PlanetSide 2 players are angry with the increased monetization brought about by the game’s latest patches. Specifically, the dip in certificate drop rates. The issue became such a big deal that SOE CEO John Smedley came out to address the issue, on no less than Reddit.
This is John’s verbatim statement:
Planetside 2 only recently has turned profitable on an operating basis. When I say recently, I’m talking about a few months here. Anyone that thinks we’re swimming in cash is plain wrong. Don’t get me wrong, the plan for any game is to make money.. and we believe in the long term future of the game.. which is why you’re seeing the PS4 version going into beta very soon (we’ll officially announce it in the next couple of days).
If your’e in the online game business, unless your game is LoL or Wow the truth is it’s all about the long term and you better be in it with that in mind. We are.
Specifically – our plan has always been to offer ALMOST anything that you can buy with Station Cash to be purchased with Certs.And the majority of people have a ton of certs. Why? Because we didn’t balance it perfectly. In every case we erred on the side of giving away too many or making things cost too little so we don’t make you grind too hard.
