Blizzard Black Friday 2014

ezelkow1

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Since I hadnt seen a blizzard BF post yet:

The deals expire on Tuesday, December 2 at 11:59 PM Pacific.
* Diablo III - $20
* Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - $20
* Diablo III: Reaper of Souls Digital Deluxe Edition - $40
* StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm - $10
* StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Digital Deluxe Edition - $25
* StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty - $10
* World of Warcraft (includes main game, as well as Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm, and Mists of Pandaria expansions) - $5
 
https://us.battle.net/shop/en/

 
I think it may have been 10$ at walmart last BF since I remember I tried going there just for that and promptly left when they were gone. So Ive been waiting for both of them to hit that price point so I could finally jump on SC2

 
D'oh, I purchased WoW and Mists of Pandaria last BF, and still haven't touched it.

 
Play for free up to level 20. If you like it, gift the purchase to yourself before the sale ends and open it when you hit the free cap to squeeze a little more out of the deal.
Wish I knew this beforehand. Not a big deal. I'm a couple hours in and already near level 10. I played the game before years ago on a friend's account with a trial. Game wasn't bad; just expensive to get into.

 
Why don't they ever have the WoW sub on-sale? $15/month is way too freaking much, and it's 90% of the reason I stopped playing.

 
Why don't they ever have the WoW sub on-sale? $15/month is way too freaking much, and it's 90% of the reason I stopped playing.
This and FFXIV charge $15/mo. The thing is, games can get discounted all they like. But from an operating standpoint, that $15 you pay a month goes toward server maintenance costs (replacing parts), bug reporting and fixing, food on-site, utilities..for 10 million subscribers, that's about 150 million a month, before taxes. I know that Blizzard should at least look toward offering lower rates for those who have stuck with the game since release cause after 5 expansions, those who paid full price for the expansions should least get breaks.

FFXIV, for example, did the rare thing of offering a 33% discount on those who bought a broken product that FFXIV 1.0 turned out to be (for PC legacy owners, it worked out to be $10/mo instead of $15/mo). I think that Blizzard could consider it at some point. Cause if they are clearing 150 million a month pre-tax, they could afford to offer lower rates for some of their esteemed subscribers.

 
On the other side of that, they're lucky to hold 10 million subscribers anymore, and it's dipped to around 7 million, at times. They have more servers than necessary, with folks talking about having some dead ones. They could consolidate, if they REALYL wanted. There are enough MMOs (though not anything remotely close to WoW's size) that live off of a free-to-play model, so I simply don't believe that the $15/month is actually necessary.

 
It actually surged back up to 10 million or so after WoD release.  While there are plenty of MMO's, most of them are bad compared to WoW... at least in the opinion of the people who keep paying for WoW.  Moreover, they essentially have discounted the subscription given inflation over the last decade.  $15 now is not what $15 was in 2004.

Is it 'necessary?'  Obviously not, but they're making money hand-over-fist so might as well keep charging it.

 
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Why don't they ever have the WoW sub on-sale? $15/month is way too freaking much, and it's 90% of the reason I stopped playing.
Target has had them on sale multiple times this year. Usually they're b1g1 25% off. Not a great deal, but better than nothing.


I've actually got a 60 day card currently for sale for $22 as well (or I'll trade for a Destiny PS3/PS4 code/$20 PSN code), if anyone in this thread is interested.
 
It actually surged back up to 10 million or so after WoD release. While there are plenty of MMO's, most of them are bad compared to WoW... at least in the opinion of the people who keep paying for WoW. Moreover, they essentially have discounted the subscription given inflation over the last decade. $15 now is not what $15 was in 2004.

Is it 'necessary?' Obviously not, but they're making money hand-over-fist so might as well keep charging it.
Oh, I agree. If you can make the money, do it. However, I know the number spiked for the expansion, but it does that every time. It'll trickle back down to 7 million or so near the end of WoD, and if they continue the nasty trend of letting the latest expansion basically rot for 12 months after the final raid, it'll probably bottom out to a lower point than Mists' lowest numbers, because more and more people will get sick of the long content drought.

Thing is, with the expansion out around Black Friday, I think it would have been really smart to have 60-day cards for $20-25, as opposed to the normal $30. Heck, if they didn't want to eat the 60 days' worth of lower income on them, they could have had "BLACK FIRDAY SPECIAL: 30-DAY CARDS FOR $10!!!" or something. It would be a decent idea, in my opinion, to lose a little, as it could hook a few people into grabbing the new expansion and getting sucked back in (I know I would have been a candidate).

Target has had them on sale multiple times this year. Usually they're b1g1 25% off. Not a great deal, but better than nothing.


I've actually got a 60 day card currently for sale for $22 as well (or I'll trade for a Destiny PS3/PS4 code/$20 PSN code), if anyone in this thread is interested.
Yeah, Target has whatever on-sale quite a bit, but I was more speaking a Blizzard-ran promotion, not Target's "let's move some of these stupid cards lying about" promos.

