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Wildstar sales continue to spiral downwards (less than half of Q4 2014 sales), and NCSoft overall has taken a dip from previous quarters.
http://i.imgur.com/ZPDKW2t.png (By Game)
http://i.imgur.com/QRScRh0.png (Overall)
I never imagined the sales for Wildstar would be that low. I wonder how much longer they will wait before switching to F2P or shutting the game down completely.
(EDIT: These reports end in March, and do not reflect Drop 5 release. However, they do reflect Drop 4, which was heralded as creating a new "resurgence" within the game, where a few players claimed that people were returning in droves. Obviously, that wasn't quite the case.)
Comments
Unless I'm wrong ... 2,593 MN KRW = $240,000 USD.
$240,000/$20 = 12,000
12,000~ subscribers?
Doesn't look good for Wildstar right now.
(EDIT: My math-fu is weak, and correct number is posted below.)
Don't know if it's sub there sill people buying tokens for gold still, so the sub number hard to base off with how much money there still making off of it.
See, this is why I don't do math things.
2.4m USD = $800,000/m
$800,000/$20 = 42,000~ subscribers?
I shouldn't try to do math this late, haha!
WHAT? for a game with 2 servers , 1 for NA and 1 for EU (pvp servers are death ) i really doubt that WS has 42.000 subs
Creed and box sales + subs yeah
The game does have four servers, but two of the PVP servers are completely dead. I imagine a lot of people logged into the PVP servers to see no one and cancelled immediately. People have been asking Carbine to shut down the PVP servers for months because of this.
40,000 subscribers is still not a lot for a company like NCSoft, and I'm pretty sure CoH was closed with more sales. I'd be surprised if Carbine is even breaking even with numbers like that.
I wonder how many people are still paying for the subs with CREDD purchased months ago. I had many friends who purchased CREDD when it was very cheap on the market, essentially buying a year or more game-time.
Agree played it over a month ago, on the pve side was maybe 0 to 5 people per zone, then main down had 30+ but didn't see it having high mount of sub players.
Square Enix showed that it is possible to take a dead game and completely overhaul it and turn it unto a successful game. There is a lot to overhaul in WS to make it successful. If they dont do something fast the game will just die, alone.
SquareEnix had the capital and manpower to relaunch/rebrand and an established IP, though.
Carbine doesn't.
The best-case scenario for WS should be close PVP servers, begin F2P cash-shop model to attract new and previous players, then reopen PvP servers at a later date when population increases.
B2P won't bring in any new players and old players who aren't already playing probably wont try again (it wasn't the sub that chased them away), and the box price is only $5 more than a sub, so it's definitely not the box price.
Agree, FF is an estabilished IP and Square Enix > NCsoft at management.
Like what?
I can fly higher than an aeroplane.
And I have the voice of a thousand hurricanes.
Hurt - Wars
Yeah there is no chance a new IP would be able to pull off what FFXIV did.
I can fly higher than an aeroplane.
And I have the voice of a thousand hurricanes.
Hurt - Wars
True, it is unfortunate for WS. And like Eponyx said, it wasnt the business model or the box price that drove people away... It was the actual game. Carbine was living in their own bubble when they were making WS. IMO every feature it has is weaker than the same features in other mmos.
Divide that number by 3 (2.4m), it's a quarterly report for Jan-Mar, not a monthly report.
Subscriber count is somewhere between 40k (CREDD) and 53k ($15), no where near 160k.
I subbed this month and I like WildStar a lot. It really is a good game. What it needs is people. I'm not sure how they can pull it off on that.
Wildstar is a much better pve game than WoW, in my opinion. WoW is just old. Tab targeting is boring. I find the combat in WS quite fun. Apparently not enough people feel the same way.
In all seriousness, if this game had more people it would be great. Is it really the monthly sub that drives people away? Even though WoW still charges one? Is the art style that bad that people can't see past it, get used to it, and see the gameplay?
