I don’t want no stubs…
-
@urbanphilosophy_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@fubar2k7_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@chuckuluck_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Stubs are a buy that won’t get no love from me.
Seriously, what has happened that I am no longer just naturally accumulating stubs this year? At least last year if you would just grind BR or most other modes, you’d get multiple sellable silver or gold cards that would go for quite a bit and accumulate lots of stubs. This year my stub total seems to be crawling.
Needless to say, if the strategy is to get us to buy more stubs, I ain’t doing it!
I’d never defend a company for over reliance on microtransactions but they are getting shafted over at Microsoft. They just give the game away for free. They gotta make up that lost revenue somewhere.
Gave the game away? Game pass is a subscription. Xbox users pay monthly for the service to ‘rent’ the game. It is not nor has it ever been free. Additionally microsoft pays the developer a lump sum of money up front for the license to put it on game pass. If they were losing money on the deal they wouldn’t have made the deal multiple years in a row. Even Phil Spencer has mentioned multiple times now that he was actually shocked by the amount of people that end up buying game pass games once they leave the rotation. Again game pass does not nor has it ever given away any games for free
If you think the lump sum they paid equals the amount they can get per copy at $100 per game then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you. From what I understand they pay $2.5 million to developers which is 25,000 copies of their $100 version or slightly less than 36,000 of their $70 version.
-
It's hard to believe that '21 was only two years ago. That was most 'play and get rewarded' in the entire series. They may have gone overboard to lure in new xbox players, I dunno. I do know that game was infinitely more fun than MLB The Skint 23.
I've been fully aware of the hard turn toward monetization from the go this year, but yesterday's Yordan Alvarez 99 release really bugged me. Yet another card that I can't earn that I would like to have. But I'm not buying god-awful Duo packs, and last I checked he was north of 150k.
On the bright side, I'll be able to afford him if I do the next 600 Weekly Wonders programs.
-
@baseball229056_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Yes, these horrible for-profit companies need to be stopped. It is ridiculous that they actually want to turn a profit on something they produce. I can't understand why they don't just release all of the cards for the year on day one and just give them out to everyone.
That is an oversimplification of the argument.
I have not seen anyone say that they are against SDS or Sony making a profit. I have not even seen anyone say that the ability to buy stubs is bad. Nor have I seen anyone say that they expect the cards to be free.
We are simply stating a fact that SDS is being more aggressive on the monetization front this year by reducing the amount of stubs you earn simply by playing and doing the content. I am not sure how anyone can deny that is happening.
For those who play a lot of hours or spend time flipping cards it may not be that big of a deal. For those of us who play fewer hours the squeeze is more noticeable. It's a fine line that companies need to walk between trying to entice people to spend extra money while not making progression so slow that those who are not interested in buying stubs simply give up and stop playing.
-
Definately a little more difficult to flip, mainly because it can be time consuming. Also, getting to the sellable bosses and selling at the peak price seems to be a plus, and sticking to a plan you want to go with. Hard to work all programs to accumulate players to knock out all the sets. Maybe stockpiling golds and hoping they go diamond will work out...
-
@Dolenz_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@baseball229056_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Yes, these horrible for-profit companies need to be stopped. It is ridiculous that they actually want to turn a profit on something they produce. I can't understand why they don't just release all of the cards for the year on day one and just give them out to everyone.
That is an oversimplification of the argument.
I have not seen anyone say that they are against SDS or Sony making a profit. I have not even seen anyone say that the ability to buy stubs is bad. Nor have I seen anyone say that they expect the cards to be free.
We are simply stating a fact that SDS is being more aggressive on the monetization front this year by reducing the amount of stubs you earn simply by playing and doing the content. I am not sure how anyone can deny that is happening.
For those who play a lot of hours or spend time flipping cards it may not be that big of a deal. For those of us who play fewer hours the squeeze is more noticeable. It's a fine line that companies need to walk between trying to entice people to spend extra money while not making progression so slow that those who are not interested in buying stubs simply give up and stop playing.
That’s exactly why the numerous posts each year about this topic are so silly. This is pretty standard practice. A company has a product and will test things out to see how they can increase profitability especially as that product ages. At the end of the game cycle SDS will analyze everything, They will look at revenue, they will look at profitability, they will look for trends. If things are moving in the right direction they may push the envelope more next year. If the market pushes back they may reverse. The really silly part is nobody on the forums has really any idea what the revenue looks like, has never seen any kind of profit and loss statement from sds. Has no idea of any internal communications between sds and Sony about financial expectations. The general theme of most of the posts are I can’t get the card I want for free so sds is greedy.
