Are MoP sales really this low ?

Jaedor · September 2012

I'd expect digital download sales to surpass box sales this year. Since the numbers don't include downloads, they arent accurate - off by perhaps 50%.

Edit: Every person I know who bought MoP (about 85 people) did the digital download, except for two who bought the CE and one who wanted to stand in line and party at midnight instead of play.

WhiteLantern · September 2012

Originally posted by Phry
Originally posted by WhiteLantern
Originally posted by Psychow
I don't know anyone who bought a box version of the expansion instead of the digital version. The expansion is already downloaded. You wouldn't even have to insert the discs into the computer.

Yet they discount the relevence of the digital sales...yeah...ok...

So this little "story" is completely useless.

Have to agree here. The shear number of digital delux/CE mounts that were running around when the MoP patch dropped a month ago says this could be their first expansion to have digitals outsell boxed copies.

Most definitely, there isnt any evidence to suggest the game didnt sell well at all, and 'retail' sales could well represent less than 10 percent of overall sales, although some people do prefer boxed/physical discs vs digital, fewer retailers stock PC games now, its often the case that the only real choice is mail order or digital, and mail order sometimes means additional costs for postage etc. At some point hopefully we'll get more data on sales figures that include digital, it would be interesting in itself, just for the information on what percentage each category represented.

Agreed again. When I went to upgrade my account, I hit that button and was taken to a place to purchase the upgrade. It actually took me a bit to find where to input my CD key (bought the CE).

They don't want to sell boxes. Boxes cost them monies. Bits and Bytes from their website = profits.

The more I think about it, the more I think the digital sales will be 5 times that of box sales. I was at the midnight releases of BC and Wrath. Once I got home, all I had to do was input my key and go. I think people are starting to reallize there is no need to stand in lines and buy the box when you already have the bits and bytes and just need to give up some cash to use them. Had I not wanted the artbook, I would have gone DD as well.

Ramonski7 · September 2012

First you have to put things into perspective when dealing with WoW and it's latest expansion. And I stress expansion. When compared to new releases, that don't have the luxury of plugging in a upgrade button right there in the launcher that millions of players have been exposed to for years, retail box sales tend to be much bigger. But the practice of digital sales outpacing physical sales started in 2008 and the gap between the two is getting deeper by the minute.

Let's take in account Blizzard's last 3 releases:

Starcraft 2
Diablo 3
World of Warcraft: MoP

Now before I get into my assumptions of why MoP's box sales are lower, ask yourself which of the 3 games they have released is posed to bring in the most money for Blizzard? If you answered MoP then I won't say you were wrong. Now interesting things happened with the release of these three games from Blizzard. And it all points to shrewd marketing and business practices on Blizzard's part.

Starcraft 2 was first released in retail stores, then offered for digital sale through BattleNET 2 days later. This helped boost physical sales and get gamers use to dealing with BattleNET. And when the dust settled 4.5 million gamers were now linked to Blizzard's marketing network through Starcraft 2. Of the three releases, sharing Starcraft 2's success with brick and mortar stores was "good business" to them because I believe Blizzard understood it wasn't thier big money generator.

Diablo 3 was the second release under the BattleNET umbrella and it was distributed both digitally and physically at the same time. And although it is hailed as the fastest selling PC game of all time, An article was written that Max Payne 3 sold more box copies than Diablo 3 did. Key word there is boxed copies. Digitally, Diablo 3 blew everything else out of the water. And with 8.8 million copies sold to date, it was clear to Blizzard, at least, that their bet that digital sales were the way to go was worth every penny. Even at the cost of being one upped by Max Payne 3 in stores. And foregoing brick and mortar exposure/marketing.

World of Warcraft: MoP was the accumulation of years and years of marketing trends, comsumer buying data, customer feedback from brick and mortar PoS, Cost vs. profit when dealing with advertising, distribution and meeting demands. Why would you risk not getting a copy of your oldest and most widely used IP's expansion into the hands of the players day one when all the data points to the no-brainer called digital distribution? This is the reason you see a upgrade button on the launcher of a 8 year old mmorpg. They are not trying to garner more players, just maintain what they have.

