MLG Winter Arena to be PPV - Page 167

On February 15 2012 14:45 Shaok wrote:
It's a separate event from MLG championship season IIRC. There is no reason to think you were granted access when purchasing Gold Member status.

On February 15 2012 14:45 Shaok wrote:
It's a separate event from MLG championship season IIRC. There is no reason to think you were granted access when purchasing Gold Member status.

On February 15 2012 14:49 OuchyDathurts wrote:
Some random thoughts on the whole situation. Maybe they're silly but maybe they're worth consideration. I'd email them in to MLG as food for thought but I'm not entirely sure where to send them.

What about charging in an a la carte method for those who can't catch the whole weekend? (Numbers are made up, can be changed around obviously) What if they charged say $5 a day and $10 for all 3? If you could only sit down and watch the sunday championship games then you throw down $5 and can still catch your games. Theoretically that's still more money in their pockets than they would get from someone that could only watch a day or 2 and just said "f it".

What about monetizing through barcrafts? Make it a completely opt in situation so some of the smaller "mom and pop" style barcrafts can just pay the $20 and watch their games. But maybe have a "barcraft package" where a larger barcraft can buy in for say $200 (made up, but bars do have to pay a LOT more for PPV packages than the normal consumer in general). For that price maybe MLG sends them a little swag bag for the barcraft to raffle off or whatever. A few T shirts, a sweatshirt, mousepads, whatever. Maybe they throw to a live webcam during a break as well to give them props. Obviously the price point would need to be at a place where MLG makes a profit after giving the barcraft stuff, but still not so much where the barcraft would feel screwed.

I dunno, to me, on paper at least, it seems like those are a few avenues that haven't been looked at that could do well.

On February 15 2012 14:55 tdt wrote:

All these ideas about monitizing are complete bullshit until you have a killer app. For example, Back when Zuffa bought UFC they sunk 80 million into it to make it a must watch before they turned a dime. Before that they got 4000PPV and were bankrupt.. Yes, takes money to make money and innovation too. That's where places like GSL and HSC come in. GSL has the best. HSC lets you get up close and personal. What is MLG? just another ordinarily FREE tournament who invites players and pays a rather paltry sum. No Thanks.

On February 15 2012 15:01 OuchyDathurts wrote:


I'm aware of Zuffas beginnings. I believe I was the first to bring them up in one of these threads. The fact of the matter is MLG has decided to go with charging people. I understand their need to charge so they don't go under. I don't believe they went about it in quite the right manner. I also don't believe they explored all the possibilities and the $20 price point was setting the bar too high. I agree with Alex Garfield that $10 would have been the smart money. I also believe something like my second suggestion (which is completely optional) would have been a way to provide them a little revenue without all the backlash.

If the people behind MLG have any sense (and other tourney organizers for that matter) they'll be combing through all these threads to learn from this "mistake". I'm merely throwing out ideas.

On February 15 2012 14:49 Ice Climber wrote:
My two cents:

Money isn't a problem for myself, but $20.00 is too much to charge for a single weekend for the vast majority of people. I really doubt that will be the final price point.

I'm interested in seeing how well this does.

I'm probably going to end up paying for it myself with or without a price drop, but only because the player list is so stacked.

Assembly just does not have the same caliber of players showing up.

On February 15 2012 15:17 tdt wrote:


I don't know if $10 is smart but certainly putting the cost less than the premier tournament (GSL) instead of above it couldn't hurt. But I still stand by my comment that you need a killer app to ask for money when there are plenty of FREE alternatives. People make purchases on relative value, not charity ("supporting esports" canard).

On February 15 2012 15:30 Ricemagical wrote:

Lol and how do you suppose they'll go about resetting the price? They'd have to refund a portion of the purchase made by all people who have already paid for the pass.

On February 15 2012 15:32 OuchyDathurts wrote:


Well if they were deadset on charging $10 could be a whole lot less staggering to the community. I have no proof obviously, but I'm personally convinced they'd get over twice as many subs at $10 than they will at $20. It would have been wiser IMO for them to let the first event of the year be a free "proof of concept". Let people see what they can expect, then charge at the next event so people aren't completely in the dark as to what they're going to get for their money. Charging for things to be the same as they were in 2011 is silly, I'm sure they're going to try and iron out things. They've always improved with each MLG in 2011.

MLG does give you a decent product. I'll admit I've never caught the IPL championships, only a bit of HSC, a few GSL games (but GOM player hates me so I can't watch it). But I think MLG has the best announcers, they try and get koreans in to help legitimize it as not just a tier 2 tourney. They're on a better timeslot in the US which is nice compared to GSL. But the downtime between games can be unprofessionally long, pauses during a game to sort things out, things of that nature are big strikes against them. In 2011 it was decent, I overall enjoyed things, but decent doesn't necessarily warrant money. I'd like to see them succeed but time will tell.

They've claimed they're running at a net loss so they can't tread water forever. I'm skeptical about everything but I want to hope the best. I don't want this to be a money grab with no conscience behind it. I don't want sundance in the MLG crew to fold. I like (not love) most of what they do. So I just wanted to toss out some ideas that maybe they hadn't thought about (or other tourney organizers).

On February 15 2012 16:01 human_ko wrote:
I wish I knew what PPV meant lol....

On February 15 2012 16:01 human_ko wrote:
I wish I knew what PPV meant lol....