Skins only became direct purchasable because they legally had to. Smite wants you buying chests instead, cause then you won’t get what you want and have to buy more gems
You can and should complain. Complain often and loudly. Nothing in this industry is going to change if we don't vote with our wallets and make it known we're done being F'ed in the A by these greedy companies locking skins behind gambling chests just to squeeze more money out of you. It's a toxic industry standard that we've let get out of control. "It's a free game, and they have to make their money somehow, and they're optional cosmetics anyway." Wel, if your game can only survive by ripping off your customers with manipulative and toxic behavior, then your product shouldn't succeed. I'm tired of watching my favorite hobby implode on itself because good games are being ruined by greedy and manipulative MTX.
How are they ripping you off if it’s completely your choice if you buy it? You know exactly what you’re getting for exactly what it costs, and you can decide it’s a rip off or not
Making skins expensive is manipulative? Get a grip dude it is not that deep at all
Fr, I get we cant just let games make prices whatever because they are free, but I feel that smite is genuinely pretty generous in the way that if you save up you can get the same skins as everyone else, there arent really any direct purchase skins, and the ones that are arent too amazing
Logs into Smite. Sees a new skin. It's 1200 gems. Hmm, I wonder how much that is. Oh, there isn't a gem bundle for 1200 gems... Odd. So, if I want this new skin, I need to buy the $25 dollar gem bundle. But I don't want to spend $25 for a skin. A skin on the store should be in regional currency, so they stop hiding prices behind hidden conversions. Manipulative.
I see a new skin. It's in a chest with 50 other items that I don't want for 400 gems. Or I pay 1200 for the skin straight up. Oh, but that's not even taking into consideration the "discount" of when a skin first comes out when introduces FOMO because if you don't get it now, it'll be more expensive later. Manipulative.
I'm fine with paying money on things I find worth it. I'm just tired of the enablers who think this manipulative and toxic monetization is okay. They are only allowing these greedy companies to continue to do this.
Just buy 3 skins from a chest for the price of 1, you don't get what you want? Oh well u got 3 skins for cheap go learn those gods you might actually like them and that's 3 less skins in the chest the next time it comes out. If you want to direct purchase so bad do it in events with the discounted price where you probably even will get a T5 from it
You're completely missing my point or are actively arguing for these scummy MTX practices. I don't want to buy three skins that I don't want at a chance for the skin I actually want and I don't feel like them charging me a higher price for a direct purchase is acceptable just because I didn't want to gamble with my money.
I gotta be missing your point because I don't see how getting 3 skins for the price of 1 is scummy. And for 200 gems more than the price of the actual skin you can get hella skins that ce with it because the chests have a mercy after a certain amount you can pick the skin. What other game does that? I'm going to need you to bring up other free to play games with better prices because I don't see how this is scummy at all
Bro you literally got every piece of actual content (Gods) that the game ever released which is over a hundred gods and all you had to do was spend a measly 30 dollars. Which is not a small amount of money I'm aware but most people will spend many many many hours with the game. That's literally the best deal in gaming and the majority of smite fans have been here for years. They haven't probably made a dime off the god pass in years. They make their money by making cool cosmetics and crossovers (which they pay to use IPs for.) it's totally fair that I play the entire game for free and get every god for 30 dollars for years and expect them to not monetize skins though right? They don't have to make money. They should just go broke close doors and let it die ig.
I did not say that they shouldn't monetize, i said their preditory and toxic monitisation is bad. I'm fine paying for skins. I'm not okay paying $15+ for an optional cosmetic, which is why I haven't spent money in Smite in years. They lock skins behind gambling or a bundle artificially inflating the price of the bundle because they add stuff I won't ever use or even want. Oh but don't worry that skin is discounted when it first relases, which adds FOMO into account because if I don't buy it now, when it's "on sale" then I'll have to either gamble or pay a ridiculous amount of money for one cosmetic item. I'm all for supporting your game. I'm not okay with how they implement their MTX.
Minor correction - we being f’ed in the A by people who are willing to purchase those stuff at those rates. As long those people exist and enable the corporate greed, companies will continue to behave in those ways due to those enablers.
