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EVE New Citizens Q&A

 
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How do CCP make money?
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Brutus Otsito
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#1 - 2013-07-25 11:01:28 UTC
Now if I understand correctly, EVE can be played completely free if you make more than 550 million isk a month. Is that a large proportion of EVE's playerbase? How do CCP make money if people can play completely free?
William Walker
Dark Venture Corporation
Kitchen Sinkhole
#2 - 2013-07-25 11:04:52 UTC
Nothing is free. The PLEX people buy with ingame ISK (InterStellar Kredits (not Icelandic Kroner, contrary to popular belief)) are bought with real money outside of the game.

-> CCP sells PLEX for mon€¥$
-> EVE player sells PLEX ingame on the, mostly, player driven market for ISK
-> another EVE player buys it with ISK.

Game time is extended, EVE player #1 gets his ISK, EVE player #2 gets his game time and CCP get their cash mon€¥$.

ヽ(⌒∇⌒)ﾉ へ(゜∇、°)へ (◕‿◕✿)
Lors Dornick
Kallisti Industries
#3 - 2013-07-25 11:06:26 UTC
Brutus Otsito wrote:
Now if I understand correctly, EVE can be played completely free if you make more than 550 million isk a month. Is that a large proportion of EVE's playerbase? How do CCP make money if people can play completely free?


Each PLEX (the item you have to buy to play for "free") is paid for by another player.

There's quite a lot of people who prefers paying a bit extra and not having to bother about grinding for isk in game.

CCP Greyscale: As to starbases, we agree it's pretty terrible, but we don't want to delay the entire release just for this one factor.
Brutus Otsito
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#4 - 2013-07-25 11:09:32 UTC
Oh, I just thought people just paid direclty in isk. So PLEX cannot be crafted or anything?
Nayo Renyk
Armored Corps
#5 - 2013-07-25 11:19:19 UTC
No they can't.
It should also be noted that if you look at prices CCP actually makes more off plex sales as they cost more than a months subscription.
William Walker
Dark Venture Corporation
Kitchen Sinkhole
#6 - 2013-07-25 11:26:08 UTC
Brutus Otsito wrote:
Oh, I just thought people just paid direclty in isk. So PLEX cannot be crafted or anything?


I wish. No, they are bought as the previous poster mentioned.

1 PLEX = €19,95
2 PLEX = €34,99
6 PLEX = €104,97
12 PLEX = €209,94
28 PLEX = €489,86

1 Month subscription = €14,95 total
3 Month sub. = €38,85
6 Month sub. = €71,70
12 Month sub. = €131,40

As you can see, subscribing is actually...cheaper. 1 PLEX = 30 days.

ヽ(⌒∇⌒)ﾉ へ(゜∇、°)へ (◕‿◕✿)
Paul Otichoda
Perkone
Caldari State
#7 - 2013-07-25 11:28:21 UTC
Brutus Otsito wrote:
Oh, I just thought people just paid direclty in isk. So PLEX cannot be crafted or anything?


not unless you can hack the CCP systems, the actual game, player accounts, the plex shop, any other checking systems and avoid detection. But if you can do all that why are you so worried about 10 of local currency.
Dasola
New Edens Freeports
#8 - 2013-07-25 12:32:05 UTC
Brutus Otsito wrote:
Now if I understand correctly, EVE can be played completely free if you make more than 550 million isk a month. Is that a large proportion of EVE's playerbase? How do CCP make money if people can play completely free?


Every PLEX you buy from market, is put there by originally by another player who at some point bought it from CCP paying real world currency of it.

And not all people grind isk for PLEX´s every month. Im sure i could grind isk to play my 4 accounts for free, but i rather try have fun and pay by cash instead. I buy 2 GTC monthly.

It would start to feel too much like second job if i would every month need to gain that 2+ bil isk to play for free.

We are Minmatar, Our ship are made of scraps, but look what our scraps can do...
Tsukino Stareine
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#9 - 2013-07-25 13:12:51 UTC
Many people who play EVE are adults with solid jobs and 20 euros a month is less than the beer money they use in a week.

Art of Explosions
Trudeaux Margaret
University of Caille
#10 - 2013-07-25 14:27:13 UTC
There's also the other little perks they sell out-of-game: aurum for the stuff sold in the NeX stores, etc. Plenty of people are willing to drop good real-world money to buy their characters things like goggles, the monocle, a sexy fitted black skirt or whatever.

> anyone willing to give me like a 5 min politics crash course?

> grr goons, lowsec is full of elitist sh*s, all roads lead to the bittervet pl
darmwand
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#11 - 2013-07-25 15:04:34 UTC
Trudeaux Margaret wrote:
There's also the other little perks they sell out-of-game: aurum for the stuff sold in the NeX stores, etc. Plenty of people are willing to drop good real-world money to buy their characters things like goggles, the monocle, a sexy fitted black skirt or whatever.


Still no hats though.

Also, there's the strangely underwhelming EVE store. Seeing how they don't add more items to it I assume they are already making enough money...

"The pen is mightier than the sword if the sword is very short, and the pen is very sharp."
Ichi Takiwa
Perkone
Caldari State
#12 - 2013-07-25 17:07:13 UTC
Seems to me like it's all a Ponzi scheme. EVE feeds on new players that pay to win by buying PLEX. I'm about to hit my re-sub date in a week or two, and when I was looking at the pay options, PLEX was the most expensive. No thanks, I'll do the 3 month plan.
Steve Ronuken
Fuzzwork Enterprises
Vote Steve Ronuken for CSM
#13 - 2013-07-25 17:17:15 UTC
Ichi Takiwa wrote:
Seems to me like it's all a Ponzi scheme. EVE feeds on new players that pay to win by buying PLEX. I'm about to hit my re-sub date in a week or two, and when I was looking at the pay options, PLEX was the most expensive. No thanks, I'll do the 3 month plan.



