This is where your WoW subs have gone

mark2123 · November 2015

Instead of investing heavily in the gaming industry's most loyal fan-base i.e. WoW (with 5m+ subscribers), Activison Blizzard has announced it is buying the Candy Crush maker for $6billion.

Good to know where the subs went.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34707701

Kopogero · November 2015

Makes complete sense. Chase a market that spends their $ easily, and let real professional developers capture the rest of the market with quality products Blizzard cannot produce anymore.

Distopia · November 2015

/sigh

Merdur · November 2015

Blizzard isn't owned by activision anymore, they bought themselves out a year ago.

JaggaSpikes · November 2015

Merdur said:

Blizzard isn't owned by activision anymore, they bought themselves out a year ago.

source, please. or do you mean that "Activision Blizzard" isn't owned by "Vivendi" since 2013?

mark2123 · November 2015

Activision Blizzard bought themselves away from Vivendi in 2013 and are now independent, owning WoW and today announcing buying Candy Crush owner King Digital for $5.9b. The company that owns WoW appears to be spending their money (which WoW subs contributed massively to) on the new acquisitioin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment

Gravarg · November 2015

I find it funny that people think $5.9 Billion is alot to Activision Blizzard...I hate to tell you, it's not. A few years back (when they bought themselves away from Vivendi) that Blizzard had $12 billion just sitting in a bank doing absolutely nothing but accruing interest. Blizzard is buying a game company (like it or not), that has become of the most profitable companies in the market today.

As for WoW, it doesn't matter how much money they throw at it. Subs will always decline, it is a dying game, but still one of the largest (if not the largest) MMO still. All things come to an end, and Blizzard is just ensuring that when the inevitable happens that they don't have another cash cow to rely on. Good business decision Blizzard.

mark2123 · November 2015

Gravarg said:

I find it funny that people think $5.9 Billion is alot to Activision Blizzard...I hate to tell you, it's not. A few years back (when they bought themselves away from Vivendi) that Blizzard had $12 billion just sitting in a bank doing absolutely nothing but accruing interest. Blizzard is buying a game company (like it or not), that has become of the most profitable companies in the market today.

As for WoW, it doesn't matter how much money they throw at it. Subs will always decline, it is a dying game, but still one of the largest (if not the largest) MMO still. All things come to an end, and Blizzard is just ensuring that when the inevitable happens that they don't have another cash cow to rely on. Good business decision Blizzard.

Yes, it's a good business decision but it does show how they have been hoarding money when most people think WoW could have easily had some tender loving care for the sake of the game and the loyal subscribers. Instead of making WoW better (which, let's face it, they haven't been doing), they divert huge amounts ($5.9b is a lot in the context of anyone's pockets) to another company.

I was holding out that the next expansion may be something that they get right on account of the failures and feedback, but I'm not sure they care enough to look past the $$$.

I think WoW is dying because they let it die through lack of effort more than anything - or poor choices - or both. Many things in life stand the test of time if they are updated and upgraded. Look how long cars have lasted and some of the brands we know. If WoW remained up-to-date with graphics, technology, was innovative and had some effort put into it, then even 5m subs is worth preserving when you consider what that equates to in revenue.

I guess at the end of the day, the decision-makers are human, they are answerable to shareholders who are probably not emotionally tied into WoW and they follow the dollar.

Sovrath · November 2015

mark2123 said:

Instead of investing heavily in the gaming industry's most loyal fan-base i.e. WoW (with 5m+ subscribers), Activison Blizzard has announced it is buying the Candy Crush maker for $6billion.

Good to know where the subs went.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34707701

That's kind of how business works. They could invest everything in WoW or they could realize that WoW does have a shelf life and so they take their profits and diversify. Not only does this help the company continue to be profitable and stay in business, it helps WoW as there are other revenue streams to keep the company healthy.

xpowderx · November 2015

mark2123 said:

Instead of investing heavily in the gaming industry's most loyal fan-base i.e. WoW (with 5m+ subscribers), Activison Blizzard has announced it is buying the Candy Crush maker for $6billion.

Good to know where the subs went.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34707701

LOL , only if WOW had the players Candy Crush does daily! http://www.gamespot.com/articles/93-million-people-play-candy-crush-saga-daily-do-you/1100-6417819/

I would buy out the makers for that game too!

CrazKanuk · November 2015

xpowderx said:

mark2123 said:

Instead of investing heavily in the gaming industry's most loyal fan-base i.e. WoW (with 5m+ subscribers), Activison Blizzard has announced it is buying the Candy Crush maker for $6billion.