 
This and FFXIV charge $15/mo. The thing is, games can get discounted all they like. But from an operating standpoint, that $15 you pay a month goes toward server maintenance costs (replacing parts), bug reporting and fixing, food on-site, utilities..for 10 million subscribers, that's about 150 million a month, before taxes. I know that Blizzard should at least look toward offering lower rates for those who have stuck with the game since release cause after 5 expansions, those who paid full price for the expansions should least get breaks.
um did you just say that the reason wow has a sub is to pay for employee lunches... hahaha

 
Thing is, with the expansion out around Black Friday, I think it would have been really smart to have 60-day cards for $20-25, as opposed to the normal $30. Heck, if they didn't want to eat the 60 days' worth of lower income on them, they could have had "BLACK FIRDAY SPECIAL: 30-DAY CARDS FOR $10!!!" or something. It would be a decent idea, in my opinion, to lose a little, as it could hook a few people into grabbing the new expansion and getting sucked back in (I know I would have been a candidate).
They've always had a 'too big to fail' mentality. Don't think I've ever seen them discount their subs. Might have discounted character transfer fees and such a couple of times but that's it. And I agree that sub levels will crash. I played in the beta (they gave me access when I used a free week promo) and wasn't impressed by WoD's content. They've turned the game into Farmville -- most people will log in, complete their work orders, maybe run one dungeon, and log off.

I will add, though, that $5 for mucking around in vanilla WoW for a month is worth the entertainment value. Just don't let them get their hooks in you!

 
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um did you just say that the reason wow has a sub is to pay for employee lunches... hahaha
You know they have to be enjoying steak and lobster on the dime of others =P. But the point is that all that money amounts to the operating costs of the company as a whole. And since this is Activision Blizzard now...you know they are working their damnedest to get enough servers set to support their several million players worldwide and to pay for what those servers and the game need to run right.

 
FFXIV, for example, did the rare thing of offering a 33% discount on those who bought a broken product that FFXIV 1.0 turned out to be (for PC legacy owners, it worked out to be $10/mo instead of $15/mo).
Is this still a thing? I own the collector's edition and quit awhile ago. I'd consider playing again for a month to see the new changes.

 
Is this still a thing? I own the collector's edition and quit awhile ago. I'd consider playing again for a month to see the new changes.
If you bought the original FFXIV, and your account is both accessible and in good standing, then you should be allowed to make the upgrade. PC owners get $10/mo for the sub. Otherwise, it's $13/mo for a single char per server for 8 total on an account, or $15/mo for 8 chars per server for 40 total (or 3 months is $14/mo for $42 or 6 months is $13/mo for $78). Basically, if you're not going to play the ever loving crap out of more than a couple of chars, doing the Entry for a fixed $13/mo is the cheapest option. Still...$2/mo is only $24 extra per year.

 
However, I know the number spiked for the expansion, but it does that every time. It'll trickle back down to 7 million or so near the end of WoD, and if they continue the nasty trend of letting the latest expansion basically rot for 12 months after the final raid, it'll probably bottom out to a lower point than Mists' lowest numbers, because more and more people will get sick of the long content drought.
The new expansion boom is a much shorter window than that. Check in maybe 3-6 months from launch and I think numbers should be down significantly.

Also, Blizzard seems to need all the time they can get to flesh out each expansion. People were already complaining about things getting cut or pushed back from WoD's scope.

Is this still a thing? I own the collector's edition and quit awhile ago. I'd consider playing again for a month to see the new changes.
I believe it is but there's a requirement to have been subscribed to 1.0 for 90 days at some point in order to qualify for the legacy rate.

 
Could someone who is familiar with how the prices on Blizzard's games tend to go tell me: is this the cheapest Reaper of Souls and Starcraft II are likely to go?

 
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Could someone who is familiar with how the prices on Blizzard's games tend to go tell me: is this the cheapest Reaper of Souls and Starcraft II are likely to go?
They could likely bundle D3 + Xpac into one pack and then have that go down to $10 itself. That's happened to D2 and Warcraft II but that took nearly a decade or so? This is the cheapest they've been since released. Reaper of Souls is well worth the $20. I just bought Heart of the Swarm, so I cannot comment.

 
Not sure what they've been selling D2 at recently (after the release of D3) but just prior to it I don't think you could get it for less than $20 for the bundle.  So.... maybe in a couple of years you might see $20 D3+expansion.  SC2 might get a similar bundle but, until then, I doubt the individual parts go less than $10 anytime within the next few years.  Only thing Blizzard drastically discounts is vanilla WoW to get people hooked and paying the subscription (and outdated expansions they eventually just give away free).

 
Heh, I was thinking more in regards to whether they would drop any more this December or not. I'm not sure if I'd get around to playing them prior to that, so it would suck if they went on sale for less in a month.

 
Play for free up to level 20. If you like it, gift the purchase to yourself before the sale ends and open it when you hit the free cap to squeeze a little more out of the deal.
Does anyone know if you select the gift option, is there an expiration date for redeeming the gift?

I'm looking into building a gaming PC next year, but I don't know when that'll be, and I'd like to take advantage of this WoW deal so I can revisit the game when I finish building my PC.

 
Awesome, sold my boxed copy of Wow and MoP for $18 after shipping and fees. $5 is a whole lot better, but I'll probably start with the free hours up to level 20, first.

 
I picked up Starcraft 2. 9.99 is a pretty good price. demo was fun
Excellent price for the game. I'm sure it won't be all that uncommon now with $20 being the base price, though.

 
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