News item
If you doubt the viability of cosmetic fob microtransactions, Blizzard has 220,000 reasons why you’re wrong. That’s how many people bought a Pandaren Monk pet from the Blizzard store. The MTV Multiplayer blog crunched the numbers from Blizzard’s Make-a-Wish charity drive, which announced a $1.1 million take for sick kids. At $5 a panda and 12 million Warcraft players worldwide, that totals around 2% of the player base who will be escorting a cosmetic panda around Northrend.
Of course, the monk pet actually costs $10, so Blizzard will be pocketing the other million and any future proceeds now that the drive has ended. However, it remains to be seen if sales will retain their current level without the balm of charity over the $10 price gouge.
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Tags: activision blizzard · charity · World of Warcraft1 Comment
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$10? If it costs more than a cup of coffee, I don’t think you get to call it a “microtransaction.” Hell, by that standard I regularly engage in microtransactions with Amazon when I buy cheap books.
Also, for a piece of digital content that maybe cost a few thousand dollars to create and pennies to distribute, Blizzard is gouging. This is bullshit charity of the highest order.