I could care less about the subs....On Argent Dawn last night I about had to walk over a sea of people just to get to the Stormwind docks; so I would say plenty.
This sword here at my side dont act the way it should Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave And it howls! it howls like hell!
Last confirmed subs figure? E3: 11.600.000 active subs and made in a mutual statement with the Guiness book of Records as most subs based game ever. Also look at this please: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1154304274&__source=aol|headline|other|video|&par=aol In this CNBC broadcast, the CEO of Activision/Blizzard Bobby Kotick talked about the DIFFERENCES in subscription systems between China and the West (and some Korean systems). the CEO confirmed the "pure" internet café subs from China were around 4.5 million (June 2009). So that would leave around 7.1 million accounts p(l)aying outside of China (NA/EU/pac/Kor/Tai/Rus/ etc ) Blizzard confirms its subs every trimester (quarter) so the next annoucenemnt would be made in Sep 2009.
Did the CEO of blizzard mention anything about this graph? hehe
Last confirmed subs figure? E3: 11.600.000 active subs and made in a mutual statement with the Guiness book of Records as most subs based game ever. Also look at this please: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1154304274&__source=aol|headline|other|video|&par=aol In this CNBC broadcast, the CEO of Activision/Blizzard Bobby Kotick talked about the DIFFERENCES in subscription systems between China and the West (and some Korean systems). the CEO confirmed the "pure" internet café subs from China were around 4.5 million (June 2009). So that would leave around 7.1 million accounts p(l)aying outside of China (NA/EU/pac/Kor/Tai/Rus/ etc ) Blizzard confirms its subs every trimester (quarter) so the next annoucenemnt would be made in Sep 2009.
Did the CEO of blizzard mention anything about this graph? hehe
That graph is because some idiots dont' understand what happened in China.
Blizzard changed the publisher in China, so for 6 weeks, there hasn't been any access. The new publisher is going to have the servers back up on July 31st. so that big 'drop' at the end there will go right back up to 11.6M.
Think of it as a tuesday morning maintenance. Does everyone run around saying " OMG, WOW has 0 subscribers" just because the servers are down for a few hours. It's exactly the same thing that happened with 4.5M accounts in China. They are 'down' for repairs for a few more days.
The funny thing about that graph is that it is a forgery. The guy who did that graph for years didn't do the last data point. Some WOW-hater (uninformed on at that) did it for laughs.
Like I said, come back in 4 days when China gets turned back on, WOW will be right back to 11.6M
Last confirmed subs figure? E3: 11.600.000 active subs and made in a mutual statement with the Guiness book of Records as most subs based game ever. Also look at this please: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&video=1154304274&__source=aol|headline|other|video|&par=aol In this CNBC broadcast, the CEO of Activision/Blizzard Bobby Kotick talked about the DIFFERENCES in subscription systems between China and the West (and some Korean systems). the CEO confirmed the "pure" internet café subs from China were around 4.5 million (June 2009). So that would leave around 7.1 million accounts p(l)aying outside of China (NA/EU/pac/Kor/Tai/Rus/ etc ) Blizzard confirms its subs every trimester (quarter) so the next annoucenemnt would be made in Sep 2009.
Did the CEO of blizzard mention anything about this graph? hehe <snip>
Strange since Aion hasn't published sub information. And i still see 2x the subs for WoW not even including the china servers that'll eventually be coming back online. The fact remains, whether you like it or not Blizz has at worst two times the subscribers as the closest competition shown on the graph even if those numbers are remotely correct. (Which i personally doubt). As was said earlier in this thread and same goes with my server, AoC and Warhammer generated buzz, whether in trade or talking to guildies, Aion hasn't. While i wish any publisher luck when starting out (at least in a new market), I seriously doubt they will see anything close to 11 million subs.
As to the OP, i'd have to believe once the china servers are back online and come the end of the quarter, they'll release the numbers again. Personally, I'd have to guess at between 7 and 8 mil currently, with another 3 million chinese players coming back.
