[SC] UK Price increase

The 12% price increase for UK players will kill the game on the UK severs and most likely on Global Europe severs, using BREXIT as a means to bump up prices is a poor excuse for such a high increase and using the Apple example of a 25% increase to justify an increase of 12% is just political pugwash.

Although the UK public voted to leave the EU article 50 cannot be activated until an act of parliament as been passed and this at the moment is in doubt and if such a bill should be passed it would take 2 years for the UK to leave the EU so the BREXIT excuse hold no merit to increase prices.

The fact that the game as been going down hill for a number of years now with many dissatisfied customers the price increase will be the straw that broke the camels back.

 

Don't buy, play free... Say it with me now... Don't buy, play free...

 

lol just watch gb1 and gb2 go downhill now , maps are empty just now its only going to get worse ..

 

What was the point of this price increase? So that they will keep earning the same amount of €? Well that aint happening, after my premium/rebrate runs out, I aint buying [removed]. Not sure if I should quit or move to the laggy ge1 server and ditch my ufe on gb1.
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This bit had me laughing, have they EVER listened to any of our ideas? I think the only idea that they have ever implemented was the credit hellstorms, but other than that they have never listened. Just some more [removed] to try to get us to pay up. I'm not that gullible -.-

 

Its called economy bro, it isn't an excuse it's just business. Ever since Brexit the pound has dropped in value,

Darkorbit and Apple aren't the only companies doing this, prices for almost everything in the UK are inevitably going to rise because of Brexit(pretty sure it already has). While article 50 or whatever hasn't been invoked yet to officially leave the EU, the pound was still effected in the aftermath of the vote.

Sorry bro but that's just how it works, I'd suggest you stop spending money online and start saving anyways because once you officially leave the EU, its going to be rough times for the British pound.

 

If it really is just to cover the falling value of the pound then I'm sure DO won't have any problem reducing the prices when the pound comes rallying back down the line. But then again we all know they won't do this, just seems to me like a blatant cash grab. The amount of paying players is most likely decreasing, however those who still spend are the hardcore few who have invested so much so far that they can't stop.

But who am I to complain, my spending in 2017 will be £0, so have fun adding 12% onto that.

 

Sure you can say "Its called economy bro" but... it means crap if they actually lose money overall by increasing prices, you can only get away with increasing prices if people still buy it lol. And sorry to say but Uri was already rediculously priced and most of the time you can only get away with increasing prices if it was not already rediculously priced, It's just common sense.

What kind of a business even makes decisions to make less money, just so they can say "oh yay we are getting same amount as before at the exchange rate" at the expense of overall getting less money than if they had just left prices alone? Or are the people making this decision just way out of touch with how expensive uri already is?


Either way I want to know what actions BP will take if they start to get way less money off this decision and people start to stop playing. Cause even if some people can put up with the price increase, whats the point if there is no one left on the server or barely any? It's not like the population of the GB servers aren't already not that bustling with people...

Edit: Also to now make clear you have lost £240 that I would of spent on the helix if you weren't making this stupid decision. Though in reality you have also lost up to another £800 from me that I would of ended up spending to chase rank... Well done BP you know how to make money.

 

It's ALL just Baloney....!! blaming brexit, that's laughable as is comparing oneselves to apple!! for one apple gain popularity, and new customers, unlike Dark Orbit! so to get this right, you're going to put prices up and something that is virtual, it costs (i can imagine) no more physical monies for you to issue uridium and either price, whether it be the higher price and the lower. i myself have given 8 years in to this game along with quite abit of cash... have seen the recent hike in price for premium, i no longer purchase this... as someone else said, enjoy adding 12% of my 2017 spend which will be zero!!
i guess we will see an even more emptier maps and universe of dark orbit?!? such a shame, well done for killing your own game!! :/

 

What a good way to stop people from botting, increase uri for something that hasnt even happened lmao

 

Since Trump has got into power the dollor has also dropped, will the Americans also see a price hike?

 

Noob you don't event have general. lel

 

Hi All

Although you are correct in saying that Article 50 has yet to be triggered and it may seem like an excuse to blame Brexit for any price changes the Pound has suffered on the global financial markets since the referendum. Politics aside, the current uncertainty has impacted the UK financial markets which in turn has put pressures on many international and national businesses.

Minor fluctuations are generally swallowed by businesses but continued devaluation has to be accounted for and with the value of Sterling dropping on the international markets companies will act accordingly.

