Is LiquidSky Listening to their Community?
Recently we reported that LiquidSky is introducing a new pricing structure. Their new plans increase pricing across the board and remove features like SkyCredit Rollover. The LiquidSky Community has been quick to express their dissatisfaction with these changes.
The Community voted “No”
Before making changes to their payment options, LiquidSky held a vote on their Community Forums. They titled the thread “Help Us Decide New Pricing”. Users could vote between two different plans.
Option A: This is the plan that they ultimately chose to implement. It removes the popular pay-as-you-go option and increases the pricing of the two remaining subscriptions.
Option B: Introduces three unlimited plans that provide different amounts of storage and varying levels of VIP Access. It still removes the pay-as-you-go plan, but provides Gamers with unlimited hours of Cloud Gaming.
The Community overwhelming voted in favor of Option B.
Existing Subscribers can keep their Plan?
As users began to express their concern over the structure of Option A, LiquidSky was quick to point out that existing Subscribers would be given the option of staying on their current plan.
When it came time to formally announce the new payment structure, there was no official mention of the option to be “grandfathered”. Now this doesn’t mean that LiquidSky won’t implement some form of grandfathering when these new plans go live. But it is concerning that they didn’t prominently mention it in their announcement. Some users aren’t convinced that it will ever happen.
How does this benefit the Community?
LiquidSky adjusted the number of SkyCredits that you receive with your subscription. They increased the number of SkyCredits, but ultimately devalued them. A user on Reddit was quick to point out that each new plan leads to a price increase over the old one.
And he brings up an interesting point. Many Gamers appreciated the option of being able to keep their unused SkyCredits. Some are even fine with a price increase, but are worried about losing the Rollover feature.
There is also concern over losing the SkyCredits that subscribers have already paid for. LiquidSky made it clear that any users that have not made a new purchase by July 2nd 2018 will forfeit their existing purchased SkyCredits. Most reactions to this announcement are not appropriate to repeat. Let’s just say that this change is wildly unpopular.
LiquidSky appears to be the only one benefiting from these price changes. They are reducing value while also reducing features at the same time. Users are making it clear that they feel like LiquidSky is trying to sneak one past them. They are questioning why LiquidSky held a vote if they were just going to make a unilateral decision anyway. Some feel cheated by the potential loss of features and SkyCredits. Many are upset about price increases that are not accompanied by service upgrades.
Now to be fair, it’s likely that there are business-related reasons for increasing pricing and balancing features. With that said, LiquidSky’s approach could have been better. The new pricing changes haven’t gone into effect yet, and there is still time to make adjustments.
The bottom line is that companies like LiquidSky are nothing without their Community. It appears that the Community has spoken in this case, and we will have to see how it plays out over the upcoming weeks. Is LiquidSky listening to their Community? We will soon find out.
Originally published at Flickstiq.