In this CNBC broadcast, the CEO of Activision/Blizzard Bobby Kotick talked about the DIFFERENCES in subscription systems between China and the West (and some Korean systems).
the CEO confirmed the "pure" internet café subs from China were around 4.5 million (June 2009).
So that would leave around 7.1 million accounts p(l)aying outside of China (NA/EU/pac/Kor/Tai/Rus/ etc )
Blizzard confirms its subs every trimester (quarter) so the next annoucenemnt would be made in Sep 2009.
Did the CEO of blizzard mention anything about this graph? hehe
<snip>
Strange since Aion hasn't published sub information. And i still see 2x the subs for WoW not even including the china servers that'll eventually be coming back online. The fact remains, whether you like it or not Blizz has at worst two times the subscribers as the closest competition shown on the graph even if those numbers are remotely correct. (Which i personally doubt). As was said earlier in this thread and same goes with my server, AoC and Warhammer generated buzz, whether in trade or talking to guildies, Aion hasn't. While i wish any publisher luck when starting out (at least in a new market), I seriously doubt they will see anything close to 11 million subs.
As to the OP, i'd have to believe once the china servers are back online and come the end of the quarter, they'll release the numbers again. Personally, I'd have to guess at between 7 and 8 mil currently, with another 3 million chinese players coming back.
The graph actually IS a fraude ... for two reasons: Blizzard makes a statement of their subs every quarter.
The last quarter was 11.6 million subs (including the 4.5 million Chinese playing on internet cafés up until June and confirmed by the CEO of Blizz ).
The other reason is Aion only has a CONFIRMED 1.4 million subscribers: That was made clearly by NCSoft in their quaterly update of May 2009.
To be specific: 400.000 Korean players (on 41 servers) and around 1M Chinese on (113 Chinese servers).
That was a total of 154 Asian servers in May. The last known number is 162 now.
So the graph shows the uncomfirmed "3.5 million" that originated from ONE Australian source that never was confirmed by NCSoft.
As a matter of fact between the NCSoft confirmed 1.4 million and the 3.5 million cited subs from that uncomfirmed AU source only lays ... 3 weeks, it is very clear the actual number is around 1.5 M since the server park almost stayed the same.
That's my pet peeve about Aion btw (and it was the same hype with L2 I still remember). People talk about the millions and millions but without any proof or official confirmations. The result is that L2 is now at around 60 K western subs.
Aion is hyped on false arguments over here. False arguments as in HUGE number of players. The fact is ... even in its home land and after ONE full year Aion didn't reach (by far) the actual number of WOW players in Korea.
While Blizzard doesn't give subs per region, I recently saw that Wow had 73 Korean servers, meaning around 700 to 750K subs. Aion had a confirmed 400K. Not bad, but it is the HOME product over there.
So the hype obviously is false, as was this graph.
This is why i started this thread . I ve not been able to find a recent statement from Blizzard about thier subs . Someone said earlier that the last statement from Blizzard regarding the matter of subsctiption numbers was in december of 2008 . If thats the case Blizzard have missed two quarterly statements . Maybe someone can post a link for one thats less than six months old ? .Ideally one thats a lot more recent than that .
In this CNBC broadcast, the CEO of Activision/Blizzard Bobby Kotick talked about the DIFFERENCES in subscription systems between China and the West (and some Korean systems).
the CEO confirmed the "pure" internet café subs from China were around 4.5 million (June 2009).
So that would leave around 7.1 million accounts p(l)aying outside of China (NA/EU/pac/Kor/Tai/Rus/ etc )
Blizzard confirms its subs every trimester (quarter) so the next annoucenemnt would be made in Sep 2009.
Did the CEO of blizzard mention anything about this graph? hehe
<snip>
As was said earlier in this thread and same goes with my server, AoC and Warhammer generated buzz, whether in trade or talking to guildies, Aion hasn't. While i wish any publisher luck when starting out (at least in a new market), I seriously doubt they will see anything close to 11 million subs.
