Ruskies to pay Monthly Fee to play Starcraft 2

[Alex]

If what you guys said is accurate (and it's still possible to buy a full and unlimited version for 60$), then that's indeed a very smart move by Blizzard, it'll be interesting to see how it'll turn out.

[Norfindel]

The cheapest price is about 17 USD.

Well, that's what i call a big discount. You can play the single player and try MP for a year by that price, then buy more time, or upgrade to the full version.

You need to buy the entire game to upgrade, or just the difference?

[newcomplex]

-edit:-

Island Snake did a gj of explaining this sooo...nvm

[DemolitionSquid]

[SlickR]

??????????

What the heck is blizzard doing?

This will make many russian players outraged.

top 5 eu countries price $60.
after five, top 10 eu countries $40
After 10, top 20 eu countries $30
There you have it the perfect pricing model, that won't discriminate certain demographics.

[Triceron]

You have to factor in that Russia doesn't have the same laws against piracy as many other EU countries.

It's the reason China gets a different pricing model for MMO's than other countries as well.

[Josue]

The only thing I can say is that I don't like the way this looks; I'm not liking this at all...
and I'm not Russian.

[hyde]

I think this is going to work "Similiar" to the Chinese WoW system.
You do not need to buy a box or anything, signing up an account is free or a small one time charge.
For I think 8 hours of play, its a few USD$. People there don't have the space,time,cash to buy a gamer computer and/or setup monthly subscriptions
(People at factories make anywhere from 300-1000$USD a month with LONG hours)


Activision isn't that stupid guys....Look at this

Monthly Minimium Wage for a full time adult
4,330.00 RUB = 148.644 USD
http://www.fedee.com/minwage.html

Would you spend half your month's wage on a freaking PC Game? Even if it was StarCraft2 ?

For the Russian version the monthly fee also only applies after the free months that come with the box are over and are only for the online version of the game.

It sounds like there is an online only version of the game, probably at an AFFORDABLE price. But because of this, and Activision still being evil as hell, they will milk the Russian gamers slloooowlly.... but surely.

[Artanis]

Well, that's what i call a big discount. You can play the single player and try MP for a year by that price, then buy more time, or upgrade to the full version.

You need to buy the entire game to upgrade, or just the difference?

The 17 USD version is for 3 months, 34 USD version for 1 year but this price is only for SP and MP on Russian Battle.net servers. To connect the other servers and buy more time russian players should pay some money in addition.

[spychi]

what is next Blizzard? Units different for different countries? Or you need to buy units?
This is going beyond my most pesimistic thoughts and I don't buy the explenation some people gave here... Geez