With more and more news about the return of the national service, the topic of "national service price increase" has also become a hot topic recently.
Recently, Zhang Dong, the former head of NetEase, quoted a post calculating the income of monthly cards, and replied to the reason why the monthly card fee of the national server can be the lowest in the world.
He said that in fact, the low-price charges of the national server are realized by the high fees of the buyout areas in Europe and the United States, that is to say, Blizzard has recovered its costs by selling expansion films in Europe and the United States, so only the fees in Taiwan and the national server can cover the operating costs. If there is no buyout income in Europe and the United States, then the income of the national service can be said to be doing charity.
Here's a news story from years ago that the Shadowlands expansion sold 3.7 million copies on its first day, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. The price of each expansion is $50, which is equivalent to about 360 yuan, which means that on the first day of the release of the Shadowland, Blizzard took back 1.33 billion yuan. If it is calculated according to the annual card fee of 670 yuan for the national server, the 1.33 billion yuan will require almost 2 million paying players to pay for a year.
Comparison of global Warcraft fees, no wonder European and American players are Blizzard's fathers, if the national server is not suspended for the second time, most players don't know what the outside world charges are. And when we had to go to the Taiwanese service or the European service and the American service, we found that the charge of the national service was so cheap. Let's sort out the current fees in World of Warcraft, the charges in various regions of the world:
- National service: 75 yuan for monthly card, 198 yuan for season card, 360 yuan for half-year card, and 310 yuan for the half-year card of Tmall activities during the Spring Festival every year. In other words, if you buy two half-year cards every year, then the expenditure of World of Warcraft in a year is 670 yuan.
- Taiwan: 120 Hong Kong dollars for monthly passes, 328 Hong Kong dollars for season cards, 608 Hong Kong dollars for half-year cards, and 1139 Hong Kong dollars for annual cards.
The secret of the lowest price in the world for the national server monthly card, Warcraft is simply doing charity! - US: $14.99 per month for monthly subscriptions, $13.99 per month for quarterly subscriptions, and $12.99 per month for both semi-annual and annual subscriptions
The secret of the lowest price in the world for the national server monthly card, Warcraft is simply doing charity! - EU: €12.99 per month for a monthly subscription, €11.99 per month for a quarterly subscription, and €10.99 per month for both semi-annual and annual subscriptions
The secret of the lowest price in the world for the national server monthly card, Warcraft is simply doing charity!
Among them, the US and EU servers also need to pay a separate fee for the new version, which means that each time the expansion is updated, you need to pay a version update fee of 49.99 USD/EUR, which does not include game time, but additional expenses. Only Taiwanese and national servers do not need to pay this fee.
The table is summarized below (converted into RMB):
From this point of view, the national server area is indeed a depression in global prices, and it is no wonder that Blizzard has always regarded European and American players as fathers, because they paid for the game development for the expansion buyout system, and it is natural that they are valued.
Regarding the question of whether the price will increase after the return of the national uniform, many people are currently speculating that it may rise to the world level, but Mr. Dong has also posted on Weibo before saying that he is optimistic that the national service will not increase in price. The actual price increase is okay or not, and the monthly card of more than 100 yuan and the accelerator of dozens of yuan in the Taiwan service have been bought, are you still afraid that the price of the national service will rise so much? The important thing is to come back quickly!