Well, well have you stumbled upon the WoW off-topic forum lately? it's interesting reading )))
You may want to get the reading glasses out these threads go for a while lol.I could quote more threads but you can just go there and read them all yourself
Yes this all hype for a game yet to be released for 2 whole months, great buzz there, ty blizzard
Also you need to take into account that Aion has yet to be released in the west. So that graph for Aion will spike by 1mill+ in 2 months, FYI
This link you provide is bogus it mentions nothing about WoW having 11.6 mill subs at the end of June 2009. Please provide a valid link indicating the June 09 quarterly figure you keep mentioning!
Just to make it official: 1. On December 23, 2008, we have the last official count of WOW sub numbers released by Blizzard. The official count of subs was at 11.5 million. Link: http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/081223.html 2. In June 2009, Blizzard got the Guinness World Record for most popular MMO. The award was for 11.6 million players. Link: http://www.wegame.com/forums/General_Gaming_Discussion/New_gaming_Guiness_world_records/ 3. When the data was gathered for the award is not known that I can find. My guess would be April-May of this year. The reason I say this is that, in the article, it mentions XBox Live data as of May. So that is my best guess. 4. In December, the numbers were 11.5 million. By June, we do not know when exactly, it was 11.6 million. That is a NET increase of 110k subscribers during the first few months of the year.
unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .
Just to make it official: 1. On December 23, 2008, we have the last official count of WOW sub numbers released by Blizzard. The official count of subs was at 11.5 million. Link: http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/081223.html 2. In June 2009, Blizzard got the Guinness World Record for most popular MMO. The award was for 11.6 million players. Link: http://www.wegame.com/forums/General_Gaming_Discussion/New_gaming_Guiness_world_records/ 3. When the data was gathered for the award is not known that I can find. My guess would be April-May of this year. The reason I say this is that, in the article, it mentions XBox Live data as of May. So that is my best guess. 4. In December, the numbers were 11.5 million. By June, we do not know when exactly, it was 11.6 million. That is a NET increase of 110k subscribers during the first few months of the year.
unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .
There was a quarterly statement, but it did not contain sub numbers to the best of my knowledge or that I can tell.
Of course there are no official numbers for the most recent quarter. There can only be one reason for that, they have decreased by so much they rather hide it from the public .... this is "good" business after all. So in conclusion the numbers zondoff is quoting are completely inaccurate and hold no factual substance, pure lies. I predict we will not hear the official numbers for a while, with better upcoming games being released ...
Just to make it official: 1. On December 23, 2008, we have the last official count of WOW sub numbers released by Blizzard. The official count of subs was at 11.5 million. Link: http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/081223.html 2. In June 2009, Blizzard got the Guinness World Record for most popular MMO. The award was for 11.6 million players. Link: http://www.wegame.com/forums/General_Gaming_Discussion/New_gaming_Guiness_world_records/ 3. When the data was gathered for the award is not known that I can find. My guess would be April-May of this year. The reason I say this is that, in the article, it mentions XBox Live data as of May. So that is my best guess. 4. In December, the numbers were 11.5 million. By June, we do not know when exactly, it was 11.6 million. That is a NET increase of 110k subscribers during the first few months of the year.
unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .
There was a quarterly statement, but it did not contain sub numbers to the best of my knowledge or that I can tell.
Of course there are no official numbers for the most recent quarter. There can only be one reason for that, they have decreased by so much they rather hide it from the public .... this is "good" business after all. So in conclusion the numbers zondoff is quoting are completely inaccurate and hold no factual substance, pure lies. I predict we will not hear the official numbers for a while, with better upcoming games being released ...
ha yea they lost a large chunk due to the china fiasco. We all know that and all those subs are back you will get another statement with the sub numbers. stop being stupid.
I think you might be right . It could be that the numbers are not just bad but that they are so bad releasing them would potentially harm Warcraft further . If they were good Blizzard would have been telling us regulary that they had increased their players by x amount .
The other question is when the China problem is resolved how many players will return to Warcraft . I m betting a lot of those players have found a home in Aion . Maybe a vast number of them wont bother coming back .
The thing is even so if the numbers were good Blizzard would release them for the west to point out it was still healthy in other regions . I think the decline may go beyond the Chinese borders .
