Does Riot want to make money ?

FANTAsticOrange·Sep 27, 2015·1 votes·666 views

A concept I've never really understood is why really popular Skins and Icons are taken out of the shop, such as championship skins, snow day skins, etc. If Championship Riven went on sale right now, for 1350 RP, 9/10 Riven players that don't already have it would instantly buy the skin, giving Riot more $$$. So why, why put nice skins in the vault? There is the whole concept of the skin being valuable because its limited edition but no, that's not the thing: its got nice god damned graphics and just looks amazing! Something a lot of recently made skins don't share. So my question is, does Riot not want to make money, or are they just too stubborn to put their nicer skins out into the open?

And for those of you that will cry blood murder because you already have a particular legacy skin, then Riot could implement a border for first buys like the Project set to signify that you were first.

14 Comments

DrCyanideSep 27, 20152 votes

If Championship Riven went on sale right now, for 1350 RP, 9/10 Riven players that don't already have it would instantly buy the skin, giving Riot more $$$.

That is your answer right there. By pulling the skin back into the vault for a while, they manipulate the demand for it when they put it back on the shelf. 9/10 Riven players would not buy the skin if it was always available (probably more like 4/10), but with it being in and out of the market they feel like they've got to buy it.

FANTAsticOrangeSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

That is your answer right there. By pulling the skin back into the vault for a while, they manipulate the demand for it when they put it back on the shelf. 9/10 Riven players would not buy the skin if it was always available (probably more like 4/10), but with it being in and out of the market they feel like they've got to buy it.

That is the thing, skins like Championship Riven WILL NEVER come back out, maybe once every 2 years for a week, but even then, wouldn't you profit more from having 4/10 people buy it overall vs 9/10 for a week?

DrCyanideSep 27, 20151 votes

That depends entirely on if the average player plays the game for 2 years or more. You'd sell more than twice the skins, making twice as much money if the answer is yes.

SmokedAlmondsSep 27, 20151 votes

Some people(a lot in my experience) value rarity, even if artificial. That is more than just people who want it now that can't get it, but people who bought it knowing it would be limited.

Even from a financial standpoint its probably not in riots best interest to piss off people who bought it and are happy that its unavailable to gain a few sales.

FANTAsticOrangeSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Some people(a lot in my experience) value rarity, even if artificial. That is more than just people who want it now that can't get it, but people who bought it knowing it would be limited.

Even from a financial standpoint its probably not in riots best interest to piss off people who bought it and are happy that its unavailable to gain a few sales.

Well actually, let me rephrase what I said in my other reply; Would you make more money from selling 1000 skins for 7 days every other year, or 100 sales for the rest of the games existence? Poor number choices, but gets my point across, one is going to make more money in the long run. Is Riot being stubborn or ignoring this?

SmokedAlmondsSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Well actually, let me rephrase what I said in my other reply; Would you make more money from selling 1000 skins for 7 days every other year, or 100 sales for the rest of the games existence? Poor number choices, but gets my point across, one is going to make more money in the long run. Is Riot being stubborn or ignoring this?

Except that those numbers are just made up so they are meaningless. Yes, it is possible that the benefits of selling it again could outweigh the benefits they would get having it limited. We have no idea how many sales were wanting it to be limited or how many people want to buy it now. Also the sales from 1 skin is not the only thing to consider but the long term happiness of customers. One skin is a drop in the bucket and probably not worth risking it.

FANTAsticOrangeSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Except that those numbers are just made up so they are meaningless. Yes, it is possible that the benefits of selling it again could outweigh the benefits they would get having it limited. We have no idea how many sales were wanting it to be limited or how many people want to buy it now. Also the sales from 1 skin is not the only thing to consider but the long term happiness of customers. One skin is a drop in the bucket and probably not worth risking it.

Just to conclude: would you purchase any of the following?

Championship whatever
Pharaoh Amumu
Red Riding Annie
Toxic Dr. Mundo
Mundoverse
Nottingham Ezreal
Masquerade Evelynn
Swamp Master Kennen
Shamrock Malphite
Sonoran Kog'Maw
Dragon Knight Mordekaiser
Leopard Nidalee
Sasquatch Nunu
Blacksmith Poppy
Professor Ryze
Yellow Jacket Shen
Hextech Sion
Spectacular Sivir
Badger Teemo
Highland Tryndamere
Kingpin Twitch

If you responded Yes to atleast 1 or 2 of these, you would have to purchase ATLEAST 5$ worth of RP.

Imagine if 500 people responded Yes to 1 or 2 of these, that's ATLEAST 2500$, 1000 people: ATLEAST 5000$, and so on.

They're ignoring a market for money and player appeal.

SmokedAlmondsSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Just to conclude: would you purchase any of the following? *

Pharaoh Amumu

Red Riding Annie

Toxic Dr. Mundo

Mundoverse

Nottingham Ezreal

Masquerade Evelynn

Swamp Master Kennen

Shamrock Malphite

Sonoran Kog'Maw

Dragon Knight Mordekaiser

Leopard Nidalee

Sasquatch Nunu

Blacksmith Poppy

Professor Ryze

Yellow Jacket Shen

Hextech Sion

Spectacular Sivir

Badger Teemo

Highland Tryndamere

Kingpin Twitch

If you responded Yes to atleast 1 or 2 of these, you would have to purchase 5$ worth of RP.

Imagine if 500 people responded Yes to 1 or 2 of these, that's 2500$, 1000 people: 5000$, and so on.

They're ignoring a market for money and player appeal.

I actually have many of the ones they retired and I regret every single one of those purchases since they started reopening the legacy vault.

FANTAsticOrangeSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Some people(a lot in my experience) value rarity, even if artificial. That is more than just people who want it now that can't get it, but people who bought it knowing it would be limited.

In response to the idea of rarity, like I said, Riot can dish out Icons or Borders for whoever got there first.

SmokedAlmondsSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

In response to the idea of rarity, like I said, Riot can dish out Icons or Borders for whoever got there first.

That's a pretty shitty consolation prize for essentially being lied to about something being limited.

FANTAsticOrangeSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

That's a pretty shitty consolation prize for essentially being lied to about something being limited.

So you purchase skins because they say limited on them? not because they're good quality? you're not making much sense.

No one said you were buying a limited edition prize, you purchased a good looking skin [hopefully] which is high quality because it looks good, not because its shut out from other people purchasing it..

SmokedAlmondsSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

So you purchase skins because they say limited on them? not because they're good quality? you're not making much sense.

No one said you were buying a limited edition prize, you purchased a good looking skin [hopefully] which is high quality because it looks good, not because its shut out from other people purchasing it..

I did like them but I bought them because it was going to be my last chance to get them. I think they were also on sale as well.

This wasn't some random hope that they would become limited in the future. They were advertised as limited and people made buying decisions based on that.

FANTAsticOrangeSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

I did like them but I bought them because it was going to be my last chance to get them. I think they were also on sale as well.

This wasn't some random hope that they would become limited in the future. They were advertised as limited and people made buying decisions based on that.

For skins like Pharaoh Amumu, they didn't announce him as limited on release.

You should have bought him because you found him attractive near release, not last minute buying before he was gone, that way you would have a feel for whether you liked him or not.

SmokedAlmondsSep 27, 20151 votes

{quoted}

For skins like Pharaoh Amumu, they didn't announce him as limited on release.

You should have bought him because you found him attractive near release, not last minute buying before he was gone, that way you would have a feel for whether you liked him or not.

Whether I like it or not is not even relevant. The point is they advertised them as limited and then went back on it. Well really they just redefined limited, but effectively the same.

The issue is honesty in advertisement, not the quality of the product.