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World of Warcraft: Activision Report: Could WoW Become Obsolete?
MikeB
Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
Activision-Blizzard filed its annual 10-K report on March 1st, and Robert Purchese of Eurogamer has dug up some interesting information found in the report regarding World of Warcraft's future.
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One section of the report mentions that the emerging casual games market on the iPhone and social media sites such as Facebook could directly impact World of Warcraft sales, if not render the game "obsolete":
We also compete with other forms of interactive entertainment, such as casual games like iPhone applications and other mobile phone games, and games developed for use by consumers on social networking sites. Future increased consumer acceptance and increases in the availability such games or other online games, or technological advances in online game software or the Internet, could result in a decline in platform-based software and negatively impact sales of our console and hand-held products. Newer technological advances in online game software may also render products such as World of Warcraft obsolete. Additionally, direct sales of software over the Internet by competitors could adversely affect our distribution business.
Read Robert Purchese's full analysis of the report over at Eurogamer.
Do you think games such as Farmville or the rapidly growing popularity of casual games could actually be what topples the 800lb gorilla that is World of Warcraft? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
Seems silly to me :-)
Oh god this is blizzards new mmo, one that works on facebook and iphones and such. The end of the world cometh.
Farmville downing WoW? I have heard it all now.
They had better be making crops a little more epic if they expect to do it...I'm just saying.
Only Activision Blizzard can kill warcraft as things stand today.
F2P/P2P excellent thread.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/282517/F2P-An-Engineers-perspective.html
I think hes reading too much into the info....
Sorry Mike, I don't see the story here.
The context here is looking to the future and basically they're saying "Social networking games are becoming more and more popular", "We need to keep improving our games and come out with new games" and "We get lots of money from the subscription model so we need to figure out how to keep people going for subs".
This is trying to make a story out of something that isn't.
There's one word that's not truly read right: "Newer technological advances in online game software may also render products such as World of Warcraft obsolete.". They keep in mind that one day WoW will become obsolete, but we knew that already for years. We're just waiting for it to happen.
Will the social networks take over MMORPGing? I highly doubt it. I think when DX10/DX11/3D will be implemented in full in most games, and WoW sticks to their current cartonish gaphics, then WoW might become obsolete. Till then:11 million users are wrong
Sorry, this kind of fear-mongering just makes me face palm. I really don't have anything to say at this point, because anything other than WoW itself being a threat to WoW is about as believable as King Kong wrestling Godzilla, while Mario referees on the sidelines; dodging barrels, being shot at by Master Chief and climbing Tetris blocks, while STILL managing to save Princess Peach conveniently tied up in King Kong's hands.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
No... if you look at the subscriber drops WoW is already dying because of the sheer volume of new games being released. The fact that WoW is a dated game will most likely kill it. Besides, can you imagine playing something like MO, SWTOR, or Tera on an Iphone? What little sales phone apps or mobile games or whatever they're calling them, will most likely not take away those players actually in a mainstream mmo, rather they would draw from a different audience.
Downloading a full mmog program say 10 gigabytes for a install file vs 1 or 2 dvd-rom discs yes that has started to change. I would like the program in a dvd iso file so i could burn my own install dvds or the full install file or even both. A server farm usage or peer to peer downloading software costs less than the box and booklets right ?
Facebook games are for the challenged gamers, the ones for which Wow is to complex to understand. Maybe in the next decade or so the complexity of the social network games will be competitive.
I think all they are saying is that they have to keep improving the product to maintain market share which is a no brainer anyways.
I think that the console market with changes like Natal coming down the pike would be more of a worry than social networks.
Yes I see it now we will all stop playing our computers, play stations and xboxs to play game on iphone and Facebook!
Seriously? That what it sounded like to me haha.
And yes WoW can become Obsolete, it will happen its is happening it just might not be apparent yet. It happen to others in the past, UO, Asherons Call, Everquest. Sure people play them still but they are no were near their popularity as they were in there younger days.
Also can you really compare iphone games and facebook stuff to mmos?
World is crazy anymore!
I think you're all missing the point, here. You're all arguing that WoW is dated and obsolete, but WoW is software, and like all software, it can be updated. What's stopping it from updating it's graphics, it's sound, etc to meet DirectX 10/11 standards? Nothing.
