Blizzard just found the perfect mixture for revenew; while monthly subscriptions provide a solid basis for game income, micropayments don't have the problem of being limited to a certain amount each month, so powerusers can spend as much as they want, and companies make sure players will want to spend it. See Perfect World for a great example of macro-payments.
Blizzard decided to go with both. Clever, huh?
Isn't it fantastic?
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Blizzard decided to go with both. Clever, huh?
Now it's possible to buy vanity pets directly for real money, pets you cannot obtain by just playing the game. Of course, those pets do nothing by themselves, apart for the bragging, but they are needed for certain achievements. That's enough for many players, anyway.
It wouldn't be so bad if the pets were cheap, but it's not the case: $10 for the US version; the UK version is the funniest scenario, though, and the pets are sold for £9 (about $15). Being more expensive than the US counterpart is nothing unusual, but the monthly subscription fee is just £8.99. So, in this particular case, any pet is worth more than one month of gameplay.
Isn't it fantastic?
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