Standalone Product Upgrades Ending On March 1st

by (6 years ago).

Before the introduction of the Zygor Elite membership, all Zygor products were sold individually for a standalone one-time fee. When new expansions were released, customers could upgrade their existing guides for an additional one-time fee.

Due to a combination of factors (mostly requests to make it less costly to own all of the guides we offer, and the maintenance required to keep guides up to date), we introduced the Zygor Elite subscription in 2015. Zygor Elite allows players to access all of the guides we create at a low cost monthly fee. The reception to this change has been overwhelmingly positive and almost all users have switched to using Zygor Elite.

On March 1st, we will be ending all sales of standalone products and upgrades. This means that if you haven’t yet switched to using Zygor Elite and wish to buy any additional products or upgrades as standalone products, you will need to do so before March 1st. As it has always been, any standalone products will continue to be updated for the content they cover, per our legacy “lifetime updates” policy. Note, standalone product updates do not include brand new content, such as new expansions.

Going forward, Zygor Elite will be the only payment option offered. This means that we will not be selling standalone purchases or upgrades for the “Battle for Azeroth” expansion, so standalone users who wish to access our upcoming Battle for Azeroth guide content will need to upgrade their accounts to Zygor Elite. For a limited time, standalone users who haven’t signed up for Elite before will be able to sign up at the discounted Loyalty Rate of $4.99 / per month. This will likely end sometime around or after the launch of Battle for Azeroth.

70 thoughts on “Standalone Product Upgrades Ending On March 1st

  1. KanadiaN

    all this did is lose them income, I will not pay them almost 100$ a year for a guide that I will use for a week or two to get my character to max level, bug that take FAR to long to get fixed and features the only half the people that use the addon want. A talent system that use to offer customization that over writes any build you add. The other guides do not interest me in the lease. all this equals if BAD / SHADY business

    Reply
  2. Macgam

    Wow… give this people a call or text. Very unprofessional and totally full of themselves. Definitely time for another guide… if even needed since Blizz has streamlined so much anyhow.

    Reply
  3. Dharris

    Total BS! Been a loyal customer since Burning Crusade, bought all the guides I wanted, spent probably over $400 over the years. I won’t even pay a subscription for WoW, I pay once a month when I am in the mood to play. WTF would make me pay a subscription for a guide??? I have not seen ONE comment so far that says, oh, YAY! subscriptions for a game guide! Nope, Nuh uh. Eff Off Zygor. Shifty trick to change your game after promising lifetime updates. I call violation of business ethics, and I hope your boat goes down in flames. Maybe see you again when your head pops back out of your bum.

    Reply
  4. Leroy

    It is basically greed. They allowed stand alone purchases for legion when subscriptions slowed they will do the same for next expansion. Member with zygor since 09 it’s time to leave the money grab.

    Reply
  5. Susan

    Not happy have been buying zygor guides a long time. I don’t have the money. I have a fixed income. So this isn’t very good for me either. Greedy for sure. Can’t believe your doing this. Will have to find something else know. Have enjoyed my run. Guess it is over for me too.

    Reply
  6. OldNick

    Zygor: “Psst. Hey, you, come over here!”

    Me: “Yeah? What do you want?”

    Zygor: “I know you’ve been paying me $15 ONCE per upgraded guide, but because I VALUE YOU SO MUCH, I now want you to pay me $5 every month, FOREVER.”

    ******

    Good call, Zygor. Add me to the list of p*ssed off longtime customers who will look for another in-game system as of March 01.

    OldNick

    Reply
  7. WindBreaker

    My 2 cents worth.

    While I’m not happy about the change, as are so many others, your business, run it as you see fit.

    I appreciate the offer of a discounted subscription fee, your “Loyalty Rate”, as a olive branch to the members that have paid so much to date. I have switched over to elite. made since to me as I was about to pay over $300 to update my guides after taking a year long break from WoW, after which time I’d be stuck.

