The issue of ambiguous skin pricing and product markup at Garena servers has long been a topic of interest for many international gamers. Recently, a Vietnamese gamer posted on Reddit to expose this situation.
The post is quite lengthy and detailed, addressing the changes in the skin pricing policy for the Vietnamese League of Legends server from 2016 until now. Below is a summary of the key points; you can follow the detailed content here.
“Previously, Riot Games’ server clusters had 5 main price points, which when converted to the Vietnamese server would include:
– Price 149 RP corresponding to 750 RP skins (1.75 USD)
– Price 199 RP corresponding to 975 RP skins (2.5 USD))
– Price 299 RP corresponding to 1350 RP skins (3.75 USD)
– Price 399 RP corresponding to 1820 RP skins (5 USD)
– Price 799 RP for Ultimate skins (10 USD)
There was nothing to complain about with these price points; in fact, at that time, Garena delighted everyone by continuously reducing prices and even giving away skins for free.
However, everything began to change when the Wukong skin was released in 2016. Garena introduced it as a “skin designed by Vietnamese people” and then unexpectedly assigned it a new price of 599 RP. This move caused a fierce backlash from the Vietnamese gaming community, and Garena later responded by quietly lowering the skin’s price without any explanation or apology.
After that “major change,” the skin prices on the Garena server also started to become unstable. There was no consistent pricing for any line of skins. The prices of skins would increase depending on the popularity of the champions. For example, skins for champions like Riven, Yasuo, Zed, Jhin, and Teemo are always sold at higher prices than their base costs.
Some Epic skins were even included in random lottery events, where players could spend up to 25 USD to obtain the skin they want, some of which would not be sold in the store again afterward.”
This gamer also mentioned another issue with the League of Legends store, which is the inconsistent pricing of many skins. On the Vietnamese server, skins have significantly more price points compared to Riot Games’ server. When converted to money, to own expensive skins with a price over 300 RP, Vietnamese players have to spend an amount double its value: skins 369 RP and 396 RP correspond to 9.25 – 10 USD, while Ultimate skins are sold for 20 USD.
Some hot skin lines also had their attributes increased (from Epic to Legendary) like the Star Guardian or Omega Squad to increase their sale price. The common price of skins these days hovers around 369 RP, and no cheap skins priced at 250 RP are available anymore.
Additionally, this gamer complained about a recent case where some skins announced as not for sale unexpectedly appeared in the personal promotional store interface at a price of 9999 RP, equivalent to about 215 USD. Although discounted, the actual amount players had to pay to purchase them was still quite “absurd,” around 3000 RP for the Arctic Caitlyn Legacy skin.
In response to the “exposure” from the aforementioned gamer, the League of Legends community on Reddit expressed great surprise at the issues facing players in Vietnam. Many comments suggested that Riot Games should terminate its contract with Garena immediately.