Why would they annouce when obviously those numers are going down. Aion and Champions Online will be taking aot of WOW players with them. My guess Blizzard will announce numbers after their expansion so this way it is difficult to dispute the numbers. It seems with every new expansion an entire new continent is coming to play WOW. /sarcasm off
Interesting they haven't announced anything since Aion got released. What are they trying to hide?
Information like sub numbers is only news when there is something GOOD to report.
/Thread
Every game company ONLY releases sub numbers when its good. When was the last time your precious Aion reported numbers? Oh wait, they NEVER did. The 3.5 million number was taken from an article...with no links or proof. Don't ya think if Aion was still growing in China they would release more info......especially with the US release soon? Marketers would love to quote those numbers....I wonder why there is no OFFICIAL info.
At least Blizzard doesn't make up numbers and act as if everyone is playing their game and offer the proof and definition of a subscriber (something SOE really needs to do).
In this CNBC broadcast, the CEO of Activision/Blizzard Bobby Kotick talked about the DIFFERENCES in subscription systems between China and the West (and some Korean systems).
the CEO confirmed the "pure" internet café subs from China were around 4.5 million (June 2009).
So that would leave around 7.1 million accounts p(l)aying outside of China (NA/EU/pac/Kor/Tai/Rus/ etc )
Blizzard confirms its subs every trimester (quarter) so the next annoucenemnt would be made in Sep 2009.
Did the CEO of blizzard mention anything about this graph? hehe
<snip>
Strange since Aion hasn't published sub information. And i still see 2x the subs for WoW not even including the china servers that'll eventually be coming back online. The fact remains, whether you like it or not Blizz has at worst two times the subscribers as the closest competition shown on the graph even if those numbers are remotely correct. (Which i personally doubt). As was said earlier in this thread and same goes with my server, AoC and Warhammer generated buzz, whether in trade or talking to guildies, Aion hasn't. While i wish any publisher luck when starting out (at least in a new market), I seriously doubt they will see anything close to 11 million subs.
As to the OP, i'd have to believe once the china servers are back online and come the end of the quarter, they'll release the numbers again. Personally, I'd have to guess at between 7 and 8 mil currently, with another 3 million chinese players coming back.
Aions proof is in the pudding not the buzz. warhammer and age of conan were developed to make a quick buck, you could see this by the unfinished nature of the game. How much buzz are they generating now? both games are struggling to keep a respectable amount of subscribers. Aion is already more of a success than age of conan or war could ever wish to be.
Just to make it official: 1. On December 23, 2008, we have the last official count of WOW sub numbers released by Blizzard. The official count of subs was at 11.5 million. Link: http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/081223.html 2. In June 2009, Blizzard got the Guinness World Record for most popular MMO. The award was for 11.6 million players. Link: http://www.wegame.com/forums/General_Gaming_Discussion/New_gaming_Guiness_world_records/ 3. When the data was gathered for the award is not known that I can find. My guess would be April-May of this year. The reason I say this is that, in the article, it mentions XBox Live data as of May. So that is my best guess. 4. In December, the numbers were 11.5 million. By June, we do not know when exactly, it was 11.6 million. That is a NET increase of 110k subscribers during the first few months of the year.
unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .
There was a quarterly statement, but it did not contain sub numbers to the best of my knowledge or that I can tell.
Of course there are no official numbers for the most recent quarter. There can only be one reason for that, they have decreased by so much they rather hide it from the public .... this is "good" business after all. So in conclusion the numbers zondoff is quoting are completely inaccurate and hold no factual substance, pure lies. I predict we will not hear the official numbers for a while, with better upcoming games being released ...
I figured it was easy to understand but I guess since most of you lack any business sense, I guess it needs more details.
With the situation in China, it is absolutely unclear and unknown how many subscribers will come back to WOW. Some will leave. Some have left. Some have moved on to other server regions (Taiwan for example). Some will come back. Many new players will come to the game as well as a result of the WOTLK launching.
So in other words, and follow me here, there is no way to tell how many subscribers there are currently (and by currently I mean during the quarter with China offline).
