Kabam, why do you do everything to keep people out of spending?

I am not sure if others feel the same as me. This is my impression from the last few sales (Cyber weekend and current Banquet sale).

I was ready to invest $100 or $200. I am low-level spender and such amount is the largest amount I've ever invested in one sale. Typically I spend on subscription, some units monthly pass, platinum pass, missing essenses for idols). Nothing crazy.

And I was really up to spending more.
But....

1. During cyber weekend I was waiting for 7* pool update before buying Odins to understand better if I need awakening gems or sig stones. But, haha, the way how you, Kabam, handled the problem and gifted limited amount of affected users with x2 of their crystals allowing to dupe existing before champions, raise prestige and getting more titans... This way disappointed me the most for all the years playing this game. My wallet was closed immediately, I added a bit more and bought myself PS VR2 (which I am really happy about).
2. Current Banquet sale. I am looking at Odin and thinking "this could be better". I am looking at lower options and think "WTF GBC are doing there?". I am looking at the track and thinking "Are you crazy? 1K USD?". The Banquet started very nice. SBSs and Jubilant crystals felt very good. But sale.. Is it even sale? I do not see good value for money, really.

This is crazy. I wanted to spend, I want to spend. And I do not see value for me for that money. Whales will say $100-$200 is nothing. For me $100-$200 is pretty valuable amount. I do not understand how you can be so greedy and not putting good value into sales per dollar spend?

Maybe it is just me who overestimates $100. But maybe, there will be some other people who feel the same and who would spend on this sale, but will not do that. Maybe you will say that $100 is nothing to Kabam's profit this event. But maybe, if there are 1000 people who will not spend because of lack of the value, it will raise to higher sum.

Comments

Kabam (Osaurus) Rex

The theme of this sale is centered around an increase in units by +50%.

Usually, an Odin on the Webstore would have 3,400 Units - this one has over 5,100, plus a Banquet Key, a Jubilant Crystal, and some Superior Banquet Crystals as a throw-in.

As always, only spend money on anything in life when you see value for yourself - that's the golden rule.
That said, there's clear objective value in these current offers. You also don't need to max out the entire track. The first Absorbing Man / Kingpin selector is intentionally front-loaded and placed within the first 30% of the Track.

ContestOfNoobs

LOL why does every post say like

“Im about to spend”

they know what they are doing this game been going on for 10+ years there are handful of mobile games that’s been going on for this long

There’s also a lot of mobile games and “marvel” mobile games that have been shut down.

they know how to make people spend.

I only spend on deals like 4th,July, and Christmas. But to each to own.

Kabam got so many people spending outside the deals all year round

just save up next year I guess man

DNA3000

No, its not only you. Every sale, there will be people who think the value proposition is not good enough. This would be true no matter what value they put into the sales.

What you need to understand is two things. First, they can't just put unlimited value into the sales to chase every single player who wants more. Doing so would actually harm the game in ways detrimental in the long run. If they put too little value, not enough players will spend, but if they put too much value it widens the gap between spenders and non-spenders in ways that would make the game a lot more hostile to the F2P players. There has to be a balance, and whatever balance point they pick, someone will say its not good enough. If not you, someone else.

Second, there isn't just two kinds of spenders: you and the whales. There is a whole continuum of spenders. There are players who only spend a few bucks a year. There are players who spend hundreds of dollars a year. There are players who spend thousands, and there are players who spend tens of thousands. For you a hundred bucks is a pretty valuable amount but while you acknowledge there are players for whom that's nothing, you don't seem to acknowledge there are other players for whom that's completely ridiculous. How do the devs make your $100 look good in a way that doesn't anger the players who can only spend twenty bucks and feel they are just catering to "the whales?" To those players, you are a whale.

This probably doesn't matter to you a whole lot, but no matter what the deals look like, there will be players making the same complaint you are. They could make the deals absolutely perfect for you, and there would just be some other player complaining that Kabam completely mishandled the deals. And not just one, but lots of players. That's because we all have different perspectives on spending. We all have different valuations for their spending budget, and for what we're getting back in return.

Because we're all different when it comes to spending, the game doesn't even intend for everyone to spend. It doesn't make any attempt to make spending attractive to everyone. It only tries to make spending attractive to a sufficient portion of the game to make the numbers work out. A successful F2P game is not one where everyone spends: that's actually arguably a complete failure because of the mechanics of F2P gaming. An F2P game where everyone is spending begs the question: why is the game so hostile to free to play players, and how much more successful would it be if it fixed that problem.

Spend if you can, and if you want to. And if you think the offers could be improved, by all means provide feedback. But recognize that the reason you think the offers are bad might not be because the devs are too dumb to fix that problem. It might be they've decided where to target the offers, and your spending preferences just might not be in the bullseye of the target.

ContestOfNoobs

^ true

even my first few years in 2016-17 I spent

Very little, like very little maybe 10,20$ and spending $50 back then was a lot

and I was looked down for “spending” on a mobile game back in 2016/17

crazy time huh?

Every years sales Christmas,4th July and cyber people spent crazy. Amounts every single years since this game has been around

looo at super bros

he spent $200k to get first r4 and now he’s retired apparently lol

also people have already spent enough to get a r5 RIGHT NOW BEFORE Christmas 2025

In banquet 2026 it’s gona cost a lot less and worthless in 2027 banquet lol

Br0fessor_X

Comparing apples to apples, $100 last year in market got you 5115 units (same) plus 5k titan shards, 2 gbcs and a key (same). This year you get a jubilant crystal and 2 sbcs which could yield a jubilant. Excluding the market track rewards, if you prefer the 5k titan shards to the jubilant crystal, then it's fair you see less value.

Now, as someone who hoarded 20k units and hit all the milestones without spending and pulling the champs i wanted, I can't say if on the face of it $100 for a key for a champ I could live without appeals much to me, but it seems like last year the best rewards are in the milestones, so if you need to spend to get them, they're a means to an end and not much more.

O_Deadpool_O

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2911645#Comment_2911645

Wow. Your comment is awesome. Thank you for the time and effort you put in to write it!

I have only one comment. It is regarding "they can't just put unlimited value into the sales to chase every single player who wants more". I absolutely agree with that and I don't demand unlimited value.
But what I would want is the choise for my money. Why the content of Odin is static?

For example, I do not need Banquet key. I was super lucky first time in 10 years and I got best champions from the box. I do not need any additional key as I am not interested in X-23 or Jane.
I would better get several more SBCs instead. But instead, if I buy Odin I have to get the key and have to draw unneeded champion from the box.

Why couldn't they implement some kind of a selector for the items inside?

And second, for $100 there could be at least 3 SBCs inside. 4 would be even better. Just 2 look so small.

OldManHop

I'm just bummed that there isn't a key in a crystal bundle again.

Demonzfyre

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2911769#Comment_2911769

The answer to your question is because there are 50% extra units….plus the key, plus the crystals and the gold. You get a jubliant crystal which has a ton of value. Keep in mind, the game doesn't know what you want. The team is targeting as many people as possible and not just a few in your situation. But the Odin in the game is 3100 units, that's what you're paying for, everything else is a bonus now.