Fixed Prices

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

..just wondering.. will the new fixed price plans be announced before the deadline for upgrading to the silver/gold premium packages expire ?

Quite happy with my existing and probable future gold, but I (currently) have exactly ten regions..

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Dundridge,

Sorry but no, the details about the new fixed-price options will be provided once people can actually act to get them. We don't want to create confusion and lose people who come to our site to get the new plans when the new plans are still not available for order.

[Dundridge Dreadlow]

Aww, understandable.

Guess I'm stuck with gold for at least now then

[Deuce Halsey]

Frankly, I'm not sure why posting the new metered plans in advance is any less confusing than posting the new unlimited plans would be. In fact one would think they will me much more straighforward - three different levels of Prim/Avatar and Region limits at three different prices. Even better, the old, grandfathered unlimited plans won't be changing at all. Contrast this with the grandfathered metered plans, which will in fact have changes.

[Ilan Tochner]

Hi Deuce,

Whenever we announce something big we get media/blog coverage for it and that results in traffic to our site that is more likely to convert to active users. When people can't act on the news they either ignore it or, in some cases, having heard about it from another person who neglected to tell them all the details, they get to our site and complain they can't find what they came to see/get.

In addition, the more information we give people at the same time the less of it people process and understand, thus further increasing confusion and the amount of complaints we need to deal with.

Announcing the changes to the metered plan options came with a call to action of "order now to get this limited-time deal". There is no such equivalent for the fixed-price worlds. The best you can say is order now to get the existing options before new ones (some of which are cheaper) will replace them. That creates two call to actions (the second being quite weak) which decreases the number of people who will act upon either one of them thus resulting in less marketing impact.

[Deuce Halsey]

That creates two call to actions (the second being quite weak) which decreases the number of people who will act upon either one of them thus resulting in less marketing impact.

Wow, you actually stayed awake during your business school classes. That's not a common trait in small business CEOs.

I remember just enough of my own business school classes to get what you're saying. Thanks for the clarification.

[Ilan Tochner]

Wow, you actually stayed awake during your business school classes. That's not a common trait in small business CEOs.

Maybe it's because I went to business school after I'd already held management positions in various startups and publicly traded companies. You pay more attention when you're planning on building a big business of your own.

[Deuce Halsey]

Okay, Ilan can't officially announce the new unlimited pricing plans until January 1st. But we can make some shrewd guesses about what is coming. Ilan has dropped hints in various threads that the new plans - particularly the lower cost plans - will have lower limits for both prims and avatars. These should be the key factors that Kitely residents use when deciding whether to grab one of the grandfathered plans or wait for the new plans.

Which of the following two groups do you fall into?

1) People who think that they will never in a million years need 100k prims or 100 avatars at a time in their world and have always wondered why Kitely set the limits so high.

2) People who realize that they might never really use 100k prims or have 100 avatars at a time in their world - but have always liked the fact that those options are available.

People in Group 1 should hang tight and wait for the new plans to be announced on January 1st. You should be able to save some money for an unlimited world that meets your expectations.

People in Group 2 should get an unlimited world before December 31st. That way they retain the 100k prim and 100 avatar limits for their worlds. Maybe you'll love it and keep it forever. Maybe not. But in any event you're only committed to the grandfathered plan for the month of January 2014. You can always change to one of the new plans at any time after January 1st - the new billing rates and service parameters will take effect on the 1st of the following month.

(Ilan, please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this - thanks!)

Which group am I in? Group 2! I already have my 4-region unlimited world and plan to keep it indefinitely. I like not having to worry about avatar or prim limits.

[Ilan Tochner]

I think you explained it quite nicely Deuce, and your description of how our billing works is on point.

[Tully McLeod]

If we get an unlimited plan now to have it grandfathered in, is it tied to a specific word, or can it be shifted to another region at some point? I would assume the former, but just wanted to make sure.

Now I just have to decide if I need a 4 region unlimited, or 9.