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Updating our discounts for 2019

Riot··1 votes·170,486 views

TL;DR: We’re updating how our sales work for the first few months of the new year.

In 2019, we’re revamping our sales. First up, we’ll be focusing on more favorites like Your Shop, event passes, and the Essence Emporium. Next, we’ll be experimenting with weekly sales over the next few months.

Overall, the total amount of content going on sale will go up. You’ll see the balance shift towards newer and higher quality skins, but we’ll still look to keep a healthy presence of champions and classics in the mix. There will also be some weeks that look pretty different from what you’ve seen before.

Some features of the new weekly sales we’re testing:

  • Every Monday at noon PT, there will be at least 20 items on sale in the store
  • We’ll feature sales in the store front page below “Popular items” instead of in sale schedule announcements (see our refund policy here)
  • Everything eligible for weekly sales, early sales, or essence emporiums could be included in a sale
  • We’ll have at least two dedicated essence emporiums a year
  • Monthly bundles will be cut from the rotation

We haven’t changed these sales in a long time, so we’ll keep a close eye on feedback as we go!

103 Comments

Hellmaximus1105 votes

e’ll be focusing on more favorites like Your Shop, event passes, and the Essence Emporium.

Who thought "man my favorite league pay feature is event passes!", I've seen nothing but hardcore criticism about the last 2 passes being absolute dog shit, from what the rewards were and for how insanely impossible it was to get good value from the pass when you could only realistically redeem 1-2 rewards and a majority of those coins come from the event, not the pass.

As someone who's purchased every pass that came out, It feels really disheartening with what I got. Atleast with the VS riven and yasuo event I got the ward skins AND the border AND an emote along with crappy hextech crafting stuff.

ModJikker24 votes

Agree. The only reason they are popular is because they skins people want are locked behind them. If they put out event passes without Prestige skins, would they sell as well? I highly doubt it.

Zodiac12 votes

I personally like them. The snowdown pass is pretty meh but you can still farm a pretty immense amount of BE from this pass (75 tokens = 1 random champion shard worth either 960 or 1260. Doing the daily missions and a couple games should net you anywhere from 20-30,000 BE throughout the whole event, though I do admit the rest of the pass kinda sucks)
The worlds pass however was great. Sure, if you don't play that much then the pass is pretty shit value but if you're able to play a couple games a day or full on grind you'll get a fuckload of value. I'm pretty sure I got over 4,000 RP in value out of the last pass (net 2500-3000~.)
Really depends how much you can play and what you're looking to get.

Zodiac17 votes

Sidenote: The cost of the passes is super annoying. It should just be 1380 which is one clean transaction. Seems kinda scummy to have it at like 1450-1500 (but Riot does a lot of stuff that isn't super consumer friendly, most notably having literally NO way to test skins/chromas to see if you actually like them so you're forced to just hope you do based on watching gameplay/SkinSpotlights which I don't think is right at all. Also before anyone says "just use PBE", they've basically removed the ability to buy any skins over a month old so you can only test brand new skins/content.)

Bad Rice24 votes

Good way to drive away casual players. Having a day job means I can buy the pass and not have time to get the prizes. Nice.

Dustpartical2 votes

There needs to be a way for casual players to benefit from it. Maybe if bought early you get a bonus from event rewards? or a hot streak where if you log in and play once a day you get a bonus? Not sure, but I know personally I only have so much time to play and I was unable to make it to the akali skin, so I ended up buying a bunch of master crafted chest which sucked cause at the end of the day all I got was a decent sum of orange essence and a gem.

Either way I agree which what your saying it is a big fuck you too casual player, and being a casual player doesn't equal "not willing to spend money on the game." In fact those are probably the ones WITH a job to pay for these passes.

Hellmaximus14 votes

The worlds pass was alright, it wasn't the best in terms how the set up Pass quest vs non-pass quest but it did give out 1400 tokens (compared to nonpass holders at 700?" but the cost of the items for that pass were insanely high in comparison.

If it wasn't for the prestige skins I wouldn't even bother with this event pass.

NovaMS70 votes

As someone who's purchased every pass that came out

Vote with your dollars. Up until now the message you've sent riot is that you'll buy each pass that comes out so why would they not keep pushing them?

