Originally posted by TruelevelHow much more content will WoW have in the future,,, Can they keep it up?
No because pretty soon everyone will have leveled up all the needed faction and then be on the sidelines waiting once every 9 months for the next patch.
This is what made alot of people rage quit, after the promise from Blizzard to push out contend faster and more frequently. Instead they lied and let people pay for 10 months without any serious contend update. Combine this with all the rage over the panda's and catering to the asia market and you see why they sold 2.7 mill in 1 week instead of 4 million compared to Cataclysmn.
Its still a massive number tough wich i dint realy expected, but they are way lower then Cataclysm and thats a bad sign for Blizzard. We all know MMO's sky rocket in a patch / expansion and bleed dry in the months after that.
Q4 will be something alot of stock holders are interested in as we can see how long retention MoP has.
People like yourself keep blaming pandas and the asian theme for the drop in sales but I can tell you for myself and everyone I know the reason the sales are poorer is because of cataclysm. That expansion was crap. The game has lost close to 3 million subs since Cata came out, to sell 2.7 million in one week is pretty good.
Percentage wise comparing sales with sub numbers the expansion sold as well as the previous ones did.
The game is 8 years old people. There comes a point where you can not expect every expansion to always outside the previous expansion. What would that say for WoW if every expansion sold more or 2x as many copies as the previous expansion? You would be looking at a game that would virtually never die if that was the case.
In all reality 2.7 million copies in even 1 week is freakin amazing. Most MMO's in general would die to sell that many copies an increase its subscription numbers 8 years into its life cycle.
When its all said and done I have no doubt that MoP will sell over 4 million copies within the next 3 months. Most MMOs in general would die to sell 4 million copies of an expansion.
One thing also to take into account MoP is not a required expansion to play the game. If your into just arenas MoP is not required to do arenas, rated bgs, dungeons, ect. If you wish to do the latest raid content that you will need to have MoP but not everyone is into raiding.
Did people honestly think the game would keep growing forever? It is unbelievable that it did. Look at SWTOR and GW2. Those games didn't even make a complete month before the population began to decline.....
WoW continues to have massive amounts of players for a decade to come. But what people are aware of is that WoW lost its touch. Blizzard is milking their players dry to the bone and many players are not buying into the hype again.
People wont forget they paid 10 months worth of subs for a bad expansion with no contend updates. This reflect MoP sales directly, if Cataclysm was a huge succes MoP would have sold more then Cataclysm.
This is not the case and 10 million subs ? realy ? 7 million dont pay a sub they pay per hour ... 1 cent per hour :P 2.7 million boxes sold included digital + box sales is not bad, but it aint good by a long shot either, it shows WoW is losing its ground and people are turning away from it.
And this is Blizzards faulth, not haters / fanboys / marketing / GW2, if Blizzard would hold on their promises and do more for the playerbase and dint add panda's It would have been a huge succes.
I dont believe stockholders or Blizzard finance managers are happy with this result. Unless they dont care anymore and just try to milk out the players as much as they can before Titan is releasing.
WoW continues to have massive amounts of players for a decade to come. But what people are aware of is that WoW lost its touch. Blizzard is milking their players dry to the bone and many players are not buying into the hype again.
People wont forget they paid 10 months worth of subs for a bad expansion with no contend updates. This reflect MoP sales directly, if Cataclysm was a huge succes MoP would have sold more then Cataclysm.
This is not the case and 10 million subs ? realy ? 7 million dont pay a sub they pay per hour ... 1 cent per hour :P 2.7 million boxes sold included digital + box sales is not bad, but it aint good by a long shot either, it shows WoW is losing its ground and people are turning away from it.
And this is Blizzards faulth, not haters / fanboys / marketing / GW2, if Blizzard would hold on their promises and do more for the playerbase and dint add panda's It would have been a huge succes.
I dont believe stockholders or Blizzard finance managers are happy with this result. Unless they dont care anymore and just try to milk out the players as much as they can before Titan is releasing.
