darkSpyro

I thought it might be handy for people to see a comparison of the pricing compared to other similar games, both physical and digital, because it shocked me quite a bit:

Physical card price comparison

Magic The Gathering, 23p per card (15 card booster = £3.50)
Pokemon, 35p per card (10 card booster = £3.50)
Battlecast, 62p per card (8 card booster = £4.99)

Digital card price comparison

Hearthstone, 23p per card (2 x 5 card pack = £2.29)
Battlecast, 50p per card (8 card booster = £3.99)

In App Examples

8 card booster = 500 coins
22 card battle pack = 1400 coins

Digital booster packs can only be bought with coins, 500 for £3.99
Digital battle packs can be bought with coins or cash for £7.99

Also...

There is no 1400 coin chest to buy, a 1100 coin chest costs £7.99, but a 2300 coin chest costs £14.99. The cheapest way to buy cards is by spending £79.99 on 13000 coins, the equivalent of 26 booster packs.

A lot of thought has clearly gone into this pricing model, but the difference between similar games is stark. I'm thoroughly enjoying the game, but the pricing will probably prevent me from really getting into it.

Yeesh! That is a lot of money. Strange thing too is that a MTG or Pokemon card has a LOT more stuff in it than a Battlecast card. Must be the extra money they had to spend hiring professional artists. That or the app development costs.

Hrm, good post. I would be interested to know what the USA differential is, maybe will go to a store and do some research.

Thing is, with Pokemon, or Yugioh, or Magic, there are so many packs, its hard as a layman to know. Also, these seem to be assumed folks will buy entire boxes...Battlecast was a pretty small inventory release. I will do some numbers for USA when I go to TRU next time.

Also, at least with the BOGO 50% off sale at TRU or the Amazon Prime sales, you do get a good discount at least initially.

Quote: lamoracke

Also, at least with the BOGO 50% off sale at TRU or the Amazon Prime sales, you do get a good discount at least initially.

Unfortunately in the UK there are no such launch offers. It'll be interesting to see if we get some down the road. Prices quoted above for physical cards for MtG/Pokemon are for single booster packs, rather than boxes of boosters, which would be significantly cheaper.

Also worth bearing in mind that these prices include UK tax which is always included in RRP (20%)

And we have sales tax which can vary by county and state. For example, my state has almost a 10% sales tax but I will not include that.

@wideawakewesley

We have to consider the minimalism of value the cards have between CCGs. In Hearthstone, the cards themselves are expendable considering in Battlecast there's no way to digitally remove them from your collection. This is because Hearthstone has the crafting and disenchanting system to recycle your expenses through dust.

Battlecast pretty much follows the one time forever model. Opening a new card is far more invaluable whether physically or digitally since you get to keep them forever. That's where the magic ticket system comes in, if you want to spend the extra of having a physical and digital copy for the game and your personal leisure, I think the pricing is rightfully justified since you're recycling those potential physical epic/ultimate cards for a ticket that may net you a missing card in your digital collection. If you're not too fussed about scanning cards and you rather just complete your digital collection through their standing order and coin pack monetisation. It appears far more affordable if you're comparing the digital pricing between Hearthstone and Battlecast. We also have to consider the quality of the drops since you're always guaranteed 2 rares + 1 ultimate or 1 epic.

Where as hearthstone the packs come with at least 1 rare but with a lower quantity and sporadic quality of cards that is less guaranteed compared to 2 rares + and epic or above that battle cast is always going to offer.

Add to the fact that we get free spins for a potential booster pack and a daily 3 card pack where you can also potentially open 1 rare and you can see why the pricing may seem a little exorbitant compared to hearthstone where we get none of those freebies. With Blizzard, they make us have to work to get a free pack via a tavern brawl and quests can only be completed in PVP where as Battlecast allows our quests to be completed in both story and PvP. I think the benefits outweigh cons since it seems Battlecast is aiming for a more friendly F2P approach.


P.S.
I forgot to mention that purchasing coins from their in game shop will also build up your magic ticket meter. So while the physical packs prices are somewhat bad value, they're not an absolute necessity.

Great points and digital is definitely the way to go unless you desperately need to own the cards.

One thing to add would be what the notion of "Rare" represents, because you can be sure they mean different things in different games.

I think the notion of rare is less nebulous in battlecast since they're really upfront on what you're getting in booster packs once you press that button. With hearthstone you just hope you roll your chances and get more than 1 rare which is hardly the case sometimes.

The pricing for Battlecast is perhaps a little greedy if we're just looking at the numbers, but they didn't abandon the option for budget players with the 30 day standing order which I think is incredible value for its cost.