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Plex BuyBack Program?
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Old Pervert
Perkone
Caldari State
#1 - 2016-04-06 15:13:29 UTC
Curious to see what people think would happen if CCP were to offer to buy back plex for about 80% of the average sale price, in cash.

I have to imagine it would drive up the cost of a plex on the market, but that would fuel more plex purchases. More plex purchases would mean more money for CCP, which would mean more content for us! (in an ideal world...). There'd still be people plexing their accounts, so there'd still be a demand for them in their original usage.

Not saying it would or could ever happen (it would be a logistical nightmare), but it was a shower thoughts moment.
Xtreem
Knockaround Guys Inc.
#2 - 2016-04-06 15:28:55 UTC
So, you want a CCP sanctioned RMT, in short?
Aaron Honk
Distributed Denial of Service
#3 - 2016-04-06 15:37:18 UTC  |  Edited by: Aaron Honk
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Old Pervert
Perkone
Caldari State
#4 - 2016-04-06 15:56:00 UTC
"Want" is a strong word - like I said, shower thought. I know it'd never be possible, even if only for regional legal constraints being very different around the world. I'm Canadian, and I'm pretty sure that it would probably warrant legal scrutiny regarding money laundering laws here.

And no, I don't mean RMT or real money auctions.

The item is limited to plex. You wouldn't be able to go and buy/sell a titan, for example. You couldn't trade money to other players either. At least, not directly.

You could, however, buy a plex on the market, and have one additional option: sell it back to CCP for a set amount of money (less than they sold it for, so that they make money regardless).
Herman Menderchuck
AscendoTech Research and Development
#5 - 2016-04-06 16:46:56 UTC
Old Pervert wrote:

You could, however, buy a plex on the market, and have one additional option: sell it back to CCP for a set amount of money (less than they sold it for, so that they make money regardless).


Not sure this would be in CCP's best interest.

Think of it this way, when someone buys a PLEX for $20, CCP will ALWAYS have that $20 no matter what happens to that PLEX in game.

If they implement a buy back program, even if it were 75% of its original value, the following would apply:

- CCP would always have to keep the equivalent of 75% of all money generated from PLEX purchases (or all PLEXs that exist in game) just in case in some rare instance everyone decides to cash out at once.

- If people start cashing out, CCP would have to sell MORE PLEX to generate the same amount of income they do now. My math is terrible, but they would have to sell something like 4 PLEX to guarantee they make $20, instead of 1 PLEX currently.
Demolishar
United Aggression
#6 - 2016-04-06 17:21:45 UTC
PLEX price would go to tens or possibly hundreds of billions immediately. It would completely destabilise the economy.
Caleb Ayrania
TarNec
Invisible Exchequer
#7 - 2016-04-06 21:55:50 UTC
Crap idea.. they should just stock their shop with more plex based payments, including real and semi real products, like pdfs of resource books, printed artwork, etc etc..

No cash should be involved it draws the sweatshoppers, the scammers, and criminals like **** draws flies.
Sabriz Adoudel
Move along there is nothing here
#8 - 2016-04-06 23:26:47 UTC
First thing you would see would be a dramatic increase in the interest in EVE from for-profit account hackers.

If you hack an account now and steal 40 billion ISK, you still need to RMT that ISK away. Add in a PLEX buyback and this step goes away, meaning you will see a massive amount of script kiddies targetting EVE.

Second thing would be a dramatic increase in the amount of botting.

I support the New Order and CODE. alliance. www.minerbumping.com
Black Pedro
Mine.
#9 - 2016-04-07 04:54:51 UTC
More practically it will almost certainly never happen because of real-life banking laws. CCP would effectively be operating as a bank or maybe online casino, and would become subject to so much red tape and reporting rules, it would dwarf the resources of a moderate sized game developer.

But I see no upside at all. Right now CCP gets to keep all the money. Sure, the could increase their profit on outsiders looking to transfer/hide/launder money, but from the actual players they would just be losing money as any buy back is less than the 100% they keep now. PLEX price would skyrocket causing a another round of players leaving the game, and the remainder would become more risk-averse than they are now. It's one thing to risk worthless space pixels in a sandbox game in the pursuit of fun, but quite another to risk real money is what is essentially an unfair casino. I am not sure anyone would play in those terms for very long.

