In business management, I learned that to win over consumers, you must appeal to them by being fair, or at least what is perceived as fair. Price gouging will gain you only resentment, in time. But they began with the rot already set in because the lack of experience with a big title, I believe they may be nervous. This need for instant gratification is pouring into the prices of skins and causing them to act recklessly. They may garner short term gain, but at the price of overall failure. If they don't change course, they probably will not be able to make the last bits of this game. Unless they have a good amount of "pocket funding". Honestly this game should have been a game preview title, as it is unfinished in many ways. From a professional standpoint, the risk the took was too great, because the model has nothing based in the familiar, which is essential to draw in a reliable market. Their risk management was very poor, and without proper funding, we are seeing this knee jerk reaction. As a person, I feel bad for the team, I can tell that someone put their heart and soul into it, but things did not pan out. This is an aggressive market for gaming. Three questions must be asked: Why should you play Raiders over other similar games? Why should you play similar games over Raiders? Is the price point competitive?
Let's take Paladins and Overwatch.
Paladins still exists and thrives in this market despite it being saturated with hero shooters and dominated by Overwatch. Why? Well, it is free to play, familiar, and has competitive pricing for skins and in game content. You can purchase all existing characters for a flat fee., which is less than Overwatch. So despite it being a smaller game, it can still survive because of what it does right. They will have long term gain.
Raiders does not and will not, with the current business strategy. That is my analysis.
