General: SOE Boosts Station Pass To $29.99/Month

GFulls

Sony Online Entertainment raises rate for Station Access Subscription. Looks like starting April 2 the new price will be $29.99/month.

We want to give you some important information regarding your Station Access subscription. Effective April 2, 2007, the new monthly subscription rate will be US$29.99 per month (not including applicable taxes).

We know that rate adjustments are never popular, but the increase is driven by our desire to provide our Station Access subscribers with a consistently high quality entertainment experience, as evidenced by our most recent addition to the Station Access subscription plan, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes™.

You don't have to do a thing; you will automatically be migrated to the new monthly subscription rate under your existing subscription plan when your current subscription plan comes up for renewal on or after April 2, 2007. We appreciate your support and continued participation in our community.

Station Access subscriptions are recurring, meaning you will continue to be billed at the appropriate subscription interval, until you affirmatively cancel your subscription. Subscription fees are subject to tax and value-added tax, as applicable. The subscription charges are in addition to the cost of the games that are part of the Station Access subscription plan. All game software is sold separately.

Read more here.

jrgambit

Funny this is about a month after the free month of Vanguard runs out.   Anyone else think this raise is needed to support that game.

dalevi1

Good, I think I posted about this earlier, but I guess I'll post about it again.



The station pass at $19.99 was a deal, at $24.99 it was acceptable, but at $29.99 it is a complete ripoff. A normal person may be able to play, at most, two mmorps in tandem and still get their money's worth. Station is officially 2 mmo's worth of sub, with perhaps 1.5 games worth playing. You have EQ2, which they love, SWG, which they milk, MxO, which they ignore, and Vanguard: Rise of the Nub, which they have the audacity to blame for the rate hike, *and it's not even playable*.



So now, I must abandon my boredom in MxO, abandon my frustration with SWG, spit on the clone that is EQ2, and continue ignoring the abomination that is V.



I am actually fine with this, it gives me an excuse to drop money elsewhere.



Thanks SOE ,



You fucking morons...

Veiled_light

Bit stupid they don't let you chose to not have Vanguard or MxO on it lol.

Kaynos1972

Yeah except for EQ2 the other games are sucking major !  So where is the deal now ?  EQ2 is 15$ per month, Vanguard is 15$ per month.   Who really playing (and paying) for MXO or SWG anyway ?  God SOE will never cease to amaze me with their stupid decisions.

Ralsar

This is a bummer.  SOE has several games that I enjoy in short bursts.  I like MxO, Planetside, EQOA, EQ1 all well enough to log on from time to time for some gaming, but I wouldn't choose any of them for my primary game.  Their station pass is just getting too expensive.



However I do see this type of all access plan being the way of the future.  The market is becoming more and more saturated with MMO after MMO.  If the lesser games want to thrive them we need to see more of these "umbrella" packages.

Unknown

I have to agree that at 30 a month its a rip-off. At 20 and 25 it was a decent deal to allow you to play one Sony MMORPG full strength while dabbling in another one. Sony is just buying and producing way to many MMORPGs if you ask me, they should stick to two or three and refine them til they have the polish of a game like FF11 or WoW.

dalevi1

Originally posted by Ralsar

This is a bummer.  SOE has several games that I enjoy in short bursts.  I like MxO, Planetside, EQOA, EQ1 all well enough to log on from time to time for some gaming, but I wouldn't choose any of them for my primary game.  Their station pass is just getting too expensive.



However I do see this type of all access plan being the way of the future.  The market is becoming more and more saturated with MMO after MMO.  If the lesser games want to thrive them we need to see more of these "umbrella" packages.

Perhaps if they would produce more than one game worth playing this would be alright. At current, they have one major IP in chaos, another in stasis, EQ2 (FTW), and Vanguard, which is a year away from complete. EQ1 is what it is, and Tanarus, .



Honesty, I am starting to think they should have kept Torres and experimented on Smedley. Raising the rate to 2 MAJOR MMO rates is the design of an idiot. It's all the reason Station customers needed to keep their favorite game and try something else.