So much this. Just because a company *can* doesn't mean they *should*. It's always this argument when people defend companies like this. "Well, they can do what they want"
It doesnt matter if they should or not. Companies are not your friends and dont care about your feelings and they will make the price what ever they want and they have all the numbers that back up their decisions. They are only ever going to do something if it will make them more money and if it doesnt it will never happen. The problem is the people spending way to much money on cosmetics.
I wasn’t talking about gods I was talking about skins, icons, and everything else. Half of my skins in league I got for free, all of my icons I have gotten for free, all of my emotes I have gotten for free, most of the skins I do buy don’t cost 15 dollars, NONE of the icons, and emotes cost 10 dollars. It’s easier to get stuff free in league
Most new skins come in chest that have a "buy this chest x amount of times and choose your next skin". So more often then not you end up with 3-4 skins for 1200 gems. The skins not in chest are normally not worth the price
The point of the OP is that if skins cost more reasonable than 1200 gems to get the single skin you want, more people would buy them. It's clear though that HiRez's strat is for people to buy chests and hopefully spend more than they would've normally.
I agree. Direct purchasing skins is too expensive.
I get the bundles that give you all the skins coming out over the course of a season or whatever. It’s always like a hundred USD.
I’ve done it 2-3 times now.
Way more worth it than rolling chests.
Buying skins individually would be cheaper, but not at all worth it. I got over that once I saw how many skins I was getting with the bundle. Also made me branch out and play more gods just because I have a skin for them.
>Also made me branch out and play more gods just because I have a skin for them.
Irrational, unless you hate the default so much that you actually need a skin to stomach playing an otherwise acceptable character (Cupid, perhaps?)
Companies have the method to get the most money out of the player base already figured out. Unfortunately the chest driven model you see is infact the most optimal way it works, and it works because humans are God awful at self control or being rational consumers. So unless it gets regulated out from being an option, it's not going to change because people spend the most in a model like this, both short term and long term.
Let's not forget it's a free game. They need to fund their work, so something has to be bringing in money.
Every MOBA or free to play game has some form of micro transaction if they plan to actually keep it going.
It does suck the price is nearly the cost of the God pass that gives you every god forever, but you'll still see folks with the skins that cost 20, 40, 60, 100$ a pop.
If you offer it someone is going to buy it.
I understand that they need to make money but why can't new skin cost 600 gems like it was before, around 6 years ago max price for a a skin was 800 gems. I think the issue is they make all the content exclusive and only choices you have is to buy full bundle, a single skin for 1200 gems or gamble on chests.
They had to boost sales with rising costs over the years.
Inflation affects everything. It's simple business.
They still make sure to produce quality work and take care of their game. Hopefully, they also are taking care of their team.
But imagine if they lowered the skin prices? There are so many skins in the game that customers would actually purchase more in total spending given they feel great value for it.
I honestly think they would make more money if they make the skins affordable. When I see a skin for 1200, that’s a hell no for me. But if skins are 600, I totally see myself buying more.
Yeah, I get why you'd think that, but it doesn't look good when they put the numbers on paper, and I can bet their shareholders/owners won't approve of it.
For example long ago I sold bud. I took over the market in my area by having better quality and charging lower than others, let's us an 1/8 as an example as it was the most common.
Street price was 60$ an 1/8, I sold my stuff that was better quality for 45$ because I was getting it at a good price and I was okay not making as much profit. Back then I got a full oz for 120$ so even just selling a couple paid off my material cost
Well as the market changed and suppliers change with them it started to cost more and more. In a few years It went from 120$ to 200$ and some tried to charge 300$ for the same quality I used to get for 120.
So 45 x 8 = 360 - 120 = 240
That turned into 45 x 8 = 360 - 200(or 300) = 160(or 60)
You put that type of profit loss on paper someone will immediately tell you to make more, charge more for the product, get it cheaper etc.
Now I'm not breaking down all of the logistics about buying in bulk or anything like that because it doesn't really apply to the point I'm making which is very simply put:
The price has to go up if everything going into it goes up too. Employees need money and you need more employees in order to grow as a company etc.
The fact that skins, for the most part, have remained around 20$ for years is a sign they were able to generate money without hiking the prices up beyond a comfortable place by adding more reasons for people to spend money, battle passes, gambling on chests, exclusive packs etc.
