Currency Balance for In-Game Purchases

[fathom slate]

Currently, everyone pays for gems using USD, regardless of their country. This approach feels inequitable because players—like myself—who live in countries with weaker currencies are discouraged from purchasing gems or packs due to the significant price disparity. For example, $20 USD is roughly equivalent to 115 BRL. To illustrate the difference, I’ll include some images.

A combo meal that costs $5 USD (fries, Coke, and McChicken)—about 25 BRL—costs 35 BRL in Brazil. While $20 USD can buy you four of these meals, 115 BRL only gets you three.

This is just Brazil’s perspective, but I’m certain players from other countries with lower-valued currencies face similar challenges.

My suggestion is to adjust in-game gem prices based on the player’s local currency, making the game more inclusive and accessible.

Games that have implemented regional pricing strategies have seen great success. For instance, Heartbound reportedly earned 25% of its revenue from Brazilian players after adjusting its pricing for BRL (source: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/44Do5x5abRY).

If we make in-game content more affordable for players in other countries, it’s highly likely we’d see an increase in revenue. This adjustment would provide greater incentive for more players to make purchases.

[wraith scarab]

Agreed! The 29.99$ USD pack is almost 50$ in Canada. Too expensive for us.

[blissful ocean]

Agreed - this would be great for the health and longevity of the game. The more people that can interact with everything comfortably and confidently the better. +1

[spice raft]

This could also lead to a bit of an issue where people use VPNs to buy bundles for cheaper, which would reduce revenue, it happens with steam regularly

[fathom slate]

Yeah, it can happen, for sure, but why are you worried about it?
The percentage of players that will use VPNs to pay less is that worrying? and think with me, purchases are purchases. Revenue is revenue. If someone manages to do that, well, then let they do whatever they want. I personally think that is better for someone to pay less than paying nothing at all lol.

So whats the big deal?

[spice raft]

I understand where youre coming from, im not saying its a bad idea. But this whole channel is about player feedback, theres pros and cons to everything and they have to be weighted. If every bundle costs a couple hundred USD combined. Alot of people who play the game alot, might be more inclined to use a free VPN to make it 10s of dollars. Maybe a small portion of players will do it, but maybe alot will. And if the price difference could be as much as 5x, u would require 5 purchases from a weaker currency to cover the revenue of a singular usd purchase. Maybe the disparity wont be as steep, but if not, you would still be paying relatively large amounts in local currencies that are extremely weak.

Only example i can think of is deep rock galactic on steam can be bought for 17c with a vpn (whereas its like 30AUD here)

[wraith scarab]

Personally, I think devs would get more revenue if they sold packs for much cheaper. People are more inclined to pay 10 more often than 30. Like 10 might be done 4-5 times vs the one time for 30$. Lower prices bring in more buyers and buyers that would never want to spend 30$ but might be okay for 5 or 10. As for the VPN issue, every service deals with this but it doesn't stop them from offeriing services because most people won't do VPNs. Not everyone is computer savvy.

[cobalt basin]

as long as a pack will be worth 200gem/usd the price are fine, and looking at most pack lava released only 2 fall under that.

The auto-loot pack comes down to 180gem/usd and for its price its still better gain that straight up buy 5$ worth of gems. The other one is the Bloomin' pet pack and comes down to 173gems/usd and that mostly due to its higher price cuz of the green gems.

all other pack are above the 200gem/usd and some are actually pretty darn op for the price really

island explorer, sacred methods and ancient echoes

[wraith scarab]

The prices are fine if you are American. Other countries with crappy exchange rates are not good prices.

[fathom slate]

@cobalt basin I agree, but only if you are paid in USD. Like chemical said, if you are from a crappy currency country, it doesn't matter what benefits the packs gives you, you will pay A LOT more.
My point here is not to turn a 20 USD purchase into a 5 USD purchase, but having some discounts for lower currencies WILL encourage players to buy more. And fuck the "problem" of VPN, because 2~3 USD difference will not be an issue to Lava if more people are buying gems and packs, but it IS currently an issue for ppl who cannot afford gems because of it's price.

[covert pine]

who decides the value of gems though. I find the prices Lava charges for his packs , gems and green gems pretty high. Can buy multiple triple A games with that money

[cobalt basin]

Lava is the one that set the price and its pretty much what you'd expect from a freemium game when looking at what you can buy with the game. The packs themselves are worth alot more considering lava gives at minimum 20$ worth of gem if not more. The you have all the additional items or in some case account wide buff.

Like the complain about exchange rate is valid, but ultimately it's up to Lava if he want to change anything now after the game been out for 4 years.

[fathom slate]

Dude, something you have to understand is that "worthiness" is an abstract concept. You can have multiple mathematical and financial models to come up with a good price for each gem, accounting things like infrastructure costs, maintenance costs, staff payment and etc, but don't ever think that gems are worth exactly the price they have. This will go beyond the point of the suggestion itself, but I just want you to understand that the ultimate ruler that measures gems price/worth is the game developer himself.
If he creates a pack for 10 USD that gives 10k gems, 2k green gems and 10x all afk gain bonus for your account permanently, then trust me, he's not making a discount, he knows that that pack is worth 10 USD.
We are not getting discounts, we are paying for what WE think is a good deal for our progress in the game, trusting that 10 USD are worth all those bonuses because the developer says it's worth it. Got it?

But I don't complain about the prices, after all, i buy packs and gems all the time. My "complain" is that for a more balanced and enjoyable gaming experience, we could add some currency balances to help those who wants to buy gems but can't afford them because their currency is so much weaker than USD that even if it is a great pack that offers so much benefits to their accounts, it is simply not worth it.
So, to make them trust more about the worthiness of the gems/bonuses for that given price, we can lower the cost a bit based on their country currency so they are more encouraged to buy.