Updates on Ingress Store
NianticBrian
Niantic › admin
in General
Hi, your friendly neighborhood Ingress producer here. I wanted to share an update about recent changes I've made on the Store: I added a new bundle with common Heat Sinks for the Aurora live op for players who could use just a bit of extra help perfecting their glyph hacks. I'm also in the process of updating what items are available on the Store, and at what prices and quantities. I'm making these changes to explore ways to make Ingress more sustainable, and you'll see more updates on the Store and on the Ingress app going forward as we continue to experiment. We're here listening to feedback, and we'll continue to iterate and improve. Thank you.
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I think we can agree that this is fine.. but doubling the price of frackers probably wasn't in the best interest. Im sure we have other revenues we could explore.. i mean even 10% rise in cost is better then 100%. Just a thought
I am glad to have you on Niantic's team, and that you're listening to feedback. Both you and @RedSoloCup are doing a great job with Community engagement. The price changes may be warranted, but it was a surprise.
I hope there are more items available in the store soon - different types of power ups other than beacons and frackers. If the community has ideas, are you receptive to them? And if so, where should we leave that kind of feedback?
I'm very curious about what the current Fracker purchase rates are and how doubling the price is projected to affect fracker purchase rates and revenue.
Have you guys considered offering more (non game breaking) variety in the store rather than just literally doubling process of existing items?
Example:
Enhanced Glyph Control Module.
Burns out upon 100 hacks or 10 minutes, whichever happens first.
While active, the portal glyph control interface will respond to additional input and skew results toward that command glyph, similar to a transmuter.
KEY will skew item yield towards portal keys.
SHIELD will skew item yield towards shields, respecting item rarity.
(ULTRA STRIKE TBD) will skew item yield towards strikes.
You could even tie it to the Translation badge.
It wouls expand power up options, tie to a badge (easy though it is) so they have a reason to exist, fit thematically, and provide useful functionality and value.
I'd buy a few, for a reasonable amount of Chaotic Matter.
Thanks, @CliffM. Posting suggestions and ideas here in the forum, like the Feedback category, would be great.
Also - can you guys maybe break the Niantic trend of making large changes and then informing the community long after it's grabbed the torches and pitchforks?
Generally speaking, prices do not change like that in most markets without a substantial improvement in the product. Improve the product then raise the price. Otherwise you just alienate customers, I take a lot of grief for the amount of frackers I used to use, at $4 each with no mechanic change. No deal, I'm done. If you need revenue, sell me inventory space, avatar customization, better frackers that say reduce cooldown or raise portal level while active, then raise the price. Maybe sell scanner skins so we can escape the 80s nightmare that is prime, I'd pay $10 for a bloom-free scanner... bet people would collect them all if there were more options.
Another thing - based on https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/2952/alliance-of-vanguards-applications I was under the impression this kind of thing was run by the Vanguards so they could advocate for the players.
Do I misunderstand the purpose of the Vanguards?
Not everything is discussed with the Vanguards. Even when things are, which is the majority of the time, there may be a business need or other reason why something occurs that isn't always aligned with popular sentiment. Their role is to inform and their feedback is an input. They do not decide.
@jsylvis duly noted on sharing updates more promptly. I’ll have an update ready when I make future updates or pricing changes. Re: the purpose of the vanguards program, it’s to help our team solicit feedback and share updates. It’s not a group of people who approve each product update, and it’s not meant as a way, for example, to escalate ban appeals. These are volunteers who love Ingress. For things that only our team can answer or address, please share with our team via the Ingress Help Center or post to the Ingress forum here.
Right, right.
But was their feedback sought and did they have an opportunity to inform?
It seems like decisions not aligning with popular sentiment would be an excellent reason to include them - help soften the blow through community engagement and PR.
Understood. Thanks for the reply.
I noticed the meetup bundle disappeared. I was planning to buy one or two today for the rare heatsinks more than anything :( Hopefully something similar is added. I did get a few of the new bundle but RHS is still a lot more desirable
I'd buy a media Locker... Except all of the media I would lock has been deleted for space.
Storage space
charge boost that halves XM consumption
Personalized beacons
I would pay for those
I'm not sure if this is the place for this but introducing more new mods would be great. One idea is a mod that increases decay rate and another that decreases it. These would be useful leading up to big ops.
supply was running low so they had to. simple supply and demand
Tarrif wars, China put a 100% tarrif on exporting frackers to US
Decreasing decay isn't needed. Just recharge it.
