The last few months have shown a steady rise in plex prices, followed by a quick rise over the last few weeks. There are several factors that have been contributing to this price increase.
First, CCP allowed the donation of Plex to charity, and we've seen the ability for plex to be moved in space introduce last Spring. Both of these factors result in plex items being removed from the economy, lowering supply. This is most likely a significant part of the price increases over the summer.
Second, CCP has announced that Plex will be used to get remaps once Incursions hits. Currently, there is a huge divide in the playerbase with regards to this issue, but it motivated speculators to heavily enter the market, both for this exchange and possible future plex uses. However, has the plex bubble gotten too big? Are speculators misjudging the increased demand that will come into effect this Novemeber? At this point, I'm unsure of which is the case. Personally, I plan on using a few extra plexes for remaps across my accounts, but I don't forsee this becoming a typical use. Most likely, I'll use it to optimize shorter plans of 4-8 months. However, my current plex usage is already around 72 plex a year just to stay subscribed (depending on the amount of accounts I have active). 6-10 more is an increase in demand, but I'm not sure that its enough. As plex prices rise, the incentive for players to purchase and sell them for isk also rises, and some players may have to transition from using plex to using real money for their subscription costs. The equilibrium point is completely unknown at this point.
What do you think will happen to the market? Do you see Plex pricse stabalizing near where they are now (Jita, 380m)? Or do you see them rising or falling from this price in the long term?
I think if they introduce the PLEX for Remap thing (I hope very much they don't) then PLEX will settle at a higher price point permanently, maybe as much as 10-20% higher.
ReplyDeleteGood news for PLEX sellers, bad news for those who buy them; coincidentally, bad news for RMTers, too.
-Shandir
I am actually a bit curious about this as well. I have listened to older podcasts, and they mention PLEXes being 150 million...why did it double in price? Human greed is most likely the largest factor. The introduction of remaps for PLEX will only make it worse. I would say the ceiling would be close to 400 mil, but again...why?
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, I suppose if you ever need a quick ISK injection, you'll be getting more for your money than you used to. The game is ever evolving so perhaps with T3 and other factors, the price of PLEX increases to fund those efforts.
My 2 cents
I've played several games that had rl-bought but ig-cashable items over the years and for whatever reason, the inflation seems inexorable.
ReplyDeletePresumably something to do with an expanding user base, the items being consumable and some of the userbase being locked in.
Historical accounts of plex prices are somewhat strange because they used to be actual time codes, not in-game objects. These codes were from 30-90 days of training.
ReplyDeleteI made a bit over the summer plex rise, and I've invested in the plex market to a small degree for the future, so lets see what happens.