My guess is they play WoW for a month and drop SOE altogether .



And NO, that does not make me happy.

JK-Kanosi

Originally posted by dalevi1

Good, I think I posted about this earlier, but I guess I'll post about it again.



The station pass at $19.99 was a deal, at $24.99 it was acceptable, but at $29.99 it is a complete ripoff. A normal person may be able to play, at most, two mmorps in tandem and still get their money's worth. Station is officially 2 mmo's worth of sub, with perhaps 1.5 games worth playing. You have EQ2, which they love, SWG, which they milk, MxO, which they ignore, and Vanguard: Rise of the Nub, which they have the audacity to blame for the rate hike, *and it's not even playable*.



So now, I must abandon my boredom in MxO, abandon my frustration with SWG, spit on the clone that is EQ2, and continue ignoring the abomination that is V.



I am actually fine with this, it gives me an excuse to drop money elsewhere.



Thanks SOE ,



You fucking morons...

 

I absolutely agree. SOE always finds a way to squeeze money out of you. Like you said, a hardcore gamer would be hard pressed to keep up with 2 games and the station access is equivalent to 2 games after the increase. Screw SOE, their sucky games, their "Lets charge for every bit of content" schemes and their poor business ethics. I'm glad I am investing my money in Mythic.

dpdill

I can't believe sony is doing this again.  The only SOE game that I enjoyed playing was EQ2.  $30 a month is stupid!

I'm done with SOE!

Bird

HolyAvengerOne

Hrrmm second rate raise in 1 year. Gotta agree with previous posters: it sucks and only someone quite remote from your standard gamer would be able to really play and enjoy more than 2 MMOs at once. So, it seems to be a pretty stupid decision... unless.. unless they:



a) want to try and get rid of Station Pass altogether;



or...



b) strike another industry-first and be the first ones to raise the monthy subs rate above the 15$ mark across the board



Hmmm thinking of it, seems more and more plausible to me.

Tiller

The last time they raised it (right before VG) they said it was because VG. What's the reason now? VG again? or maybe it's the Pirate card game. No wonder they did that dumb promo about buying reloadable credit cards.  http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/players/news_archive.vm?id=67159 gotta keep the kids happy

zhiyewanjia

29.99 . completely rip off.

SOE is crazy.its only game,who will pay so much for it

Lukain

Now if they offered  some of the older games as free Downloads , ie : EQ , SWG, Matrix then It may be worth getting a pass..

delateur

---

Originally posted by Lukain
Now if they offered some of the older games as free Downloads , ie : EQ , SWG, Matrix then It may be worth getting a pass..

---

Yes, there definitely needed to be an activation included for all Access games that a person might not already have. They could have even charged a nominal (no more than $10) fee that scaled up the more games you activated. However, even then, I don't see even ONE game worth playing full time in their lineup, much less two. EQ2 just didn't appeal to me. MxO started strong, but got old fast, and Vanguard simply is not ready to be called a full game yet due to the bugs that still plague it. It would have been a lot easier to swallow this increase if they had Vanguard running basically bug-free first. Let's see what happens, though. What is done can always be undone, and if people aren't perceiving the value, Sony will possibly get the message and sweeten the deal. I'm not holding my breath on that, mind you, but I try to see the possibilities that AREN'T a letdown whenever I can.

Jackdog

~shrug~ They need money, Vanguard did not pan out to be the cash cow they hoped it would be and they need money for the development of their new projects. I beta'ed and then played SWG for several months after it's release, then played EQII from beta through last fall. I do think that I am done with SOE though because they want  too much money for too little quality. It's a shame too, I liked EQII.  Mythic and Turbine FTW it looks like.