But the real genius is that far before MoP was released, Blizzard had already sold 1.2 million copies of it before the first reports of preorders were in. When Diablo 3 was announced, Blizzard "offered" free copies to anyone who signed up for a annual pass to WoW. Now the only people that would sign up for this are either diehard Diablo fans or players who knew of someone in their house that would be playing WoW AND the next expansion. Even if they don't buy the expansion now (they will have a upgrade button to easily do so) they have more than 6 months to think about it while locked in a agreement.

So while you contemplate why retailers lost out (low physical sales) on one of the greatest hattricks (that's 3 scores for Blizzard) I've seen in a long time, Blizzard's halfway to the bank laughing their asses off...

Deathenger · September 2012

Originally posted by Draemos
Originally posted by roo67
http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/09/27/analysts-mists-of-pandaria-sales-disappointing/#comments

Just saw this on massively . I did think sales would be down but this is lot lower than I'd anticipated . To be honest I think its way too low to be accurate even if its doesn't include digital sales . Still it will be intersting to see the offical sales figures when they come out .

Who in the hell buys box sets of WoW expansions in the first place?

I did, because I like the boxes to be displayed on my shelf. (Wrath was the last time I played WoW,)

TERA and GW2 are the only 2 games I bought digitally. TERA was just on a whim because I was bored and well GW2 I just couldnt freaking wait to get a hard copy, lol

cronius77 · September 2012

the servers are populated and people are there in droves playing it . Just because brick and motar are on their way out the door doesnt account for saying they have low sales numbers. I dont know a soul that bought wow except through their website directly and im pretty sure most people find the digital upgrade much easier and allowed midnight access. This is just another one of the myriad of threads on this site trying to fuel the fire of wow's demise and slow declining sub numbers. Its old get over it , its going to lose subs you cannot expect a game like this to keep up 10 mil subs forever.

Chrisbox · September 2012

You left out digital download, mcderpenstein.

Mothanos · September 2012

Wait till asia get MoP and their bot netcafe's can fill up blizzard's show that they sold 8 million copy's.

MoP EU / USA is getting hammered by other mmo's and people who stepped away from WoW due to age of WOW / Pandabears / GW2 or any other reason to quit WoW.

But it must be very painfull for blizzard to see this happening with all the big warning signs of posts on the forum to merge servers.

What happend is all the remaining people transfered to a few servers who are having 4 hours queue time and 80% of the other servers who are playing I AM LEGEND.

Digital sales or not, wow is selling less and less and needs Asia realy hard to show off those fake sub numbers they show each year.

fixif · September 2012

I don't know who are these analysts and how they do their work but they are wrong almost every time.

I would wait for Blizzards official numbers.

just1opinion · September 2012

Originally posted by Nadia
Originally posted by Weretigar
Quote from EccentricaJones from http://massively.joystiq.com

However Amazon and Gamestop are retail stores that offer digital download.

So regardless some digital download sales were in the initial count.

there are no digital download offered for MOP - at either amazon or gamestop

its an irrelevant assumption

I assumed digital download meant from Blizzard themselves on their site.....? I never thought of Amazon or such.

halflife25 · September 2012

Originally posted by GolbezTheLion
Interesting, seems like people aren't into the same old gear grind anymore.

Nice to see eyes opening up instead of staying glued shut.

Again premature ejacu...err i mean celebrations. We don't know the number of digital sales yet.

roo67 · September 2012

Originally posted by Mothanos
Wait till asia get MoP and their bot netcafe's can fill up blizzard's show that they sold 8 million copy's.

MoP EU / USA is getting hammered by other mmo's and people who stepped away from WoW due to age of WOW / Pandabears / GW2 or any other reason to quit WoW.

But it must be very painfull for blizzard to see this happening with all the big warning signs of posts on the forum to merge servers.

What happend is all the remaining people transfered to a few servers who are having 4 hours queue time and 80% of the other servers who are playing I AM LEGEND.

Digital sales or not, wow is selling less and less and needs Asia realy hard to show off those fake sub numbers they show each year.

Very true China will boost MoP sales but I have noticed many people that hate GW2 seem to ignore the fact it yet to be released in China and forget the impact it will have on that games sales as well .

You also have to factor in the week ending 15 th september GW2 sold 1.7 million boxes total world wide . The same arguement can be applied to that game . Estimates place digital pre-orders were at 1 million . So we can take a rough guess that by 15 th september total sales were at least 2.7 million ( although in reality it will be higher ) .

WoW downloads I would estimate at 1.5.-2 million st a guess . If i m correct MoP and GW2 will be roughly selling as well as each other in their first month .

