I already mentioned my thoughts about the potential for this being just a cash grab (plus in this posting). The pricing was initially leaked prior to their press event (it was quickly taken down off the official site). The info is back online again and shows what Neowiz has in store as far as pricing goes with its Founders packs…
REMINDER: this is a game that had launch issues prior to the rebuild project and has not gone very far with the rebuild version in regions that it is already live. One of the most p2w publishers Aeria Games, decided to step away from publishing this game in North America because it clearly had technical deficiencies. Neowiz had to self-publish on Steam with this rebuild project. To put it bluntly, they are out to lunch with this now very obvious cash grab pricing on the packs.
So like I surmised before, they are just frontloading this whole thing and hoping to capture whales to cash in on what they can. I for one do not have the word SUCKER written across the top of my forehead so I shall pass on this blatant cash grab. Congratulations Neowiz for topping Trion Worlds in this area and making incompetent Webzen look a bit better.
(*) For those who weren’t able to catch the press event while it happened, it seems Neowiz doesn’t even have an archived VOD available (checked on their Twitch and YouTube channels). To be honest, I have no idea if they even live streamed it themselves or if they only relied on attendees to cover the event with several of their emissaries (the majority of whom are bigger Twitch streamers that will be moving off the bandwagon post launch like they do with so many other initial launches) streaming the event on their phones (so I had to rely on a VOD from one of those folks). And well, those streams relied on the hotel’s WIFI which aren’t meant to handle large volumes of outgoing (or evening inbound) data.
I realize they are self-publishing and trying to run a lean operation but that press event was not very professional (and filled with technical issues). No official live stream of the event? No problem; just have a video camera (doesn’t even have to be an expensive one) directly spooling to a laptop (OBS can easily handle that) where that video can then be uploaded on to their official YouTube channel. This was their chance to make a good general first impression in terms of PR plus their own competence level and they failed miserably. If they couldn’t even handle this press event, how are they expected to handle a live game?
UPDATE: the items associated with the Founder’s packs are per character and not account based which adds insult to injury.