Tonyvision2 votes

this is actually a pretty smart response. personally, i've only bought them because i'm somewhat intent on collecting most everything & because the worlds ceremony event has been my favorite event so far, giving skins to ekko & kled, 2 of some of my top played champions at the time, & releasing the K/DA line. the worlds pass just seemed like too much to pass up. however, the new snowdown pass is disappointing—although i still bought it. it just seemed like K/DA prestige akali was crammed in, literally so in the trailer. the rewards aren't that great & the whole event is just "meh," definitely not deserving of a pass. would i buy worlds ceremony passes every year? most likely. would i buy an event pass every event? no. i'd be inclined to buy a pass like the worlds ceremony ones just because it's too much to pass up but seeing that the snowdown event AGAIN required a pass was... upsetting to see & a regrettable investment. in the end, event passes could be great for both parties: riot gets money, we get well-received rewards, but if they were a requirement for every event, i'd more likely than not just stop playing league altogether as the events are what make me stay. if the next event requires a pass while showcasing lackluster rewards, i will not buy it

Karthus Pushed R9 votes

Who thought "man my favorite league pay feature is event passes!", I've seen nothing but hardcore criticism about the last 2 passes being absolute dog shit

Yeah I could see where that could be an op-

As someone who's purchased every pass that came out

LOL

UrPalAl7 votes

Actually, people were huge fans of the World's Pass. It offered a lot of value for the price and received some pretty positive feedback on Reddit. The Snowdown Pass has more of a mixed set of reviews, but still, it's value was pretty good if you made use of it.

If you don't like it, speak with your wallet. If you buy, why would Riot assume you don't want it?

Hellmaximus12 votes

Doesn't surprise me the echo chamber that's reddit would have positive things to say about riot's endeavors, but in the comment section of the worlds pass announcement and boards was met with harsh criticism over the cost of items for the payout of tokens,

There were people happy with riot's decision but criticize the lack of giving funds from the Pass to the Championship pool (as the idea of an Event Pass from Worlds Championship comes from DOTA 2)

And a bunch of other responses you can read in the comment section of that post if you wish.

A lot of people bought it, complained about it, it's called consumer feedback, it's how you know how to change the product to the people buying it, it's how phones companies make product designed to their consumer base.

Riot could give 0 fucks to player not buying the passes, but players who actively do and give feedback will get riots eye looking, this is why K/DA Akali got sx added to her shroud.

As for why I bought this pass and worlds, it had the exclusive Prestige skins that I wanted, I tried rerolling 20 times for it with my stocks of shards and didn't get it, so I ended up buying worlds pass to get the tokens needed (are purchasing the ones I couldn't).

If it wasn't for those exclusive skins I would've sat these passes out.

Helcaraxë25 votes

I’d like to point out the difference between the shop and the event pass. The shop is absolutely wonderful. It never feels greedy, because nothing is being locked behind any sort of paywall that wasn’t before, and everyone gets one. Nobody is left out. Everyone can choose to participate or not as they will. With event passes, yes. You can get a small amount of rewards without buying one. But it doesn’t feel at all satisfying to the player, and that’s the problem I think. After every game it’s constantly being shoved in your face “look how many more tokens you can have!”, and “look at what the people in this exclusive club (pass holders) get that you don’t!”. I don’t think that’s the intent, but it feels pay to win; winning not actually gameplay wise, but in Riot’s eyes. It’s not satisfying for me, as a player, to feel like I’m not as important as someone who bought a pass. The shop is awesome because everyone gets one, and all is perceived as good fun. The perception of event passes is just really off.

Maybe I’m not making any sense or am just completely off, but I’d like to hear from other people maybe. At the end of the day, I do enjoy a game that is free and constantly has more free content always coming out and it’s great, and I appreciate that. I do. But it doesn’t make event passes look or feel any better for the gamer

YourBubbleHero7 votes

100% agree. Event passes also just make events and missions seem so futile when you can't afford a pass. Add up all the missions and it still won't get you enough for what you want, so why bother?

Also I haven't bought a pass since the first one, but I imagine for those people the missions suddenly feel somewhat obsolete, since they get so many more just for passively playing. It just makes the events and particularly the missions (which I usually enjoy completing with friends) less fun for everyone. [cass-cry]

Takes 2 to Tango22 votes

As someone who hasn't bought anything in the past three "Your Shop" events due to poorly-targeted content, I'm looking forward to being disappointed even more often! If you are going to double-down on them, at least consider a re-roll mechanic for it.

Hellmaximus14 votes

I got a bunch of shitty 520 skins and 975 skins that are 5 years old on champions I don't even play with discounts of 20%, 30%, only 2 skins had 60% and 70%, and all of my skins I have the skins shards for along with the orange essence to make them if i wanted.