Which would be rather suprising given WoWs existing playerbase and GW2 is a new game . They are of course not in direct competition .

It doesn't bode well for WoWs future though if B2Play mmos start to flood the market . Becuase B2P really could be the WoW killer . ( I'm sure Blizzard by the time things really start to slide will embrace it or something like it perhaps by making the most recent expansion B2P and offering total access to the game by buying it ) .

edit . I know a lot of parents prefer to buy boxed games than digital downloads because they are a lot cheaper online .This can be taken either way in regard to these figures because a lot of kids play WoW . so that means boxed sales sould serge or it could mean that WoW is in real trouble if they dont .

Too soon to call really

Wicoa · September 2012

In my country you couldnt play at launch midnight pretty much unless you had digital, hard copies were late ish.

roo67 · September 2012

Originally posted by Wicoa
In my country you couldnt play at launch midnight pretty much unless you had digital, hard copies were late ish.

I was there at the start in the EU . You didn't even have to buy MoP in any form to log in to the game . You didn't even have to buy MoP to play a Panderan . English speaking servers on the first day or two after launch with a full load were at around 15-20 depending when you logged on . ( compared to 35-40 around cata ) .Also about 20-25 low population servers ( compared to a handful around cata ) . It did appear to me the expansion had brought some people back but it wasn't to the scale of previous expansions .

Zylaxx · September 2012

Originally posted by Nadia
thats a retail estimate

im expecting most of MOP sales to be digital

expresso commented in a different thread

when D3 sold 3.5m its first day -- 2.5million of those sales were digital

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/diablo-iii-sells-1m-at-retail-max-payne-3-hits-400k-in-may-npd-6382708

Thats false, like any game the Digital sales make up less then 20% of the total revenue unless it is a digital only.

WoW is down 60% from previous expansion sales and theres no way to spin it, no matter how hard you want to try.

eldaris · September 2012

Please tell us from where are the numbers that prove that " like any game the Digital sales make up less then 20% of the total revenue unless it is a digital only.".
Nice signature you have there ....quite true for you and wow ...
It seems guild wars 2 is really lacking content if the fans have so much time for other game forums.

Roin · September 2012

Originally posted by Zylaxx
Originally posted by Nadia
thats a retail estimate

im expecting most of MOP sales to be digital

expresso commented in a different thread

when D3 sold 3.5m its first day -- 2.5million of those sales were digital

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/diablo-iii-sells-1m-at-retail-max-payne-3-hits-400k-in-may-npd-6382708

Thats false, like any game the Digital sales make up less then 20% of the total revenue unless it is a digital only.

WoW is down 60% from previous expansion sales and theres no way to spin it, no matter how hard you want to try.

You have no proof to back up what you say, and you tell someone else they are "wrong". I'll tell you what. How about you go get some and we'll wait. Lets see your proof of WoW's digital sales numbers, and your WoW is down 60% from previous expansion evidence.

halflife25 · September 2012

Originally posted by Zylaxx
Originally posted by Nadia
thats a retail estimate

im expecting most of MOP sales to be digital

expresso commented in a different thread

when D3 sold 3.5m its first day -- 2.5million of those sales were digital

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/diablo-iii-sells-1m-at-retail-max-payne-3-hits-400k-in-may-npd-6382708

Thats false, like any game the Digital sales make up less then 20% of the total revenue unless it is a digital only.

WoW is down 60% from previous expansion sales and theres no way to spin it, no matter how hard you want to try.

Give us some data, some proof other than pure speculation and your dilike for WOW being passed out as facts. Seriously you are making a fool of yourself right now.

Unless, official numbers of digital sales are out, you are in no position to claim anything. Guessing is fine but don't try to pass it as some truth is just pure trolling.

moguy2 · September 2012

All ya have to do is click purchase and go play. Its already patched onto your comp. Buying a box expansion , now a days , is like giving yourself a reason to leave the house. Thats it..

GameboyMarc · September 2012

Originally posted by Psychow
I don't know anyone who bought a box version of the expansion instead of the digital version. The expansion is already downloaded. You wouldn't even have to insert the discs into the computer.

Yet they discount the relevence of the digital sales...yeah...ok...

So this little "story" is completely useless.

I bought the collectors edition., the box .

Phry · September 2012

Originally posted by Adoni
Originally posted by Psychow
I don't know anyone who bought a box version of the expansion instead of the digital version. The expansion is already downloaded. You wouldn't even have to insert the discs into the computer.

Yet they discount the relevence of the digital sales...yeah...ok...

So this little "story" is completely useless.

I bought the collectors edition., the box .

some people do like to get CE's and fair play, i find the pricing a bit OTT but i can see why people like them, imo the CE is probably the only reason to buy a 'boxed copy' , retailers have been complaining increasingly over the last few years, that PC games don't make them money, theres a good reason for this, because online retailers and digital downloads have become the preferred mode of purchase, and for a game like WoW having the physical disc just isnt necessary or even desirable, which is why imo, there is every reason to believe that retail sales will represent a small fraction of overall sales, Blizzard has effectively cut out the middle man, they are selling their game directly to the customer, and its right there when you launch the game, its says upgrade, press that, and authorise payment, and job is done, no fiddling around with cd keys, and no waiting for a parcel to arrive in the post.. instant gratification and that today is what people want. Bricks and mortar retailers lose out, but thats as much their fault for focusing on consoles as anything, which is imo, why companies like GAME and HMV etc, are struggling, their dinosaurs in a technological world which quite frankly.. doesnt need them anymore. Take music, how many people seriously buy cd's now? its all digital downloads from itunes etc. or books.. can't remember when i last bought a book that wasnt a digital ebook. This is just how things are, how we use technology is changing all the time, Digital downloads are here to stay, Bricks and Mortar retailers however.. arent.

GameboyMarc · September 2012

I had a 25$ gift card to Gamestop, and I do have the boxed collectors edtion of WoW, and all the exp packs. I also play the game on and off, closing my account now and then for a 1-3 months depending if I want to play focus on another game.

roo67 · September 2012

Originally posted by moguy2
All ya have to do is click purchase and go play. Its already patched onto your comp. Buying a box expansion , now a days , is like giving yourself a reason to leave the house. Thats it..

Except of course if you buy a boxed expansion from an online retailer its normally cheaper than a digital download . Also no reason to leave your house .

Some people like to have the packaging . I do myself . I must prefer say an album on cd than digital downloads .

Also many people have limited broadband downloads so a boxed game is preferable for them .

I would make a guess that MoP sold 1.5 - 2 million digital downloads . But thats only a guess I could be way out either way .

Jackdog · September 2012

The last expnsion was only 2 yers ago. I don't think digital vs box sales will be much different than the were in 2010. Seems as if it was only a week or two back people were all over the boards braging on how they had bought the collecters edition, now the same people are saying no no no me and everyonne I know bought digital, sureeeee....

Nadia · September 2012

Originally posted by Jackdog
The last expnsion was only 2 yers ago. I don't think digital vs box sales will be much different than the were in 2010. Seems as if it was only a week or two back people were all over the boards braging on how they had bought the collecters edition, now the same people are saying no no no me and everyonne I know bought digital, sureeeee....

unlike Cata in 2010

MOP has a deluxe digital that includes all the ingame perks of CE for a cheaper price

http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/07/25/mists-of-pandaria-digital-deluxe-edition-includes-both-pet-and-m/

the only way to get it is direct thru Blizzard

Wizardry · September 2012

It makes you wonder about the 16 or so million subscribers.If they don't think Blizzaard is capable of selling them good content,why are they supporting the game?They just like paying 15 bucks for no reason,or is it storage rental fees for the game assests?

I think it is that case of people just can't let go,no matter how bored or whatever reason.This makes me think the majority and a large one at that,just hang onto subs,but don't really play much anymore.In otherwords they are afraid to just leave behind their gear/items and players.It is sad imo,gaming should not garner that type of love for pixels,you can't take them with you ,they are NEVER yours to own,you are simply renting the use of the game assests.

People can say whatever they want,there is ONLY one way to tell the truth about how players really feel about a game.If Blizzard announced tommorrow all servers got wiped,how mnay players would still play Wow?I know it is only a guessing game,but imo it would be a VERY low number,like MAYBE 2 million tops.

personally i feel 700k is a really bad showing,you should see at least 50%,realistically more like 75+% of active subs.

I doubt that blizzard's PR can twist this around in any way to make appear positive.So it will be interesting to hear what they have to say about it.

We can't even use recent game launches as an excuse becuase a few million does not equal the 10+ million that are not buying to what Blizzard is selling.

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