League of Legends developer Riot Games has announced that it is upping the prices of the hit MOBA game’s premium currency – alongside Teamfight Tactics coins – in a number of regions, following the studio’s annual pricing review. The change is set to come into effect from August 19, and players aren’t happy about it.
Under the new model, the worst-affected regions will see prices rise over 20%, with US and Canadian players having to shell out an average of 9.8% and 9.9% respectively. In Europe, the €2.50 band has been abolished, and a €99.99 band – which was already available in the States – has been implemented. The UK has also lost its £15 band in favour of the £99.99 band among other tweaks.
Why £99.99 and not £100? Well, Riot is also shifting from a rounded price model to a “$X.99” model, which it says is being done to match up with mobile markets – as evidenced by Wild Rift’s own pricing structure – and maintain “consistency” across its games.
According to Riot, the increase is necessitated to “account for worldwide inflation, currency fluctuations, maintaining fair prices between and within regions, consistency across our products, and other associated cost increases.” Riot cites “economic shifts on a global scale” as the major contributor to the global impact of the changes. Tencent regions – which have a different pricing structure – will make up for changes in “other ways”, while Garena regions will not be affected by the updates “at this time.”
To check out how the pricing change affects your region, head over to the news page on the official League site. To soften the blow, Riot is running a promotion from July 14 to 31 which doubles the bonus RP and TFT coins you get from bundles.
Unsurprisingly, the community response has been overwhelmingly negative, and there is a growing feeling among some of the game’s most dedicated players that Riot’s monetisation model is becoming more and more egregious.
“With the rising costs of fuel it only makes sense raising RP prices, as shipping RP round Europe will be much more costly now”, Reddit user ‘idolkitty’ sarcastically replies to the news.
Some have taken issue with the reasoning behind implementing the “$X.99” model, with ‘NocaNoha’ stating that it’s all “marketing tricks”.
Meanwhile, the price surge is already putting players off. “20% more expensive in Poland, might as well never buy RP again”, writes ‘CallMeAmakusa’.
Indeed, the growing perception among players that they are no longer getting bang for their buck could prove problematic for Riot down the line, though it will be some time before any such knock-on can be observed.