It's fairly obvious WoW is in "milking" mode, and has been for awhile. Any of the original team from WoW still at Blizzard was reallocated to Titan. I thought I remembered reading that the live team and expansion team are now one in the same for WoW. They will keep on making content until people stop paying all together, which probably won't be for a long, long time.
WoW continues to have massive amounts of players for a decade to come. But what people are aware of is that WoW lost its touch. Blizzard is milking their players dry to the bone and many players are not buying into the hype again.
People wont forget they paid 10 months worth of subs for a bad expansion with no contend updates. This reflect MoP sales directly, if Cataclysm was a huge succes MoP would have sold more then Cataclysm.
This is not the case and 10 million subs ? realy ? 7 million dont pay a sub they pay per hour ... 1 cent per hour :P 2.7 million boxes sold included digital + box sales is not bad, but it aint good by a long shot either, it shows WoW is losing its ground and people are turning away from it.
And this is Blizzards faulth, not haters / fanboys / marketing / GW2, if Blizzard would hold on their promises and do more for the playerbase and dint add panda's It would have been a huge succes.
I dont believe stockholders or Blizzard finance managers are happy with this result. Unless they dont care anymore and just try to milk out the players as much as they can before Titan is releasing.
It's fairly obvious WoW is in "milking" mode, and has been for awhile. Any of the original team from WoW still at Blizzard was reallocated to Titan. I thought I remembered reading that the live team and expansion team are now one in the same for WoW. They will keep on making content until people stop paying all together, which probably won't be for a long, long time.
The content they make is easily worth £8.99 a month though, you are only being milked if you hate the game but are for some reason still paying a sub or buying stuff from there over priced store.
WoW continues to have massive amounts of players for a decade to come. But what people are aware of is that WoW lost its touch. Blizzard is milking their players dry to the bone and many players are not buying into the hype again.
People wont forget they paid 10 months worth of subs for a bad expansion with no contend updates. This reflect MoP sales directly, if Cataclysm was a huge succes MoP would have sold more then Cataclysm.
This is not the case and 10 million subs ? realy ? 7 million dont pay a sub they pay per hour ... 1 cent per hour :P 2.7 million boxes sold included digital + box sales is not bad, but it aint good by a long shot either, it shows WoW is losing its ground and people are turning away from it.
And this is Blizzards faulth, not haters / fanboys / marketing / GW2, if Blizzard would hold on their promises and do more for the playerbase and dint add panda's It would have been a huge succes.
I dont believe stockholders or Blizzard finance managers are happy with this result. Unless they dont care anymore and just try to milk out the players as much as they can before Titan is releasing.
Well I was a huge critic of Pandaria when they showed the trailer ,but after buying it and playing it I have to say I am enjoying it very much and glad I got it. I am now a fan of the expansion. I hated Cataclysm,but this expansion has some similar feel as BC did even though it is a different story to it. I love the fact that everyone cannot fly until 90 to take time and explore and enjoy what they have created for us to play. If you are thinking about buying it I can tell you from my own experience that you might be pleasantly surprise. Know this the quests are pretty much the way they have always been with a few new ones,but the look of the expansion for old graphics looks really good. Anyway not gonna sit here and be a "fan" boy. If your skeptical and have enjoy Blizzards WoW in the past I think you will change your mind if you buy it.I know I am having a blast with it:P
Originally posted by escarreta Can someone explain me what are doing 7.3 million players in wow? If was sold just 2.7 million and has 10 million subscribers...
Same way it had 12 million "subscribers" and sold 4-5 million copies of Cata. China doesn't buy the game or expansions. It's free. They pay for time played. So now, they have 10 million "subscribers" and sold 2.7 million copies worldwide.
So essentially, their "subscription" numbers never meant much.
To paraphrase someone in a now-locked thread, this is the first expansion to sell less than the previous one, how is that a good thing?