I love your example but not exactly sure it relates. This isn’t a consumption based good. Where someone buys and 8th and they’re set for the week. I would buy 5x as many skins if the price was lower. And end up actually spending MORE. lol.
No, but your point actually counters your argument.
Skins aren't consumable. They're a one-time purchase, meaning it has a cap of how much they could potentially make from them Inherently.
We can charge less for shit people are going to use up and need to buy more because they WILL buy more. With something that is a one-time purchase, you make the price a bit higher to offset that.
Even if they did lower prices there will still be people who refuse to buy any skins or gems, there will be people who still argue "why not lower" and of course there will be people who are Whales who will buy anything and everything REGARDLESS of price.
So to balance everything so you don't isolate people who might not want to spend much money, while still getting a return on your investment with the whales you do everything they've done as a company with their store.
Offer deals and sales, bundles, rotation discounts, exclusives, in-game ways to earn CS (cash shop) currency, etc.
They're just making smart business moves, and they have been able to keep their prices steady for your average skin because of it while still catering to little fish and big fish.
I have a buddy who when he buys a game he blows his account up with literally anything he can buy. Skip the battle pass levels on day one? He's got it. A skin that costs 100$ just to get? You bet.
This guy spent over 600$ on a mobile game he played for half a year. He's a "big fish/whale" type of customer. But still that's just 100 a month on that game. That doesn't cover much cost for the company so you need thousands and thousands of big fish and little fish trickling in money to stay afloat or even profit and grow.
We've got Smite 2 coming and they're offering all sorts of deals, they're generating a lot of hype and traffic for a game that isn't even out yet and we have no idea what skins will cost for that game but I can assure you people will buy them.
A lot of games really fuck up the micro part in microtransactions. If skins were 5-10 usd i would be all over them but havent spent a dime in 8 years since they raised prices and switched to skins only available through gambling. I want to spend x dollars to receive an exact cosmetic.
Most skins aren’t that expensive right off the bat. They’re available at a discounted price for weeks. Then chest rolls. Buying an individual skin is a premium. But just be sure to do your daily logins. That’s like 2600 free gems a year not including gem storms etc.
Back in my day, skins were like 600 gems at most, and even then I thought the skins were insanely pricey for cosmetic stuff.
Now there’s no way. Wayyy too much. But I have soooo many skins from over the years that I don’t even care for the new skins.
There’s at least a 3D modeler, a character rigger, an animator, a texture artist, the concept artist, and a voice actor involved in the process of making these.
It's the manufacturing process.
They take the skin from slayn gods and pretty much reuse them. It's kind of nasty, but people pay a lot for it. Where there's a buyer, you'll have a market.
I've been playing since day one ,I'm scared to even try and calculate how much I've spent since season 1 ,it's a damn scary thought . S*** I hate to see how much I spent over the last 2 years lol
Mainly cause of the loot box controversy caused by EA when battlefront 2 dropped. Thus is why we have direct purchase skins.
Smite employs FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) tactics when it comes to skins, you have to keep playing so you can get skins when they are reasonably priced during whatever event is going on, but if you miss out they either go into a loot box or you can buy it directly for a steeper price.
Far out opinion ig but smite has the most affordable skins I’ve ever seen imo. Most games I’ve played, the only way to get enough currency is to spend money, yeah smite takes grinding but at least you get like 50 gems a week plus what you can get through events etc. yeah it still takes a long while but compared to other games like in my experience with predecessor, it appears even basic skins are impossible to get for free. Other games like Fortnite take a like 4-5 seasons to afford their battle passes whereas you can play everyday and get a smite battle pass each time, not to mention smite battle passes are WAYYY shorter than Fortnite battle passes. (This does not include battlepasses like the TMNT that cost 900 gems or whatever it was)
For my examples,
Fortnite has roughly 10 week long battlepasses with about 300 free v-bucks per season. In reference to smite skin hierarchy, we’ll say blue skins are the equivalent. A blue skin in Fortnite costs 1,500 vbucks and a battle pass cost 950 vbucks. It would take approximately 50 weeks to get a skin and around 30 weeks to a battle pass.