    The game breaker to me is that I’ll play and pay for 6 to 9 months, then I’ll take another break. That is just what I do. When buying the guides this was not an issue in any way. But the next break I take will be the last time I use Zygor. Great product, or I would not have been using it so long nor invested so much money into your guides. But when I return from my break I will no longer have the “Loyalty Rate” as any break in my subscription cancels the “Loyalty Rate” and I’ll would have to pay the same as someone that has not been loyal to a great product for years. That is wrong. I will not do that. Reward my Loyalty with your own and you get my money for as long as I play and you continue making a great guide. Make the “Loyalty Rate” a continuous thank you to us old guys that have helped you grow as you have helped us have fun with a great game. Just a thought. 🙂

    Thank You

    Reply
  8. J Gates

    “The reception to this change has been overwhelmingly positive and almost all users have switched to using Zygor Elite.”

    Hmmm. Judging by the comments so far, seems you may be profiling the wrong set of customers. I too have been here since the beginning and appreciate the service you provide. However, I, like others hereto for mentioned, will not be switching to the monthly sub model. Good luck. Based on the feedback so far, I’m betting you will be out of business soon.

    Reply
    1. Macgam

      LoL. I was thinking the same thing. AND I also remember when they tried this and they had an overwhelming outrage against the subscription, so much so, they had to keep the stand alone purchases… for at least one more patch in there mind.

      Reply
  9. JST

    I already have little interest in paying a subscription to Blizzard and expect that they will eventually discontinue it. What makes you think anyone wants to add another subscription?

    Reply
  10. Undecided

    Well, I’m torn about this. . I have been a stand-alone customer for 9 years. I have spent $450 on WoW guides over that time frame. Math-wise, that works out to $4.17/month. Since “elite” went live, I have spent an average of $3.24/month. I have almost every guide I want.

    I came to buy another one and am confronted with this choice. Buy the guide (and any others I might want before March 1) , go “elite” for $5/month or just stop now.

    If the “elite” cost was $8/month, I’d say no way. Absolutely not. That’s almost twice as much as I’ve spent over the last 9 years for very little additional benefit.

    If the “elite” cost was $3/month, I’d probably just do it. It’s that tipping point between ok, that’s fine and eh, I don’t know if it’s worth that.

    I feel like I’m being asked to subsidize new users (by buying content I already own) as well as users of games I don’t play and sides I don’t play. It bugs me. It takes away the element of the economy that says “{fill in the blank} guides aren’t selling very well, so let’s just stop developing them as it was clearly a bad investment; let’s focus on the guides that do sell.”

    Reply
    1. Bojangels

      Hey,

      I think you have a very good point about price over time / money spent. I just went through my own info, and i’ve been a stand alone costumer since 2009 aswell. In that time frame i’ve spent 355 $ getting all the cool guides and updates i needed. But looking back until 2015 when Elite startet, i’ve only spent around 66$ in total, but IF i had chosen to go Elite i would have payed 180$ for the same, that’s not fair. And what i find even more sad it, that Zygor have so many loyal customers who have supported them for so long, and they don’t even care to give a response ;(

      Reply
  11. Jeff Overcash

    Another long time lost customer with this decision. Being forced to get things I have no use for a 2 yr expansion is going from $40 to $120. Ridiculous considering that what I use of this tends to be about 3 weeks per toon per expansion tops before it is turned off for that toon.

    Reply
  12. Ian Finck

    I second all of the above. Your subscription fee is way out of line compared with the subscription cost of the game itself. You are attempting to milk your loyal base rather than finding a way to support them. Shonks!

    Reply
  13. Eric A. Moore

    Incredibly disappointed in this decision, I currently own nearly every standalone product except for professions. This is a huge slap in the face for your oldest and most loyal customers. I suppose this is my time to say farewell to Zygor…

    🙁

    Reply
  14. Mike B

    This is absolutely a waste of my money each month. What about suspending it and coming back later? Does the price stay the same? Many people stop playing WOW for months at a time. Not to mention you quit the MACROS content just because you couldn’t make it work. I will be searching for another guide or leveling add-on. I am done unless I am able to purchase content I want when I want.

    Reply
  15. Jadelantern

    First I hate the subscription for an addon and the price is WAAAY too high. 3 to 4 dollars at max, maybe charging more than that is robbery and I was serious unhappy with that and bolted. I wanted the stand alone because paying a “rental” fee for an addon is nuts, i kept lurking and I tried to hang around hoping you would add that option back to the pricing tier.

