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MOP sales down?

Greymantle4Greymantle4 Member UncommonPosts: 809

http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-performance-disappointing/

 

Take it for what its worth.

Link:

It looks like it’s going to take more than kung fu fighting pandas to save Azeroth.

Sales of the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion have been disappointing, according to analysts at investment bank Lazard Capital Markets. The fourth expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s massively popular online game has sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies at retail since its launch earlier this week, Lazard estimates.

Historically, each new World of Warcraft expansion has outsold its predecessors, Lazard said, but sales of Pandaria are down 60 percent from the previous expansion pack, Cataclysm, which has sold 3.3 million units since its launch in December 2010. While these figures don’t take digital market performance into account, Lazard analysts believe Pandaria’s digital sales won’t make up for its poor retail performance.

A drop in subscription numbers is a possible explanation for Pandaria’s struggles. Back in August, publisher Activision Blizzard revealed World of Warcraft lost over one million subscriptions in the last fiscal quarter.

About 25 percent of Activision Blizzard’s revenue comes from World of Warcraft, along with 50 percent of its operating income, which has analysts concerned about the game’s continued longevity.

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Comments

  • wolffinwolffin Member UncommonPosts: 193

    The fourth expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s massively popular online game has sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies at retail since its launch earlier this week, Lazard estimates.
    Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-performance-disappointing/#ZivfOz2qSZMIYOuz.99

    "at retail" thats not counting digital sales

    image
  • energizedenergized Member UncommonPosts: 6

    I never post on the forums this might be my 3rd post in 6 years.

     

    I had to say that your link was the most stupidest shit i have ever read.  600k-700k sales in 2 DAYS of MOP versus 3.3 million copies since Dec 2010 for Cataclysm = MOP not doing well? WTF hahaha stupid link.

    Not you I repeat I am not calling you stupid or cussing at you. Just had to clear that up.

  • DeathengerDeathenger Member UncommonPosts: 880

    Last I checked xfire, they still havent recovered from the loss of players when GW2 released even after MoP.

     

    I dont think that article can really accuratly represent digital sales from the WoW main site so I'm sure its much higher than that. On active subscribers alone, even if they only sold MoP to half their subscribers it should still outsell GW2

     
  • GeezerGamerGeezerGamer Member EpicPosts: 8,855


    Originally posted by Zeppelin4
    http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-performance-disappointing/

     

    Take it for what its worth.



    That report is total sensationalism. It's counting retail sales since release. So it's not counting Digital sales or pre-purchases. Lets get all the numbers when we play with them huh?

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,898
    Not including digital sales is a big problem with their assertion.  I'll wait to hear blizzards release.  If they don't release any numbers in the first month then that will be a major verification of lackluster numbers.
  • revy66revy66 Member Posts: 464
    According to this site, Cataclysm has sold 0 retail copies between a day after its release and now...seems legit.
  • Greymantle4Greymantle4 Member UncommonPosts: 809
    Originally posted by GeezerGamer

     


    Originally posted by Zeppelin4
    http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-performance-disappointing/

     

     

    Take it for what its worth.


     


    That report is total sensationalism. It's counting retail sales since release. So it's not counting Digital sales or pre-purchases. Lets get all the numbers when we play with them huh?

    What fun is that. :P

  • superniceguysuperniceguy Member UncommonPosts: 2,278
    Originally posted by Deathenger

    Last I checked xfire, they still havent recovered from the loss of players when GW2 released even after MoP.

     

    I dont think that article can really accuratly represent digital sales from the WoW main site so I'm sure its much higher than that. On active subscribers alone, even if they only sold MoP to half their subscribers it should still outsell GW2

    WOW is back up to the #2 spot on Xfire, and hours played is almost double of GW2

  • Greymantle4Greymantle4 Member UncommonPosts: 809
    Originally posted by superniceguy
    Originally posted by Deathenger

    Last I checked xfire, they still havent recovered from the loss of players when GW2 released even after MoP.

     

    I dont think that article can really accuratly represent digital sales from the WoW main site so I'm sure its much higher than that. On active subscribers alone, even if they only sold MoP to half their subscribers it should still outsell GW2

    WOW is back up to the #2 spot on Xfire, and hours played is almost double of GW2

    Well since Wow has over 4x the subs you would think it would be over 4x the hours played right? Maybe its not going so well for Wow these days based on those numbers. Time will tell since the expansion just launched. Lets see those hours played in a month. 

