EverQuest II Copies WoW With Cash Mount Sales

[Tom Goldman]

EverQuest II Copies WoW With Cash Mount Sales

Moving faster and in exclusive style is evidently something we'll be paying for the privilege of in MMORPGs from now on.

Sony Online Entertainment wants to get a piece of the $50 trillion or so Blizzard made by selling an in-game celestial horse mount Station Marketplace [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/100024-25-World-of-Warcraft-Mount-Launches-on-Blizzard-Store] for the first time.

For $25, players of EverQuest II are now able to buy one of two versions of one of three Prowler mounts [http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news/read/current/3556]: the Ethereal Prowler, the Sinister Prowler, and the Ulteran Prowler. They come in Fierce and Arcane flavors, with the bitter Fierce version increasing physical skills, and the salty Arcane version increasing the mystic arts.

Sony says that the mounts will be available for "at least one month," perhaps trying to tease players to infuse the company with cash quickly before the mounts disappear. It's hard to imagine that SOE's mount sales weren't entirely inspired by the success Blizzard had with its celestial horse pimping, meaning Blizzard has definitely set a precedent here.

Basically, if you run an MMORPG and aren't selling exclusive mounts for real cash, you probably hate money. We're going to see a lot more of this in the future, no doubt, but ideally it won't go too far and will remain in the zone of the cosmetic in pay-to-play MMORPGs.

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[Soviet Heavy]

Next thing you know, The Old Republic will charge you $25 for a pimped out speeder

 

[hudsonzero]

to be honest the everquest tiger mount-thingy dont look nearly as good and the warcraft star horse

 

[hansari]

Next thing you know, The Old Republic will charge you $25 for a pimped out speeder

$25 is a bit much...but I'd rather have an option to pay then have them make it ridiculously merit based.

Battle of the Immortals has a huge mount system...but acquiring one without real world cash would require something like 600 hours of doing the same thing over and over...

 

[soapyshooter]

did you mean million? Even the US government doesn't have $50 trillion. Or were you just using it as an exaggeration?

 

[Loop Stricken]

Thing is, these EQ mounts increase stats. That Retarded horse does not.

did you mean million? Even the US government doesn't have $50 trillion. Or were you just using it as an exaggeration?

You know, I think it may just have been a joke.

 

[Asehujiko]

Considering Blizzard sold one to about 1% of their population, I think SOE is jumping the gun here with their bandwagon especially as these seem to add actual ingame bonusses as opposed to just looking pretty.

Also, the irony of EQ directly ripping off WoW.

 

[DividedUnity]

And in other news Eve Online launches a new range of optional mounts...


OT: I don't get it really. The celestial steed was really expensive for what it is. Then again people pay thousands for virtual land in second life so honestly it doent suprise me

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I suppose it makes a change from WoW coping EQ for...oh, everything else.

 

[Manicotti]

Wait, people still play EQ2?

 

[Credge]

I think this article could be written with a bit more bias in the tone.

But only by a little.

 

[Keava]

A step closer for wester MMO market being overtaken by micro-transaction model. Sad thing. While i could be angry at Blizzard for selling a mount for such obscene price i see Sony does even worse thing by adding a mount that adds to your stats for a stupid price on an already pay to play, subscription based mmo.

Bad. Very bad.

 

[Altorin]

the good thing about the celestial mount is that it's one mount that you can get at level 20, and use until 80, that scales up all the way to 310% if you happen to get a 310 mount.

I don't know the EQ2 mount system, but unless that's a flying spectral tiger, I doubt it's worth 25 bucks.

 

[Barry93]

I hate that celestial steed, everyone has it. There are better mounts you can get for free.

 

[Tom Phoenix]

While Blizzard's That Retarded Horse may have been sold for real cash, at least it did not have any actual in-game benefits. Sony overstepped their boundaries with this one, since people will leave if they feel like they cannot compete with those that purchase these mounts.

 

[Jared]

The sad thing us prople are gonna buy it too...talk about robbing prople blind

 

[Worgen]

Im gonna blame stupid people for this

 

[znix]

Blizzard did not pioneer cash mounts. Other games mostly of Asian origin did it long before.