in the charts is not the $ value that PGI is losing - the value in my chart is our cost, not PGI's loss. And that cost is also converted with bulk purchase pricing. (such as largest mc package $ value, largest premium time pack for MC, etc). Which means that the actual $ value is far less than what would be real world (most popular MC option is the 6500mc option I'm assuming, but mc $ value is based on the largest 25,000mc $100 pack)But in the end, I would agree that it does help sales; however from my point of view and given the nature of the commodity and business model, these events are purely "good-will" and future sales depend on what that means to customers. Customers who appreciate that sort of thing would likely be the ones feeling more compelled to give back by investing in a purchase.Whether or not it's comparable to a coupon, or a marked up retail price to falsify a sale, the goal is still to attract or retain customers.The difference here being is that I feel that these types of events benefit more from sentimental/loyal customers.That's my 2% at least lol.

Edited by MoonUnitBeta, 03 January 2016 - 01:03 AM.