As you will have read in the news over the past few months many companies have had to adjust prices due to the economic effects. Although Apple was used as an example in the official announcement its by no means the only company to have to adjust prices post June 2016. Unilever have increased prices, the cost per barrel of oil (using Brent Crude Oil data) has increased to the UK based on the Pounds current strength, this in itself increases fuel costs (which has a knock on effect to any item delivered in the UK, so all shop items) and increases the cost of production of plastics in the UK and, of course, heating.
Within the manufacturing and building sectors, regulatory bodies are reporting increase in costs of between 22% and 78%.


As you can see in the attached graphics below, the Pound has taken a beating on the major money markets since mid June last year.

£ vs €



£ vs $ (US)



£ vs YEN



Such decisions are never easy for a company to take and the financial team will have looked at every option.

 

@ Solideye: thanks for the infraction I appreciate that

@ Ghost:

What you said is completely correct- Brexit is not the cause of price changes, it's the value of the pound vs the euro so a year ago 1gbp=1.35eur, so 1mill uri costs 70gbp=95eur. Now BP receives 70gbp=85eur(at a stretch) so 85*1.12=95.2eur. This is their reasoning- that they want to charge us in euros.
So we can conclude up to this point that the ONLY reason why they are planning a 12% hike in prices is to keep constant revenue. However there is an important detail that you have NOT included in your calculations or in your post. P.E.D

Apologies in advance- I don't mean to teach anyone basic economics, but since you didn't include this in your post, I will

In fact there is an important difference between all the products that you mentioned and DO. Apple, Unilever, and especially crude oil are all examples of inelastic goods. Apple has a strong brand name so any changes in price are unlikely to affect the quantity demanded of the product. In fact this is straight out of my economics notes:

The same goes for Unilever- Take a look at a list of Unilever brands. People are unlikely to stop buying PG-tips because the price increased by 20%. Don't even get me started on the price of crude oil- I don't think you will find any examples of any other products which are more price inelastic than oil (this is often said to be perfectly inelastic, if the price of oil doubled overnight most people would continue paying the higher price because there are no other alternatives!)
Now let's take a look at darkorbit. It's a game- it's a luxury good, people can generally do without it (as long as they aren't addicted- then it may become an inelastic good)!
I might be wrong in this judgement- it might be that there are so many people addicted to this game that they can't stop buying it- but I believe that it is a luxury good (e.g price elastic).

If you increase the price of a luxury good you will see a fall in revenue. So I believe this change isn't so much as to accommodate for a change in the pound vs euro, I think it's a personal attack on all british people, a kick in the teeth for those 'to punish the british people who voted for brexit'. I'm sorry but it makes no economic sense to me so this is the only conclusion I can come to. The germans being 'angry' at the british for voting for brexit.

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I kept my post clean this time so don't infract me again <3

 

@GhostOfJupiter

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

Bigpoint do not own any assets in the UK nor do they export/import any tangible goods to and from the UK. The effect on bigpoint is solely the effect of the depreciated pound and therefore you cannot compare bigpoint with companies who do.

A logical and calculated risk assessment would show you that increasing prices would not increase revenue - what you gain in higher prices, you lose more in loss of customers.

Furthermore, with all the uncertainty surrounding Brexit we could argue the amount of disposable income we have has reduced and therefore we are less likely to use this on premiums such as a 2D space game. If prices are not to reflect this then why does Venezuela have such a cheap pricing structure on Darkorbit?

On a final note, @GhostOfJupiter, do not forget that, while you are the medium between which players can communicate to Bigpoint, your responsibility is to represent the community itself. I have spoke at lengths about this with Jörg when I visited Bigpoint. That is to say that if the community feel strongly against this price increase then it should be within your best interests to ensure that this is communicated directly to the Bigpoint team. To post on this thread and justify the actions of Bigpoint is fundamentally wrong.

I am not saying you are not entitled to an opinion. I am saying that that opinion should not be made from your moderator account.

 

Hi,

I am going to close this post off (at least temproarily for now) with the following...

What my colleague said about the pound has no relevance whatsoever to any investments outside Germany and has every relevance to the exchange rate between Sterling and the Euro.

However, this is, at this moment, speculation and we will pass on the concerns of the community to Bigpoint in Hamburg and ask for their feedback on the matter. Should we get such feedback, we will, of course pass it along as required.

In the meantime, should you like to join the team and help the community/support feedback process then please do apply to be a moderator.

Regards

NM