This
Any COH2 veteran capable of critical thinking should know by now ITS NOT ABOUT MONEY but rather the flawed marketing strategy. This go way beyond just some disgruntled COH players and actual goes back 20 years to the former SEGA CEO, Tom Kalinske and how Sega of Japan executives forced him to leave.
SEGA have never recovered after that and now just a shadow of its former self. Tom Kalinske as a innovative visionary was to SEGA as Bill Gates was to Microsoft.
Seriously stop bad-mouthing COH2 fans that criticize the way Relic/SEGA monetize this game. Even the new SEGA CEO Haruki Satomi (son of Hajime Satomi), openly said SEGA/SAMMY Holdings marketing strategy failed and promised fans big change.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Sammy_Holdings
Whatever you believe the new SEGA CEO or not, there is no doubt that SEGA/SAMMY Holdings marketing strategy hasn't done much to earn consumer trust. That can't be debatable, its a fact and we got everything to back this up beyond any shadow of a doubt.
At very least read the comments from the SEGA CEO and get your head into the game what this is about before putting words into our mouth.
Personally, I would be happy paying a monthly subscription to play multiplayer but that marketing strategy won't work for COH2.
Now for aspiring eSport games, quality over quantity/new content.
President of Sega Games Finally Realizes That Gaming Quality Is Important
http://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2015/07/08/president-of-sega-japan-finally-realizes-that-gaming-quality-is-important/
We Betrayed Fans And Want to Be a Brand Again, Says Sega CEO
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/we-betrayed-fans-and-want-to-be-a-brand-again-says/1100-6428680/
Interviews with the most successful SEGA CEO of America, Tom Kalinske
http://www.sega-16.com/2005/02/tom-kalinske-american-samurai/
http://www.sega-16.com/2006/07/interview-tom-kalinske/
https://soundcloud.com/retrogamingreddit/rretrogaming-podcast-episode-07-tom-kalinske-speaks-about-his-time-as-sega-of-americas-ceo?in=retrogamingreddit/sets/the-r-retrogaming-podcast-all
Tom Kalinske: Sega's Been Doing It Wrong for The Past 20 Years!
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2015-02-23-is-sega-the-next-atari
To make a long story short, Tom Kalinske came close to secure a partnership with Sony. Sega of Japan said no. If the Japan executives had said yes, then the Playstation would never have existed and SEGA/Sony partnership would have become the primary console manufacturer. This epic marketing failure should speak for itself.
http://www.esportsearnings.com/
There is not one top10 eSport game that use full priced game + DLC whoring with questionable quality. It's either the freemium model/microtransactions, subscriptions or full priced games such as Starcraft with quality DLC expansions. To suggest that the current COH2 marketing strategy is going to work for eSport are just absurd.
Esport is an investment, not a golden goose by itself. If new eSport games such as COH2 can't draw in millions of new players then it's a bad investment. There is not a snowball chance in hell, Relic/SEGA can draw in millions of new COH players with the current marketing strategy. Relic's sister studio, Creative Assembly figured this out years ago and now use the WoT FTP model for their eSport game TW: Arena.
5 Marketing Tricks That League Of Legends Used To Build a Billion Dollar Business
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-marketing-tricks-league-legends-used-build-billion-dollar-butkus
Several big eSport games came from humble beginnings without a big marketing budget but they knew how to use "word-of-mouth" marketing that are very cost-effective if done right. It's unlikely SEGA/Relic have a big marketing budget for COH2 so if they are not able and willing to use word-of-mouth" marketing then COH2 eSport are RIP.
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2013/under-the-influence-consumer-trust-in-advertising.html
Consumer trust and positive brand advocates are everything in "word-of-mouth" marketing. Games such as League of legends encourages you to play with your friends and this results in many players joining through word-of-mouth marketing.
A good FTP model, turn the consumer into the "salesman". League of Legends was one of the first games to show that word-of-mouth marketing + micro transactions can be the primary source of income for a game without sacrificing game quality.
With all the DLC currently in COH2, it's a logical next step to give a taste for free. No one that understand the eSport FTP model is saying that Relic/SEGA should give everything away for free. But there is no reason why one eastern front faction such as Ostheer can't be FTP + 2 week free trial for all Ostheer premium commanders. Then part of the core gameplay would be easily accessible and COH2 would lose its P2W reputation and draw new players in by word-of-mouth.
If the marketing team behind COH2 don't wake up, then new players are just going to start using https://www.g2a.com (resellers) or worse they will try to pirate the game. Also, trolling new players with RNG war spoils only does more harm than good to COH2s online reputation.
DAAMN !!