To put it into better perspective:
Units sold by expansion:
Vanilla(2004)
240,000 within the first 24 hours
The Burning Crusade
2.4 million within the first 24 hours 3.5 million within the month
Wrath of the Lich King
2.8 million within the first 24 hours
Cataclysm
3.3 million within the first 24 hours 4.7 million within the month
Mists of Panderia
2.7 million within the first week
Subscriber Base Timeline
DEC 2005 - 5 million JUL 2007 - 8 million JAN 2008 - Over 10 million OCT 2010 - Over 12 million May 2011 - 10.3 million AUG 2012 - 9.1 million OCT 2012 - Over 10 million
As anyone can see MoP has fallen short of evry expansion that preceeds it. Take into account that 3Q reports that 1.1 million subscribers canceled accounts and its not looking good. We all know that Blizzard releases statistics when they find it to thier benefit.
Lets not forget that though MoP may have 10 million subscribers right now, it is a fair bet that come January when the yearly D3 sub is up for many that that number will fall by alot more than many may realize.
(Thanks to Reddit for the stats )
I'd be interested to know if the current 10 million who are subscribed are mostly the same people as 4 years ago or are new people.
Generally speaking, the problem with all games is that you get bored of them.
Originally posted by Truelevel How much more content will WoW have in the future,,, Can they keep it up?
I think they can keep up the content, the question is will the content be believable?.....I mean if were getting kung fu Panda in this expansion, who knows what comes next?
That sounds believable. Cata sold 3.3million in 24 hours but turned off a lot of players. They had to expect a drop in sales on this expansion. 2.7 million in a week is nothing to sneeze at. I wonder how many people are actively playing in MoP in Asia. I'd assume they've lost roughly the same % of players as well, but who knows.
It shows just how many people are looking for alternatives to WOW in games like SWTOR and GW2. Rift could have been huge if it was based on a well known IP.
Rift didn't need a well-known IP. Just an interesting one.
Bingo. Rifts lack of success had nothing to do with lack of established IP, as all an established IP does is draw customers to try your game, and Rift had absolutely zero issues getting people to try their game. They just have had very poor retention. For all Rift does right it is devoid of soul.
Not really. Rift only attracted a fraction of the number of players for SWTOR or GW2. Even though the market was craving a replacement for WOW when Rift released.
All of the top MMO sales in the western market were for well known IPs. WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, SWTOR and GW2.
Rift did great considering it was an unknown dev and IP. But it would have attracted probably twice as many people if it had a well known IP attached. I think that's a large reason why games like TERA, Aion and TSW struggled to even sell boxes.
Rift is really the exception to the rule though as they probably sold close to what AOC and WAR did.
Originally posted by TruelevelHow much more content will WoW have in the future,,, Can they keep it up?
No because pretty soon everyone will have leveled up all the needed faction and then be on the sidelines waiting once every 9 months for the next patch.
This is what made alot of people rage quit, after the promise from Blizzard to push out contend faster and more frequently. Instead they lied and let people pay for 10 months without any serious contend update. Combine this with all the rage over the panda's and catering to the asia market and you see why they sold 2.7 mill in 1 week instead of 4 million compared to Cataclysmn.
Its still a massive number tough wich i dint realy expected, but they are way lower then Cataclysm and thats a bad sign for Blizzard. We all know MMO's sky rocket in a patch / expansion and bleed dry in the months after that.
Q4 will be something alot of stock holders are interested in as we can see how long retention MoP has.
I don't recall this much controversy when they catered to the Viking market with Wrath.
This is what made alot of people rage quit, after the promise from Blizzard to push out contend faster and more frequently. Instead they lied and let people pay for 10 months without any serious contend update. Combine this with all the rage over the panda's and catering to the asia market and you see why they sold 2.7 mill in 1 week instead of 4 million compared to Cataclysmn.
Its still a massive number tough wich i dint realy expected, but they are way lower then Cataclysm and thats a bad sign for Blizzard. We all know MMO's sky rocket in a patch / expansion and bleed dry in the months after that.
Q4 will be something alot of stock holders are interested in as we can see how long retention MoP has.
I don't recall this much controversy when they catered to the Viking market with Wrath.
