Why are MMORPG box cost so expensive?

[Don]

I was looking at some of the MMORPGs out there and here's what it'd cost to start playing some of them at a current level:

WoW: $40 for MoP, $30 for Cataclysm, probably another $20 for everything before it = $90.
EQ2: $40 for Chains of Eternity + $40 for Age of Destiny = $80 though you don't have to pay a sub
LOTRO: The latest expansion is $50 on Steam, I assume this doesn't cover whatever previous expansions that exist that is most likely needed.

I mean I understand at some level you don't want to sell your game for $5 because it might look like a panic move, but we're not exactly at the golden age of MMORPG right now. Even WoW is starting to show its age, and sure there's probably the random deal but you're looking at $90 to start playing a game, on top of the $15/month sub, to play a game that's like 8 years old, and that's not even the worst deal you can do. You can spend the same kind of money to buy a similarly out of date game that was never anywhere as relevent as WoW.

I realize there are some fringe games out there that basically adapts the philosophy of 'charging our hardcore players a ton of money because nobody is going to buy this game anyway' but MMORPG, in theory, thrives to be mainstream as opposed to some cult game that only sells in the hundreds so you might as well charge $150 per box. Or do companies figure that since everyone who's likely a subscriber for a MMORPG is already one by now, they might as well try to get as much money out of the sucker that might want to try something new before ultimately quitting?

The problem I see in MMORPG is evident back in the original EQ. Just because you've 15 expansions doesn't mean anybody even cares about the content in the first n-1 expansions because that's considered obselete stuff. Sure having a high initial price makes it easier to offer special deals but nobody's going to fall for the stuff where you start out charging twice as much and then offer 50% on sale. Given in the subscription business it costs a lot more effort to get a new guy than retaining an old subscriber (e.g. switch your cable and you get all kinds of cool perks for switching to a new place), the cost a new guy has to pay should be significantly less than a current subscriber. I'm not asking for anything outrageous here. Something like $40 for MoP and one month of game time on a new account and let me start playing WoW without looking for some special offer works. Yes I know these scrolls of resurrection or whatever are out there but I shouldn't have to go out there and look for it because currently the new subscriber guy is considered a premium. I believe most of the 'recruit a friend' program offers considerably better deal than $40 for game + one month anyway, so it's not like I'm asking for things that Blizzard isn't already offering since I recall recruiting myself before on games I've no intention to multibox just to take advantage of the deals. And honestly WoW probably still has the better deal overall even if you're paying for all the previous expansions because at least you know this is a quality product that's still currently the #1 in total subs by a wide margin, as opposed to popping down a similar amount on games that obviously failed horribly. Or do other games just fail so horribly they're already at the stage of 'let's try to get as much money from the suckers dumb enough to still be playing?'

[SineSwiper]

Why is water wet?

[Julius Seeker]

On why MMO RPGs still cost lots of money? It's primarily because analytics yielded the data that pricing the games and expansions like this will yield the maximum profits. The potential customer base who is willing to pay monthly fees, or regular microtransactions, for these titles are willing to pay these prices for full versions.

On why water is wet: It's a combination of the molecular weight of the H2O molecule as well as the hydrogen bonding between H2O molecules (at standard pressure and temperatures of 0 to 100 degrees) that makes water a liquid. Since humans generally exist in temperatures ranging from 10 to 30 degrees, and are brain is hardwired to register non-corrosive liquids as wet, water generally feels wet to us.

Spoiler: show

I'm kidding about the water explanation =P

[Don]

I've never heard of a game outside of WoW and the original EQ that ever did well in the subsequent expansions. It's rare to even see some meaningless press release like: "Expansion XYZ turned out to be hugely successful" let alone seeing actual data that'd indicate this. For all I knock on WoW at least they post their expansion sales numbers since those are respectable numbers.

I think it's just common sense that if you price your game boxes at a range higher than WoW (clearly the #1 MMORPG by subs) then the chance of getting new customer is next to nothing. WoW has shown some decline (arguably significantly if looking at revenue) in the past years and a game that may have never had 1/10 of the starting base of WoW is supposed to get growth by being even more expensive than WoW? I'll point out that no game I know of outside of WoW/EQ has ever added more servers after an expansion. If some expansions actually sell well enough to actually expand the base then adding new servers would be the clear thing to do. Instead all you hear are mergers, even when the game goes F2P which you'd think ought to inject a ton of people, there's still often no new servers.

Why would anyone drop $90 on a game that most likely failed in the past when you can drop $90 on WoW for the sure thing? And people don't even seem to be very sold on WoW itself given WoW is in a phase of steady decline, and if now WoW, why any other game?