The webshop and the keys, in particular, were created as a way to bring fresh money into the game instead of recycling the existing ped that already belong to MA anyway. It's MA's bread and butter, just look at the revenue explosion on the financial reports since the webshop launch. Sure, many people withdraw the ped and deposit them again through the keys but they pay the withdrawal fees and then lose some while cycling all that universal ammo, so it's still perfect.
But people demanded a way to get keys in game and MA promised it, and here's their way out. But if they hurt their webshop revenues but making this bps common, they'll risk going out literally.
Not to mention the crash of the rings' value and the following loss of trust. How invest in something if it can get devalued overnight? What's next, crafted land area deeds?
I disagree with this.
The keys are revenue for the players and the markups / items they get not MA. MA gets a lot more in tax revenue, 1.3 mill USD a year for (non-taxed) Caly and half of the static planet based tax rate that follows every caly born player wherever they go (less than 1%) (CLD holders get 1.3 million USD a year as well from those sources), as well as the costs they put upon planet partners (not entirely known) that affect their operating costs directly. That static tax is why monria has so much value, and why they have a monrian born program to help foster continuous revenues no matter where the player goes.
The increase in actual revenue reported in those reports is much more a function of increased tax revenues by forcing players to use the universal ammo obtained from boxes in hunting and mining at their set tax rate, than it is from the deposits themselves.
Keep in mind though 2k ped cycled over and over for what is called turnover, generates more than just the 5% or whatever rate of tax on 2k ped alone. 2k -5% and then 1900 -5% and on and on (if tt-iing all, or getting mostly shrapnel..now you know why caly has so much shrapnel, and other planets do not) ....this is the revenue increase you see from keys on the reports.
The tax system is genious. You really should understand how it was built, web shop revenues are nothing compared to turnover tax revenues. When you buy land in this game, you buy the tax revenue for that area, and the previous owner gets capital to pay back investment or use for development.
Which brings us to the next genius component of Entropia, the player based economy.
Before you look at that scenario and think well why do I even play a consistent loss, it is back to the value keys gave players, not MA. The name of the game is markup. Player deposits and gets ped, ammo or keys which brings value to the economy, value we the players created, based on time we spend that MA has incentivized by creating loot out of thin air. Markups are agreed upon by players not MA and without MA doing anything, markup saved your loss, and you can continue to generate tax revenue.
Our job is to get markups, MA's job is to incentivize time by creating items and a careful balance of loot worthy of markups or skill gain, which costs them nothing once we spend time looting or generating it. (its all just generated 1's and 0's, once designed, it can repeat forever with no cost to MA)
Just like in life, The tax revenue inevitably follows the Time value we created in the economy.
Money into the game is not entirely owned by MA, they still have an obligation to refund the last 6 month of deposits (see below), which would include PED shop sales before it is considered theirs. But when people are cycling ped in / ped out, the actual gains are a bit less than advertised, and it still cant be claimed as income on paper becasue it is sitting in storages and items the players have ingame.
The moment they stop giving peds back when people request it is when the game dies, so while they could technically keep it all, they would be signing a death warrant for the recurring income they do get, which is unlikely to happen. (and why they probably dont even consider the value of goods in storages and items theirs, they may need it to cover a massive wave of withdrawls)
For one its millions of dollars of annual revenue, for 2 it would devalue the product to nothing and have no resale value. for 3 they would have to pay out the 6 months of deposits, with no future income to cover. And then they still have to prove the EULA is actually viable in court if that ever happened, which is unlikely given past cases regarding EULA's, lawsuits regarding players with other interests in the game (deathifier, SEE) and the Swedish consumer laws already in place.
Web shop or no webshop MA is doing just fine, and will continue to do so as long as the tax system remains as it is.
A little off topic -I am baffled on why MA thinks that forced space PVP lootable helps with revenues, when they would get so many more players back and new ones in, to cover even more tax turnover by removing it. If the turnover of MS owners is their concern, then just come up with a function of teleports that give them passive income for owning a deed based on activity, where they would be free to actually cycle turnover instead of sitting in space all day. Give them space content that is worthy of having SI and people will still pay to shoot, repair and get skills. win - win- win (hint hint wink wink) Shrapnel in Caly loot and the events there will always be easier for people to cycle on Caly over other planets, it takes real work to get markups out of all those stacks of loot on other planets, alot of time, and investment. Only a fraction of the playerbase is up to and have the time available for that task. The lost income from migration to other planets would not be any different than it is now, unless they keep giving other planets OP items to farm with ease.
From the EULA -"MindArk’s total liability for all damages, losses and causes of action and for all costs and expenses which may arise under the agreement with You shall for each incidence,
if acknowledged, under no event, exceed the total amount that You have purchased PEDs for during the six months period prior to the incident."