Poll: Selling the Celestial Steed is...

by Adam Holisky Apr 15th 2010 at 3:00PM

Perhaps one of the more controversial moves done by Blizzard is making the Celestial Steed, a useful in-game item, available for digital purchase via the Blizzard Store. This is something that previously many people thought Blizzard wouldn't do. However, it appears that they are not against exchanging useful in-game items for real money.

So let's hear what you think. Vote in the poll. Is selling the Celestial Steed for $25 okay or not? Or do you just not care?

Selling the Celestial Steed is...
Okay	14716 (40.5%)
Not Okay	11905 (32.7%)
I Don't Care	9750 (26.8%)

Tags: celestial-steed, facebookfeed, featured, wow-celestial-steed, wow-mount

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 15)

Thius Apr 15th 2010 3:02PM

Like I said before; I'm fine with vanity items such as mounts and pets being sold. However, Blizzard better draw the line there.

Docp Apr 15th 2010 3:27PM

What people forget is that Blizzard is a business. They are not a dream manufactorer operating a not for profit system, neither are they (or Kotick) the devil. Blizzard will go for whatever's profitable and that's all there is to that. That's why you can now transfer to PVP servers, race change, faction change, etc.

This is also why you cannot buy gold, class change or buy epic armor, because Blizzard know it would turn a lot of people off their product and with a large revamp coming they're hoping to keep numbers up for years to come. However in WoW's twilight years you can probably bet you'll see some, if not all, of those as they try to wring the last few dollars they can from the game.

Ambitus Apr 15th 2010 4:38PM

Are you sure that Blizzard will start selling gold before they go? I mean I completely understand the need for the to make money and everything, but it isn't just a business. For quite a few people involved it's probably a type of art. If WoW is about to be done for I'd like to think they'd prefer going out on a good note then wringing a few more dollars out of it.

Docp Apr 15th 2010 4:45PM

Well they probably won't, mostly because we know they have another MMO on the way and if they want people to have faith in their product gutting wow at the end might not be a good or profitable idea.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone at Blizzard is money grubbing businessmen, I believe a good chunk of them are creative, brilliant guys trying to make an excellent product and that's Blizzards business plan, to make a high quality product that people want rather than quick and cheap products. However with that said Blizzard is still a business and the recent changes we've seen shouldn't surprise anyone. We'll probably see more mounts, more pets, possibly tabards and titles, etc

Dan828 Apr 15th 2010 4:50PM

Hell, let them sell gear too. It'd be the fastest way to kill this gearscore madness that's going on.

thebitterfig Apr 15th 2010 5:53PM

i still say more of the the bought things should be partly-for-charity stuff, but that's me.

Cody Apr 15th 2010 3:03PM

every company wants to make money

Heilig Apr 15th 2010 3:15PM

Blizzard paid one, possibly two animators for a couple of weeks tops to make this thing. They're selling for $25 each.

I'm currently # 30,000 in the queue to buy one. That's $750,000 in the first HOUR of sales.

Every company loves making money, and they all wish they were Blizzard right now.

Wolftech Apr 15th 2010 3:35PM

Apparently they don't want my money... 5 hour wait to purchase online and they have stopped taking phone calls entirely.

matt Apr 15th 2010 3:45PM

I'm not complaining about a mount being sold for RL money. I think that mount is still a vanity item. My concern is that the amount of revenue this generates for Blizz will create some incentives to push the envelope.

If I were a blizzard stockholder and I learned of this revenue stream, I would expect them to plumb the depths of RL$ sales to give me the best return on my investment. At every board meeting from here on out, some WoW representative is goign to have to explain to the board why they cannot go any further, and hope they agree. My guess is that as long as the sub numbers are good, the WoW team wins the argument.

I don't mean to act as though the sky is falling (it isn't). There will likely be a lot more mounts on the store, why not printing money is fun! But, if things start to go south for WoW, the WoW team will lose the argument with the board and gear will go up for sale. I'd say we have quite a while before that happens.

Atdt1991 Apr 15th 2010 4:13PM

I voted "okay", and I think it's really perty and all, but damn it, $25 is too expensive. More than a month of playtime for a mount? Come on, that isn't fair.

Though I guess it is fair - they want to keep it semi-rare, and that's how you do it in a capitalist society - it's rare because only people who can afford to put $25 bucks in will have one.

I guess by getting one you'll never have to buy a beginning mount again - not that that's much hassle, since you have to get the skill at least.

Quote the Raven Apr 15th 2010 4:27PM

@Atdt1991
I hear you it is a lot when you consider it compared to play time. But, it is for every character you create on that account, that is the only part that has me considering it. It would be nice to have a slick mounts at lower levels, and I'm an alt-o-holic, I have characters from 5 - 80 right now, about 35 in all.

GrumblyStuff Apr 15th 2010 6:01PM

@Heilig

Queue is past 95k now. $2,375,000....

Now to those who say this isn't anything big, this will put pressure on Blizz to do more items in this fashion and other companies watching will attempt the same feat.

epic Apr 17th 2010 4:25PM

so its not like its your money...if you don't want to buy them then don't...haters always gotta hate on something...this just smacks of a "me too" complex...while the price is not attractive to me at all, i'm not going to judge others and lessen their enjoyment of a really neat "frill" and that all it is...the more money blizz makes, the larger the pool of money is going to be available for devlopement

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