Not pay to win.

Pay to not have to grind out your isk.

All your skills are still low (unless you buy a character).

And it's all gone quickly. It's not like a plex is particularly expensive. For some people, the price is worth not having to go and do PvE

Woo! CSM XI!

Fuzzwork Enterprises

Twitter: @fuzzysteve on Twitter
Ichi Takiwa
Perkone
Caldari State
#14 - 2013-07-25 17:24:34 UTC
Steve Ronuken wrote:
Ichi Takiwa wrote:
Seems to me like it's all a Ponzi scheme. EVE feeds on new players that pay to win by buying PLEX. I'm about to hit my re-sub date in a week or two, and when I was looking at the pay options, PLEX was the most expensive. No thanks, I'll do the 3 month plan.



Not pay to win.

Pay to not have to grind out your isk.

All your skills are still low (unless you buy a character).

And it's all gone quickly. It's not like a plex is particularly expensive. For some people, the price is worth not having to go and do PvE


I think you just hit the nail on the head regarding the OP's question.
Kyseth
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#15 - 2013-07-25 17:28:24 UTC
Tsukino Stareine wrote:
Many people who play EVE are adults with solid jobs and 20 euros a month is less than the beer money they use in a week.


/slightly off topic

This is a fun conversation to have with people who don't do/get gaming. If a person can go drop $20 on a pack of beer and relax and have a good time with friends, why is that any different than dropping $20 on a game subscription where you can relax and have a good time with friends?

Show me where you can get beer for a month for $20. At least I'm getting my money's worth.
Steve Ronuken
Fuzzwork Enterprises
Vote Steve Ronuken for CSM
#16 - 2013-07-25 17:32:20 UTC
Kyseth wrote:
Tsukino Stareine wrote:
Many people who play EVE are adults with solid jobs and 20 euros a month is less than the beer money they use in a week.


/slightly off topic

This is a fun conversation to have with people who don't do/get gaming. If a person can go drop $20 on a pack of beer and relax and have a good time with friends, why is that any different than dropping $20 on a game subscription where you can relax and have a good time with friends?

Show me where you can get beer for a month for $20. At least I'm getting my money's worth.



Or go see a film for a couple of hours.

Woo! CSM XI!

Fuzzwork Enterprises

Twitter: @fuzzysteve on Twitter
Jonah Gravenstein
Machiavellian Space Bastards
#17 - 2013-07-25 17:34:02 UTC  |  Edited by: Jonah Gravenstein
Plex was put in place to give CCP some control over the usual RMT that goes on in any MMO. This way they get the money not some gold-farmer in downtown Wherethefukami. As pointed out above a sub is cheaper than a Plex in real life terms, but I can knock out enough Isk in a week to buy a Plex on the market if I want to, I usually sub and use the Isk I do make for more fun things, unless I'm feeling space rich.

It's not pay to win, it's pay so you don't have to worry about where that next T3 you just whelped is coming from

In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.

New Player FAQ

Feyd's Survival Pack
Ichi Takiwa
Perkone
Caldari State
#18 - 2013-07-25 17:42:01 UTC
Maybe pay to win was the wrong term. I'm not judging. But the basic mechanic seems to be that the most expensive game time option seem to be the most popular with folks who want to focus on PvP, which coincidentaly is also the biggest drain on the ISK purchased with that PLEX.

CCP made this amazing game possible, and if they were also clever enough to take the wind out of the ISK farmers' sails then more power to them. It's just not an option I'm interested in.
Jonah Gravenstein
Machiavellian Space Bastards
#19 - 2013-07-25 17:52:57 UTC  |  Edited by: Jonah Gravenstein
Ichi Takiwa wrote:
Maybe pay to win was the wrong term. I'm not judging. But the basic mechanic seems to be that the most expensive game time option seem to be the most popular with folks who want to focus on PvP, which coincidentaly is also the biggest drain on the ISK purchased with that PLEX.

CCP made this amazing game possible, and if they were also clever enough to take the wind out of the ISK farmers' sails then more power to them. It's just not an option I'm interested in.

lol you'll find people get very tetchy if you mention RMT, pay to win or free to play on the forums, dirty, horrible expletives P

As you say, Plex is an option, some people use Isk to purchase them to pay for game time, others buy them for cash and sell them for Isk, to the former, to feed their PvP habits or purchase that billion Isk pirate battleship.

The system works, CCP make more money, people can pay for game time with Isk, people can exchange real life cash for Isk, or Aurum if they want, and it's all above board. Everybody who touches Plex wins, unless they undock with it in cargo, in which case they deserve everything they get Pirate

In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.

New Player FAQ

Feyd's Survival Pack
Inxentas Ultramar
Ultramar Independent Contracting
#20 - 2013-07-26 10:56:58 UTC  |  Edited by: Inxentas Ultramar
Since I work 40hrs a week I don't feel like grinding when I finally log into Eve, I'm on the annual plan and happy to pay for my subscription. After all, the IRL cost of playing Eve Online on a single account is as expensive as a subscription to the Donald Duck...

As a 31 year old programmer I am exactly one wife away from having an actual life, but the way it is now I have no financial obligations apart from rent and whatever the state can shake out of my pockets. My time however, is too valuable to grind ISK for PLEX.

All the ISK I make ingame can freely be spent, it's very liberating not having to worry about bumping my subscription. I'm more then happy to pay for my account and not having to grind out 500m every month.
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