I think it’s really funny how people have an over whelming desire to post on a Zwift forum that they have left the service. If you want Zwift to do something different, or you have a suggestion. Great, do that here. But you stated that you are leaving, or have cancelled. Bye bye
Lets put this in perspective. It’s only $5/month. Skip a coffee. Skip a sandwich, or a pastry. What ever. Just once in a month, and it will pay your extra cost.
I use Zwift pretty much every day I’m home. Group rides, workouts. Races. Great exercise, plus I like the social aspect of it. I find Zwift a great value for my money. Cost per hour isn’t very much.
I really wish Zhq was a little more forward thinking with some of the moves they make.
lets finally introduce more levels for our zwifters, but lets roll back the xp requirements (made absolutely no sense when it was introduced)
let’s raise the rates for everyone, without explaining why, or giving any notice.
That is just a couple recent things that they should have probably thought about before doing.
I don’t plan on going anywhere, but I really wish Zwift would hire someone that understands public relations. And stops making these unnecessary mistakes
The Zwift Forum is important… The definition from the Oxford English Dictionary is ‘ A forum is **a place, situation, or group in which people exchange ideas and discuss issues.’
As in any walk of life, it’s important to let everyone have a say, feedback etc. I can see you like to post and share your opinion so important to let others do the same. Like you I will continue my subscription as I enjoy Zwift. I just think Zwift might listen to feedback next time and not make such a big increase all at one time and with notifying people fully before releasing to the media ( not been a good PR way of doing things.)
For me, I always kept my subscription going, but will be much more careful when I go on holiday. We are away for most of July so will suspend my subscription for that month - note made on calendar -will pay for a lovely coffee and cake on holiday! : - )
Best wishes with your ongoing rides!
The timing of this couldnt of been worse really.
Why Zwift thought it was a good idea to increase the price right when Northern hemisphere is just entering summer and everyone is back outside…surely you’d drop this at peak winter when people really need Zwift.
Im happy to pay the extra, doesnt bother me that much and ill even let my sub run when i hardly use it in the summer…just to contribute to keeping this fantastic platform alive as they’re clearly struggling
Can I please recommend Indievelo as the alternative to anyone who will be no longer on Zwift. I ride regularly on Zwift, IV and Mywhoosh and can not speak more highly of what George is doing at IV
Interesting question! I’ve no idea. My World of Warcraft subscription is £8.69 - £9.99 per month, depending on whether I’m subbing in 1, 3 or 6 month blocks.
But Overwatch is free-to-play. I voluntarily spend around the same on the “battle pass”, but mostly I think they make money in the cosmetics shop. I spent £40 on a battle pass bundle six months ago so I could get a Lilith skin for Moira. =)
I really think this price increase is just paying back some of that squandered 600 million funding they had, they’re struggling due to their own poor operational decisions imo.
Micro transactions would likely be the line in the sand for me. They are an awful part of modern gaming culture.
Though, if esports wants to be taken seriously and involve UCI/Olympics/Nat Gov bodies at some point it has to decide if its a game or a sim. Games these days have unfortunately gone down the micro transaction routes.
100% agree with this. All businesses need to be profitable. But I think the business strategy of Zwift has been poor. Focus should have been on the game and experience. Instead it’s been about marketing and hardware since beta, the platform still has bugs, every release breaks something, graphically poor, racing still encourages cheating etc etc etc. New user experience is poor. Focus on the product. $600m is laughable really at where the game has changed over those years.
Hi there,
I’m a level 52 Rider that has been with Zwift for quite a number of years already. Your timing for the significant increase is not well-timed based on what competitors are doing (MyWhoosh for example) and the current economic situation worldwide - I do not believe that all factors were taking into account regardless of whether the last increase was in 2017 - the market conditions are very different now with new competition and price-points that people are willing to pay for a similar product from different service providers. An increase of 33% has helped me to make the decision to terminate my subscription unfortunately and I’m aware of a large amount of my cycling mates that are of the same opinion unfortunately. I’m sad to leave but the increase is just not justified unfortunately.