    Now to see you are TOTALLY hosing your long time customer base and folks who bought the original guides is completely disgraceful and you should be ashamed. I can’t even say good luck to you the way you are screwing people over i am just shaking my head.

    Reply
  16. Edward

    Nope, not gonna happen. I will not ‘rent’ a guide for anything. Terrible timing as the world scaling makes the leveling guide almost irrelevant, so I can go guideless if I must.

    I’ll be looking to see what Dugi offers.

    Feel free to email me when and if you reverse this decision. I’d be very happy to buy stand alone products from you in the future.

    Reply
  17. Herman

    Dugi guides has also a loyalty membership. Guess what they let loyal customers pay? Zip, nada, nothing, not a penny. THATs how it should have been done. If Dugi can do that, so can Zygor.

    Reply
  18. Salman

    Count me out . Also kindly enlighten us who is happy with your decision .90 percent of your customers are no longer willing to buy from you .you should better close up

    Reply
  19. Arren

    Through the years, I have enjoyed the quality of your products – so much so, that I have continued to purchase the guides that I need. I am very sorry to hear that you are going to be going to a subscription-only model, as I dislike this model. In fact, I dislike the subscription model so much that I take the extra time to purchase WOW game time every month that I play, instead of signing up for the subscription. In my opinion, if you guys want a subscription model, offer it along side the separate guides, so your customers may choose which guides to purchase. As long as you have a subscription-only model, I will not be spending my money here. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

    Reply
  20. Brandon Jolley

    I have been with you guys from the beginning and have purchased 11 guides total, plus spent almost a year as a monthly sub. I realized that it was much more cost effective for me to just buy the guides outright rather than paying the monthly fee for guides I do not use. I do not want to pay more monthly subscriptions and that is why I bought Legion expansion after paying almost 8 months worth of a monthly membership. This is very painful because I have been with you from the start and have always been loyal to you but it seems that is not a 2 way street. I as well as my guild members will all be looking for alternative guides it looks like.

    Reply
  21. Unhygenix

    Very disappointed in your decision to be subscription only, as previously stated by others, a lot of money spent- (On the guides I wanted) but now you leave us no choice but to accept the whole package on a subscriber basis alone. Whilst this might work for games producers, I certainly don’t wish to have additional subscriptions for guides. Your guides and hard work were valued by me, but the customer should have the choice as to their payment options- particularly your first customers.

    Reply
  22. Lynda Kelbaugh

    How disappointing. Making us pay twice for guides we have already purchased. You make it sound as though you are doing us a favor when in reality, this is blackmail. “The reception to this change has been overwhelmingly positive”. Really guys? Yes, it would have been wonderful if I had not already paid over $300.00 for your guides. People that have been with you from the beginning should be grandfathered and new members ( which are probably numerous) should be made aware that this is your new policy going forward. Is that so difficult? That would be the honest thing to do folks. Please rethink this.

    As for me, I’ll have to find another way. I don’t much care for “this is the way it is, too bad”.

    Reply
  23. Jeffrey Ruppert

    When I first purchased the guide it was lifetime free upgrades to all future guides. LIE. Then their is the small fee upgrade for new guilde. Extremely high cost updates. Keep lieing to you customers.

    Reply
    1. Rodney shedenhelm

      That’s exactly what sold me too. I feel defied, and Lied to. I had all stand alone for the horde. Then i was told that the guides would not update with each expansion. Now paying for the subscription. I just came back to wow today, been paying for the last year not even playing. Guess its time to go….

      Reply
  24. Tom Williams

    This is not what your original commitment to us was. It was Lifetime updates for leveling guides which is all I used you guys for.

    Dugi Guides is looking better and better!

    Reply
    1. Me

      Dugi Guides – thank you for mentioning this. Looks like that is now my go-to guide.

      While I most certainly do appreciate all that Zygor guides has done and I have paid well over $300 for my guides, I will not be proceeding to a subscription-based model – essentially paying TWICE for the guides I already own.

      Reply
      1. Corey

        I can confirm that Dugi Guides is ALSO Sub-based:

        $6.99 monthly (auto-renews)
        OR
        $84 annually which is currently discounted at $47.00 (does NOT auto-renew)

        Reply
  25. Brian E.

