Last month, we included Crowfall among the games discussed in a Massively Overthinking roundtable that focused on MMO monetization running amok. Why? Because Crowfall has one of the spendiest cash shops in the genre, and it’s not even out yet; indeed, one of its palaces is $7000.
That subject is one ArtCraft has addressed today in a new dev blog, which argues that the price is fine because it’s intended for large guilds.
“The price is high because when 100+ players work together to buy something, the total adds up quickly,” J. Todd Coleman and Gordon Walton jointly explain. “That last part is key. These strongholds are WAY, WAY overkill for use by a single player. Much like in real life, purchasing a giant Imperial Palace doesn’t make a lot of sense if you intend to live alone. The purpose of these larger strongholds is to support large player groups. They provide a mechanism to centralize buildings and exist so that guilds, streamer audiences, or even a loose-knit collection of merchants and crafters can work together, pool resources and create social spaces.”
The baseline price for rank 1 parcel for a regular solo player — you know, your starter home — is $15, extending upward to $25 for a rank 3 and up to $45 for a custom rank 3 parcel. While the prices are subject to change by launch, you can still napkin-math it out: Since some of the capital city parcels are built to hold well over a hundred people and parcels at those same rates, buying one outright is priced correspondingly (though not exactly, since the studio wants to incentivize player congregating — there’s a hefty discount for buying in bulk, in other words).
That probably won’t stop your eyes from bugging out from sticker shock, though.