Software can be updated to meet the needs of hardware everywhere. Take a look at what WoW is doing to the Water shaders in Cataclysm, not to mention the increased polygon counts on the land and fire effects from WotLK. Sure, they ain't "High-quality; AoC, in your face; I got an axe and I ain't afraid to use it" graphics, but they are better than what we had before!
I think this just shows ignorance on people's part.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
I'd agree with Activision.
At my workplace we have about 60 ppl, out of those only 2 of us have played or playing WoW, nearly everyone has seen the adverts about WoW but aren't at all interested in that type of game, they range in age from 20 to 50 and in most cases use a PC just for Twitter/Facebook and general web surfing, heck most of the guys at work update their facebook at work.
If WoW has reached it's ceiling with subscribers and more ppl are interested in using social networking sites than playing MMO's then ofc the game is going to draw in less subs and slowly either stagnate or lose players to other things, whatever they may be.
I've been playing MMO's since EQ1 in 1999, social networks are ok but they aren't my thing, but I'm in a minority, there are millions apon millions using facebook/twitter etc etc, compare that to MMO's and the difference is vast, like an elephant coming across an ant, and we will eventually get squished without even being noticed.
This may be bad form on my part, but i've been waiting for this company to use the word "obsolete" . So now I get to thrive and wash and bathe myself in it. But for those of you who thought blizzard was not losing subs, or even decide to NOW say " oh but we all knew it was going to be like that" . Obviously you didn't.. I KNEW this would happen. And I really am soaking it up, and has made my day to the fullest. *Sighs*
Only problem I'm having with this is it is due to facebook. Yikes, granted everyone and their mother uses it, but that's still a bad announcement on their part
www.roxstudiodesigns.com
they are simply trying to target the biggest market. The facebook 5 minute gamers group are a very large audience but they would not buy as consistantly (if they are willing to buy at all) as your 'typical' gamers.
Activision should look to cater for both markets as they are both more than enough to support healthy business.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
everything becomes obsolete. nothing lasts forever.
Not true. Human stupidity is well on course to lasting forever.
If wow is to complex for them to understand, i'm suprised they can even log onto facebook,let alone play the facebook games.
probably should have held off saying that cause honestly after cata releases you will see a big spike again granted the game won't continue to grow after it just saying. Also you must have some serious hate from a company that honestly has screwed the least amount of people over since WoW begain.
General social network sites are seeing a decline in usage, at least in Britain, with more takeup in specialised sites.
news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_7259000/7259426.stm
F2P/P2P excellent thread.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/282517/F2P-An-Engineers-perspective.html
probably should have held off saying that cause honestly after cata releases you will see a big spike again granted the game won't continue to grow after it just saying. Also you must have some serious hate from a company that honestly has screwed the least amount of people over since WoW begain.
Actually you would be wrong. I have no Hate for this company what so ever
. I love blizzard and their series. I despise the player base and community though in this game. Blizzard has never screwed me over, not even once. I just think it's great news. New games need to succeed and let this old mule die.
that was a figure of speech by the way. the game won't die, before all of you hardcore troll toting fanbois jump me. But letting some of the subs die off so other games can have a chance at what they do best too, instead of following a "mainstream" line constantly catering to the cries of those who fail to succeed at everything because they wish to be the best with out working for it.
www.roxstudiodesigns.com
I don't even think the article talks about WoW. They seem to only use World of Warcraft as an example for all the non-casual games
E.x. "Newer technological advances in online game software may also render products such as World of Warcraft obsolete."
WoW has to be the most popular and most played game (Not counting franchises) in the history of gaming. I seriously doubt a few measly F2P Facebook Apps would even come close. The revenue gain each company makes isn't even close to what Blizzard gets in one month.
Currently playing: Star Wars: The Old Republic, World of Warcraft, Dota 2, League of Legends
Waiting on: Blade & Soul, Guild Wars 2, Tera, Kingdoms of Amular, Firefall
It's this kind of competition that forces companies to innovate or go bankrupt. I hope this will force the MMO industry to start moving forward at a much faster rate. We need change in the genre and we need it now, not in another decade. This genre has been in full bloom for more than 10 years and yet the basic formula hasn't changed one bit and it's way past due.
THE SKY IS FALLING!!!
No, not really. I really hate it when production companies buy creative interests like development teams. They have no real idea of how things actually work and everything they do is based around making money and stat sheets that mean nothing. The real money comes from being creative, innovative and taking risks. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when the Infinity Ward guys told Bobby Kotick to go eff himself, because that's what it sounds like happened...
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"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004