But a away to speed up decay will be very helpful for those who love in small regions with lack of agents.
What EXACTLY are we getting in return for the doubled fracker prices? Am I missing something?
If I suddenly pay double in a store for an item I paid half for yesterday, I should be receiving markedly more in return for that purchase than I did the day before, with two exceptions: an increase in scarcity or an increase in production cost. Since neither scarcity nor production cost are driving the fracker price increase, either increase what we receive for each fracker, or reconsider the price itself. If you don't you are seriously making no friends with this latest move, in light of other things NIA has done to its Ingress player base this past couple of months.
I love the communication you guys give. Some ideas I have. Some are wants and some are things that might benefit others as well.
- I wIould love the ability to aqcuire that 6th key locker I can't get because I started 2 months late. Whether this is open to purchase or unlockable through other means.
- I think souvenir key lockers would be cool. Everyone has places they've visited for any number of reasons and have acquired keys to these places. These only hold nostalgic or sentimental value so I think we can all agree we'd love to have a way to hold onto a select amount of keys, even if you can never access them again.
- opr is a controversial topic and I think many people would love to see review times improved. I'd love to see more rewards for reviewers. Since we are on the topic of sustainability of ingress, maybe players could purchase a very limited amount of upgrades? Also, while you are reading this(hopefully), I feel like reviewers should see more rewards, maybe the a small chance for random upgrades increased per recon tier?
I hope this helps. Would love to see your feedback.
@ComChansey the meetup bundle is now back on the Store but without frackers, which I'm testing new pricing on, and I've adjusted the meetup bundle price as well. Thanks for your patience.
Hi, thanks for the update. Just to give you some feedback - I make regular purchases of frackers, but will no longer be purchasing anything. Gauging your existing customer base with a whopping ONE HUNDRED PERCENT increase feels insulting. The only reason I need them is thanks to NIA refusing to ban rampant item buyers and spoofers. Sad to say I will not be supporting the game financially until the change is fully reverted, or I am given a way to earn a 50% discount in game. Have a good one.
@FanaticRob just a heads up that we banned 22K accounts that were found to be supporting and participating in the illicit trade of in-game items (link). If you know of additional accounts and have not already, please report these accounts to our team via the Ingress Help Center.
You do not need to provide increased value for increased price when you are a monopoly.
Snark aside, if frackers come with reduced cooldown time and increased number of hacks till burnout, I'd find the 100% price increase a lot more palatable.
I just checked my records and I've spent about 400 USD on CMU. Most of that is on frackers. I'll not be spending more until the price is lowered again. I can understand if you want to explore what you can do with pricing, but doubling the price is almost insulting to us players.
It might have nothing to do with each other, but banning a whole bunch of cheaters for item selling and then raising the price of frackers makes it look like you stopped the cheats to eliminate competition, not to stop the cheating.
This isn't your fault: I'm still using an old S5 and it runs like a dog (obviously) on Prime.
Yes, I understand RoboVM is... defunct. But [Redacted] still works - why can it?
The frackers doubling IS Noantic's fault. Sheer greed. Double the price double the performance. Or something.
I am probably done, because I cant afford a better phone anyway.
Hi
I would love to be able to have more key lockers than the 6 we currently have at a max as you can never have too many keys. Even increasing it to 10 would be a huge help, more would be even better but anything would be appreciated.
How about a possibility of breeding key lockers and a media locker (my son collects media, I think he has most of the ones that have been released).
I am sure there are other mods that could be introduced as well, maybe an increase in storage as per Pokemon Go/HPWU.
Thanks
The reason why Redacted has to be retired has been explained many times. It is based on long obsolete code that is no longer supported and is going to be removed from App/Play Stores by Apple and Google whether Niantic likes it or not.
@NianticBrian I can think of two things some agents would like to buy from the Ingress Store.
Would be cool to be able buy a special capsule that duplicates vr items based on xm u collect while u are out playing or just walk distance or something... this way an active player feels rewarded vs those that had tons of vr stuff duped before this was disabled which is good maybe..
(Newbie member to these forums, it won't let me post the quoted url of the post I wish to reply to)
"The reason why Redacted has to be retired has been explained many times. It is based on long obsolete code that is no longer supported and is going to be removed from App/Play Stores by Apple and Google whether Niantic likes it or not."
@SoylentGrien that's a fair cop, I didn't fully comprehend that the Google and Apple stores will remove it regardless of what Niantic wants.
That means I AM done then :) It has been a blast!