Originally posted by googajoob7 I think Blizzard had reatined 11.5 million it would still be boasting about it . I do remember certain fanbois suggesting it had exceeded 12 million . Blizzard were announcing regular milestones as you put it normally once every quarter up untill December 2009 . Forums all over the new are full of rumour they have lost several million players . The longer Blizzard remain quiet on the subject the more it ll seam accurate . My view is so what if Blizzard have gone down to 7 or 8 million subs its still doing pretty well but there are cetain people that think the game is just going to go on increasing in popularity which is totally unrealistic . If WoW went down to 3 million it would still be far from dead but i think there is some truth in that it has peaked and if your right that Blizzard only release milestones then we will never hear a statement regarding how many subs WoW has ever again . And you know there will still be people in these forums still arguing in 10 years time that it still retains 11.5 million players .
Again, wow does not release subscription figures quarterly. Those press releases happen when the milestones are broke, not to keep you informed of their subscriber levels on a regular basis. You are trying to force meaning onto something that doesn't apply.
Someone above linked where an executive from blizzard was quoted saying 11.6 million. That would not be enough for a press release since the smallest they have done is 500,000 increments.
Now you want to translate the lack of evidence being the best "proof" that the game has lost millions of players, be my guest. You have nothing to back that up with and what you have read you simply don't understand, but that is normal from you.
The "rumors" about wow losing millions are true. They lost millions of subscribers when the game was shut down in china by the government for several months. No one really knows how many subs returned when they were allowed to reopen the game or how many moved to taiwan servers (which many did).
One thing I want you to think about before you go making claims. If wow is down to 7 or 8 million subs, that would mean 3.5 to 4.5 million players are gone. What effect do you think that would have on the servers if 1/3 of the game population just left?
I'm pretty sure you would be seeing plenty of server mergers, but that is just my opinion.
I think all you d see is what your seeing now , Theres a lot less full servers now in Europe than there was even and peak times and in th holidays . All but a dozen can only boast a medium or low population . It depends on the server but even in some of the medium servers the citys seam quieter than they used to . Of course that could mean every ones in instances or battlegrounds or wintersgraps or whatever .
I would argue that there are so many low population servers now that they really should be merging them because these all but dead . I dont think Blizzard will look at doing anything so rash because it may need them if the Cataclysm brings people back to the game in droves .
I personally think WoW peaked in terms of subs last winter and is now in a troth . That not to say it might go up again if Blizzard start doing the kind of things they need to do to attract some of the old players that have left back . Most i know have left because they feel the game is too easy and is too full of annoying kids . So 18+ or servers that offer a more challenging game experiance might bring such people back .
After all no reputable chatroom would encourage children and adults to share the same virtual space so why should a game . ( of course this does nt apply just to WoW but other mmos as well ) .
It is not surprising that after ulduar and ToC/ToGC, quite some players are taking a short break and waiting for ICC.
Its alarming only if the sub base continues to shrink after ICC comes out.
Its alarming only if the next expansion does not sell millions of copy.
Wait, ... the old WoW battlechest is still the best seller in my friend's shop in Oregon, and been so for the 4 years he runs his shop. Every year.
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Again, wow does not release subscription figures quarterly. Those press releases happen when the milestones are broke, not to keep you informed of their subscriber levels on a regular basis. You are trying to force meaning onto something that doesn't apply.
Someone above linked where an executive from blizzard was quoted saying 11.6 million. That would not be enough for a press release since the smallest they have done is 500,000 increments.
Now you want to translate the lack of evidence being the best "proof" that the game has lost millions of players, be my guest. You have nothing to back that up with and what you have read you simply don't understand, but that is normal from you.
The "rumors" about wow losing millions are true. They lost millions of subscribers when the game was shut down in china by the government for several months. No one really knows how many subs returned when they were allowed to reopen the game or how many moved to taiwan servers (which many did).
One thing I want you to think about before you go making claims. If wow is down to 7 or 8 million subs, that would mean 3.5 to 4.5 million players are gone. What effect do you think that would have on the servers if 1/3 of the game population just left?
I'm pretty sure you would be seeing plenty of server mergers, but that is just my opinion.
I think all you d see is what your seeing now , Theres a lot less full servers now in Europe than there was even and peak times and in th holidays . All but a dozen can only boast a medium or low population . It depends on the server but even in some of the medium servers the citys seam quieter than they used to . Of course that could mean every ones in instances or battlegrounds or wintersgraps or whatever .
I would argue that there are so many low population servers now that they really should be merging them because these all but dead . I dont think Blizzard will look at doing anything so rash because it may need them if the Cataclysm brings people back to the game in droves .
I personally think WoW peaked in terms of subs last winter and is now in a troth . That not to say it might go up again if Blizzard start doing the kind of things they need to do to attract some of the old players that have left back . Most i know have left because they feel the game is too easy and is too full of annoying kids . So 18+ or servers that offer a more challenging game experiance might bring such people back .
After all no reputable chatroom would encourage children and adults to share the same virtual space so why should a game . ( of course this does nt apply just to WoW but other mmos as well ) .
It is not surprising that after ulduar and ToC/ToGC, quite some players are taking a short break and waiting for ICC.
Its alarming only if the sub base continues to shrink after ICC comes out.
Its alarming only if the next expansion does not sell millions of copy.
Wait, ... the old WoW battlechest is still the best seller in my friend's shop in Oregon, and been so for the 4 years he runs his shop. Every year.
There is no need to worry yet. Not for a while.