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My theory would be that it's basically a compensation for the game being free to play, which is core to the concept of Sky being a social experience, it being open to everyone – some of it has got to be less open in order to pay the bills. I don't think we'll ever get a straight answer if they're doing great financially and could thus afford to lower the prices as a lot ties into it (what they could possibly spend their earnings on, think salaries and servers at least) and TGC is ultimately a commercial entity.
It's also entirely possible that it's trying to teach a lesson that not being able to afford everything is normal, as is the case in life, and being ok with this is a valuable life skill, I know some games make a point that failing some checks is okay and you're not supposed to reach for "Load game" after every fail (not the way Sky does it, but same direction).
The suits have calculated that a average person wanting to spend 5, 10 dollars a month on a game they enjoy is not worth it vs the whales that will spend 50, 100, 200 on a game, and so they are catering to the later and pricing out the former.
Or maybe its the baseless theory that theyre doing it to teach you a lesson, and not doing it for the reason that every other free to play game does it.
And yes, whales are a thing indeed.
But from what I have seen after a few months of playing, this is probably one of the most "fair" free-to-play games I have ever seen.
1. There are no gachas. None. Nada. Zip. And from what I've read online, this has been consistent for years. You know upfront whether you will have to grind, or fork over cash to get what you want. There is no handing your wallet pointlessly over to a slot machine for a fraction of a percentage chance of getting a desired item. (Looking at you, Mabinogi....)
2. Grinding is reasonable, and doable in short sessions. I can get roughly 17ish candles a day with a quick tour of the game.
3. Heart and ascended candle systems ensure you can't just buy your way to every item, and most of my favorite outfit parts were earned with hearts.
4. Light "FOMO" but ample time to obtain the items you want. Seasons last months, events last a couple weeks. No real issue getting "ticket" items. The few event items that have to be bought with real money are down to a person's personal preferences for outfits. I have no desire to buy every one.
5. The game encourages you to buy IAPs for others, which I find interesting.
Overall, I rarely find myself spending real money on this game, especially when compared to most F2P games that depend almost exclusively on whales gambling hundreds of dollars like little old ladies at a casino. And I've seen plenty of players successfully save up hundreds of candles by willpower alone, so I know it's possible to prepare for traveling spirits in advance. When I do spend money, it's because I specifically want something and am guaranteed to get it. I also greatly appreciate the "temporary" versions of the event items so I can try things out and see what I like best.
The only way I see this game turning into an issue is if you insist on collecting every last item and outfit. But come on, this isn't Love Nikki...
Many mobile games (and Sky started as a mobile game) live from ads as well as an in-game shop.
But I assume inflation, server/employee costs.. maybe some greed are part if it as well.
But, because Sky has no ads featured in the game at all, their only way of making money with the game is by selling digital items for real money.
(This doesn't mean I like the high prices. Personally, as a f2p player I have nothing do to with the prices and usually don't look at the shop offers at all. But I do agree that the prices are too high, especially because there is no local pricing. Many people have to pay far more than they would have to pay with local pricing.
On the other hand. 12 USD is .... not much for (let's say as an example) 100 employees.... I don't enjoy the "recent" imbalance of IAPs (In-App-Purchases) and "free" (items available to buy with in-game-currency) either, but at some point - with bad planning and looking at the high count of collabs lately - a game like Sky simply ... turns into this when it's available for free to play.)
But, yes, the season pass still looks player-friendly, because you don't have to pay extra seasonal candles for each season-pass item - and this is a great thing. I think the season pass is the best deal ya can make in sky unless ya got no time, because to get all items you have to go and do the dailies nearly every single day.
Despite the ads one being steam rules. Sky (as far as I know) never had ads. It's not linked to Steam per se and was just an add-on to the already mentioned points on why the in-game shop prices are so high.
Have a lovely day tho.