The 8 Golden Rules of Eve

Why Do They Gank?
Tau Cabalander
Retirement Retreat
Working Stiffs
#10 - 2016-04-07 20:03:41 UTC  |  Edited by: Tau Cabalander
I'm sure CCP's bank(s) would love the idea, as PLEX are a debt (interest free loan until activated).

However, CCP would have 20% less PLEX capital.
Zahara Cody
Imperial Corrections Service.
#11 - 2016-04-08 00:04:10 UTC
Or CCP could buy the plex back with isk...

Hating is free, that's why poor people do it the best.
Lord Ra
Sicarius.
#12 - 2016-04-08 08:32:39 UTC
On the chineese server plex are 7bil a pop last i checked couple month back, they are the future!.

Buy now cry later!



AttentionSay no to 7 day auctionsAttention
Professor Humbert
Project Fruit House
#13 - 2016-04-08 09:40:57 UTC
Would be funny to see a record of cash being spent on game items as a cost in their accounting book
March rabbit
Aliastra
Gallente Federation
#14 - 2016-04-08 10:47:19 UTC
Herman Menderchuck wrote:
Old Pervert wrote:

You could, however, buy a plex on the market, and have one additional option: sell it back to CCP for a set amount of money (less than they sold it for, so that they make money regardless).


Not sure this would be in CCP's best interest.

Think of it this way, when someone buys a PLEX for $20, CCP will ALWAYS have that $20 no matter what happens to that PLEX in game.

If they implement a buy back program, even if it were 75% of its original value, the following would apply:

- CCP would always have to keep the equivalent of 75% of all money generated from PLEX purchases (or all PLEXs that exist in game) just in case in some rare instance everyone decides to cash out at once.

- If people start cashing out, CCP would have to sell MORE PLEX to generate the same amount of income they do now. My math is terrible, but they would have to sell something like 4 PLEX to guarantee they make $20, instead of 1 PLEX currently.

There is another problem: ISK inflation. I believe this leads to more PLEXes bought just to be 'cached back' by rich players. And CCP will start to get less money from PLEX.

There is common rule: money tend to go where money are. So even if inflation of PLEX price follows in-game ISK inflation then richer players will still have more 'unused' ISK to cash back.

The Mittani: "the inappropriate drunked joke"
Hel O'Ween
Men On A Mission
#15 - 2016-04-08 16:50:26 UTC
Herman Menderchuck wrote:
[quote=Old Pervert]
- CCP would always have to keep the equivalent of 75% of all money generated from PLEX purchases (or all PLEXs that exist in game) just in case in some rare instance everyone decides to cash out at once.


One would need to investigate CCP's financial report and Icelandic law to see if the already sold PLEX equal to a fiscal debt to a service and if so, how it needs to be kept i their books. If so, being able to offset that debt for 75% of the debt, this might eventually even make sense for CCP.

But I'm neither a lawyer nor an accountant, so :shrug:

EVEWalletAware - an offline wallet manager.
Bumblefck
Kerensky Initiatives
#16 - 2016-04-08 17:33:05 UTC
Xtreem wrote:
So, you want a CCP sanctioned RMT, in short?



That already exists - in the form of CCP selling PLEX in the first place Roll

Perfection is a dish best served like wasabi .

Bumble's Space Log
InterStellar Architect
InterStellar Architects Corporation
#17 - 2016-04-10 15:15:25 UTC
Old Pervert wrote:
Curious to see what people think would happen if CCP were to offer to buy back plex for about 80% of the average sale price, in cash.

I have to imagine it would drive up the cost of a plex on the market, but that would fuel more plex purchases. More plex purchases would mean more money for CCP, which would mean more content for us! (in an ideal world...). There'd still be people plexing their accounts, so there'd still be a demand for them in their original usage.

Not saying it would or could ever happen (it would be a logistical nightmare), but it was a shower thoughts moment.


CCP will never offer a PLEX buyback because:

-PLEX is a deferred revenue
-They are getting the cash now for services that they may or may not need to render down the road
-Many PLEX's that are generated are just held and traded, they might never get used. Or they might be used years down the road after they've been generated - in that case CCP is getting the cash now, for services that they are rendering years down the road.

So you take these factors into account, and you also add in the time value of money, why would they ever do a buyback?