Tiller

Originally posted by LucifugeHA

All I can say  on this matter is  Smeghead Smedly has sealed the deal I will never ever buy one more damn thing from SOE. First the asshat ruins EQ , then moves on to ruin SWG then on to ( I suspect) forcing Vanguard to be released to early = ASSHAT SMACKTARD with this series of major idiotic moves why does he still have a job? Oh yes that big freakin brown streak on his nose, maybe he just that good at the old wink wink nudge nudge with the top brass of SOE oh screw it ....SMACKTARD  HE IS A SMACKTARD FIRE HIS ASS!!!

ROFL

lukeborgman

Wow!  It can't be long before SOE goes under with decision-making this bad.  I cancelled after the last rate hike.  But raising it to the cost of 2 games is unbelievable.  But just to be clear about how crazy this is, remember that you can't be logged into more than one game at once and you have to buy each box to have the option.  In other words, there is no real cost to SOE to Station Pass that shouldn't be paid for by 1 subscription of $15.  So anything above $15 is gravy for them.  ...just amazing.

tachgb

Haha, was thinking of using station pass to play Planetside, Vanguard and EQ2, not anymore, way to go SOE...

Tymora

The Station Access Pass used to be worth it for me.  I think anyone who liked SOEs mmorpgs would have agreed, because they were able to play more than one mmo for a reasonable cost.  Now that the price is equivalent to having 2 subscriptions of $14.99 per month, the appeal of this Station Pass is much less in my opinion.

It has nothing to do with the games for me, I like SOE and thier games.  It's just a matter of cost and what I get for it.  I like mmo's from other companies too, and would probably pay for a second sunbscription from NCSoft, Turbine, or another mmorpg company instead of paying the $30 per month to SOE.  It's just not worth it anymore, I just pay for a single game sunscription now, and even that one probably won't last.

I don't know, I never really went along with what people wrote about SOE being greedy, but maybe that's true?

Tiller

Just incase SOE reads this

 Can you see the trend so far? Bad idea! Few people play more than 2 MMOs per month consecutively.  In the words of a famous villain from one of your games.

"Now your failure is complete"

Ackbar

The death of SOE IS AT HAND.



What was the old price btw?

Tiller

Originally posted by Ackbar

The death of SOE IS AT HAND.



What was the old price btw?

History of Station Access pricing

$19.99 -> $21.99 -> $24.99 ->$29.99



Cost to play two average MMO games by any publisher today.

2 X $14.99 = $29.98

  

The latest excuse is that the increase has to do with the new PS3/SOE station game set up.

godpuppet

Lets look at this from a game point of view:



Would I play?



Everquest; No, past its sell by date.

Everquest 2; No, in no way entertaining.

Matrix Online; No, I liked the game, but development is going nowhere, I dont like playing dead games.

Planetside; No, I would play BF2142.

Star Wars Galaxies; You couldnt pay me to play that POS.



Vanguard; Yes, for a time (if they fix the godamn bugs).





Granted this is opinionated. But frankly, it is in no way worth paying an extra $20 for the frills of the station sony pass when all im going to play is Vanguard.



A few years ago the Station pass was an attractive deal, but since then better MMO's have been released and SoE have made mistakes. Today the sony station pass, is SHIT.

rwyan

I think this is ironic after Turbine announced their Founders Plan(which is offering a GREAT deal!)  I think this was a bad move on SOE's part.  If Station Pass subscribers actually got "premium" service opportunities in addition to being able to access any SOE MMO, it would be understandable.  But, really, how much does it cost SOE to service 1 SP subscriber?  Realistically, they probably don't use that much more bandwith or CS than the average guy, they're just spreading it out over 2-3 games.

billp89014

 Yeah this sucks!

 

Mycokerewards.com is giving away retail copys (download) of EQ,EQ2, planetside, and MxO for 200 points each! (12 pack = 10 points and a 2 litter = 3 points) I work in a place where i can get  the max points per/day

I was planning on getting EQ2 and Planetside, as well as keep my Vanguard active (to keep an eye on it) and get a station pass.  But now forget it SoEs MMOs are not worth it IMO! So insted of having me pay $24.99 a month, they're getting nothing. And i can take that money and try one (or two) of the new games comming out soon (AoC, WAR, LotRo).