Path of Exile

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Zaphid

Trakanon Raider
5,862
294
Kinda confused by this decision. Bestiary wasn't the best league, but the amount of content GGG has been developing is quite outstanding. What does this influx of cash allow? Most people can't consume content faster than they are already putting it out. And those that can, they are the small minority and likely already buy lots of MTX, so you already have those players' money.

I wonder if loss of supporter pack revenue was considered in the purchase.
I assume this has been in the works for 6+ months. Chris has been keeping the financial situation close to the chest and they are obviously growing, but it always felt like they need to keep pushing content out or people would just stop playing and buying MTX. There's no stable revenue, they are doing only as good as their latest league and they have no spinoff or other product. Eventually you have to wonder how long can PoE keep growing, Bestiary was their first dip in years at as far as steamcharts and so can be trusted. This gives them an opportunity to do something a bit riskier than just another league/expansion/mtx/platform like a new game or something. IIRC Tencent generally doesn't fuck with companies outside China, DE, of Warframe fame are also under their umbrella and seem unaffected. If that holds up once they stop growing is another question, but hey after 11 years Chris has every right to cash out.
 

Derkon

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,513
1,269
Well from what I understand they haven't really fucked around with League much, guess we'll just have to see.

Edit: 80% of shares owned by Tencent, uhh guess I don't have to buy supporter packs after all lol.
 
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Vorph

Silver Baronet of the Realm
11,498
5,250
I've always seen supporter packs as a donation rather than a purchase, because the amount of value you get per dollar when buying MTX is by far the worst of any game I've played. Marvel Heroes was widely considered absurdly overpriced for their cosmetics during that game's lifetime, and PoE is like 3-4x the cost for similar things. I bought packs anyway even though it always kind of annoyed me and I would likely have spent a lot more in total had the individual items been more reasonable, but if Tencent now owns 80% there's no way in hell I'm ever buying anything again.
 
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Kiroy

Marine Biologist
<Bronze Donator>
35,325
102,364
I'm sure in the short term we'll see zero changes but i'm not super happy with this, mainly because I really liked the idea of my supporting going 100% to an indie making big things happen, now part of it is going to one of the biggest gaming companies in the world, the same company that's creating china's citizen rating system.

Not super pumped about sending american cash their way. I'll of course still enjoy POE but my threshold for an mtx purchase just got a lot higher.

I've always seen supporter packs as a donation rather than a purchase, because the amount of value you get per dollar when buying MTX is by far the worst of any game I've played. Marvel Heroes was widely considered absurdly overpriced for their cosmetics during that game's lifetime, and PoE is like 3-4x the cost for similar things. I bought packs anyway even though it always kind of annoyed me and I would likely have spent a lot more in total had the individual items been more reasonable, but if Tencent now owns 80% there's no way in hell I'm ever buying anything again.

Ya exactly, I didn't mind 60-100 bucks a season cause I was supporting an indie putting out insane content every quarter, now i'd feel a little dirty dropping 60 on that meh quality supporter pack.
 

Deathwing

<Bronze Donator>
16,744
7,767
I assume this has been in the works for 6+ months. Chris has been keeping the financial situation close to the chest and they are obviously growing, but it always felt like they need to keep pushing content out or people would just stop playing and buying MTX. There's no stable revenue, they are doing only as good as their latest league and they have no spinoff or other product. Eventually you have to wonder how long can PoE keep growing, Bestiary was their first dip in years at as far as steamcharts and so can be trusted. This gives them an opportunity to do something a bit riskier than just another league/expansion/mtx/platform like a new game or something. IIRC Tencent generally doesn't fuck with companies outside China, DE, of Warframe fame are also under their umbrella and seem unaffected. If that holds up once they stop growing is another question, but hey after 11 years Chris has every right to cash out.
How does this lessen the need to produce? Tencent is going to want a ROI.

I'm genuinely curious how many people are going to forgo buying supporter packs in the short term until this shakes out. Seems nearly unanimous here.
 

Korrupt

Blackwing Lair Raider
4,832
1,228
I feel the same way for now, i was supporting a dev team before that needed the money. Now its the 7th largest company in the world that owns this game, do they need our support?
 

Zaphid

Trakanon Raider
5,862
294
How does this lessen the need to produce? Tencent is going to want a ROI.

I'm genuinely curious how many people are going to forgo buying supporter packs in the short term until this shakes out. Seems nearly unanimous here.
A bad release could mean layoffs for GGG or even worse if they cock it up and they have been always aiming higher, Bestiary has been still quite functional. IIRC that was a big fear when they released Atlas, that fucking with the endgame could spell doom for player retention. I don't know how many actually care beyond the obviously hardcore. Seems like we will find out after the league launch
 

Derkon

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,513
1,269
Heck this even goes beyond supporter packs which were good value. The MTX stuff is expensive in general and before I justified it as giving money to an underdog/indie thing, now I don't know why I"d bother at those prices as they have money now.
 