Well, apparently the Viking/Norse market is perceived as manly and mature, while pandas are perceived as cute, cuddly, or in Kung Fu Panda's case, SKADOOSH!
Originally posted by Teala I and my partner still haven't bought Mist of Pandaria and we're letting our subs go this month. We did the Mist beta and didn't like the changes they made to the talent trees or the cross character achievements. That means that for the first time since 2004, neither of us will have a WoW account. We did like the new Panda's and Pandaria, we just didn't like the changes that came with it to the core game play. Blizzard lost two fans here. I wonder how many others feel as we do?
/waves hand furiously in air
My partner and I are right there with you guys. For the first time since 2004, neither of us has a WoW account right now and for the same reasons you mentioned and even more than that. I used to think Blizz could do no wrong, you know, like paparadelios does (another forumite). We no longer believe that hooey.
Well.... 2.7 million sold in a week tells me that the number must be pretty close to the na/eu subscriber base after the MoP release as I would imagine the vast majority would have purchased the Xpac. Makes me wonder how low na/eu subs were before the release.
I think the goose that layed the golden eggs, is coming into menopause.
Not saying the game is going to die or anything of the sort, but the golden years are definatley over.
Wrath: Vikings, wit but the game respected its own storyline and heritage.
Mop: question: does it respect it's heritage, does it treat itself seriously? If it doesn't take itself seriously then if obviously does not respect or take the avatars within that game seriously. Does blizzard value the desires of the existing loyal player base, or does blizzard care more about getting new players? Did existing players ask for the new talent model as it stands, was pets and pandas what the existing player base really wanted above all? Blizzard disgusts me on a personal and pfifessional level.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
I think the telling point of all the sales figures and the controversy can be narrowed down to this:
Only 1/3 of the playerbase purchased MoP and even then they lost 1.1 million players in 3rd Quarter and as all of those who have played WoW since 2004 and since know... WoW always loses a large number of subs with the following few months.
It is very likely that for the first time in 6+ years the Subscription rate could drop below 9 million subscribers.. and lets not forget Blizz has been known to pad thier numbers so the 10 million or so it currently has could be false also.
Not to mention in 2015 Blizz is supposed to release Titan.. or whatever they are going to name the next Gen MMO they are working on. Simply put many of the players I deal with in the 4 Gaming Communities that I either run or am a member of are waiting for it. WoW is on its last xpac or two and has little life left in it for growth.
The players today are mostly under 20 and many of those wh were around from the beta days that I played with have moved on. I have watched a few of the old school guilds that were in excess of 100+ players that raided in Vanilla and TBC have disbanded/ Changed servers or have moved onto other games completely.
I currently do have a few months of WoW sub left. but im one of the players who for the first time in nearly 10 years am not playing at all. I hated the new talents from 5.0.4 pre MoP patch. I didnt care about the account wide mounts/achieves... hell they still havent fixed the BOA items being cross accounts/realm. The PokeWoW crap is not for me.. I left the pokemon world behind 12 years ago when my buddies kids picked it up at diamond and gold or some such crap.
Lastly The content for MoP is disappointing. It has fewer dungeons, Fewer Raids.. oh wait.. they added scenarios.. and who cared?
1. GW2 has Dynamic world events.. Blizz missed the boat;
2. Eden Eternal has 1man and party dungeons.. Blizz must have been asleep in class
3. Origins of Malu which isnt even out yet is developing an MMo where the players run the world.. what a concept.. Hello Blizz you there?
There are changes being made in the MMO world and Blizz seems to be out of touch.. pandas, though part of lore, were a touch late... and lacking...
Blizz has been known to pad thier numbers so the 10 million or so it currently has could be false also.
you have an example where blizzard has padded their numbers?
In the 15+ year I have played Blizz games I have only known them to be open about anything they may have done wrong only once. and that was this year when they got hacked. So evidence? no hard evidence will ever be found. But considering they were at 10 mill , lost 1.1 mill and are still claiming 10mill +? Tell me where it makes sense?