Good to know where the subs went.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34707701

LOL , only if WOW had the players Candy Crush does daily! http://www.gamespot.com/articles/93-million-people-play-candy-crush-saga-daily-do-you/1100-6417819/

I would buy out the makers for that game too!

I also read somewhere that like 7.5 million people pay on a monthly basis. So maybe they're just trying to convert some people to WoW

Wizardry · November 2015

Well they also have the stake in another game that just so happens makes a bit more money than WOW >>>You may have heard of it...Call of Duty.

However i have been saying ot for years the same as i said it about Eve online,these developers are disrespecting their fanbase that is making them rich.

You know when devs step it up or respond,when you stop supporting them.This is why Blizzard never steps up their development efforts,people buy everything they sell before they even know what they are buying.

It is all about money,the big shots at the top love their full bank accounts,they are not about to say ok yeah,i would like less bonuses,less money,let's reinvest a chunk into Wow.

The same ordeal happened to FFXI,all people wanted was updated graphics and Square said it was too costly.You make very little revenue updating graphics in a game such as Wow for example,they see the profits in rushing out a new xpack or in case of FFXI just make a new game,that way you can sell it for the full new game price.

Lyrian · November 2015

I think a good amount of you aren't also considering the experience that they are getting too. On some level King knows what it takes to make a mobile game, I mean that in the sense of Customer Data, IPs, Internal Training Programs, and so on.

When you take into account King has 0 debt, and are largely profitable with consistent cash-flow this could be a good long term investment, especially if Activision doesn't want to spend it's own time and money 'learning' what it means to be successful in the mobile sphere.

They can easily combine other IPs they own and churn out simple mobile games with a broader target audience (since the filthy mobile casuals are likely to think that King knows what they are doing to some extent after beating level 965 on Candy Crush).

I don't see why they can't make simple WoW/SC themed games on cellphones. I can only expect it to make Hearthstone more popular too.

Is it a lot of money? Fucking right! Does Blizzard have money to burn? Sure does. Is it a bad business idea? All signs point to no.

donger56 · November 2015

They go where the money is and where the market leads them. Is there any real growth opportunity in subscription based MMO's these days? I don't know of any that are doing well in the western market right now. Wow has been on a boom and bust roller coaster following their expansion schedule for years now and it doesn't look like anything is changing with that. If they were smart they would do smaller expansions more frequently to get that big sub bounce, but they know wow has had its best days already and it won't ever have 12 million subs again.

spikers14 · November 2015

But then again, dumb down wow a little bit more, give it touch controls...just saying. I wouldn't be surprised if after a WoW movie, then xpack, the client becomes available on tablets. Sooner or later, there is going to be a breakout MMO in that space too, why not WoW?

Ghavrigg · November 2015

Gravarg said:

I find it funny that people think $5.9 Billion is alot to Activision Blizzard...I hate to tell you, it's not. A few years back (when they bought themselves away from Vivendi) that Blizzard had $12 billion just sitting in a bank doing absolutely nothing but accruing interest. Blizzard is buying a game company (like it or not), that has become of the most profitable companies in the market today.

As for WoW, it doesn't matter how much money they throw at it. Subs will always decline, it is a dying game, but still one of the largest (if not the largest) MMO still. All things come to an end, and Blizzard is just ensuring that when the inevitable happens that they don't have another cash cow to rely on. Good business decision Blizzard.

As much sense as your post makes, I hate to tell you, but when you say it's a dying game, it comes off like you mean it's on the way out the door when it is nowhere remotely close. It's just in a lull until Legion is releases due to lack of content. When that happens, the subs are gonna shoot up once again for a while unless they announce they're going F2P at Blizzcon with other options to play available. Either way, "dying" is not the term to use to refer to WoW.

Gretelda · November 2015

addicts don't care what drug dealers do with their money.

Thane · November 2015

mark2123 said:

Instead of investing heavily in the gaming industry's most loyal fan-base i.e. WoW (with 5m+ subscribers), Activison Blizzard has announced it is buying the Candy Crush maker for $6billion.

Good to know where the subs went.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34707701

well, you don't seem to understand the current gaming market, if you think that step was weird

those stupid mobile games make up a HUGE ammount of money atm

muffins89 · November 2015

good publicity move by them too. drawing more attention to themselves right before Blizzcon.

Howdy, Stranger!

This is where your WoW subs have gone

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

This is where your WoW subs have gone

Comments