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Balroc

Molten Core Raider
1,064
229
Even for an indie company, I always thought the MTX pricing was abusive as hell. 35$ for a pair of tentacle wings? Never. I bought supporter packs because I'm a sucker for limited edition items. I don't know how I feel yet about buying future supporter packs. If this acquisition means better quality content and leagues not being released in half-broken states then I am all for it. If it means nothing then like someone said above, my standards for giving them money is going way up.
 
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LiquidDeath

Magnus Deadlift the Fucktiger
5,046
11,920
The only MTX I ever bought was stash tabs, as those things are basically required for any kind of normal playing.

The only reason I was okay with spending the equivalent of 5 dollars for a single fucking tab was because it was directly supporting the game and its developers.

This is shit that should be in the base game like currency, fragment, divination, essence, and map tabs. I won't be making any similar purchases to pad the wallets of a huge company, especially in the short term.
 
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Malinatar

Lord Nagafen Raider
629
237
I'm genuinely curious how many people are going to forgo buying supporter packs in the short term until this shakes out. Seems nearly unanimous here.

Yep. I never really buy any "supporter" pack across any game, but GGG put out so much content that it was pretty easily justified for me. Honestly, I'm not disappointed or angry as it's just business, but with this new cash infusion, they better put out some damn near AAA quality shit, or at the very least start to make the game as "responsive and fluid" as D3.
 
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Cabales

Trakanon Raider
172
98
I've also only purchased stash tabs, but I was OK with it because I've spent a grand total of $60 on the game over the years and put in over 500 hours. It was totally reasonable to give them $60. I don't think the tencent acquisition changes anything for me yet. I'll wait and see how it shakes out though.
 

Kiroy

Marine Biologist
<Bronze Donator>
35,325
102,364
How does this lessen the need to produce? Tencent is going to want a ROI.

I'm genuinely curious how many people are going to forgo buying supporter packs in the short term until this shakes out. Seems nearly unanimous here.

probably won't really matter, the chinese market is going to be nutso and probably give them all the return they want.... although they already had a deal in china so maybe that deal got a lot better for tencent? I don't know, the fact they are majority shareholder means that anything said from that point on means fuck all, because on a whim everything can change, and i'd guess POE is one of tancent's smaller IPs so less fucks would be given by the muckety mucks, which is why I think comparisons of them not messing with lol are a bit dubious.
 

Kiroy

Marine Biologist
<Bronze Donator>
35,325
102,364
Even for an indie company, I always thought the MTX pricing was abusive as hell. 35$ for a pair of tentacle wings? Never. I bought supporter packs because I'm a sucker for limited edition items. I don't know how I feel yet about buying future supporter packs. If this acquisition means better quality content and leagues not being released in half-broken states then I am all for it. If it means nothing then like someone said above, my standards for giving them money is going way up.

I don't get how the price of something not needed to play, strait mtx, is abusive. You didn't buy it cause they were too much, were you abused? If I decided to buy em cause fuck 35 bucks was I abused?

If stash tabs were like 30 bucks for one tab, that would be abusive, but for the price of most indie games you could get all the tabs you need (especially if you wait for a sale).
 

Pyros

<Silver Donator>
11,221
2,367
I get what he's saying, the cosmetics price are really stupid in PoE compared to some other games. They're kinda like Black Desert shit, but at least they don't give stats and stuff(and I know you can buy shitty ones/buy them ingame with the help of RNG AH nonsense).

On the other hand I never cared about it because I never specifically tried to buy cosmetics, unless I had points on my account that I didn't need from buying a pack to support the game.
 

Penance

Silver Baronet of the Realm
6,462
8,404
On the Tencent thing. They bought league and nothing changed with that for the worse. In fact I'd say the influx in money helped them update their framework and UI (they use to have their shit on Adobe Air...) and I believe the price model stayed the same for all their MTX. So far Tencent has a decent track record for this sort of shit... that I know of.

EDIT: Also I remember when this game first came out I was bitching about the price point of the MTX and got shut down by this board... rightfully. Exclusivity through fashion is probably one of the best price models games have added and I prefer it over the nickel and diming we see in so many other games.
 

Pasteton

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,741
1,935
This could be better for us. Tencent will squeeze the chinamen for every penny (there’s already an item in China that resurrects you in hardcore that costs cash) and profit, so they might be incentivized to keep pumping money into the game if it remains profitable in China. Then we could get the benefits of the extra dev bucks but without any change to our monetization scheme (hopefully).
My concern is if future content gets weebified as far as art and design, since that would clash pretty bad with poe’s Current loook