Talk about a deal breaker amirite [slayer-jinx-unamused]

RAKAN IS ÐADDY16 votes

I honestly don't mind the addition of passes, though I am somewhat upset with how they've been added; to have, well, for example the icon in the most recent one; it just barely pushes it up to $15 instead of $10 needed for the pass, and such. Which just is honestly unfriendly as a consumer, personally. But that aside; love the incoming changes, and I know for a fact, that I am still dying to know if we'll ever be given more refund tokens? I feel like a lot of people; myself included, wasted them on random things like refunding a champion and so on, when first joining, and regrets these decisions. [sg-janna]

RiotBuboBubo11 votes

Heya! Thanks for the feedback on passes - there's lots of room for improvement and this helps us pinpoint where we might want to focus first. For refund tokens - there is nothing planned as part of this change but we were recently discussing what we should do. Will take your comment back to the team (but no promises).

Chiimera5 votes

What if for x amount of RP purchases, x amount of BE spent, or x amount of games played you got one refund token? edit: Would have to be a REALLY large number and maybe it could cap at 1 token earned per split (of next season)

DragoniteDD7 votes

I would suggest 1 additional refund token per $100 purchase of RP.

Takes 2 to Tango6 votes

Would it really be too much to give out refunds at a rate of something like once per year as a holiday gift..?

DragoniteDD15 votes

Or maybe relate refund token type with the currency spent. 1 RP refund token per $100 purchase of RP, or per 15000 RP spent. 1 BE refund token per xxxxx of BE spent. I personally believe associate refund token with currency spent makes more sense than with time, based on the assumption that the need of refunds should be correlated with the number/amount of purchases.

ChrisBrownze13 votes

Can we have champion BE sales in essence emporium at least?

grarrrg12 votes

If doing more/different sales...

You know how on the Skins tab in the Store there's a box for "Champion Owned"? Can we get one of those for the Chroma tab?

It's kind of a pain to scroll through EVERYTHING since the chroma-splosion.

Novae Idyllica3 votes

^^^^ Yes! Please!

nsfw gif10 votes

are you guys still going to release a monthly sale schedule?

aaa5214 votes

That's what I wanted to know too, its already Tuesday 1st of January but I still don't see January sales schedule, or is sale schedule still even exits? Riot planning something else?

Creampie Lux10 votes

Event passes are the worst thing I have ever seen introduced to league and show the terrible path riot is taking when it comes to greed. 'Let's introduce impossible to get skins behind a paywall that does not even guarantee you get the skin'. Seriously, I play alot more then the average player and nothing pissed me off more then seeing all the skins locked behind a paywall that even if I bought the pass, I still would not have had the coins to buy the skins, let alone the skins and other things I wanted exclusive to the event coins. Either pale the passes cheaper, make the rewards cost less coins or remove them from the game riot.

Fritti9 votes

Has there been any discussion about bringing back Legacy/Limited items - not skins - and putting them up for sale (not necessarily discounted)? For example, let’s say I didn’t craft the pumpkin cat icon this last Harrowing, or missed a champion/skin launch event where emotes and icons were available either via questing or for sale. Maybe a My Shop type format but without a percentage off, for all things not skin related? Like, we know you missed XYZ, so now’s your chance to grab it for RP? Especially since accessories aren’t included in My Shop now, and the Blue Essence Emporium still doesn’t include a lot of icons, since they’re gated off as Limited? I would definitely be interested in such a thing.

Also seconding a My Shop reroll option or a way to specify champions we’re interested in prior to flipping the sale cards from a pool of say, 10 or something.

Lastly, can we do a quality of life improvement and add wishlist functionality please? This lets me keep track of what I want, see what my friends want for better gifting and enables Riot to see what’s trending on wishlists. More data can’t be bad, right? This should include everything: skins, icons, emotes, wards, limited\legacy or not.

NotSoEvilDead7 votes

event passes are garbage and you should feel bad for doing them... they're the laziest, most shameful implementation of a battle pass I've ever seen in a game

Helcaraxë6 votes

As everyone else is commenting, event passes?? Nobody really enjoys event passes...yes, a small amount of rewards are available without spending any money, but it just comes across as greedy even though you have made a compromise. I was ok with the worlds event pass because it felt special and was for three events, but if you do it every time there’s an event it just comes across as greedy.