-
@baseball229056_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
That’s exactly why the numerous posts each year about this topic are so silly. This is pretty standard practice. A company has a product and will test things out to see how they can increase profitability especially as that product ages.
But, on the flip side I see no reason to sit quietly and not speak up about it either. While I am not naïve and realize that the their profits will drive their decisions more than a random post on a forum, I also don't see why people should not post their opinion on the subject. If it is the reason people quit playing then they should have the right to say so.
The reduced stub payouts and increase in both the quantity and cost of the good cards, coupled with their limited lifespan makes me worried about my ability to keep up with even my modest goal of collecting all the desirable cards from the Cardinals.
If my theme team is wrecked come July 7th (season 3) and I am faced with needing to spend hundreds of thousands more stubs to get back to where it already was then I will most likely be done at that point and I may well point out that fact here when that happens.
-
@baseball229056_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@Dolenz_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@baseball229056_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Yes, these horrible for-profit companies need to be stopped. It is ridiculous that they actually want to turn a profit on something they produce. I can't understand why they don't just release all of the cards for the year on day one and just give them out to everyone.
That is an oversimplification of the argument.
I have not seen anyone say that they are against SDS or Sony making a profit. I have not even seen anyone say that the ability to buy stubs is bad. Nor have I seen anyone say that they expect the cards to be free.
The general theme of most of the posts are I can’t get the card I want for free so sds is greedy.
You are correct, sir. Should you ever come across such a post, you would certainly not find my overfed self in such discussions.
I feel like you sort of ‘answered your own question’ so to speak and you gave an excellent response. I believe a key part of the whole “let’s overreach” phase…possibly the key metric even….is the “hey, you went TOO far, mugsy” portion of the discussion.
I have a beautiful Frankenstein analogy I’d love to drop in right here but by the time it took me the hour to type the 8 sentence response, I truly fear I’ll have forgotten the topic, nor would anyone read it.
Summation: like my brotato chip said….oversimplification of the topic at hand.
PS I’m just going to say what I believe a lot of people just MAY be thinking….this is all beginning to coalesce imho. Maybe just maybe upon coalescing, something may take root….of the GRASS variety…
-
I’ll tell y’all something else…let’s not forget about our overlords…MLB. If there is anyone in this equation that might be in it to squeeze every last drop of blood from the turnip…well we’d be fools to forget about them.
Seriously. I’m still pissed that I missed the 1994 WS. That was my senior year of HS as well and I spent my October in a little slice of paradise called Parris motherjumping Island. To put it mildly I could’ve used the distraction of Tony Gwynn chasing .400 but NOOOOO some interloper named Selig had to SQUEEZE.
Nay, friends, let us not forget MLB.
-
@BxnnyMxn__PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
I’ll tell y’all something else…let’s not forget about our overlords…MLB. If there is anyone in this equation that might be in it to squeeze every last drop of blood from the turnip…well we’d be fools to forget about them.
Seriously. I’m still pissed that I missed the 1994 WS. That was my senior year of HS as well and I spent my October in a little slice of paradise called Parris motherjumping Island. To put it mildly I could’ve used the distraction of Tony Gwynn chasing .400 but NOOOOO some interloper named Selig had to SQUEEZE.
Nay, friends, let us not forget MLB.
Ha! Imagine being an Expos fan... :`(
-
@yankblan_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@BxnnyMxn__PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
I’ll tell y’all something else…let’s not forget about our overlords…MLB. If there is anyone in this equation that might be in it to squeeze every last drop of blood from the turnip…well we’d be fools to forget about them.
Seriously. I’m still pissed that I missed the 1994 WS. That was my senior year of HS as well and I spent my October in a little slice of paradise called Parris motherjumping Island. To put it mildly I could’ve used the distraction of Tony Gwynn chasing .400 but NOOOOO some interloper named Selig had to SQUEEZE.
Nay, friends, let us not forget MLB.
Ha! Imagine being an Expos fan... :`(
Perfect. If ever there was a one sentence metaphor for the 94-95 strike you just said it. That goes so very deep. Incredibly well said. There are myriad examples of the unfulfilled possibilities from that season but the expos were finally about to reap those long suffered for (and incredibly well earned) rewards. What a tragedy.
https://sabr.org/journal/article/the-empire-strikes-out-collusion-in-baseball-in-the-1980/
The second to last paragraph. This is must reading even those of us who remember I think we all need to RE-remember
-
Make cards too attainable - people complain
Make cards harder to attain - people complain
Moral - it doesn’t matter what anyone does, ever. People will always complain.
