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The amount of unavailable skills is pretty frustrating to me

Great Muta··2 votes·573 views

There's a 198 unavailable non-limited skins right now. 198. 23 limited skins are not purchasable period, making a grand total of 221 current unpurchasable skins out of the 566 estimated skins in the game as of 2015. That's 39% of skins that are unavailable.

There's a bunch of skins I want that just happen to not be available. Riot Kayle, Unmasked Kayle, Toy GP, Obsidian Malphite and others like Black Alistar, that are never going to be made available. I don't want these because they are rare. I want them because I play the champs.

Yes, some of the skins can be found in hextech crafting, but hextech crafting has really bad odds and there's no guarantee you will get what you want. I've seen youtubers drop $300+ just to get Hextech Annie, and all of them will tell you it wasn't worth it. I dropped about $85 on Hextech/Augments and only really got 1 skin I truly wanted.

I'm really having trouble understanding why so many skins have to be made unavailable since:

  1. It takes no extra work to make the skin available. It's not like Crystal Pepsi where Pepsi has to make it and stock it which costs money. Riot literally just has to check a box and make it available. They can do it for free.

  2. I don't see how Riot makes more money only maybe offering one of the skins I listed once a year as opposed to year around. I would think the skin that is available all of the time would hit a much broader audience and make a lot more money than the skin that might be available once a year. Yes, I'm sure people who only collect rare skins buy a lot during the week or two some of these are available, but I doubt it's more than the rest of the world would if they were available year round.

  3. Quality is truly in the eyes of the buyer. People crap their pants over Spirit Guard Udyr and I disenchanted it without thinking twice. I don't think it's anything special but some others do. Riot thought Chromas were special and I don't even think they are worth the IP. IP...which I can gain for free.

  4. A lot of the skins were made unavailable before I even started playing. It feels like a punishment for not knowing about the game sooner. I never had a chance to get these skins.

I'm just really struggling to understand why these skins have to be made unavailable and why such a vast amount has to be unavailable. The work has been done and people like myself will pay for them. Take my money.

13 Comments

Eedat1 votes

It creates artificial demand for the skins. When they do become available, people are more likely to buy them for the sole reason that they're limited. A lot of the unavailable skins that arent holiday related are pretty terrible tbh. Making them limited makes them more tempting to buy.

Riot knows exactly what they're doing. They're in it to make money and skins are their bread and butter

Great Muta2 votes

I think making them available year-round would bring in a lot more cash than just making them available once a year or every few years. I know I'm not the only one who won't buy skins for champs I don't play or don't like. You figure, if there's 40 million players, Let's say only 1% wanted Riot Kayle. That's 40,000x9.75(975RP was the official price of it new) = $390,000. That's a shit ton of money for pressing a button.

Skin quality is to the person to decide. I don't care about any skins on champs I don't play. People would pay a lot for Spirit Guard Udyr and I turned that into essence in no time. Same with Infernal Nasus and I'd do the same for DJ Sona. It's not a good way to gauge quality.

Eedat1 votes

You would think, but Riot is the one who knows the exact sales numbers of the skins ad how much they taper off at the end of events.

Great Muta1 votes

Yes, only Riot knows the official numbers. But all businesses know that what isn't being sold can't be bought. And Riot doesn't include all skins in their sales, just select ones.

Riot is losing $50 from me right now, because they don't make what I want available. 1000 people like me(out of the 40 million players) and that's $50,000. 10,000 people and that's $500,000. It adds up real fast.

There's also no guarantee that by the time these skins are available that I will want them or even know they are being sold.

And don't forget, selling or sharing accounts is not allowed.

Eedat1 votes

But all businesses know that what isn't being sold can't be bought.

1000% wrong. I mean look at De Beers. They are holding 70%+ of all the worlds gem quality Diamonds in a vault to artificially increase demand. Similar things happen with Aluminum and many other common goods. Sorry, but I think you're a bit naive to how supply and demand and businesses work. When one organization controls the majority of the supply of something, withholding stock can actually be more profitable than selling it all.

Great Muta1 votes

There's a huge difference between jewels and skins in a video game.

Sukishoo1 votes

skins out of the 566 estimated skins in the game as of 2015

That's gotta be way behind then since I own 539 skins (lol), and there's about 100 left for me in the store alone (and if I counted the legacy god there's tons).

Great Muta1 votes

That's the best number I could find. Feel free to count all of the skins up and let me know the current number.

Sukishoo1 votes

but it takes sooo long... continues counting

Great Muta1 votes

Yes, it would take a while.

Sukishoo2 votes

and it did. There should be 687 skins total (including store, legacy, hextech & limited) currently. Of course there's the Zed and 4 chef skins coming in the next patch, so it'll be 692.

Damn, there's almost 700 skins in this game.

Great Muta1 votes

Good job man. Have an upvote. Will quote that.

Still doesn't feel like enough skins though. I believe the possibilities are endless skin wise and I think they could easily do double or triple the current output of skins and make even more cash.

Sukishoo1 votes

Of course there's plenty of ideas for skins that could continue on for years. Personally I think the output they have right now is decent, most patches we do see 3 skins yes, but every now and then we'll see 4-5, and occasionally we had a patch with 10 (last year) but the smaller number is nicer since they do tend to be able to put more effort into bringing the ideas to life.

Of course some of the 750s, don't have like too much done with them but could have had a lot more if they were higher tiers but then they'd give us less again. So I think it's alright the way they bring out most of the skin content, I wouldn't want them to rush them and give us something really bad and unfinished.

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