Activision: money milking from localized versions

[Tleno]

As we all know, Activision influenced Blizzard to make so you could only play multiplayer trough Battle.net. Then it made so you could play only with people only from one server, depending on witch version of the game you have.
Now Activision completely f*cked up all localized versions that are cheaper than average European/American ones. Now people who have these versions will be able to play both campaing (!) and multiplayer for free only for not more than a year, after what they will have to subscribe and pay cash to activision.
Even EA games never did anything like that, and I hope that most of you will agree that Activision just wants to milk poor foreigineers that won't react so aggresively as West Europeans/ North Americans if they would discover that. Most of people will get pirated versions and hacks to play in multiplayer and won't buy localizations, so both Activision Blizzard and companies that localized the game will get nothing.

P.S. I'm really unsatisfied with this and I dont know what to do. Anyone from you here ever wrote a petition or something here? I want to get an advice from you people...

 

[Gleeful]

Good god you're an idiot.

1. They already said they are working on a solution post-release that will allow you to play cross-region without buying multiple copies of the game.

2. The subscription model is for poorer countries (brazil, russia etc). It lets people play the game without paying for it in full all at once. Once you have paid the subscription amount equal to how much it costs for the full game everywhere else ($60 US), you no longer pay a subscription and are upgraded to the full game. You don't even have to use the subscription model in these regions, and can opt to buy the full thing at once if you want to.

So yeah, shut the hell up.

 

[Tleno]

Where you got that from? I've got my info from Russian game localization company that gave the info that you'll have to pay the subscribtion after the free time will be over. Free time is 6 months/1 year, depnding on what version you've got, there is no "Full version" in those "poor" (Hey, I live in so called "poor" country too and stop calling them this way!) countries.



And about cross-regional play, sorry that was my bad, forgot about that...

 

[AIagremm]

Gleeful, thats offensive. I read that thing as well and it says that if you buy it there is a period thorugh which you can play multiplayer and singleplayer for free andwhen the time comes out you have to pay to get more time to play.

 

[Na_Dann_Ma_GoGo]

Gleeful, thats offensive. I read that thing as well and it says that if you buy it there is a period thorugh which you can play multiplayer and singleplayer for free andwhen the time comes out you have to pay to get more time to play.

Which is exactly what Gleeful said.
You have a 6 month free BNet access when you buy the game for 30$.
And if you pay another 30$ ONE TIME FEE you'll have full access forever, just as if you bought the game anywhere else.

Edit:
It makes me really mad to see guys like "tleno" spread utterly wrong information and conspiracy theories. Gosh, as a company you cannot announce something without people misinterpret it on purpose.

 

[Fussiler1]

It makes me really mad to see guys like "tleno" spread utterly wrong information and conspiracy theories. Gosh, as a company you cannot announce something without people misinterpret it on purpose.

This.

 

[Tleno]

Hey, I've got this info from Russian Game Localization Company 1C, blame them for if you want but still, I remember other people spreading lies on purpose and you weren't so harsh with them as with me...
I'm gonna ask this thread to be closed for the good of all of us.

 

[Statharas]

You russians are LoCo!

 

[xD.Schurke]

maybe you don't get this but most people in those regions (russia etc.) don't have the money to pay the game like we do (60$). So they are granted a cheap version and after a year they have to pay monthly, which is better for them, since they don't have to pay high prices they might couldn't spend. So there is no "money-milking", but a solution to grant people accsess to the game which wouldn't be able to buy the game! Please inform yourself before posting nonsense

In addition Activision didn't influenced Blizzard to use Battle.net as a multiplayer-platform, Blizzard decided that on their own, they want to push the Multiplayer experiance through Battle.net.

 

[Tleno]

That's completely wrong, most of Russians never use any internet subscribtions and things like that, they don't thrust their money to internet and prefer to pay the whole price in cash.
Plus when come out first Warcraft 3 was cheaper than European versions and had no extra subscribtions, so that's a scam, not a "solution".

 

[Na_Dann_Ma_GoGo]

That's completely wrong, most of Russians never use any internet subscribtions and things like that, they don't thrust their money to internet and prefer to pay the whole price in cash.
Plus when come out first Warcraft 3 was cheaper than European versions and had no extra subscribtions, so that's a scam, not a "solution".

