How much more expensive is The Year of the Mammoth?
Adventures were the most cost efficient way to obtain cards. By removing adventures and replacing them with expansions, you not only have more cards per year, but also these new cards will be much more expensive. This will drive up the prices for players who want to keep invested in the game.
some calculations:
| 2016 | Gifts | Price in Gold | Price in € | Cards | Gold / 1 Card | € / 1 Card |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whispers of the Old Gods | 1 Legendary, 2 Commons, 13 packs through quests ≈ 14 packs | 200 packs - 14 = 186 packs = 18,600 gold | (50 pack pre-order = 49.99 €) + (2 x 60 packs = 62.99 €) + (15 packs = 17.99 €) = 193.96 € | 134 (90% = 120.6) | 154.2 | 1.608 |
| One Night in Kharazan | 4 x 700 gold = 2,800 gold | 17.99 € | 45 | 62.2 | 0.400 | |
| Mean Streets of Gadgetzan | 6 packs | 200 packs - 6 = 194 packs = 19,400 gold | (50 pack pre-order = 49.99 €) + (2 x 60 packs = 62.99 €) + (15 packs = 17.99 €) + (7 packs = 8.99 €) + (2 packs = 2.69 €) = 205.64 € | 132 (90% = 118.8) | 163.3 | 1.731 |
| Total | 40,800 gold | 417.59 € | 311 (284.4) | 143.5 | 1.468 |
| 2017 | Gifts | Price in Gold | Price in € | Cards | Gold / 1 Card | € / 1 Card |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lost Secrets of Un'Goro (?) | ? | 200 packs = 20,000 gold | (50 pack pre-order = 49.99 €) + (2 x 60 packs = 62.99 €) + (2 x 15 packs = 17.99 €) = 211.95 € | ~ 130 (90% = 117) | 170.9 | 1.812 |
| Expansion 2 | ? | 200 packs = 20,000 gold | (50 pack pre-order = 49.99 €) + (2 x 60 packs = 62.99 €) + (2 x 15 packs = 17.99 €) = 211.95 € | ~ 130 (90% = 117) | 170.9 | 1.812 |
| Expansion 3 | ? | 200 packs = 20,000 gold | (50 pack pre-order = 49.99 €) + (2 x 60 packs = 62.99 €) + (2 x 15 packs = 17.99 €) = 211.95 € | ~ 130 (90% = 117) | 170.9 | 1.812 |
| Total | 60,000 gold | 635.85 € | 390 (351) | 170.9 | 1.812 |
Notes: Since an adventure gives you a 100% complete set, comparing it to an expansion with random packs can only be an estimation. In this example I used 200 packs, which give you a ≈ 90% complete expansion, which should be enough to have every card that you need/want to play with.
Disclaimer: Possible gifts of any 2017 expansion are not included and would lower the overall price of an expansion.
Conclusion: We will have significantly more content per year (66.6 more cards). This will make it more expensive to keep up with the meta (you need additional 218.26 € / 635.85€ in total). Also the removal of adventures will make every single card more expensive (1.812 € per card in 2017, instead of 1.468 € in 2016). That is a 23.43% increase in prices. This is a drastic change that can not at all be compensated by the usual launch event giveaways, such as free packs from quests.
What to do? In order to maintain the affordability of Hearthstone, Blizzard needs to either reduce the prices of packs, introduce a new and more efficient way to buy packs in bulk (100 packs bundle?), make the pre-order much cheaper, give out substantially more gifts and free packs - or - a combination of these.
TL,DR: Spend more gold and money per year, unless Blizzard changes the pricing of Hearthstone.
Posted Feb 16, 2017, 10:12 PM UTC · edited