Ok, so if price is relative to the work it takes...

InsaneSamurai·Feb 5, 2015·2 votes·351 views

Are you saying that making a skin like Pulsefure Ez or DJ Sona is harder than making 3 new champions?

7 Comments

Ice Weasel XFeb 5, 20151 votes

I doubt that. Skins and champs are two different things. Champs are the core of the game, thus are all available for purchase with IP. The RP option is only for the impatient people with disposable income. Their current RP prices for champions likely will not increase as they've probably had a financial team decide on a sweet spot for pricing items that can be gained without money. Skins are never available for IP, so they don't share the same value scale.

InsaneSamuraiFeb 5, 20151 votes

True, but the whole skin pricing is strange, not so much the champs. like 7 or 8 bucks a character seems a little steep but not so bad since it's just the new ones. 7 or 8 bucks to just change the appearance of a character you already bought just seems entirely off to me.

Ice Weasel XFeb 5, 20151 votes

People like bells & whistles. If the only way to get new shiny things is to pay money for it, people will pay money for it. Heck, they're willing to pay more for it than they're willing to pay to access the game. Realistically, people would probably buy RP-only champs, but going that route would cause an uproar. An overpowered champ would draw accusations of "pay to win" intentions, while an underpowered one would cause people to feel ripped off. A perfectly balanced one could be lumped in with either side, depending on who played it.

TsundayFeb 5, 20151 votes

3 summoner icons for DJ Sona: 750rp 3 full length music tracks on itunes (1.29 x 3) 4.87: 680rp 3 different skins with new animations, new sounds, new visual affects (975 x 3): 2925rp

= 4355rp

Honestly that is being generous

975rp skin:

Features: new model, new texture, new splash image. Sometimes includes: new animations, visual effects, and sounds where appropriate for the skin's theme. Examples: Haunted Maokai, Jade Dragon Wukong.

1305rp skin:

Features: new model, new texture, new splash image, new animations, new visual effects, new sounds. Sometimes includes: processed voice overs. Examples: Blackthorn Morgana, Arcade Sona.

Saying DJ Sona possesses processed VO which is only included in 1350 sometimes (except it's actually a new VO entirely which is normally only for 1820, but we'll let that slide), and it includes every one of the 'sometimes' listed as a 975 skin. The only reason I priced them as 975rp instead of 1350 is because she wears the same suit in all 3 of them even if she has a totally different disc jockey board, different helmets, different hair, and has all of the other features of a 1350 skin.

But honestly 3 different songs were composed for this skin and you add beats to the song with every ability/ult level up.

As for the Ezreal skin? They said they are updating it in the next few patches to bring it up to line with SG Udyr and DJ Sona because it really isn't up to par atm.

InsaneSamuraiFeb 5, 20151 votes

I can't deny its awesomeness, that's a large part of why it bothers me so much. Making something that insanely expensive is like saying "look how much work we did for all you people who aren't poor" :P

2000boxesFeb 5, 20151 votes

I highly doubt anyone who doesn't atleast have a stable source of income would have time to play league

TsundayFeb 5, 20151 votes

They make 1 skin like this 1 time a year. They put insane amounts of effort into it and it cost a lot to make. I don't care how much Riot makes but as an artist it feels really sucky when somebody looks at work and goes 'man this is amazing why are you charging so much for it though?' because it's like saying that the guy at McDonald's cleaning tables deserves $7.50 an hour and I only deserve $5. With the amount of time and effort put into it and the fact that so many people who want it will buy the skin during it's first week sale, you're not going to expect to be as profitable as something like Firecracker Jinx will be. They might be making more money, but they're probably making less profits off of each individual sale.