The LAST thing a company wants to do is report incomplete data and that includes sub numbers. And that is what it would be if Blizzard put subscription numbers in this Quarterly report. They could only GUESS at how many players they will have when the whole China issue is settled. And you do not put guesses in Quarterly reports unless they are asked for (and they are called predictions). Subscriptions numbers are not predictions because you are reflecting the current state of the game...so you are not predicting anything, you are reporting it.
Had Blizzard reported sub numbers, all of you WOW trolls would be here saying "How do they know?!?!", "it isn't true", "Blizzard lied"..... so it is really a no win situation with you.
The REASON the numbers aren't there is because they are not official and there is NO WAY to make them official until the servers come back online in China.
It is business, and it is smart business. Let's say I had a company and I made up sub numbers and put it in a Quarterly report for my investors. When asked for my data proving these numbers, I just tell them I guessed......you want to know what would happen? I would get fired. Simple as that.
And yes, to the other poster, I am bitter because all we get is the same troll threads over and over again. It's sad really.
I think you have made it clear you think you have buisness sence but i have seen no proof of it . In fact i have seen no proof of common sence or even a sence of humour .
Its not a troll thread . I genuinly could not find any information on warcrafts recent subscription numbers . It came after reading reports on gaming sites that Warcaft had lost vast numbers of subscribers . I thought i would check the facts unfortunatly i was unable to find anything online so i started this topic . If you actually took the time to read my opening message you would see i said i may have missed something and it was framed as a question not a statement .
That is not trolling you just hav not absorbed what was written and made an assumption .
I think we can asertain that Blizzard are not releasing the numbers because there has been a downturn that goes beyond the situation in China . That is the most likly reason . However it is just a guess maybe in a month or two we shall have a statement from Blizzard putting it at around the 11 million mark still . If so all well and good . If not then Blizzard will have to look at ways to bring people back .
I think we can asertain that Blizzard are not releasing the numbers because there has been a downturn that goes beyond the situation in China . That is the most likly reason . However it is just a guess maybe in a month or two we shall have a statement from Blizzard putting it at around the 11 million mark still . If so all well and good . If not then Blizzard will have to look at ways to bring people back .
Well you know Mark Jacobs used to always write crap about how they could only release subscription numbers due to certain events etc... So if that was one of the few true things he ever said that could be why.
You can guess what may or may not be going on all you want.
You know what the easy thing to do is? Wait for the next quarterly financial release and see how it has changed compared to the last few. If its the same for the gaming division most likely the subscriber base is the same. If its dropped.... subs probably dropped... if it goes up.. they got a bailout (at least this forum would say that).
You didn't say this but I used to see so many post here about how they counted non paying accounts.. trials etc.. but nobody could explain why the profits kept going up on those non-existant subscribers.
It is probably the easiest thing to watch and their financial statements have been pretty easy to find ...
I havn't noticed a drop in population at all, even if they did drop to 5 million that is still more than tripple any other MMO's numbers, the next highest is about 1 million (Linage I think) according to the latest stats.
Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P
Comments
I could care less about the subs....On Argent Dawn last night I about had to walk over a sea of people just to get to the Stormwind docks; so I would say plenty.
This sword here at my side dont act the way it should
Keeps calling me its master, but I feel like its slave
Hauling me faster and faster to an early, early grave
And it howls! it howls like hell!
Did the CEO of blizzard mention anything about this graph? hehe
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
Did the CEO of blizzard mention anything about this graph? hehe
That graph is because some idiots dont' understand what happened in China.
Blizzard changed the publisher in China, so for 6 weeks, there hasn't been any access. The new publisher is going to have the servers back up on July 31st. so that big 'drop' at the end there will go right back up to 11.6M.
Think of it as a tuesday morning maintenance. Does everyone run around saying " OMG, WOW has 0 subscribers" just because the servers are down for a few hours. It's exactly the same thing that happened with 4.5M accounts in China. They are 'down' for repairs for a few more days.
The funny thing about that graph is that it is a forgery. The guy who did that graph for years didn't do the last data point. Some WOW-hater (uninformed on at that) did it for laughs.