Blizz has been known to pad thier numbers so the 10 million or so it currently has could be false also.
you have an example where blizzard has padded their numbers?
In the 15+ year I have played Blizz games I have only known them to be open about anything they may have done wrong only once. and that was this year when they got hacked. So evidence? no hard evidence will ever be found. But considering they were at 10 mill , lost 1.1 mill and are still claiming 10mill +? Tell me where it makes sense?
Well, from what I remember, they lost 1.1 million roughly about a month before MoP released. SO I would presume that they regained about the same amount from the MoP sales.
Originally posted by Bladestrom Wrath: Vikings, wit but the game respected its own storyline and heritage.
Mop: question: does it respect it's heritage, does it treat itself seriously? If it doesn't take itself seriously then if obviously does not respect or take the avatars within that game seriously. Does blizzard value the desires of the existing loyal player base, or does blizzard care more about getting new players? Did existing players ask for the new talent model as it stands, was pets and pandas what the existing player base really wanted above all? Blizzard disgusts me on a personal and pfifessional level.
Players have been asking to be Pandarens since TBC announced it would have new races. Pets have been in the game since release, they're just now doing something fun with them.
I think any subscription based company knows that customer retention is a greater priority than gaining new customers. Don't pretend their plan is to alienate all their current customers in order to attract a new generation, that's just silly.
Well.... 2.7 million sold in a week tells me that the number must be pretty close to the na/eu subscriber base after the MoP release as I would imagine the vast majority would have purchased the Xpac. Makes me wonder how low na/eu subs were before the release.
I think the goose that layed the golden eggs, is coming into menopause.
Not saying the game is going to die or anything of the sort, but the golden years are definatley over.
Well, the Cata sales added 1.4 million between day 1 and the one month mark. That tells me we need to wait about a month to get a better handle on US/EU sub numbers.
I can't imagine there is a double digit % of players that play WOW but stay behind the current expansion.
I think WOW might be able to grow again, but it would require changes that would be more likely to alienate the players, such as massive engine overhauls. They are crazy not to already be work on WOW2. But they like to keep the number of projects they are working on managable and probably have their MMO hopes tied to Titan.
Blizz has been known to pad thier numbers so the 10 million or so it currently has could be false also.
you have an example where blizzard has padded their numbers?
Every time they use the word "subscriber". I'm pretty sure they include anyone that played even just one hour in a chinese internet cafe in the last month if not the last quarter.
Comments
People like yourself keep blaming pandas and the asian theme for the drop in sales but I can tell you for myself and everyone I know the reason the sales are poorer is because of cataclysm. That expansion was crap. The game has lost close to 3 million subs since Cata came out, to sell 2.7 million in one week is pretty good.
Percentage wise comparing sales with sub numbers the expansion sold as well as the previous ones did.
Did people honestly think the game would keep growing forever? It is unbelievable that it did. Look at SWTOR and GW2. Those games didn't even make a complete month before the population began to decline.....
WoW continues to have massive amounts of players for a decade to come.
But what people are aware of is that WoW lost its touch.
Blizzard is milking their players dry to the bone and many players are not buying into the hype again.
People wont forget they paid 10 months worth of subs for a bad expansion with no contend updates.
This reflect MoP sales directly, if Cataclysm was a huge succes MoP would have sold more then Cataclysm.
This is not the case and 10 million subs ? realy ? 7 million dont pay a sub they pay per hour ... 1 cent per hour :P
2.7 million boxes sold included digital + box sales is not bad, but it aint good by a long shot either, it shows WoW is losing its ground and people are turning away from it.
And this is Blizzards faulth, not haters / fanboys / marketing / GW2, if Blizzard would hold on their promises and do more for the playerbase and dint add panda's It would have been a huge succes.
I dont believe stockholders or Blizzard finance managers are happy with this result.
Unless they dont care anymore and just try to milk out the players as much as they can before Titan is releasing.