  • asmkm22asmkm22 Member Posts: 1,788

    As others have pointed out, it's only counting retail sales.  The funny thing is, if you buy the retail box, you don't actually have to install it since your client is already patched up anyway.  You just buy the box for the CD key.  Much easier to just upgrade your account online and save yourself the trip.

     

    Also, you don't need the expansion to play a Panda, which I thought was odd.  You just need it for the Monk class, and the level 86-90 content.

    You make me like charity

  • Johnie-MarzJohnie-Marz Member UncommonPosts: 865

    Well I'm not counted, I just buy mine from blizzard.

    I find it easier, you buy it digitally from blizzard then at midnight you just start playing because it is already downloaded onto your computer.

  • Johnie-MarzJohnie-Marz Member UncommonPosts: 865
    Originally posted by chomite

    Well, it's got Pandas. And cheap jokes never saved any movie sequeals.

     

     

    It saved Austin Powers; The Spy Who Shagged me. Far more jokes in that one than the first movie.

  • saurus123saurus123 Member UncommonPosts: 678
    Originally posted by superniceguy
    Originally posted by Deathenger

    Last I checked xfire, they still havent recovered from the loss of players when GW2 released even after MoP.

     

    I dont think that article can really accuratly represent digital sales from the WoW main site so I'm sure its much higher than that. On active subscribers alone, even if they only sold MoP to half their subscribers it should still outsell GW2

    WOW is back up to the #2 spot on Xfire, and hours played is almost double of GW2

    first days of expansion is always like that

     

    lets see after a month

  • ThanesThanes Member Posts: 182
    Originally posted by Zeppelin4

    http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-performance-disappointing/

     

    Take it for what its worth.

    Link:

    It looks like it’s going to take more than kung fu fighting pandas to save Azeroth.

    Sales of the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion have been disappointing, according to analysts at investment bank Lazard Capital Markets. The fourth expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s massively popular online game has sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies at retail since its launch earlier this week, Lazard estimates.

    Historically, each new World of Warcraft expansion has outsold its predecessors, Lazard said, but sales of Pandaria are down 60 percent from the previous expansion pack, Cataclysm, which has sold 3.3 million units since its launch in December 2010. While these figures don’t take digital market performance into account, Lazard analysts believe Pandaria’s digital sales won’t make up for its poor retail performance.

    A drop in subscription numbers is a possible explanation for Pandaria’s struggles. Back in August, publisher Activision Blizzard revealed World of Warcraft lost over one million subscriptions in the last fiscal quarter.

    About 25 percent of Activision Blizzard’s revenue comes from World of Warcraft, along with 50 percent of its operating income, which has analysts concerned about the game’s continued longevity.

     

    What I don't get if those figures are true.  How does WoW have 9 million active subscibers if only 3.3 million copies of Cataclysm were sold?

    /edit oh I see- retail vs. digital.  You really need to include digital if you're making a point, imo.

  • expressoexpresso Member UncommonPosts: 2,218

    This weekend is when we'll see peek xfire numbers, qeues will be keeping a good number away from MOP at the moment as for retail -- digital has grown significantly since the last expansion I think digital numbers will be higher than expected, the digital version is also the same price as the retial this time round so digital is just esasier so I assume most have gone that route.

     

  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
    Originally posted by Thanes

    What I don't get if those figures are true.  How does WoW have 9 million active subscibers if only 3.3 million copies of Cataclysm were sold?

    those figures are a poor estimate without including digital sales

     

    regarding Cata  http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?page=2

    WOW sold 3.3m in the first 24hrs and 4.7m in the first month  -- not including asian market

  • expressoexpresso Member UncommonPosts: 2,218
    Originally posted by Thanes
    Originally posted by Zeppelin4

    http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-performance-disappointing/

     

    Take it for what its worth.

    Link:

    It looks like it’s going to take more than kung fu fighting pandas to save Azeroth.

    Sales of the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion have been disappointing, according to analysts at investment bank Lazard Capital Markets. The fourth expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s massively popular online game has sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies at retail since its launch earlier this week, Lazard estimates.