    I agree with many comments. I am disappointed in the decision. I only use the leveling guide for WoW and nothing else. I would probably be fine with about $3/month for just the guides if purchased in an annual fashion. I currently pay about $50 every 18 months or so for the leveling guide only so it would be roughly the same amount.

    I am not against paying for content and allowing people to make a living, I pay for stuff like Ask Mr. Robot($12/year or something like that) and Icy Veins($20/year) but those are much more reasonable in my eyes.

    Alot of stuff for basic questing has been rolled into the base game already, compared to when I started with the guides. $5/month seems a bit much just for leveling guides.

    Reply
  26. Kittey

    It is truly unfortunate that after being a customer for many years now, I will be forced to pay for a product that I’ve already sunk well over $300 dollars, easily, into. Yes, I understand that I will still have access to and receive updates for the current guides that I have already purchased.

    However, in order to access any new content, I will have to pay, each month, to access the same content that other subscribers would. While the discounted subscription, is better than paying the full subscription price, it still does little to lift the spirits.

    Assuming I were to pay the yearly membership, which I am not, I would be spending $59.88 / yearly to access all expansion content, including content that I already own. I appreciate the discount and thank you for thinking of me for that, but I do not wish to have any more monthly subscriptions and prefer to pick and choose which content I purchase and buy.

    I thank you for the wonderful guide, as it has helped me many times before, but I do not know that I will continue to utilize this guide moving forward into the upcoming Battle for Azeroth expansion. I am glad that I did not finalize the purchase for the additional content I was going to buy today, as I do not want to give any more money into a product that I may discontinue using as it loses it’s value over time.

    Reply
  27. Vallis

    By forcing the subscription on people who have already purchased all the guides, you are making them pay for them all AGAIN. That is NO way to do business! You should have subscriptions for NEW users, but for the old users, who ALREADY have all the guides, you should allow them to purchase the upgrades. Shame.

    Reply
  28. Jenga

    I can’t see paying 1/3 of the price of a wow subscription each month for this guide, nor do I believe the majority of your customers have switched to Zygor’s elite. What I do see is a massive loss of loyal customers….including myself.

    Good luck with this scheme.

    Reply
  29. Illaana

    This is a very sad time I’ve loved your guides for years now but forcing people to switch to subscription when we are more than happy to fork over $60 for a guide and $25+ for an upgraded guide is a low blow I can tolerate you have lost another great customer with this horrible decision

    Reply
  30. Randy

    I have been a member since the burning crusade i believe. I hate subscription services and will hopefully find another way to have cool guides to speed up my leveling. I am an on and off again wow player. Monthly costs are not something I will ever pay for anything other than the game. Good luck with your continued business.

    Reply
  31. Bojangels

    Hi Zygor,
    Here is my 5 cent about this decision. I have used Zygor Guide for many years now, and i have gladly paid for every guide i have, and even updates also. In 2015 when you announced the Zygor Elite solution i thought “Not me, no way!” I pay for the guides i need/want, no problem. Now i have signed up for latest expansion for wow, and now you say that theese standalone guides wont be updated to that expansion and forward. This way you’r forcing me to pay 60$ pr. year for alot of stuff i don’t need. I respect the hard work and the many hours you guys put in these guides, and as mentioned, i gladly pay for what i want/need. And i also know that i probably will choose the Elite solution, because i just love theese guides and want to use them in the future. But forcing people to pay this way, is making something fantastic into a money machine, in my book, and that’s not fair =(

    Reply
  32. Pat

    Yeah, I constantly used the guides for a long time now, but I was and never will be a fan of subscription based models and will not be moving forward to the new model.

    Thank you again for your great product as it helped me a ton and got me back into playing WoW after taking a few years off of playing the game. I hope that Zygor’s Guides keeps moving forward as a successful product cause your guides have always been super useful and the support has always been very responsible.

    Reply
  33. Hairagon

    When i went to sign up for the loyalty rate I was not offered the $4.99 you state on the message. I was logged on as a member.
    I only use Elder Scrolls so WoW stuff a waste of money.

    Reply
    1. Me

      They forget that it was us who supported them from the beginning.

      Oh, you can get the “Elite” for $4.99/m. Well, I’m not.

      Guess it was bound to happen, only wish there was a way to do the same to them as what they are doing to us. Oh wait, there is. CYA!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *