Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsPatch 4.3: Void Storage prices revealed
by Alex Ziebart 
Oct 5th 2011 at 8:41PM
- 100g to unlock Void Storage
- 25g to deposit an item
- Free for withdrawals
Read Lylirra's full explanation of the Void Storage pricing on the official forums or behind the cut below.
Void Storage Prices
I just recently got back from a meeting with Ghostcrawler and have an update to share regarding the prices for Void Storage. Instead of charging 1000g to unlock a Void Storage vault and 100g to deposit and withdraw items, we're looking at only requiring the following amounts for each transaction:
Unlock - 100g
Deposit - 25g
Withdrawal - Free
We agree with the suggestions we've seen that placing a higher fee on withdrawals would create a stronger deterrent for using Void Storage as a secondary bank. That said, we don't want players to find themselves in a situation where they are unable to retrieve an item simply because they don't have the gold. This is why we're leaning towards a more expensive deposit (to differentiate Void Storage from a normal bank) and allowing all withdrawals to be free.
Please keep in mind that these prices may not hit the PTR and are, of course, subject to change before the release of 4.3.
Unlock - 100g
Deposit - 25g
Withdrawal - Free
We agree with the suggestions we've seen that placing a higher fee on withdrawals would create a stronger deterrent for using Void Storage as a secondary bank. That said, we don't want players to find themselves in a situation where they are unable to retrieve an item simply because they don't have the gold. This is why we're leaning towards a more expensive deposit (to differentiate Void Storage from a normal bank) and allowing all withdrawals to be free.
Please keep in mind that these prices may not hit the PTR and are, of course, subject to change before the release of 4.3.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 4)
PeeWee Oct 5th 2011 9:40PM
And here I was waiting for the announcement to make Void Storage available as a Premium service. I guess I'm the fool here.
A happy fool, but a fool nonetheless. ^^
And now back to the fantastic thread on the EU forums where some douche is offering to trade his account with a few 85's and a couple K gold for... A RUNESCAPE account.
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/2793450614
Also, RIP Steve Jobs. I neither use nor like Apple products, but a true visionary has passed away way too early. I guess God got jealous when seeing an inventor as great as himself.
Drakkenfyre Oct 5th 2011 9:55PM
It was only the outrage which changed it. Had the outrage not occured, it would have been the prices shown on the PTR.
MusedMoose Oct 5th 2011 10:38PM
I doubt that. Blizzard has said from the beginning that the prices on the PTR were not final:
http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3038916
Look at the 'void storage' section.
Drakkenfyre Oct 5th 2011 11:15PM
Blizzard had said lots of things "weren't final", and they ended up being the final price.
Price to unlock dual spec.
Price to unlock Cold Weather Flying (hell, went from free to 1000g, then "price not final", then 1000g at expansion release.)
There are more. Many times something comes up for a massive amount, and they say it, but when release comes, the price hasn't changed.
"Not final" means it may change, not that it is going to.
jealouspirate Oct 5th 2011 9:53PM
I don't understand why there should be any cost associated with using this feature, but at least it's much more forgiving than the original prices.
Cambro Oct 6th 2011 2:39AM
I'm guessing they're trying to control the typical pack rat player's habit of saving anything and everything. This takes memory and processing power to display, database storage space to track, and bandwidth to update their servers every time you move something in or out. Putting a price on it encourages the players to stop and think, however briefly "Do I really want to put this item in here if I have to pay to do it?". Plus, having a reasonable price on it will work as a minor gold sink, which can help the game economy.
Suzaku Oct 6th 2011 3:18PM
They've explained it a number of times.
This is a long-term 'deep storage' system that basically just deletes the items you deposit and stores their IDs, then spawns a new item when you withdraw it. Just like renting a storage unit, where you can store the old crap you don't have room for, but aren't willing to get rid of.
If they'd wanted to give people more bank slots, they could've added more bank slots. That would probably require overhauling some of the server architecture to give each player more slots (every server needs a ton of storage space reserved for every character's slots, even if they don't use them).
I believe that they freed up the storage space needed for Void Storage by removing the keyrings. Then by storing just item IDs instead of actual items (with all the additional strings that go along with them) they were able to give players a much larger inventory to store things.
nymrohd Oct 5th 2011 10:00PM
If it stays at such a price I know I will use it a lot at least.
Amaxe Oct 5th 2011 10:15PM
That's more reasonable for long term storage I think.
Barachiel Oct 5th 2011 10:23PM
Ah, finally, realistic pricing!
Brock Oct 5th 2011 10:25PM
Just FYI. It was sarcasm due to the nature of WoW players who complain about everything ;)
urf Oct 5th 2011 11:37PM
Here's a thing about Void Storage and transmogging that just boggles the mind. Or mine, at least.
I wanted VS to be wardrobe storage for Transmog! I actually thought that was what it was going to be. What's the point of storing "stuff" in Void Storage if it isn't the gear I want to use with transmogging? What's the point in VS if the Transmogrificationer Space Mummy Man does not co-operate with the other Toilet Paper Electricity Scifi-Ghost Guy stationed 10 feet to his side?