Like I said, come back in 4 days when China gets turned back on, WOW will be right back to 11.6M
Strange since Aion hasn't published sub information. And i still see 2x the subs for WoW not even including the china servers that'll eventually be coming back online. The fact remains, whether you like it or not Blizz has at worst two times the subscribers as the closest competition shown on the graph even if those numbers are remotely correct. (Which i personally doubt). As was said earlier in this thread and same goes with my server, AoC and Warhammer generated buzz, whether in trade or talking to guildies, Aion hasn't. While i wish any publisher luck when starting out (at least in a new market), I seriously doubt they will see anything close to 11 million subs.
As to the OP, i'd have to believe once the china servers are back online and come the end of the quarter, they'll release the numbers again. Personally, I'd have to guess at between 7 and 8 mil currently, with another 3 million chinese players coming back.
<snip>
Strange since Aion hasn't published sub information. And i still see 2x the subs for WoW not even including the china servers that'll eventually be coming back online. The fact remains, whether you like it or not Blizz has at worst two times the subscribers as the closest competition shown on the graph even if those numbers are remotely correct. (Which i personally doubt). As was said earlier in this thread and same goes with my server, AoC and Warhammer generated buzz, whether in trade or talking to guildies, Aion hasn't. While i wish any publisher luck when starting out (at least in a new market), I seriously doubt they will see anything close to 11 million subs.
As to the OP, i'd have to believe once the china servers are back online and come the end of the quarter, they'll release the numbers again. Personally, I'd have to guess at between 7 and 8 mil currently, with another 3 million chinese players coming back.
The graph actually IS a fraude ... for two reasons: Blizzard makes a statement of their subs every quarter.
The last quarter was 11.6 million subs (including the 4.5 million Chinese playing on internet cafés up until June and confirmed by the CEO of Blizz ).
The other reason is Aion only has a CONFIRMED 1.4 million subscribers: That was made clearly by NCSoft in their quaterly update of May 2009.
To be specific: 400.000 Korean players (on 41 servers) and around 1M Chinese on (113 Chinese servers).
That was a total of 154 Asian servers in May. The last known number is 162 now.
So the graph shows the uncomfirmed "3.5 million" that originated from ONE Australian source that never was confirmed by NCSoft.
As a matter of fact between the NCSoft confirmed 1.4 million and the 3.5 million cited subs from that uncomfirmed AU source only lays ... 3 weeks, it is very clear the actual number is around 1.5 M since the server park almost stayed the same.
That's my pet peeve about Aion btw (and it was the same hype with L2 I still remember). People talk about the millions and millions but without any proof or official confirmations. The result is that L2 is now at around 60 K western subs.
Aion is hyped on false arguments over here. False arguments as in HUGE number of players. The fact is ... even in its home land and after ONE full year Aion didn't reach (by far) the actual number of WOW players in Korea.
While Blizzard doesn't give subs per region, I recently saw that Wow had 73 Korean servers, meaning around 700 to 750K subs. Aion had a confirmed 400K. Not bad, but it is the HOME product over there.
So the hype obviously is false, as was this graph.
This is why i started this thread . I ve not been able to find a recent statement from Blizzard about thier subs . Someone said earlier that the last statement from Blizzard regarding the matter of subsctiption numbers was in december of 2008 . If thats the case Blizzard have missed two quarterly statements . Maybe someone can post a link for one thats less than six months old ? .Ideally one thats a lot more recent than that .
<snip>
As was said earlier in this thread and same goes with my server, AoC and Warhammer generated buzz, whether in trade or talking to guildies, Aion hasn't. While i wish any publisher luck when starting out (at least in a new market), I seriously doubt they will see anything close to 11 million subs.
Well, well have you stumbled upon the WoW off-topic forum lately? it's interesting reading
)))
Aion has the best pvp system... ever!
To the Aion switchers: what could blizz do?
AION~Tower of Eternity
You may want to get the reading glasses out these threads go for a while lol.I could quote more threads but you can just go there and read them all yourself
Yes this all hype for a game yet to be released for 2 whole months, great buzz there, ty blizzard
Also you need to take into account that Aion has yet to be released in the west. So that graph for Aion will spike by 1mill+ in 2 months, FYI
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
The thread was about the latest subscriptions Blizzard announced.
