Sunday, July 13, 2008

HUD Prices

So what's up with the new Tiny Empires HUD prices? And up is certainly the word for it! Last weekend, the Emperor had a one-year anniversary sale going on. Traditionally, the HUD was at 499L .... last weekend, it was 250L.

Those who didn't take advantage of the offer are likely regretting it now, because when the sale was over it didn't go back up to the long-time 499L rate- it continued up to 799L! The Federation HUD is now 599L.

No one seems to know the reasoning behind this sharp upward move. The monarchs are as clueless as are we lower nobility. There's no word on the Tiny Empires site about it (the same site which advertised the sale now has no mention about the price increase.)

Is demand so high that it won't be diminished by raising the price? Are the Emperor's expenses growing? (the upgrade station is on a 480 square meter mainland plot, but the main expense would be the database servers, I suspect.)

Another reason people raise rates is when sales fall, and they decide that they need to raise the price to maintain the same amount of income from fewer people. In my opinion, that's a way to make a bad situation worse, but it's often done. And there's no way of knowing if that is the case here.

Perhaps the Emperor has realized that many new players have their HUDS partly, or totally, paid for by the existing players who are recruiting them. That may be the case- he IS offering a ten-pack of gift HUDS. (It's the best deal in the vendor right now- buy 10, get 1 free.) If that's the case, then he's decided the current players will gladly pay more in order to make sure of their new subjects, or perhaps he's decided that it's the only way to guarantee that the new players pay something too.

Who knows? Only the Emperor does. The rest of us are speculating wildly, including myself!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well thats bad for me.... I bought the hud for 699 :-(
But i do like the game a lot.

If anyone can help me find some new wanderers or peasants.... do contact me!

Baroness Jally Jayaram

Vulpine Eldrich said...

Hi, Jally! I always recommend that people start with their friends. The key phrase there is "I do like the game a lot"... so you let them in on the fun ;)

And 699... interesting! When did you purchase it?

Anonymous said...

I was about to purchase the HUD and decided that $799 was way too much. TE seems fun, but not at that price, I predict this will kill the whole thing.