-
@TubaTim90_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Make cards too attainable - people complain
Make cards harder to attain - people complain
Moral - it doesn’t matter what anyone does, ever. People will always complain.That is why I said that it is a fine line that SDS has to walk. Attainable is a subjective measure when it comes to this game because it boils down to play time. Set that goal too high and you lose the more casual players. Set it too low and the hardcore players get bored.
Is there even a happy median to be found?
-
Yup agreed, and to some extent people shouldn’t have to flip cards to an extent to get someone they like within reason. I laugh at the br reward at 140 points is 3,000 stubs like wow thanks that’s two whole packs. Do I think everyone should have 100,000s of stubs no but last year cards were cheaper bc everyone was sellable.
-
@Dolenz_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@TubaTim90_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Make cards too attainable - people complain
Make cards harder to attain - people complain
Moral - it doesn’t matter what anyone does, ever. People will always complain.That is why I said that it is a fine line that SDS has to walk. Attainable is a subjective measure when it comes to this game because it boils down to play time. Set that goal too high and you lose the more casual players. Set it too low and the hardcore players get bored.
Is there even a happy median to be found?
i thought last year was reasonable (outside of the lack of TA) This year it seems they slowed the economy down and also put most of the usable cards in expensive packs (that you lose on most of the time). THe TA cards mostly are average, you have to either pony up stubs or get lucky in the free packs to catch the cards you want. Last year i felt like i could earn enough stubs to buy cards, and the programs/rewards were fair enough that I could get most of the cards i wanted.
-
@fubar2k7_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@urbanphilosophy_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@fubar2k7_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@chuckuluck_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Stubs are a buy that won’t get no love from me.
Seriously, what has happened that I am no longer just naturally accumulating stubs this year? At least last year if you would just grind BR or most other modes, you’d get multiple sellable silver or gold cards that would go for quite a bit and accumulate lots of stubs. This year my stub total seems to be crawling.
Needless to say, if the strategy is to get us to buy more stubs, I ain’t doing it!
I’d never defend a company for over reliance on microtransactions but they are getting shafted over at Microsoft. They just give the game away for free. They gotta make up that lost revenue somewhere.
Gave the game away? Game pass is a subscription. Xbox users pay monthly for the service to ‘rent’ the game. It is not nor has it ever been free. Additionally microsoft pays the developer a lump sum of money up front for the license to put it on game pass. If they were losing money on the deal they wouldn’t have made the deal multiple years in a row. Even Phil Spencer has mentioned multiple times now that he was actually shocked by the amount of people that end up buying game pass games once they leave the rotation. Again game pass does not nor has it ever given away any games for free
If you think the lump sum they paid equals the amount they can get per copy at $100 per game then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you. From what I understand they pay $2.5 million to developers which is 25,000 copies of their $100 version or slightly less than 36,000 of their $70 version.
Interesting that you know what Microsoft is paying , since that information has never been disclosed to the public. Again game pass is a subscription service , players are leasing the rights to the game. Players are leasing these rights even if they have never downloaded the game. Also just an fyi , the upper tier higher priced versions of these games are sold far less than the regular variants. The only number that has ever been discussed is that Microsoft paid out over 2.5 BILLION dollars to developers. Again BILLION. That works out to 850k per game , assuming all games ever listed in game pass are 100% equal which we all know isn’t.
Spencer hasn’t given specifics but they at one point did say some developers get a lump sum , sales and usage payments. I imagine those deals are reserved for AAA titles that come to game pass. Since you’d like to use speculation to support your completely off base assessment of free vs leasing I’ll go ahead and speculate too and just say that SDS is one of those developers
-
@TubaTim90_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Make cards too attainable - people complain
Make cards harder to attain - people complain
Moral - it doesn’t matter what anyone does, ever. People will always complain.
While you are whining and complaining about complainers.
-
@DoIHearBossMusic_MLBTS said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@TubaTim90_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Make cards too attainable - people complain
Make cards harder to attain - people complain
Moral - it doesn’t matter what anyone does, ever. People will always complain.
While you are whining and complaining about complainers.
Not really, but nice try kiddo.
-
@urbanphilosophy_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@fubar2k7_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@urbanphilosophy_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@fubar2k7_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@chuckuluck_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Stubs are a buy that won’t get no love from me.
Seriously, what has happened that I am no longer just naturally accumulating stubs this year? At least last year if you would just grind BR or most other modes, you’d get multiple sellable silver or gold cards that would go for quite a bit and accumulate lots of stubs. This year my stub total seems to be crawling.
Needless to say, if the strategy is to get us to buy more stubs, I ain’t doing it!