    Historically, each new World of Warcraft expansion has outsold its predecessors, Lazard said, but sales of Pandaria are down 60 percent from the previous expansion pack, Cataclysm, which has sold 3.3 million units since its launch in December 2010. While these figures don’t take digital market performance into account, Lazard analysts believe Pandaria’s digital sales won’t make up for its poor retail performance.

    A drop in subscription numbers is a possible explanation for Pandaria’s struggles. Back in August, publisher Activision Blizzard revealed World of Warcraft lost over one million subscriptions in the last fiscal quarter.

    About 25 percent of Activision Blizzard’s revenue comes from World of Warcraft, along with 50 percent of its operating income, which has analysts concerned about the game’s continued longevity.

     

    What I don't get if those figures are true.  How does WoW have 9 million active subscibers if only 3.3 million copies of Cataclysm were sold?

    /edit oh I see- retail vs. digital.  You really need to include digital if you're making a point, imo.

    Venturebeat kinda lost credibility for me as they're quoting Cata numbers incorrectly, Cata sold 3.3million in the first 24 hours and went on to sell 4.7 million in the first month

    so where are the other 5 million did they not buy it? the other 5million are in china where Cata wasn't avaliable at the time.

  • Panther2103Panther2103 Member EpicPosts: 5,766
    Originally posted by expresso
    Originally posted by Thanes
    Originally posted by Zeppelin4

    http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-performance-disappointing/

     

    Take it for what its worth.

    Link:

    It looks like it’s going to take more than kung fu fighting pandas to save Azeroth.

    Sales of the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion have been disappointing, according to analysts at investment bank Lazard Capital Markets. The fourth expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s massively popular online game has sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies at retail since its launch earlier this week, Lazard estimates.

    Historically, each new World of Warcraft expansion has outsold its predecessors, Lazard said, but sales of Pandaria are down 60 percent from the previous expansion pack, Cataclysm, which has sold 3.3 million units since its launch in December 2010. While these figures don’t take digital market performance into account, Lazard analysts believe Pandaria’s digital sales won’t make up for its poor retail performance.

    A drop in subscription numbers is a possible explanation for Pandaria’s struggles. Back in August, publisher Activision Blizzard revealed World of Warcraft lost over one million subscriptions in the last fiscal quarter.

    About 25 percent of Activision Blizzard’s revenue comes from World of Warcraft, along with 50 percent of its operating income, which has analysts concerned about the game’s continued longevity.

     

    What I don't get if those figures are true.  How does WoW have 9 million active subscibers if only 3.3 million copies of Cataclysm were sold?

    /edit oh I see- retail vs. digital.  You really need to include digital if you're making a point, imo.

    Venturebeat kinda lost credibility for me as they're quoting Cata numbers incorrectly, Cata sold 3.3million in the first 24 hours and went on to sell 4.7 million in the first month

    so where are the other 5 million did they not buy it? the other 5million are in china where Cata wasn't avaliable at the time.

    I had not heard of venturebeat until I started snooping around articles on the website. The second article I read after this horrid exageration was an article stating there are rumors of Nexon and NCsoft buying valve. They obviously just take anything that is even remotely able to be talked about and ramp it up, nobody can buy valve, gabe said it himself. This is just a really obnoxious news source that will bite at anything.

  • JimmyYOJimmyYO Member UncommonPosts: 519

    Well I can't speak for anyone else but I have to say gameplay wise MoP is EASILY the worst expansion, even if you ignore the panda-ness entirely. The instances are boring and extremely easy even by WoW standards.

    After my 10th quest I was literally nodding off. The game has just failed to evolve with the genre and in turn has released a "done to death" expansion that can no longer even trick people into thinking it's fresh. Even visually, every new area looks like a rehashed version of an old one. Buy this game at your own risk, you were warned.

  • Originally posted by JimmyYO

    The instances are boring and extremely easy even by WoW standards.

    This is what I'm really dreading when my Pandaren hits max. I really enjoyed Cataclysm because it made you actually have to pay attention during Heroics. Then they nerfed the Hell out of the game just a couple of weeks after I hit max level. I quit shortly after. If I find myself nodding off during instances once more you can be sure my sub will be short-lived. It's why I quit Wrath and why I quit Cata.