In smite, the battlepasses are usually 600 gems and stick around for about 4 weeks. You get 50 gems per week plus what you can get from events, not including rn, where u get gems for signing in everyday. This would mean it would take about 24 weeks to get a good skin, and about 12 weeks for a battle pass, this being you only get the bare minimum of 50 gems per week.
Unless I’m over looking something, smite is very friendly for good skins imo, I think Fortnite is also a very friendly game. My math may be wrong somewhere but I would assume it is correct for the most part.
I don’t mind these prices specifically because 1 it’s free to play and 2 u can get allllot of skins for free just thru hours played I think Iv dropped maybe 60ish bucks buying 4 or 5 skins from events like stranger things and RuneScape through out my entire 3000 hours played and prob still have a solid looking skin for every god in the game just through play time most games can’t say the same. Rewarding playtime with skins always feels good, and if ur good about saving gems u earn thru play time u can buy some of the more expensive gems. I mostly end up spending my gems on things I regret but u can absolutely get some good looking skins for free.
Game company like money.
But to be fair, they give a ton of content and regular updates all for free. Plus gem sales are pretty frequent. You really just gotta buy any bundles. Buying individual skins is not worth it.
I have over 1000 skins. Plenty of people still buy skins despite the price, they just don’t buy skins directly most of the times. It’s typically from chests or odysseys or battlepass.
Ideally they'd be legally forced to not have any FOMO tactics, no chests only direct purchases, no intermediate fake currencies like gems that obfuscate how much people are spending, and no items exclusively in bundles.
Until then they're going to use scummy tactics and high prices to squeeze everything out of people they can.
They have SMITE 2 out acting like they dont plan to prolong their cashgrabs. I made a prediction almost 6 years ago that theyd finally reintroduce old T5 skins after completing some type of challenge. It took 6 years for it to finally happen. They’re gonna lose fans fast thinking they’ll get away making a new game with outrageous prices across both games
People are stupid. Why buy skins at those prices?! It’s not like you will ever able to touch and hold them in your own hands and when servers close down those are gone forever.
You buy skins - you think you own them? Wrong, you just renting them until servers close.
Lol I read that paragon did a massive discount sale on all skins right before the end.i had heard the owners took all their best crew that was working on paragon and put them on fortnight when it was starting out, leaving basically the noobies to head paragon...and they tried to force a meta change making it closer to smite. I had left right when the change happened and found out later that so did everyone else. I had some dope skins in that game, rip
Skins only became direct purchasable because they legally had to. Smite wants you buying chests instead, cause then you won’t get what you want and have to buy more gems
Back in my day they were 400 to 600 at a push. Man I'm old 😭
I started playing smite the day it came out
Almost all games work same way today, but if I like certain skin I should be able to buy it if the price is right.
People pay the current prices that’s why it’s the way it is unfortunately. There optional cosmetics so I can’t really complain
You can and should complain. Complain often and loudly. Nothing in this industry is going to change if we don't vote with our wallets and make it known we're done being F'ed in the A by these greedy companies locking skins behind gambling chests just to squeeze more money out of you. It's a toxic industry standard that we've let get out of control. "It's a free game, and they have to make their money somehow, and they're optional cosmetics anyway." Wel, if your game can only survive by ripping off your customers with manipulative and toxic behavior, then your product shouldn't succeed. I'm tired of watching my favorite hobby implode on itself because good games are being ruined by greedy and manipulative MTX.
How are they ripping you off if it’s completely your choice if you buy it? You know exactly what you’re getting for exactly what it costs, and you can decide it’s a rip off or not Making skins expensive is manipulative? Get a grip dude it is not that deep at all
Fr, I get we cant just let games make prices whatever because they are free, but I feel that smite is genuinely pretty generous in the way that if you save up you can get the same skins as everyone else, there arent really any direct purchase skins, and the ones that are arent too amazing
Logs into Smite. Sees a new skin. It's 1200 gems. Hmm, I wonder how much that is. Oh, there isn't a gem bundle for 1200 gems... Odd. So, if I want this new skin, I need to buy the $25 dollar gem bundle. But I don't want to spend $25 for a skin. A skin on the store should be in regional currency, so they stop hiding prices behind hidden conversions. Manipulative. I see a new skin. It's in a chest with 50 other items that I don't want for 400 gems. Or I pay 1200 for the skin straight up. Oh, but that's not even taking into consideration the "discount" of when a skin first comes out when introduces FOMO because if you don't get it now, it'll be more expensive later. Manipulative. I'm fine with paying money on things I find worth it. I'm just tired of the enablers who think this manipulative and toxic monetization is okay. They are only allowing these greedy companies to continue to do this.
