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chrisk avatar image
chrisk asked

Suggestion: Catalog shop item prices are synced to item prices unless overridden

At present, Catalog items and Catalog shop items have independent prices. While this flexibility is good, it makes it quite a hassle when we want to update an item price globally - we have to make the price change in 2 or more places as we have to change the item price in the Catalog item and in each Catalog shop item entry.

I propose that

- the default Catalog pricing behavior is that the Catalog shop item prices are kept in sync with the Catalog item price

- we add an 'override price' checkbox to the Catalog shop web editor per shop item which users can check in order to have independent pricing between the catalog shop item and the catalog item

What do you think?

In-Game Economy
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chrisk avatar image
chrisk answered

I agree that store prices should act as an override. With that said, the issue is in regards to live operations and improving the data update process to ensure minimum human error. Adding a level of automation will address this.

Supposing I have one item that is in exactly one store. Live Ops updates the price in the Catalog store but forgets to update the price in the store item.

In game, a user goes to the store to purchase the item. the implementation uses 'GetStoreItem' to retrieve the items and prices so the purchase price the user pays matches expectation.

So far so good.

Later, the player decides he wants to admire the item he just bought. The game allows the player to retrieve detailed information about the item including the item value. The game retrieves the store item information using 'GetStoreItem' API instead because it has nothing to do with the store at this point. The item value is nowhere close to the price he paid.

The user is potentially furious - maybe he/she spent real money to buy HC to purchase the item only to discover that the item's value according to the detailed item screen is much less than he paid!

My suggestion reduces the need for live ops to remember to update the item price in two places. Does this help clarify the value of the suggestion?

Thanks.

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Citrus Yan avatar image Citrus Yan commented ·

Hi,

Yes, I agree that adding automation will address this. However, there is one thing that confuses me, you said that “the item value is nowhere close to the price he paid”. I don’t get it, as far as I am aware, the game calls GetStoreItems API to retrieve the item info and show it to the players, then use PurchaseItem API specifying StoreId and Price specific to the store to make the purchase. When the players use GetStoreItems to “admire” the item he just bought, the item value matches the price he paid. Did I mistake something?

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chrisk avatar image chrisk Citrus Yan commented ·

The issue isn't what he paid for the item. He paid the correct price - the price listed in the store.

The issue here is that Live Ops may forget to update the item price in the item list.

Scenario:

  • Catalog item price: 250, Store item price: 250
  • Live Ops updates store item price: Catalog item price: 250, store item price: 500
  • User enter shop UI; shop UI retrieves prices using GetShopItems()
  • User buys item at shop; shop UI uses PurchaseItem(); user is correctly charged 500
  • User exits the shop and goes out into the wilderness
  • In the wilderness, user brings up the Inventory UI and opens the purchased item's details; Inventory UI uses GetCatalogItems() to retrieve item info; purchased item prices is incorrectly displayed as 250

At present, Playfab offers the 'modify prices' button in the Shop screen which allows Live Ops to bulk modify all the store prices based on the shop item price. The issue here is that it's an all or nothing thing. If you intended to have the store price for a couple of items be difference from the original catalog item price, the operation will wipe out the difference.

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Citrus Yan avatar image Citrus Yan chrisk commented ·

Hi Chris, yes, I think it would be a very useful tool for Live Ops:) Please make a feature request here: https://community.playfab.com/spaces/24/index.html

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Citrus Yan avatar image
Citrus Yan answered

Hi @chrisk,

In my opinion, store prices act as an override to any prices defined in the catalog, think of your primary Catalog as a definition of all the items available in your game, and stores as an override. Hence the “hassle” is a necessity when you want to update an item price globally. It’s recommended to update the price directly in stores instead of in default catalog, the players interact with stores directly in game instead of default catalog.

It would be extremely helpful if you can specify your use cases with more details, so we can help you:)

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