Talk:Zyra/@comment-118.161.199.9-20120725152809/@comment-216.120.137.42-20120725170823

They can, but they probably never will again. Cheaper champions are priced cheaply to give new players easy accessibility to a fairly wide range of playstyles, even when they don't have a lot of IP saved up; the same is true of the free champion rotation, which similarly gives new players a taste of expensive champions they can't yet afford. Past that, however, Riot is a business, and LoL is their product; at the end of the day money needs to exchange hands for Riot to stay alive. Their method of pricing champions is just like any business: when the product is new and hot you charge full price, because you KNOW that lots of people will pay full price to get the hot new item before everyone else. When the hype dies down and popularity wanes, you drop the price and put it on sale, to entice middle-of-the-road shoppers to buy things they normally wouldn't buy at full price.

Champions are released at 6300/975 because they KNOW enough players will pay the price to make it worth their while. And this is not to say Riot only cares about pay-players; popularity of your product is just as important as profit, which is why ALL game-mechanic-relevant content can be acquired without spending a dime. But that's why they keep the 6300 all the same; they want to give you an incentive to keep playing and keep earning IP for new content. And as long as you keep playing, there's always the chance you'll get impatient and finally pay $10 to get a champion or two RIGHT NOW as opposed to grinding dozens of matches for more IP.

Yes, it's a little harsh. But if it didn't work, Riot wouldn't do it. And that, my friend, is capitalism.