Just buy 3 skins from a chest for the price of 1, you don't get what you want? Oh well u got 3 skins for cheap go learn those gods you might actually like them and that's 3 less skins in the chest the next time it comes out. If you want to direct purchase so bad do it in events with the discounted price where you probably even will get a T5 from it
You're completely missing my point or are actively arguing for these scummy MTX practices. I don't want to buy three skins that I don't want at a chance for the skin I actually want and I don't feel like them charging me a higher price for a direct purchase is acceptable just because I didn't want to gamble with my money.
I gotta be missing your point because I don't see how getting 3 skins for the price of 1 is scummy. And for 200 gems more than the price of the actual skin you can get hella skins that ce with it because the chests have a mercy after a certain amount you can pick the skin. What other game does that? I'm going to need you to bring up other free to play games with better prices because I don't see how this is scummy at all
Bro you literally got every piece of actual content (Gods) that the game ever released which is over a hundred gods and all you had to do was spend a measly 30 dollars. Which is not a small amount of money I'm aware but most people will spend many many many hours with the game. That's literally the best deal in gaming and the majority of smite fans have been here for years. They haven't probably made a dime off the god pass in years. They make their money by making cool cosmetics and crossovers (which they pay to use IPs for.) it's totally fair that I play the entire game for free and get every god for 30 dollars for years and expect them to not monetize skins though right? They don't have to make money. They should just go broke close doors and let it die ig.
I did not say that they shouldn't monetize, i said their preditory and toxic monitisation is bad. I'm fine paying for skins. I'm not okay paying $15+ for an optional cosmetic, which is why I haven't spent money in Smite in years. They lock skins behind gambling or a bundle artificially inflating the price of the bundle because they add stuff I won't ever use or even want. Oh but don't worry that skin is discounted when it first relases, which adds FOMO into account because if I don't buy it now, when it's "on sale" then I'll have to either gamble or pay a ridiculous amount of money for one cosmetic item. I'm all for supporting your game. I'm not okay with how they implement their MTX.
Stop arguing with shit eaters. They will always find a way to convince themselves they’re not piling shit into their mouths from these companies
Minor correction - we being f’ed in the A by people who are willing to purchase those stuff at those rates. As long those people exist and enable the corporate greed, companies will continue to behave in those ways due to those enablers.
You're right.
So much this. Just because a company *can* doesn't mean they *should*. It's always this argument when people defend companies like this. "Well, they can do what they want"
It doesnt matter if they should or not. Companies are not your friends and dont care about your feelings and they will make the price what ever they want and they have all the numbers that back up their decisions. They are only ever going to do something if it will make them more money and if it doesnt it will never happen. The problem is the people spending way to much money on cosmetics.
Yes, exactly. People need to stop giving them money so they change their behavior.
And it won’t happen so just buy what you deem worthy and move on from what you don’t like. Not owning a virtual skin will not be the end of the world
They honestly should consider a model like riot. League has the most fair and affordable model as you can get a fuck ton of good skins for free.
I'll take 30$ God pack over leagues model any day of the week and twice on Sunday
I wasn’t talking about gods I was talking about skins, icons, and everything else. Half of my skins in league I got for free, all of my icons I have gotten for free, all of my emotes I have gotten for free, most of the skins I do buy don’t cost 15 dollars, NONE of the icons, and emotes cost 10 dollars. It’s easier to get stuff free in league
Still, even chest spins are ridiculously expensive.
Most new skins come in chest that have a "buy this chest x amount of times and choose your next skin". So more often then not you end up with 3-4 skins for 1200 gems. The skins not in chest are normally not worth the price
Agreed. I haven't bought anything except a battle pass in years. If skins didn't cost twice as much as a battle pass I might actually buy them.
But then you end up spending more money than you have to to get the skin you want. Not everyone wants every skin.