It's fairly obvious WoW is in "milking" mode, and has been for awhile. Any of the original team from WoW still at Blizzard was reallocated to Titan. I thought I remembered reading that the live team and expansion team are now one in the same for WoW. They will keep on making content until people stop paying all together, which probably won't be for a long, long time.
The content they make is easily worth £8.99 a month though, you are only being milked if you hate the game but are for some reason still paying a sub or buying stuff from there over priced store.
The end of the world (of warcraft) is nigh.
Well I was a huge critic of Pandaria when they showed the trailer ,but after buying it and playing it I have to say I am enjoying it very much and glad I got it. I am now a fan of the expansion. I hated Cataclysm,but this expansion has some similar feel as BC did even though it is a different story to it. I love the fact that everyone cannot fly until 90 to take time and explore and enjoy what they have created for us to play. If you are thinking about buying it I can tell you from my own experience that you might be pleasantly surprise. Know this the quests are pretty much the way they have always been with a few new ones,but the look of the expansion for old graphics looks really good. Anyway not gonna sit here and be a "fan" boy. If your skeptical and have enjoy Blizzards WoW in the past I think you will change your mind if you buy it.I know I am having a blast with it:P
I'd be interested to know if the current 10 million who are subscribed are mostly the same people as 4 years ago or are new people.
Generally speaking, the problem with all games is that you get bored of them.
I bet 90% of the players where from EU / USA back then.
Today its 75% asia and 25% EU+ USA combined.
for what its worth, i hope it was intended move to conquer asia with panda's as they made alot more EU/USA players quit then any previous expansions.
EU pays 12.99 a month
Asia pays 1 cent per hour
lets see their profit in Q4 to see how much income they lost verus subs they gained in asia and what brings in more profit for BLizzard.
This has a direct effect on money throw into the game, or lack off money thrown into the game.
It seems to me Titan is almost comming out of the shadows, we should see some glimpse within the upcomming months i think.
I think they can keep up the content, the question is will the content be believable?.....I mean if were getting kung fu Panda in this expansion, who knows what comes next?
Not really. Rift only attracted a fraction of the number of players for SWTOR or GW2. Even though the market was craving a replacement for WOW when Rift released.
All of the top MMO sales in the western market were for well known IPs. WOW, EQ2, LOTRO, AOC, WAR, SWTOR and GW2.
Rift did great considering it was an unknown dev and IP. But it would have attracted probably twice as many people if it had a well known IP attached. I think that's a large reason why games like TERA, Aion and TSW struggled to even sell boxes.
Rift is really the exception to the rule though as they probably sold close to what AOC and WAR did.
I don't recall this much controversy when they catered to the Viking market with Wrath.
Well, apparently the Viking/Norse market is perceived as manly and mature, while pandas are perceived as cute, cuddly, or in Kung Fu Panda's case, SKADOOSH!
...P.S. Both are still awesome regardless.
/waves hand furiously in air
My partner and I are right there with you guys. For the first time since 2004, neither of us has a WoW account right now and for the same reasons you mentioned and even more than that. I used to think Blizz could do no wrong, you know, like paparadelios does (another forumite). We no longer believe that hooey.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Well.... 2.7 million sold in a week tells me that the number must be pretty close to the na/eu subscriber base after the MoP release as I would imagine the vast majority would have purchased the Xpac. Makes me wonder how low na/eu subs were before the release.
I think the goose that layed the golden eggs, is coming into menopause.
Not saying the game is going to die or anything of the sort, but the golden years are definatley over.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Mop: question: does it respect it's heritage, does it treat itself seriously? If it doesn't take itself seriously then if obviously does not respect or take the avatars within that game seriously. Does blizzard value the desires of the existing loyal player base, or does blizzard care more about getting new players? Did existing players ask for the new talent model as it stands, was pets and pandas what the existing player base really wanted above all? Blizzard disgusts me on a personal and pfifessional level.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I think the telling point of all the sales figures and the controversy can be narrowed down to this:
Only 1/3 of the playerbase purchased MoP and even then they lost 1.1 million players in 3rd Quarter and as all of those who have played WoW since 2004 and since know... WoW always loses a large number of subs with the following few months.
