Planetside 2 Subscription Changes Explained

Planetside 2 on PC is a fantastic game, and those that love it enough to subscribe are going to see some changes over the next few months. Instead of the 500SC they’ve been recieving each month as a reward, they’ll instead be able to choose any one item up to 2000SC. On the surface this seems like a fantastic deal, but it’s worried some long term fans. CEO John Smedley jumped on Reddit to clarify the changes:

Why did we make this change? There were a few reasons really. First and foremost we wanted to let players get some of the larger items on the marketplace. People complain the other way on this all the time – they complain that the 500SC isn’t enough for them to buy enough stuff. So we thought this would be a positive change.

Second – it helps us deal with some internal issues regarding accrual of balances of SC for people who aren’t playing or spending. There are a lot of people who play and have SC in their wallets and don’t spend it ever.. this accrues over time and it’s a problem. Before the jaded among you cry out that this is really the most important reason – please don’t judge just yet. It’s actually not but I don’t want to hide the fact that it’s a part of it.

Third – we have a problem with a disparity between our console titles (which can’t use Station Cash) and our PC Games. We can’t do the same kind of promotions as easily on the PS3 and PS4. We’re a lot more limited because we can’t use Station Cash on there. So when we have a 3x sale on SC we have to do something different for our console titles. It’s a pain in the neck to deal with this.

Forth – And this is very important –

We are considering (and are likely going to move forward with) a plan that means if you subscribe to one of our games you are a subscriber to all our games (this applies to PC titles only btw).. all for the current $14.99 a month. That’s a benefit most companies simply can’t offer because they don’t have our portfolio of games. The goal would be to let you pick an item in each game you play.

So there’s a lot of reasons for the change in Planetside 2, and not just in Planetside 2 either. Will this calm those angry about the subscription changes?