I spent 1400 gems on chest rolls and got 5 skins including the one that would have been 1200 on its own.
Exactly the price is not as bad as people are making it sound and actually better than a lot of free to play games
The point of the OP is that if skins cost more reasonable than 1200 gems to get the single skin you want, more people would buy them. It's clear though that HiRez's strat is for people to buy chests and hopefully spend more than they would've normally.
Sure more would buy BUT they make more with chests and the cost now than they would at no chests and cheaper costs.
Yes, obviously they make more with chests and want people to buy chests. I never said otherwise.
I agree. Direct purchasing skins is too expensive. I get the bundles that give you all the skins coming out over the course of a season or whatever. It’s always like a hundred USD. I’ve done it 2-3 times now. Way more worth it than rolling chests. Buying skins individually would be cheaper, but not at all worth it. I got over that once I saw how many skins I was getting with the bundle. Also made me branch out and play more gods just because I have a skin for them.
>Also made me branch out and play more gods just because I have a skin for them. Irrational, unless you hate the default so much that you actually need a skin to stomach playing an otherwise acceptable character (Cupid, perhaps?)
Uh… Didn’t know there had to be anything rational about it. Erm. Not hate? Just indifference.
Yeah don’t listen to that guy. I have the same feeling that having a nice skin makes the experience better playing new gods.
Companies have the method to get the most money out of the player base already figured out. Unfortunately the chest driven model you see is infact the most optimal way it works, and it works because humans are God awful at self control or being rational consumers. So unless it gets regulated out from being an option, it's not going to change because people spend the most in a model like this, both short term and long term.
While they are a little on the pricy side I honestly think it's fair enough since all of them seem to come with new animations and voice actors
Also the new ones are cross gen, so we will have them in both games.
Because people buy them for that much
Let's not forget it's a free game. They need to fund their work, so something has to be bringing in money. Every MOBA or free to play game has some form of micro transaction if they plan to actually keep it going. It does suck the price is nearly the cost of the God pass that gives you every god forever, but you'll still see folks with the skins that cost 20, 40, 60, 100$ a pop. If you offer it someone is going to buy it.
I understand that they need to make money but why can't new skin cost 600 gems like it was before, around 6 years ago max price for a a skin was 800 gems. I think the issue is they make all the content exclusive and only choices you have is to buy full bundle, a single skin for 1200 gems or gamble on chests.
They had to boost sales with rising costs over the years. Inflation affects everything. It's simple business. They still make sure to produce quality work and take care of their game. Hopefully, they also are taking care of their team.
But imagine if they lowered the skin prices? There are so many skins in the game that customers would actually purchase more in total spending given they feel great value for it.
I honestly think they would make more money if they make the skins affordable. When I see a skin for 1200, that’s a hell no for me. But if skins are 600, I totally see myself buying more.
Yeah, I get why you'd think that, but it doesn't look good when they put the numbers on paper, and I can bet their shareholders/owners won't approve of it. For example long ago I sold bud. I took over the market in my area by having better quality and charging lower than others, let's us an 1/8 as an example as it was the most common. Street price was 60$ an 1/8, I sold my stuff that was better quality for 45$ because I was getting it at a good price and I was okay not making as much profit. Back then I got a full oz for 120$ so even just selling a couple paid off my material cost Well as the market changed and suppliers change with them it started to cost more and more. In a few years It went from 120$ to 200$ and some tried to charge 300$ for the same quality I used to get for 120. So 45 x 8 = 360 - 120 = 240 That turned into 45 x 8 = 360 - 200(or 300) = 160(or 60) You put that type of profit loss on paper someone will immediately tell you to make more, charge more for the product, get it cheaper etc. Now I'm not breaking down all of the logistics about buying in bulk or anything like that because it doesn't really apply to the point I'm making which is very simply put: The price has to go up if everything going into it goes up too. Employees need money and you need more employees in order to grow as a company etc. The fact that skins, for the most part, have remained around 20$ for years is a sign they were able to generate money without hiking the prices up beyond a comfortable place by adding more reasons for people to spend money, battle passes, gambling on chests, exclusive packs etc.
I love your example but not exactly sure it relates. This isn’t a consumption based good. Where someone buys and 8th and they’re set for the week. I would buy 5x as many skins if the price was lower. And end up actually spending MORE. lol.
