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How long has it been since Blizzard last announced subscription numbers ?
arthen999
Member Posts: 183
Its just occured to me that its been quite a while since i last saw an official statement from Blizzard to tell us how many subscriptions they have now . I may have missed it . Its just that i ve seen reports on some gaming sites that WoW is down to 5 million subs . I personally cant seen how they have lost half their players but i also can not find any recent news from Blizzard either . 
Comments
WoW did drop to around 5million subs because the chinese servers went offline, a dispute between blizzard/netease and the chinese government was the cause.
The wow china servers are coming back online at the end of the month though.
Blizzards last offical press release was Dec last year. http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/081121.html.
Interesting they haven't announced anything since Aion got released. What are they trying to hide?
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
I did nt realise WoW owed over half its subs to mainland china . Dont Blizzard normally release subscription figures at intervals of less than six months ? It seamed at one point they were releasing them every other month . Its nearly August now and still no word from Blizzard .
whats there to release they have been dealing with the Chinese Gov for the last few months.
Information like sub numbers is only news when there is something GOOD to report.
/Thread
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
The last official announcement was at E3 2009 in June.
Its quite obvious to anyone(that isnt a troll) that Blizzard is waiting until the case in China is settled to make another announcement.
We have a winner!
Thanks Xiaoki!
So your saying the numbers have dropped that significantly that they wont publish them until they improve? What if they never improve? Aion will be released in the west soon and will take a another large chunk of their subs .... we may never hear from blizzard again
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
They could also just don't give a dang about it. Of course no one like to report a bad number but some companies never report them whatever the number is. It is usually a service to the stockholders, not a way to get more players.
Anyways I still think Wows way of counting players in China is somewhat cheating. You don't have to own the game, just play 20 cents and play one hour to get into the statistic. If any game did like that here it would most likely have a lot more players, if you are just bored in a cybercafé you could pay a few cents and try a game for a full hour instead of actually have to buy the game for 40 bucks or so. And casual players could just pay for the time they play. Of course hardcore players would be upset but any MMO have more casuals then hardcore. As I see it you have actually to purchase a MMO to be counted as a player.
But yes, Blizzard will report when they have something good or at least not abysmal to report. Doing anything else would lower their stock and that would just be stupid and Blizzard are not stupid. They have not earned so much money from china compared to the west but it do looks good to the stockholders with that many subs.
Atleast blizzatd explain how they count subs, any one can disagree with how blizzard count subs in china but they cannot disagree with the numbers.
Its also not like blizzard deliberatly changed the subscription method for china, the method they are using is what china uses, and all MMO's in china use, no getting around that.
And there is a one off fee to buy an account but then you pay per-hour, so no they dont get the game free in china. Although I beleive they do get the expansions free.
What amazes me if the figure are indeed are at around 5 million now that must mean if all the loses where down to china there must have been nearly 7 million people playing WoW there . I ll be interested to see how many of them resume it and what the next press release by Blizzard pertaining to how many subs WoW now has will be like . I d thought for a while there seamed to be less people on the servers i play on in Europe .Not that they were dead but it just did nt seam to be as popular as it once was . I think there may possibly have been losses beyond mainland china . I guess we will have to wait to see the extent of whats happened .
Account numbers been dropping like flies.. they wont release numbers soon i bet.
Announcing subscription numbers is a kind of marketing. wow lives of its marketing, bad marketing like showing lower numbers than before would hurt them, that would be stupid, dont you think so )
Can you troll any more? Seriously, the two events are indirectly linked at best and not even related at all.
Information like sub numbers is only news when there is something to report. Obviously, with the issues in China, Blizzard has lost subscribers due to their inability to play the game. Many of the them went to the servers in Taiwan and others were waiting for WOW to come back in China. Now granted, some will have left and will move on, but until the whole mess between Blizzard and China is finalized, there is no way to tell what their subscription picture looks like.
IF Blizzard reported numbers right now, it would be pointless. As a matter of fact, it would be bad business, bad statistics and a complete waste of time. Why? Simply because there is nothing solid to report. Blizzard won't know until the servers come back online how many people are playing and play on continuing their subscription.
Trying to report sub numbers right now would be no better than taking a sample of server population on Tuesdays in the US (that's patch day)...the data would be pointless.
I don't know what Blizzard is trying to hide..if anything. I just hope someone can hide Aion until I can convince myself that it is fun....but that might mean no one would ever be able to play the game. Just doesn't do anything for me ...at the moment.
What makes you think they are hiding anything at all?
Just becasue they haven't posted anything lately doesn't mean they are hiding something.
Ultimately what difference does it make to anyone that is not a 'subscriber'?
Why would you play any game according to the number of subscribers?
It could be "a kind of marketing", but marketing is only a small piece of it.
Most people do not play a game just because it has BIG numbers of players.
So, No I "dont think so".
We have a winner!
Thanks Xiaoki!
So your saying the numbers have dropped that significantly that they wont publish them until they improve? What if they never improve? Aion will be released in the west soon and will take a another large chunk of their subs .... we may never hear from blizzard again
Well lets see. The last time Blizzard announced numbers was in January 09, when they said 11.5M.
Since then China has gone offline for a month. It will be back online on July 31st. Also, China hasn't recieved the Wrath Expansion yet. it's true of WOW and every other game that subscriber numbers drop in the time leading up to an expansion.
When WOW gets China going again, and when they launch Wrath there, then they will probably announce numbers again (maybe Sept-october), and it will be more than 11.5M.
If you doubt me, go look at NPD or amazon.com bestsellers list. WOW battlechest is STILL in the top 20, and that is the box sold to new players in North America.
China going offline and the delay in the launch of Wrath there are very temporary setbacks. The bestseller's list clearly show that nothing has changed about the growth of WOW.
Aion is basically a non-issue in the west. It may get to 100-200k, but that's about it.
For my own selfish reasons I hope subs do drop because I'm tired of wow and they need to hurry up with SC and diablo. Even if it's true though, what's the big deal? Wow is getting old and I'm suprised it's still so popular. It was a smashing success and if this is all you can do to jab at blizz you're pathetic.
I agree about SC2.. taking wayyyyy to long, EA just announced C&C4.. I bet that will be out before SC2, DOW2 was announed and released after SC2 was officaly announced.. but DOW was a pile-o-poo ... doing the same thing on the same 6 maps with a dull story told in a voice over does not make a game.
But hey I know when it does arrive it will be super! and will probably take me away from WoW if I am honest.
I agree about SC2.. taking wayyyyy to long, EA just announced C&C4.. I bet that will be out before SC2, DOW2 was announed and released after SC2 was officaly announced.. but DOW was a pile-o-poo ... doing the same thing on the same 6 maps with a dull story told in a voice over does not make a game.
But hey I know when it does arrive it will be super! and will probably take me away from WoW if I am honest.
Most people are pretty sure it's still set for this year right?
I agree about SC2.. taking wayyyyy to long, EA just announced C&C4.. I bet that will be out before SC2, DOW2 was announed and released after SC2 was officaly announced.. but DOW was a pile-o-poo ... doing the same thing on the same 6 maps with a dull story told in a voice over does not make a game.
But hey I know when it does arrive it will be super! and will probably take me away from WoW if I am honest.
Most people are pretty sure it's still set for this year right?
well Blizzard still say 2009 release, but with every week that goes by and no Beta I become less convinced, Blizzard like long beta periods, so it will be close, might just make it for a mid december release.
I think Blizcon will reveal all, 3 weeks away.