I answered with the 11.600.000 subs Blizzard had with the link at E3 (June 2009).
http://www.wegame.com/forums/General_Gaming_Discussion/New_gaming_Guiness_world_records
This link you provide is bogus it mentions nothing about WoW having 11.6 mill subs at the end of June 2009. Please provide a valid link indicating the June 09 quarterly figure you keep mentioning!
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .
unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .
There was a quarterly statement, but it did not contain sub numbers to the best of my knowledge or that I can tell.
Of course there are no official numbers for the most recent quarter. There can only be one reason for that, they have decreased by so much they rather hide it from the public .... this is "good" business after all. So in conclusion the numbers zondoff is quoting are completely inaccurate and hold no factual substance, pure lies. I predict we will not hear the official numbers for a while, with better upcoming games being released ...
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .
There was a quarterly statement, but it did not contain sub numbers to the best of my knowledge or that I can tell.
Of course there are no official numbers for the most recent quarter. There can only be one reason for that, they have decreased by so much they rather hide it from the public .... this is "good" business after all. So in conclusion the numbers zondoff is quoting are completely inaccurate and hold no factual substance, pure lies. I predict we will not hear the official numbers for a while, with better upcoming games being released ...
ha yea they lost a large chunk due to the china fiasco. We all know that and all those subs are back you will get another statement with the sub numbers. stop being stupid.
I think you might be right . It could be that the numbers are not just bad but that they are so bad releasing them would potentially harm Warcraft further . If they were good Blizzard would have been telling us regulary that they had increased their players by x amount .
The other question is when the China problem is resolved how many players will return to Warcraft . I m betting a lot of those players have found a home in Aion . Maybe a vast number of them wont bother coming back .
The thing is even so if the numbers were good Blizzard would release them for the west to point out it was still healthy in other regions . I think the decline may go beyond the Chinese borders .
Why would they annouce when obviously those numers are going down. Aion and Champions Online will be taking aot of WOW players with them. My guess Blizzard will announce numbers after their expansion so this way it is difficult to dispute the numbers. It seems with every new expansion an entire new continent is coming to play WOW. /sarcasm off
Information like sub numbers is only news when there is something GOOD to report.
/Thread
Every game company ONLY releases sub numbers when its good. When was the last time your precious Aion reported numbers? Oh wait, they NEVER did. The 3.5 million number was taken from an article...with no links or proof. Don't ya think if Aion was still growing in China they would release more info......especially with the US release soon? Marketers would love to quote those numbers....I wonder why there is no OFFICIAL info.
At least Blizzard doesn't make up numbers and act as if everyone is playing their game and offer the proof and definition of a subscriber (something SOE really needs to do).
oh you sound awfully bitter.
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Strange since Aion hasn't published sub information. And i still see 2x the subs for WoW not even including the china servers that'll eventually be coming back online. The fact remains, whether you like it or not Blizz has at worst two times the subscribers as the closest competition shown on the graph even if those numbers are remotely correct. (Which i personally doubt). As was said earlier in this thread and same goes with my server, AoC and Warhammer generated buzz, whether in trade or talking to guildies, Aion hasn't. While i wish any publisher luck when starting out (at least in a new market), I seriously doubt they will see anything close to 11 million subs.
As to the OP, i'd have to believe once the china servers are back online and come the end of the quarter, they'll release the numbers again. Personally, I'd have to guess at between 7 and 8 mil currently, with another 3 million chinese players coming back.
Aions proof is in the pudding not the buzz. warhammer and age of conan were developed to make a quick buck, you could see this by the unfinished nature of the game. How much buzz are they generating now? both games are struggling to keep a respectable amount of subscribers. Aion is already more of a success than age of conan or war could ever wish to be.
unfortunatly that does not really go along way towards letting us know what the current subscriber base to warcraft is . the thing is we dont know how the data is confirmed . xbox live data maybe easier to confirm than a large mmorpg that is popular in many different countrys . so it does not automatically mean WoW had 11.6 million subs in april/may . also guiness only notes the peak not the current level. that peak could have been anytime between last december and now . so in itself guiness offers us only the insite that sometime after the december statement that subs rose from 11.5 to 11.6 million subs . from my understanding the problem in china did not occur untill after april so it does not automatically explain the lack of a quarterly statement in march of this year .