Obviously this is all subjective. I didn't like the game much the first time I played it, but when I came back and gave it another chance I really like it. I'm just sorry that more people can't enjoy it.
Even at 53k~, it's an incredibly small number across 4 NA/EU servers.
When CoH closed, it was averaging 2.8m USD a quarter as a F2P game.
I've always said WS is a great game. However, I don't see it as being "better" than WoW; it's a WoW-clone with flashy (annoying for some people) combat.
The population took such a huge nosedive for so many reasons, and I don't really want to go into why (I have before, around Drop 3).
Is it better now? Probably.
Are people flocking to it because it's "better"? Obviously not.
The subscription model for this game needs to change if they want to avoid closing it down completely.
With Drop 5, the game is probably more "complete" than it was at launch and ready for a relaunch with a new subscription model. If Drop 6 even happens, I'd be surprised if it didn't include a F2P transition.
I still don't see how B2P would bring in the number of new players the game needs in order to survive. Currently, leveling zones are desolate and dungeon queues are non-existent before level 50. No to mention two of the four severs are total devoid of any population whatsoever. Wildstar needs new players -- Not returning players who are all already level 50.
Box currently costs $20, includes one month game time.
Subscription costs $15.
CREDD costs $20 and is an alternative to the subscription cost.
It's not the subscription cost that ran players away, it was the game and it's blind focus on recapturing "hardcore" raiding/instances. Obviously all (most) of the players who originally bought the game and paid a subscription were willing to deal with the cost of a sub or earning a CREDD. With Drop 5, Wildstar is in a primed condition to make a better first impression on new players (with reduced difficulty, less focus on "hardcore" raiding, more polish, and new content), and to entice old players who purchased the game/CREDD with incentives to return.
A cosmetic cash-shop would do wonders in WS, as well.
I was just honestly curious about what needs to be overhauled about the game? and the example given was the population. Well, that's not so much in Carbine's control, so no overhaul would do that. I have said it MANY times, the game needs to freaking advertise itself. Hardcore gamers I talk to in other games haven't even heard of it, much less looked into it. The potential is still there, but as yet, I haven't seen an honest attempt at tapping into it, which frustrates the fans like myself.
I can fly higher than an aeroplane.
And I have the voice of a thousand hurricanes.
Hurt - Wars
I don't personally feel that it needs overhauling. I've said what it needs many times now, and advertising is only PART of it.
1) The PvP servers need to be closed.
2) Game needs to be made F2P/B2P (Emphasis on F2P for NEW players) with cash shop and incentives for returning/current players.
3) Advertising (revival of streams, news outlets, fansites, etc). Please for the love of all that is holy don't bring back 0 to 50.
4) Relaunch of PvP servers once population swells.
Wildstar is still a great game, but it is weighed down by it's terrible first-impression and outdated subscription model. It's "competing" with WoW and FFXIV for subscriptions right now, and it's not winning.
Wildstar was released with very little content, mostly artificially gated.
The PvP progression was dull and the PvE was mostly running same dailies over and over again.
After the launch they dropped the 30 day "huge patch cycle" and after a year we've seen 5? small content patches.
This is really not how you create a successful MMORPG. At the current state Wildstar is just waiting to be shutdown. Wouldn't recommend anyone to play it.
Which is shame because I had a lot of fun with the levelling and was really excited to see Wildstar become popular. Unfortunately I was wrong and it completely failed due to lack of updates and fired development team.
I would totally agree with you about B2P if we were still just after launch but before Drop 3.
However, it's a year later, and were on Drop 5.
The iceberg isn't ahead ... It's already been hit.
(EDIT: To clarify, I don't mind subscriptions, at all. I've been paying one since EQ RoK. However, I know for many people it's a hassle to remember which games you're subscribed to and manage credit cards, etc. I don't like subscribing to more than one game at a time, generally, either. It's easy to get engulfed in new content in one game and not play the other for a month, or forget you have a subscription to it entirely.)