Lunali wrote:
Zerila wrote:
I've said it before, but I'll say it again: I seriously doubt SE is making any real profit off of the tokens.
Blizzard uses the same tokens, sells them for much less, and still makes a significant profit off them. You're deluding yourself if you think they aren't making money off these sales.
If I'm wrong, then I'm wrong. Do you have a source for that information?
Edit: I've looked around a little, and I can't find any information on profitability of the tokens. Also, Blizzard is charging $6.50, which is quite a bit less. But we don't know what kind of a deal SE struck with the vendor. Quite possibly, Blizzard is getting a better deal because they're buying a much larger volume. Is it enough to offset the 50% increase in price that SE is charging? I can't say without looking at both companies' books.
If anyone has any hard data on the cost to the companies (SE or Blizzard or both) on these tokens, I'd be very interested in seeing it. But until I get actual hard numbers on this, I stand by my statement... I don't believe that either Blizzard or SE is counting on these sales to be a profit source.
Also, just looking around on Google, it looks like account hacking was a MUCH bigger problem on WoW than it ever was on FFXI, though the difference in the number of subscribers (and the inherant security of the PS2/3 and XBox platforms) definitely has a lot to do with that.
Edited, May 7th 2009 8:34am by Zerila