    And no, I'm not into raiding, which is unfortunate since it seems to be where the only challenge is found.

    It really irks me that Heroics are made super easy. The whole point of Heroics was to provide the same content but in a harder version so you couldn't watch TV while playing. Now both difficulty levels are for people not interested in any challenge, just like Wrath.

  • It seems most people are buying it digitally from the Blizzard store these days. Apparently I'm the only guy I know who bought it from a retailer. That probably explains why retail sales of MoP are so low compared to previous expansions.
  • MukeMuke Member RarePosts: 2,614
    Originally posted by Deathenger

    Last I checked xfire, they still havent recovered from the loss of players when GW2 released even after MoP.

     

    I dont think that article can really accuratly represent digital sales from the WoW main site so I'm sure its much higher than that. On active subscribers alone, even if they only sold MoP to half their subscribers it should still outsell GW2

    Xfire is THE benchmark for MMO statistics, because 2% of all MMO gamers use it.   ^^

    "going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"

  • fenistilfenistil Member Posts: 3,005
    Originally posted by expresso
    Originally posted by Thanes
    Originally posted by Zeppelin4

    http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/27/world-of-warcraft-mists-of-pandaria-performance-disappointing/

     

    Take it for what its worth.

    Link:

    It looks like it’s going to take more than kung fu fighting pandas to save Azeroth.

    Sales of the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion have been disappointing, according to analysts at investment bank Lazard Capital Markets. The fourth expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s massively popular online game has sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies at retail since its launch earlier this week, Lazard estimates.

    Historically, each new World of Warcraft expansion has outsold its predecessors, Lazard said, but sales of Pandaria are down 60 percent from the previous expansion pack, Cataclysm, which has sold 3.3 million units since its launch in December 2010. While these figures don’t take digital market performance into account, Lazard analysts believe Pandaria’s digital sales won’t make up for its poor retail performance.

    A drop in subscription numbers is a possible explanation for Pandaria’s struggles. Back in August, publisher Activision Blizzard revealed World of Warcraft lost over one million subscriptions in the last fiscal quarter.

    About 25 percent of Activision Blizzard’s revenue comes from World of Warcraft, along with 50 percent of its operating income, which has analysts concerned about the game’s continued longevity.

     

    What I don't get if those figures are true.  How does WoW have 9 million active subscibers if only 3.3 million copies of Cataclysm were sold?

    /edit oh I see- retail vs. digital.  You really need to include digital if you're making a point, imo.

    Venturebeat kinda lost credibility for me as they're quoting Cata numbers incorrectly, Cata sold 3.3million in the first 24 hours and went on to sell 4.7 million in the first month

    so where are the other 5 million did they not buy it? the other 5million are in china where Cata wasn't avaliable at the time.

    It is not about avability and not.  Players in China don't have to buy WoW expansions.  When they come to China they just are applied to servers and avabile to every player afaik    So WoW expansions will never have any sales in China.

    They are paying by hour for playing though.

     

    Think this site is trying to tell 600-700 thousand + digital in first 24 hour vs 3,3 Cata in 24 hour.   So that's why they have not brough 4,7 mln first month.   MOP is not one month on market. Kinda logical no?

  • WarbandWarband Member UncommonPosts: 723

    There's clearly a very big issue here. Anyone trying toi brush it away as just digital is being delusional. 60% down on retail is a massive difference. Unless your going to imply digital went up by a massive amount (when digital may as well have gone down) stating digital sales is pointless.

    That's ignoring that the Eu Blizzard store is overpriced so many in the EU may not have in fact bought digital and may have been more likely to buy at retail.

    Obviously this isn't the full picture but the information doesn't bode well for the expansion

  • LobotomistLobotomist Member EpicPosts: 5,963

    I see you guys dont understand much about statistics .

    Even if 1% of MMO players use Xfire. That data could be used to gauge game activity and popularity rise / drops.

    Same goes for digital vs retail sales. You know what is the ratio of digital vs retail buyers. Than you use this ratio on retail sales data.

    If the retail had disappointing sales - it points out poor interest in the game.

     

    BTW - As someone who bought D3. I can tell you that I went for retail. Because Blizzard charges same for both (?).

    But if you buy retail you get a very nice box.



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