There was a quarterly statement, but it did not contain sub numbers to the best of my knowledge or that I can tell.
Of course there are no official numbers for the most recent quarter. There can only be one reason for that, they have decreased by so much they rather hide it from the public .... this is "good" business after all. So in conclusion the numbers zondoff is quoting are completely inaccurate and hold no factual substance, pure lies. I predict we will not hear the official numbers for a while, with better upcoming games being released ...
I figured it was easy to understand but I guess since most of you lack any business sense, I guess it needs more details.
With the situation in China, it is absolutely unclear and unknown how many subscribers will come back to WOW. Some will leave. Some have left. Some have moved on to other server regions (Taiwan for example). Some will come back. Many new players will come to the game as well as a result of the WOTLK launching.
So in other words, and follow me here, there is no way to tell how many subscribers there are currently (and by currently I mean during the quarter with China offline).
The LAST thing a company wants to do is report incomplete data and that includes sub numbers. And that is what it would be if Blizzard put subscription numbers in this Quarterly report. They could only GUESS at how many players they will have when the whole China issue is settled. And you do not put guesses in Quarterly reports unless they are asked for (and they are called predictions). Subscriptions numbers are not predictions because you are reflecting the current state of the game...so you are not predicting anything, you are reporting it.
Had Blizzard reported sub numbers, all of you WOW trolls would be here saying "How do they know?!?!", "it isn't true", "Blizzard lied"..... so it is really a no win situation with you.
The REASON the numbers aren't there is because they are not official and there is NO WAY to make them official until the servers come back online in China.
It is business, and it is smart business. Let's say I had a company and I made up sub numbers and put it in a Quarterly report for my investors. When asked for my data proving these numbers, I just tell them I guessed......you want to know what would happen? I would get fired. Simple as that.
And yes, to the other poster, I am bitter because all we get is the same troll threads over and over again. It's sad really.
I think you have made it clear you think you have buisness sence but i have seen no proof of it . In fact i have seen no proof of common sence or even a sence of humour .
Its not a troll thread . I genuinly could not find any information on warcrafts recent subscription numbers . It came after reading reports on gaming sites that Warcaft had lost vast numbers of subscribers . I thought i would check the facts unfortunatly i was unable to find anything online so i started this topic . If you actually took the time to read my opening message you would see i said i may have missed something and it was framed as a question not a statement .
That is not trolling you just hav not absorbed what was written and made an assumption .
I think we can asertain that Blizzard are not releasing the numbers because there has been a downturn that goes beyond the situation in China . That is the most likly reason . However it is just a guess maybe in a month or two we shall have a statement from Blizzard putting it at around the 11 million mark still . If so all well and good . If not then Blizzard will have to look at ways to bring people back .
Ofcourse you are trolling, it's just that you are smarter than the average troll.
Well you know Mark Jacobs used to always write crap about how they could only release subscription numbers due to certain events etc... So if that was one of the few true things he ever said that could be why.
You can guess what may or may not be going on all you want.
You know what the easy thing to do is? Wait for the next quarterly financial release and see how it has changed compared to the last few. If its the same for the gaming division most likely the subscriber base is the same. If its dropped.... subs probably dropped... if it goes up.. they got a bailout (at least this forum would say that).
You didn't say this but I used to see so many post here about how they counted non paying accounts.. trials etc.. but nobody could explain why the profits kept going up on those non-existant subscribers.
It is probably the easiest thing to watch and their financial statements have been pretty easy to find ...
I havn't noticed a drop in population at all, even if they did drop to 5 million that is still more than tripple any other MMO's numbers, the next highest is about 1 million (Linage I think) according to the latest stats.
Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P