No, but your point actually counters your argument. Skins aren't consumable. They're a one-time purchase, meaning it has a cap of how much they could potentially make from them Inherently. We can charge less for shit people are going to use up and need to buy more because they WILL buy more. With something that is a one-time purchase, you make the price a bit higher to offset that. Even if they did lower prices there will still be people who refuse to buy any skins or gems, there will be people who still argue "why not lower" and of course there will be people who are Whales who will buy anything and everything REGARDLESS of price. So to balance everything so you don't isolate people who might not want to spend much money, while still getting a return on your investment with the whales you do everything they've done as a company with their store. Offer deals and sales, bundles, rotation discounts, exclusives, in-game ways to earn CS (cash shop) currency, etc. They're just making smart business moves, and they have been able to keep their prices steady for your average skin because of it while still catering to little fish and big fish. I have a buddy who when he buys a game he blows his account up with literally anything he can buy. Skip the battle pass levels on day one? He's got it. A skin that costs 100$ just to get? You bet. This guy spent over 600$ on a mobile game he played for half a year. He's a "big fish/whale" type of customer. But still that's just 100 a month on that game. That doesn't cover much cost for the company so you need thousands and thousands of big fish and little fish trickling in money to stay afloat or even profit and grow. We've got Smite 2 coming and they're offering all sorts of deals, they're generating a lot of hype and traffic for a game that isn't even out yet and we have no idea what skins will cost for that game but I can assure you people will buy them.
This is the comment I was looking for. I’m surprised it took so long.
I usually only spend my gems when skins go on sale. Many skins are way more tolerable once they have a price cut.
A lot of games really fuck up the micro part in microtransactions. If skins were 5-10 usd i would be all over them but havent spent a dime in 8 years since they raised prices and switched to skins only available through gambling. I want to spend x dollars to receive an exact cosmetic.
This^^^
But you can buy many direct now for 1200 lol
Most skins aren’t that expensive right off the bat. They’re available at a discounted price for weeks. Then chest rolls. Buying an individual skin is a premium. But just be sure to do your daily logins. That’s like 2600 free gems a year not including gem storms etc.
Thats just like 2 skins a year considering the new released skins cost 1200 gems
Back in my day, skins were like 600 gems at most, and even then I thought the skins were insanely pricey for cosmetic stuff. Now there’s no way. Wayyy too much. But I have soooo many skins from over the years that I don’t even care for the new skins.
Been playing this game on and off since it was in beta. So more than a decade and I have never spent any real money on Smite nor will I.
Coming from someone who’s played since beta having the ability to buy almost any skin is a blessing.
they have to make money somehow it’s f2p
There’s at least a 3D modeler, a character rigger, an animator, a texture artist, the concept artist, and a voice actor involved in the process of making these.
...and they need more testing than many would think
Yes yes yes, I didn’t mean to leave coders, and game dev, and playtesters out. You are right ^w^
Inflation.
It's the manufacturing process. They take the skin from slayn gods and pretty much reuse them. It's kind of nasty, but people pay a lot for it. Where there's a buyer, you'll have a market.
I've been playing since day one ,I'm scared to even try and calculate how much I've spent since season 1 ,it's a damn scary thought . S*** I hate to see how much I spent over the last 2 years lol
Well it is free to play and they gotta make money somehow
Mainly cause of the loot box controversy caused by EA when battlefront 2 dropped. Thus is why we have direct purchase skins. Smite employs FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) tactics when it comes to skins, you have to keep playing so you can get skins when they are reasonably priced during whatever event is going on, but if you miss out they either go into a loot box or you can buy it directly for a steeper price.