I spend money on the game because I WANT to. I like to support a company that respects me as a consumer, and isn’t greedy. Event passes feel like a step in the wrong direction. Before, if there was an event with super cool skins that I wanted (and couldn’t earn), I’d spend money. And why? Because it was cool, and I was being offered a product I wanted by a company I wanted to support. Event passes come across as greedy, despite the small compromise. Is that worth the price? It makes my opinion of riot games just go way way down, and I’m very disappointed.

Carnicore4 votes

These items will be on sale for 50% off?

RiotBuboBubo8 votes

Most things will be 50%. Leaving the door open to experiment with some different options (eg: higher discounts, lower discounts but on sale sooner) and see how players respond.

HealyCasterCreep4 votes

Even if they're less often I'd personally rather see sales at least 50%, since most new skins are much more expensive then old ones, it feels unsatisfying to see something go on sale for the one time it has in the year or so its been out but its only 30-40% off, and much harder to justify the purchase despite the sale. I'm willing to wait longer for a better deal.

ChefBgob4 votes

’ll be focusing on more favorites like Your Shop, event passes, and the Essence Emporium.

makes me happy!

DragoniteDD4 votes

Regarding the refund tokens, I suggest relating them with currency spent. 1 RP refund token per $100 purchase of RP, or per 15000 RP spent. (or whatever number that makes sense to Riot, you have the data and statistics) 1 BE refund token per xxxxx of BE spent. or restrict it to RP only to make things simple (to have only 1 type of refund token instead of 2).

I personally believe associating refund token with currency spent makes more sense than with time, based on the assumption that the need of refunds should be correlated with the number/amount of purchases.

NovaMS4 votes

Sounds like great news! Riot hasn't been making 975 skins for years now but the vast majority of old sales were on the 975. Nice to finally catch up to the times and discount a larger portion of the 1350 skins.

The approach of checking same time each week to see the weeks 20 sales sounds like a big improvement over the current system. It sounds like more fun to check weekly and scan between a larger pool to find something you might like instead of just waiting for monthly schedule then sitting around waiting to catch it.

Question: Are there any plans on doing RP sales in the future? I remember things like double bonus RP which I think was a good time to buy a bigger RP package and stock up.

Wtch4 votes

Stop advertising the event pass i never want to buy in my missions please.

BarbarianBeast3 votes

Will we be given another two refunds for our account?

edwsfhgj2 votes

please yes!!

Mysticman893 votes

The discounts are remaining just for RP costs correct?

You experimented with having BE prices go down with a sale once or twice which I quite enjoyed, but seem to have returned to only discounting RP prices.

(BE emporium is nice for getting normally RP things for BE, but it's not quite the same as a sale discount...arguably it's a better thing, but it's a different thing.)

StiylMagnus9313 votes

More frequent Chroma sales would be nice. I just wait for the BE Emporium with the way things currently are.

TheProfezzor3 votes

The shop is the best thing you guys offer by a LONG shot. Good discounts (50%>) and skins for champions I play. That's really the only impressive thing I see from you. Please do not offer up MORE sales and they are in the 20-30% off range. In fact I won't buy anything if it isn't at least 50% off.

Makarakarn3 votes

I feel like the passes are a good concept in theory, but would be better if the event system would be changed from: "Get 1 big thing and maybe some extra with pass" to "Play hard during the event and you can get pretty much whatever you want, but with the pass you can go even harder"

KatMastaJ3 votes

I'm appreciating the discussion here. I would love some faster ways to build up BE.

Ragnaveil3 votes

If you are gonna focus on those passes more, can you at least make them affordable? Paying 15$ for it and later learning you wont have enough time to grind or play enough games for the craftables just feels extra bad, especially if you are a collector.

Petder3 votes

Will these new sales start on the 31rst of December or will the first week of January be one without sales?

1st Edition2 votes

This is a great change, any plans for name changes in the future? Cause there's people who haven't played this game for a year and their names are saved for the next 2-3 years? That's insane time to wait for someone who's not interested in consistently playing this game.

Matthias232 votes

To be honest, I'm fine with event passes being a thing, I just think they could offer a bit more. An idea I thought of would be getting tokens per rp spent while having the pass or even bonus tokens when buying a bundle.

BurningRoseThorn2 votes

when we have champ sales each week can we make it so its BOTH riot points and blue ess..... for the past 5 years almost that i have been playing its been the same with the ip XD it makes no sense to put a champ on sale but wait that sale is only with blue ess XD

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