It is very likely that for the first time in 6+ years the Subscription rate could drop below 9 million subscribers.. and lets not forget Blizz has been known to pad thier numbers so the 10 million or so it currently has could be false also.
Not to mention in 2015 Blizz is supposed to release Titan.. or whatever they are going to name the next Gen MMO they are working on. Simply put many of the players I deal with in the 4 Gaming Communities that I either run or am a member of are waiting for it. WoW is on its last xpac or two and has little life left in it for growth.
The players today are mostly under 20 and many of those wh were around from the beta days that I played with have moved on. I have watched a few of the old school guilds that were in excess of 100+ players that raided in Vanilla and TBC have disbanded/ Changed servers or have moved onto other games completely.
I currently do have a few months of WoW sub left. but im one of the players who for the first time in nearly 10 years am not playing at all. I hated the new talents from 5.0.4 pre MoP patch. I didnt care about the account wide mounts/achieves... hell they still havent fixed the BOA items being cross accounts/realm. The PokeWoW crap is not for me.. I left the pokemon world behind 12 years ago when my buddies kids picked it up at diamond and gold or some such crap.
Lastly The content for MoP is disappointing. It has fewer dungeons, Fewer Raids.. oh wait.. they added scenarios.. and who cared?
1. GW2 has Dynamic world events.. Blizz missed the boat;
2. Eden Eternal has 1man and party dungeons.. Blizz must have been asleep in class
3. Origins of Malu which isnt even out yet is developing an MMo where the players run the world.. what a concept.. Hello Blizz you there?
There are changes being made in the MMO world and Blizz seems to be out of touch.. pandas, though part of lore, were a touch late... and lacking...
Played: UO, LotR, WoW, SWG, DDO, AoC, EVE, Warhammer, TF2, EQ2, SWTOR, TSW, CSS, KF, L4D, AoW, WoT
Playing: The Secret World until Citadel of Sorcery goes into Alpha testing.
Tired of: Linear quest games, dailies, and dumbed down games
Anticipating:Citadel of Sorcery
you have an example where blizzard has padded their numbers?
EQ2 fan sites
In the 15+ year I have played Blizz games I have only known them to be open about anything they may have done wrong only once. and that was this year when they got hacked. So evidence? no hard evidence will ever be found. But considering they were at 10 mill , lost 1.1 mill and are still claiming 10mill +? Tell me where it makes sense?
Played: UO, LotR, WoW, SWG, DDO, AoC, EVE, Warhammer, TF2, EQ2, SWTOR, TSW, CSS, KF, L4D, AoW, WoT
Playing: The Secret World until Citadel of Sorcery goes into Alpha testing.
Tired of: Linear quest games, dailies, and dumbed down games
Anticipating:Citadel of Sorcery
Well, from what I remember, they lost 1.1 million roughly about a month before MoP released. SO I would presume that they regained about the same amount from the MoP sales.
Players have been asking to be Pandarens since TBC announced it would have new races. Pets have been in the game since release, they're just now doing something fun with them.
I think any subscription based company knows that customer retention is a greater priority than gaining new customers. Don't pretend their plan is to alienate all their current customers in order to attract a new generation, that's just silly.
The game has always been tongue in cheek. Always.
Just out of curiosity, what's your profession?
Well, the Cata sales added 1.4 million between day 1 and the one month mark. That tells me we need to wait about a month to get a better handle on US/EU sub numbers.
I can't imagine there is a double digit % of players that play WOW but stay behind the current expansion.
I think WOW might be able to grow again, but it would require changes that would be more likely to alienate the players, such as massive engine overhauls. They are crazy not to already be work on WOW2. But they like to keep the number of projects they are working on managable and probably have their MMO hopes tied to Titan.
Every time they use the word "subscriber". I'm pretty sure they include anyone that played even just one hour in a chinese internet cafe in the last month if not the last quarter.