I mean sure, yeah, more bank space for the compulsive crowd, great, why not, but it's not really the point, is it? Transmog and VS are on the PTR because people wanted Transmog. They exist because there needs to be a complete system to support Transmog.
Void Storage removes enchants et cetera. It only stores the ID number of the item. Why can't the transmogrifier let me use my void stored gear as well as stuff in my bags? It seems like such a simple and natural way of doing the feature.
In the transmog screen I could just try on all my gear in my bags or in VS and see how it looks. There's pretty much no reason beyond transmogging to lug around all those old tier pieces in your bags, so unless I ran out of space, I would never, ever take out my cosmetic gear of VS, leaving my bags and bank available for items that have actual gameplay value or emotional value or whatever.
I'm stumped. I don't have a toon on the PTR, so I'm basing all this on what I'm reading. Maybe I'm missing something. Please let me know below if you have something to say about my line of reasoning. Bleeehh it's 6:30 am and I'm sooo going to sleep now, as a matter of fact I may doze off on this very keyboard zzzzzzzzzzz
Hob Oct 6th 2011 12:01AM
Some gear that I want to keep I can't transmog; for example, the four-piece Fire Festival costume, or the three-piece Pilgrim Festival costume. Or, if I had bothered to get it, any of the Brewfest gear. There's also the Midwinter hat, jacket, and shoes. And the Hallowed Helm. And all of the steins from years past.
Other stuff that I keep but can't store very well are books. I collect books in WoW ~ quest items, junk that can only be obtained while on pre-Cata quests, books that can only be obtained by pick pocketing, semi-rare books and notes... what can I say? It's a meta-game that I enjoy.
This will definitely give me a way to store my junk that I just *can't* get rid of, and free up my bank for... well, probably more junk, but junk that I can use, anyway. I usually have one or two toons per server that is the guildmaster of a one-man bank, and will ship mats back and forth, but that doesn't help with soulbound stuff.
joshua.danial Oct 6th 2011 12:43AM
"I felt all along that the frankly outrageous prices they originally told us about were intended to make these lower fees look good in comparison, when they were finally revealed. It's one thing to charge 25 gold to add a bank slot. It's another to charge that to bank an _item_, especially when each time you deposit that item you'll be charged again."
Personally I thought the original prices were more than reasonable. I know not everyone is loaded but a lot of people are and they could've used the original prices to suck some gold out of the economy then lowered it later. The new prices are more than generous. You can get 25g to deposit an item from 1 quest. The idea behind void storage is long term storage. You're not supposed to make deposits and withdrawals constantly. If that was the case they'd just give us more bank space. This is space for items you've held in your bank for years as it is, now they're just giving us a space for dust-collecting items we can't bear to part with.
Also just as a side note 25g for a bank slot is also extremely generous. The original pricing was not so nice:
1st slot: 10s
2nd slot: 10g
3rd slot: 25g
4th slot: 50g
6th slot: 100g
And this was when 100g was a bitch to scrounge together.
edgeblade69 Oct 6th 2011 8:41AM
I personally feel that 25g is too expensive. Of course that could just be because I remember vanilla when having more than 100g was considered super rich. I still don't like to buy things over 100g as I feel they're overpriced. I guess maybe I'm WoW-frugal? The only exceptions to this rule are strength gems and some enchants though I'll never pay more than 400g for an enchant those 1,000+ gold prices for some enchants are ridiculous. Same with the prices of some of the BOE drops from FL, 30k+....who has that kind of money? I only spend gold on gems, enchants, flasks, reforges, and repairs and I only have around 7-8k across all my characters. Of course I don't do anything but raid a few times a week on my main so I'm not taking in much gold either.
Spleenrippa Oct 6th 2011 8:58AM
This isnt real money folks! go kill a few ogres, do a daily or two, or run a lowbie dungeon and loot corpses, farm herbs, ore or whatev, and in afew minutes youll have enough.
If your broke in wow it likely reflects your real life habits! People complain too much.
Just sayin
robsmith77 Oct 6th 2011 9:21AM
I don't collect gear per se, but my bank is nevertheless completely full with vanity items, interesting quest rewards and such like. 80 slots at 25g plus 100g to activate = 2100g Absolute bargain as far as I'm concerned, especially as I'm very unlikely to actually take anything out of Void Storage (or, at least, not on a regular basis).
upchu Oct 6th 2011 9:36AM
I would have nno need for void storage if they put a tabard storage in.
Justin Oct 17th 2011 6:28AM
If you are referring to the achieve about the tabards, I believe you must only equip them, at which point you can delete the ugly ones.
Bynde Oct 6th 2011 10:44AM
Yeah, I never got why people are so geeked about this and the transmog thing, either. But, whatever. I suppose I may have decided to use the void bank . Maybe. But, now that I see it costs, I'm pretty sure I won't.
I've been deleting my old gear. I have no idea why I would want to keep i, but maybe that's just me and my hatred for clutter.
Oh. And please understand the difference between me expressing an opinion about the void bank... and "bitching" about it, kay?