Stop riding yourself deeper into shit.

Give us some (priorly checked) sources and stop hating Blizzard for the sake of it. Unless you provide any real evidence and keep posting the usual "Activision conspiracy" theory you better don't open any further threads.

I've yet to see any disadvantage for countries with said payment model. In fact, they obviously got an advantage.

 

[Gleeful]

To clarify, this is the Russian pricing model you are talking about. This is a very special case for Russia only. All other European versions will be without a monthly fee.

For the Russian version the monthly fee also only applies after the free months that come with the box are over and are only for the online version of the game. They can then purchase online game time or upgrade to a full EU access, that will grant them the same access as all other European players have without further monthly fees.

Of course that is also an option that Russian players have. The subscription model is mainly for those players that would not be able to afford the European version. This will also give them the option of buying the less expensive game and then afterwards deciding that the game is worth upgrading to the European version and as such they will have access to European as well as the Russian servers.

You do have the option of playing without subscription fee. This is just an additional option for those who chose to pay less.

http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=24262386737&sid=5010&pageNo=1

StarCraft II fans south of the border will have two ways to pay for the game, with Blizzard revealing a less-expensive, time-limited version of the game for players in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

Here's how this works. Players in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil can pay $299 MXN, $119 ARS, $13,900 CLP, and $49.90 BRL respectively for a version of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty that comes with six months of play time via the new version of Battle.net. Once the time expires, players can opt to purchase 30 or 60-day subscriptions at rates not yet revealed.

It's an excellent option for South American and Mexican gamers, giving them localized Latin American Spanish or Brazilian Portuguese versions of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty at a fraction of the relatively exorbitant price they'd normally pay. At current currency conversion rates, the time-limited versions all fall between $20-$30 USD.

"One of our design goals for StarCraft II was to make it accessible to a wide range of players, from beginners to veterans," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "The same is true with regard to our pricing options — we want to make sure players have the flexibility to experience the game according to their own preferences and play style."

Players in these countries will also be able to purchase an unlimited access version of the game directly from Blizzard for a price comparable to the U.S. price of $59.99.

http://kotaku.com/5532800/cheaper-time+limited-starcraft-ii-sold-in-mexico-and-south-america



/thread

 

[Tleno]

People, didn't I told you to stop this flame war and that this thread will be closed soon already?

 

[Statharas]

People, didn't I told you to stop this flame war and that this thread will be closed soon already?

 

[Dr Super Good]

The subscription model is aimed to allow cheap trials/at rental gamers who are less dedicated to one game or who can not afford to buy full games. Basically if you buy the game you own it as it will always be attached to your blizzard account. You can never sell it (violates terms of use) and so you are stuck with it meaning you can not rent SC2.

If you are a rental gamer who has little interest for multiplayer and only wants to play the campaign, you could use the cheaper subscription version and save money. After you have completed the campaign (a few months at most) you need not even pay the subscription anymore as equivelently your rental needs of the game is over.

Additionally if you are poor it reduces the once off payment cost. Yes it is stupid if you plan to play more than a certain ammount of time but it can end up saving people money.

For example, a serious person like me who will probably provide help and support for the game for years to come will buy the full version of the game and all its expansions as I will need it for multiple years (6 if it lives up to WC3) and might always come back to it later still.
A person who looks at SC2 from some trailer site might say "that looks cool, ill try it". Instead of paying the higher than normal game price for the full SC2, he could buy the cheaper version to try it out. If he gets bored in a few months of it and never plays it again he would have saved himself some money over buying the full version. If he likes it and upgrades to full he may have lost some money but it covered his risk, especially if you are new to RTS this might be a good way to cover risk if you do not trust the product.

I will also speculate of a final hidden potential use for this. As you have to pay subscription fees for the reduced version, you will have to have billing and contact information. As such if someone trys to undergo illegal activities from this account blizzard will be able to contact/blacklist the person in question. Especially since a lot of scams and bots are run from places like Russia or Nigeria, it is completly possible that this added information requirement would allow blizzard to crack down on them far more easilly as well as bring out ligitimit legal cases against people who steal account details or information. Also as the reduced price is attractive to people who do stuff which ultimatly end up with account closure / ban, this has potential.

I am closting this thread as there is nothing more to discuss. The full version will be just like WC3 and will be available in all countries.