AC not selling as well as before?

[Lvl200Mag]

I've recently read a few posts as well as heard from some friends that Sega apparently mentioned that AC isn't selling the way it used to or as much as before? Does anyone have any source on this, I'm thinking it was mentioned sometime during the last stream maybe?

Assuming it is true: What changes to Sega's policies on AC do you think could be done to entice people to spend money happily again?

[Raujinn]

They could make interesting new content.



IIRC, it was specifically fashion scratches that weren't moving as much. Rather than conclude that it's because the scratches have been lackluster they just do what they normally do to solve problems these days and throw an entirely new system at it. You'll earn stars for wearing new costumes which let you buy certain AC items? Not 100% sure on the details of it. It's in the 40th broadcast thread.

[Shadowth117]

I think the problem is more Ep4 doing jack for them. They put out a very controversial line of content and they didn't really add much as far as new things to based on the old model. So of course if the game itself is troubled you'd get issues. I think they should focus on fixing the game itself, policies be damned.

edit: Ninjaed, but I see that my thoughts are shared.

[SteveCZ]

I don't see the point of this thread, but for the sake of typical pso-world speculating entertainment, I think Sega should not bring costumes to bonus scratch, or at least make it tradable. Make layered wears removable and tradable, not as tickets.

[Hysteria1987]

I'd be interested in seeing a source too - all I've had to go on is speculation based on the fact that AC items/costumes and the like from the latest scratches are much fewer in the shop than prior scratches, and that they're rather expensive.

This implies that a) not so many people are scratching (or in the case of base/innerwear, people are using the tickets themselves), which means prices are not being driven down by availability, and b) much less people are buying the newer stuff because of the cost.

The fact that I'm not seeing much complaining about not being able to get the new stuff implies that it's not in real high demand. Frankly in order to get people buying, I believe they need to offer better stuff.

We don't need school uniform #42, we don't need vomit-inducing overly-saccharine dress #56, and we don't need grimdark male coat #37. Interesting hairstyles have traditionally sold well, and we've not really had a lot of hair stuff at all lately. I'm not sure too many people are responding to the city-casual kind of style that the layered system's offering so far either, so perhaps more themes in that vein would be nice. I'd like more future sci-fi armour type stuff, but that's me, I don't know how the rest of the fanbase would react (there's a lot more people in the game into anime stuff than people like me who aren't, for instance, and they might appreciate the dress stuff more than I do).

There's also Sega's share price, which is sorta kinda a litmus test as to how the public are responding to the company as a whole. Every company goes through rises and falls- Sega's been in a fall for a few years now.

But again, this is all speculation - if there are sources out there, I'm keen to read em :P

[pkemr4]

they should drop the layered wear crap

[Aine]

I'd be interested in seeing a source too - all I've had to go on is speculation based on the fact that AC items/costumes and the like from the latest scratches are much fewer in the shop than prior scratches, and that they're rather expensive.

From the last livestream:

Spoiler!

Basically scratches are selling less so they are branching out into new models such as stamina systems.

[Zyrusticae]

There are any number of contributing factors to lower AC sales:

• Low variety of costumes resulting in similarly styled costumes having their sales cannibalized by other costumes that have already been released
• The costumes themselves not being good or interesting enough to be worth buying
• The low return-on-investment of AC scratches possibly discouraging repeat buyers over the long haul
• The game itself losing a lot of its luster due to heavily repetitive content
• Straight-up burnout from the game having been around for years now
• Competition from games like Blade & Soul and Dragon's Dogma Online eating into their customer base

I'm sure there's more I haven't thought of. Either way, they'd need to make a pretty big increase in quality (IMO) to make back the money they've lost over time. The ridiculously high prices of inner/base/outerwears certainly indicates that that has NOT been a good route to take. Cutting the value of the AC scratch effectively by two-thirds is obviously going to have a lot of customers saying "NO" to that ridiculously low value proposition.

The worst part is that it has knock-on effects as lower AC sales means fewer free players buying costumes off the market which means weaker incentives for people to even bother logging in to make and spend meseta on cosmetics. It's a problem they need to nip in the bud before it gets any worse. But you know they're not going to do that - they're just going to make things even worse by relying on ridiculously staid bullshit mobile game cash shop mechanics to try to wring as much cash out of their players as they possible can.

Fuck SEGA management. They suck.

[wefwq]

Layered wear was a mistake, after all.

[EvilMag]

Hate saying this but can we please have Suganuma back? The Ep4 directors clearly have no idea what the fuck they're doing.