The main problems with micro-transactions are that they are either “pay to win” (or gain power), or they are not “micro” at all. Playing £15 for a single skin in a cosmetics shop is not micro.
Personally, I have no problem with cosmetic-only items beyond them being overly expensive in general.
I’d be reasonably OK with Zwift charging me a few quid for a nice skin for my bike, or a jersey, or even things like a baggy shorts option. I would not support them offering a faster bike at an additional cost.
The $600 million investment in Zwift may have been more of a curse than a blessing. With such a significant amount of money from investors, Zwift will need to acquire a substantial number of subscribers to provide a return on investment. To achieve this, they will need to heavily market their product. However, if they had taken a step back and used some of the money to develop a more adaptable and feature-rich product, similar to Indie Velo, they would be in a better position now.
To have a chance at growing as much as they need to, Zwift must establish itself as a leader in all aspects of online bike training services. They have likely realized that the market is not large enough to generate sufficient revenue from subscriptions alone. In a desperate attempt to expand, they took a high-risk move by venturing into the hardware industry.
Instead, Zwift should have considered making strategic acquisitions to fill gaps in their portfolio, a common strategy employed by other companies to rapidly increase market share. By acquiring complementary businesses or technologies, Zwift could have strengthened its position in the market and diversified its offerings, potentially leading to more sustainable growth.
Racing is an area that does not attract enough subscribers to warrant big development efforts for Zwift. Racers are a minority on Zwift. I think micro payments for racing could work. At least I would be willing to pay to get more dev focus on racing. The money could go to a bigger racing dev team that could be dedicated to racing.
Again this is often repeated without much to back it up - take the Zwift games, they have been one of the biggest events on Zwift.
Something doesnt add up if a race event is one of the biggest attended & successful events of the year and also is not big enough to focus on to retain users etc
Even though the race is well attended, RoboPacers, workouts and just free riding is much bigger in comparison. Just look at how many are riding at a given time and add up the number of racers signed up for the current races.
This is the backwards thinking that got Zwift in to this mess.
What can you do on any other platform with absolutely no negative impact to the experience?
join pace bots
do workouts (workouts are actually a way better experience on iV FWIW)
Those casual riders are the ones that can jump ship extremely easily and are very price-sensitive. The ones that are really going to be hesitant to switch are the club members, the ZRL racers, those who have built up a community and friendships… and yet it is exactly that crowd that have been slapped in the face time and time again.
Member of Zwift since 2020 during that time although there are extra worlds, routes etc I feel the experience and stability of the platform has got worse instead of better.
Just because there hasn’t been a price increase since 2017 doesn’t mean there should be near a 40% increase now which clearly comes down to the fact the business is not operating efficiently. The platform should have been replaced by newer code over this period but clearly there is no interest instead paint over the cracks how many updates have been released without breaking something I honestly can’t remember any.
Forum members have requested features for years that would have improved the platform customised screen layout, new racing format… but instead we get absolute junk “Dino “ as an example do the staff really think that’s what subscribers want?
I’m sure they will remain the market leader for some time but this certainly will give other platforms a boost of subscribers who may unlike Zwift listen to their feedback resulting in those new subscribers staying put.
Many have commented it’s only £5 a month which works out … a day but I don’t think this is relevant I look at it for a near 40% increase there should be some major improvement to the platform to warrant this and I see nothing to justify it. A gym membership costs … however they have to buy and maintain numerous sports equipment so it’s not a direct comparison it’s not like a trainer, fans etc are included with our Zwift membership.
Future updates like screen customisation is a carrot they have intentionally increased the price prior to this hoping that subscribers will stay for these future updates however I feel it’s way too little and way too late for many.
since beta, the platform still has bugs, every release breaks something, graphically poor, racing still encourages cheating etc etc etc. New user experience is poor. Focus on the product. $600m is laughable really at where the game has changed over those years.
“ as an example do the staff really think that’s what subscribers want?
they have intentionally increased the price prior to this hoping that subscribers will stay for these future updates however I feel it’s way too little and way too late for many.