I’d never defend a company for over reliance on microtransactions but they are getting shafted over at Microsoft. They just give the game away for free. They gotta make up that lost revenue somewhere.
Gave the game away? Game pass is a subscription. Xbox users pay monthly for the service to ‘rent’ the game. It is not nor has it ever been free. Additionally microsoft pays the developer a lump sum of money up front for the license to put it on game pass. If they were losing money on the deal they wouldn’t have made the deal multiple years in a row. Even Phil Spencer has mentioned multiple times now that he was actually shocked by the amount of people that end up buying game pass games once they leave the rotation. Again game pass does not nor has it ever given away any games for free
If you think the lump sum they paid equals the amount they can get per copy at $100 per game then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you. From what I understand they pay $2.5 million to developers which is 25,000 copies of their $100 version or slightly less than 36,000 of their $70 version.
Interesting that you know what Microsoft is paying , since that information has never been disclosed to the public. Again game pass is a subscription service , players are leasing the rights to the game. Players are leasing these rights even if they have never downloaded the game. Also just an fyi , the upper tier higher priced versions of these games are sold far less than the regular variants. The only number that has ever been discussed is that Microsoft paid out over 2.5 BILLION dollars to developers. Again BILLION. That works out to 850k per game , assuming all games ever listed in game pass are 100% equal which we all know isn’t.
Spencer hasn’t given specifics but they at one point did say some developers get a lump sum , sales and usage payments. I imagine those deals are reserved for AAA titles that come to game pass. Since you’d like to use speculation to support your completely off base assessment of free vs leasing I’ll go ahead and speculate too and just say that SDS is one of those developers
I just knew that’s what they paid for Ark Survivor Evolved which is about 16 million times more popular than MLB The Show. I threw them a bone that they’d pay them the same amount of money.
-
@fubar2k7_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@urbanphilosophy_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@fubar2k7_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@urbanphilosophy_XBL said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@fubar2k7_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
@chuckuluck_PSN said in I don’t want no stubs…:
Stubs are a buy that won’t get no love from me.
Seriously, what has happened that I am no longer just naturally accumulating stubs this year? At least last year if you would just grind BR or most other modes, you’d get multiple sellable silver or gold cards that would go for quite a bit and accumulate lots of stubs. This year my stub total seems to be crawling.
Needless to say, if the strategy is to get us to buy more stubs, I ain’t doing it!
I’d never defend a company for over reliance on microtransactions but they are getting shafted over at Microsoft. They just give the game away for free. They gotta make up that lost revenue somewhere.
Gave the game away? Game pass is a subscription. Xbox users pay monthly for the service to ‘rent’ the game. It is not nor has it ever been free. Additionally microsoft pays the developer a lump sum of money up front for the license to put it on game pass. If they were losing money on the deal they wouldn’t have made the deal multiple years in a row. Even Phil Spencer has mentioned multiple times now that he was actually shocked by the amount of people that end up buying game pass games once they leave the rotation. Again game pass does not nor has it ever given away any games for free
If you think the lump sum they paid equals the amount they can get per copy at $100 per game then I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you. From what I understand they pay $2.5 million to developers which is 25,000 copies of their $100 version or slightly less than 36,000 of their $70 version.
Interesting that you know what Microsoft is paying , since that information has never been disclosed to the public. Again game pass is a subscription service , players are leasing the rights to the game. Players are leasing these rights even if they have never downloaded the game. Also just an fyi , the upper tier higher priced versions of these games are sold far less than the regular variants. The only number that has ever been discussed is that Microsoft paid out over 2.5 BILLION dollars to developers. Again BILLION. That works out to 850k per game , assuming all games ever listed in game pass are 100% equal which we all know isn’t.
Spencer hasn’t given specifics but they at one point did say some developers get a lump sum , sales and usage payments. I imagine those deals are reserved for AAA titles that come to game pass. Since you’d like to use speculation to support your completely off base assessment of free vs leasing I’ll go ahead and speculate too and just say that SDS is one of those developers
I threw them a bone that they’d pay them the same amount of money.
The logic is very sound. I would say those are safe bets indeed.
-
I think the big issue is they over corrected a problem rather than making incremental changes. Season 1 Ranked Season was a joke. World series rewards shouldn't be 30k. BR rewards however maintained decent value but rather than making them non sellable, they could've made the program a little harder but it takes an investment to get there from the entry fee. However, making them non sellable just ends up with me actually losing stubs or breaking even for the majority of the program, and unlike ranked season the great players are still well rewarded with 90+ live series cards on the regular.
I just responded by not playing BR this season. Easy enough. I've definitely lost interest faster this year though. The seasons are too long even with the nice addition of the repeatable awards.
