Out of my friends list of 45 people, I know that's not a lot but still, small list of friends that I have that have played this game actively since the very beginning, two of them still play the game and one of them does not even subscribe full-time. Only when there's a major update.... When I asked every single one of my friends why they no longer play anymore the same exact reason was said. “They were taking over by an investment company, and now it just seems like a silly cash grab. They keep raising the prices, keep missing the mark, don't listen to players.” <<< One of my friends said this to me....
So let's get the facts straight here
According to Jagex full accounts report in 2008 from the UK government website, they made $10 million in profit back in 2008. So they were not operating at a loss. Their profit for the year 2022 is up to 38 million. Jagex's profit rose from £10 million in 2008 to £38 million in 2022, a 280% increase. From 2008's price of $7.95 to the current price of $13.99, the RuneScape membership price has increased by approximately 76%.
So in other words, Jagex profit has risen by 280% since 2008, and They raised the subscription by over 80%. If we count the entire lifespan of RuneScape, it's gone up by 180%. This is: corporate greed.
For reference, by the way, World of Warcraft has never once had to increase their subscription price ever. We also have bonds in our game, and RS3 is completely monetized. A monetized game and a subscription is absolutely insanity, when you add in percentage increases to the subscription price, that's just silly
Edit: A reddit user also pointed out that you have to pay $14 a month for EVERY character, even if you're part of the same account. WoW let's you have 60+ characters in your subscription.
I think your need to do some inflation adjustment, their costs increase a lot as well. And raw "record profits" aren't meaningful when not inflation adjusted.
Everything is getting more expensive, thats mostly not corporate greed (some of it is tbh) its just the general world economics being in a very big crisis from multiple world effecting events, covid, Russia attacking Ukraine, the fucking Suez channel ship thing (yes that shit actually effected world economics), the comeback of terrorism, the right wing people playing Russian spys for their own gains in all of the western world (super left as well, but they don't have much power gladly) Chinas entire economy is going down the drain for many internal reasons. The World economy has long covid, untreated epilepsy and very bad hemorrhoids all at once basically.
They added microtransactions to both Runescape 3 and Oldschool, bonds never existed back then, so now you can buy gold in game, which is huge insane revenue amount for them. World of Warcraft has never had to increase costs even once.
https://www.eurogamer.net/world-of-warcraft-subscription-prices-will-rise-in-november
WOW did increase costs, is heavily monetized with micro transactions and thats basically state of the art for mmorpgs right now. The server and development costs are huge for such service games and a company needs to make profits, i don't say there is no greed involved, but i do understand some of the decisions.
Ohh darn you're right. I misremembered. Thought it was always 15. But yeah, I get the cost of running the game and all that stuff. Totally valid points.
Yeah i also understand you that pushing micro transactions sucks for the players.
It's honestly crazy how horrifically they monetized RS3. You're spammed with login notifications for your free gambling opportunities. Idk what it is now but it was squeal of Fortune, then some weird chest opening game you get two keys from or you get them from just playing the game and at random. Met a guy who spent $3600 on getting his skills up. Unfathomable to me
Oh wow, didn't remember it being that bad. Sounds like its getting close to Diablo Immortals territory...