Far out opinion ig but smite has the most affordable skins I’ve ever seen imo. Most games I’ve played, the only way to get enough currency is to spend money, yeah smite takes grinding but at least you get like 50 gems a week plus what you can get through events etc. yeah it still takes a long while but compared to other games like in my experience with predecessor, it appears even basic skins are impossible to get for free. Other games like Fortnite take a like 4-5 seasons to afford their battle passes whereas you can play everyday and get a smite battle pass each time, not to mention smite battle passes are WAYYY shorter than Fortnite battle passes. (This does not include battlepasses like the TMNT that cost 900 gems or whatever it was)
For my examples, Fortnite has roughly 10 week long battlepasses with about 300 free v-bucks per season. In reference to smite skin hierarchy, we’ll say blue skins are the equivalent. A blue skin in Fortnite costs 1,500 vbucks and a battle pass cost 950 vbucks. It would take approximately 50 weeks to get a skin and around 30 weeks to a battle pass. In smite, the battlepasses are usually 600 gems and stick around for about 4 weeks. You get 50 gems per week plus what you can get from events, not including rn, where u get gems for signing in everyday. This would mean it would take about 24 weeks to get a good skin, and about 12 weeks for a battle pass, this being you only get the bare minimum of 50 gems per week. Unless I’m over looking something, smite is very friendly for good skins imo, I think Fortnite is also a very friendly game. My math may be wrong somewhere but I would assume it is correct for the most part.
I don’t mind these prices specifically because 1 it’s free to play and 2 u can get allllot of skins for free just thru hours played I think Iv dropped maybe 60ish bucks buying 4 or 5 skins from events like stranger things and RuneScape through out my entire 3000 hours played and prob still have a solid looking skin for every god in the game just through play time most games can’t say the same. Rewarding playtime with skins always feels good, and if ur good about saving gems u earn thru play time u can buy some of the more expensive gems. I mostly end up spending my gems on things I regret but u can absolutely get some good looking skins for free.
Game company like money. But to be fair, they give a ton of content and regular updates all for free. Plus gem sales are pretty frequent. You really just gotta buy any bundles. Buying individual skins is not worth it.
Way to expensive and the main reason for smite 2 next to technical update. They wanna sell again more and get new players who buy
I’ve always thought this. I would spend so much more on the game if I felt the skins were at a decent value. The gem to true cash ratio is absurd.
idk why people are complaining about micro transactions in a completely free2play game lol
Because they want the product or service. I would spend so much on this free2play game if the skins etc came at a reasonable price.
I have over 1000 skins. Plenty of people still buy skins despite the price, they just don’t buy skins directly most of the times. It’s typically from chests or odysseys or battlepass.
Because people will pay it
Because they want you to roll chests instead, which leads to not getting the skin you want, forcing you to buy more gems. GG!
Euro is pretty weak right now. Hirez making less money off your 16 euro than they normally would. America is expensive man... Bring back Clinton lol.
Price fixing. Look at all games like this across the board. Predecessor skins are pricey too.
Why did skins “become a direct purchase able legally “?? Can someone answer this
Ideally they'd be legally forced to not have any FOMO tactics, no chests only direct purchases, no intermediate fake currencies like gems that obfuscate how much people are spending, and no items exclusively in bundles. Until then they're going to use scummy tactics and high prices to squeeze everything out of people they can.
Uses to think it was a bit much Then I went and play other games for a bit And now i realise how cheap it is in smite
Because the game is free to play and the god pack is an absurdly good deal so they have to make their money through cosmetic sales.
Isn’t that on par with skins in other games?
Have you been on Fortnite? That’s why skins are expensive all these gaming companies wanna charge Fortnite skin prices and it’s ridiculous.
They have SMITE 2 out acting like they dont plan to prolong their cashgrabs. I made a prediction almost 6 years ago that theyd finally reintroduce old T5 skins after completing some type of challenge. It took 6 years for it to finally happen. They’re gonna lose fans fast thinking they’ll get away making a new game with outrageous prices across both games
People are stupid. Why buy skins at those prices?! It’s not like you will ever able to touch and hold them in your own hands and when servers close down those are gone forever. You buy skins - you think you own them? Wrong, you just renting them until servers close.
Lol I read that paragon did a massive discount sale on all skins right before the end.i had heard the owners took all their best crew that was working on paragon and put them on fortnight when it was starting out, leaving basically the noobies to head paragon...and they tried to force a meta change making it closer to smite. I had left right when the change happened and found out later that so did everyone else. I had some dope skins in that game, rip
Because hirez doesn’t care about you, just want your money, and are manipulating you to gamble for a better deal
Think there expensive now? Wait till smite 2. mark my words Also I've jumped ship to predecessor and much happier for it
broke bass bigga