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The silence of Blizzard -1 year since Blizzard released subscription numbers .
googajoob7
Member Posts: 866
As we are fast approaching one year since Blizzard released any official subscription numbers I thought I would see what google news had to say about the subject given someone sent me a link suggesting subscription numbers had been maintained or increased , i found no such news articles . To me it seams logical if the numbers had stayed the same or increased Blizzard would have released a press statement . As no statement has been forthcoming and given subscriptions peek around the time when there is a expansion pack released what i think its presently happening is a lull in the numbers of subscribers . How big a lull that is no one really knows . and quoting x-fire , guiness and any number of dubious websites dont amount to any kind of proof . Unfortunatly the only people that can give us the real story are remaining silent and have done so for nearly a year now .
Comments
Well Blizzard lost 8 million subs for half a year and didn't mention it with china, of course WoW is on the decline.
Darkfall Travelogues!
China accounts for a small amount of Blizzard's income, because they pay a lot less for subscriptions than we do in the west.
It's only natural that a company dont release numbers if they are lower than the last report. It's bad for business. And even fanboys cant go against the simple fact that it passed a year since an Official Report stating clearly the sub numbers has been released.
Counters like XFire for example clearly show that the game does not reach the number of players it once did. In fact, it shows a big rise on the last days on hours played, but maintaining the same people. So, the game is stale, or even dropping, but the ones that are online are playing more time per day
China accounts for a small amount of Blizzard's income, because they pay a lot less for subscriptions than we do in the west.
Doesn't matter how much income comes from China, that's the bulk of their subscription numbers. Almost all subscribers to WoW, comparitively, are from Asia.
Darkfall Travelogues!
Sigh, why do you people care about WoW's subs?
It won't go anywhere for the years to come, does it really matter?
I think people are just tired of their selective marketing that fudges the truth a bit.
Darkfall Travelogues!
Let me sum up the many posts to follow this one, who cares?
It is still the largest MMO so your game is going no where and you will be ok, so if it did lose some players then why does it even matter? No matter how popular a game is it can't just grow forever.
Also the US economy tanked last year, ever MMO out there took a numbers hit as did all of game sales. Video game sales continue to be low up through Nov. I would guess that MMO subs would go back up before video game sales did since it's cheaper to renew a subscription with an MMO then to buy a whole new game.
Yes they got booted out of China, which obviously means a loss in numbers. But since no other major MMO has moved into China to fill the void, it doesn't really matter.
So to repeat, who cares? WoW could say it lost millions of players and it would still be the biggest MMO.
Ofc it doesnt matter. But WoW is the benchmark game, and most of us members of this site wouldnt even be here if wow didnt brought the mmorpg genre to the masses.
This game is huge and will be here for years to come. Decades probably, so, a change in its player base and the way it's heading its important to the market. One would be a hypocrite if didnt recognize this.
We are just studying the market a bit =P
Correct me if I am wrong, but weren't the lost subs in the area of 6 million. I believe 8 million is a tad inflated, regardless was a huge loss in population numbers. I thought I heard somewhere that mess was figured out and the Chinese were once again playing.
FYI - the thread is about sub numbers, not revenue, so the amount of the monthly fee East vs. West is irrelevant.
Losing China hurts Blizzard in both sub numbers AND revenue. Thinking otherwise is kinda short-sighted to say the least, regardless of how little they pay compared to Western markets. Think about it... even if they only pay $1 per month to play - if there's 5 million of them - that's a lot of revenue per month.
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in doctrine that provide true believers excuse for mayhem.
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Well all we realy know is that this time last year WoW had atleast 4million western subs, as it sold 4million boxes in the first month of release. So I would put western subs at between 4.5-5 million 12 months ago.
Since WoW's release 5 years ago theres not been 1 month where WoW or its exp have been out of the top 5 sales spots which to me says its still selling but is it selling enough to the replace the guys that quit? only blizzard know that.
Then, how do you, an intelligent guy, i suppose. Explain the fact that for over a year Blizz doesnt release official sub number report when they always did it regularly?
Can you honestly tell us all, that you do believe that the game is increasing and still the company chooses not to advertise it? How gullible are you and how gullible do you think the rest of the people are?
Then, how do you, an intelligent guy, i suppose. Explain the fact that for over a year Blizz doesnt release official sub number report when they always did it regularly?
Can you honestly tell us all, that you do believe that the game is increasing and still the company chooses not to advertise it? How gullible are you and how gullible do you think the rest of the people are?
He doesn't say the game is increasing.
He is asking the question if wow is selling enough to replace the guys that quit.
Which means no increase but also no decrease.
Then, how do you, an intelligent guy, i suppose. Explain the fact that for over a year Blizz doesnt release official sub number report when they always did it regularly?
Can you honestly tell us all, that you do believe that the game is increasing and still the company chooses not to advertise it? How gullible are you and how gullible do you think the rest of the people are?
Last time blizzard released numbers they grouped numbers worldwide, there was no seperation of western/asian numbers.. so they quoted "11 million"
Blizzard could release numbers about the west but it would of-course not be 11million as quoted before due to the missing china numbers... news-agencies would simply pick up on the sub numbers not the calculation behind them and the web would be hit by headlines such as "wow subs drop from 11million to 4million in 12 months"... thats not good business.
We already saw such headlines when WoW-china went offline for a month ot two.
Its just not a good time to release numbers untill the issues in china is sorted and the player base is again established.
But I have not said that subs have not dropped have I, I very much doubt they have increased but they could be holding steady, atleast I have not seen a change on my server, none of my guild have quit and as I said WoW is still selling.
Why do you care?
Maybe they will announce subs after the next expansion releases?
You know the expansion that will all but force AOC, War and Aion to close down.
Lets all prey that Blizzard puts these copycats out of their misery so we can start getting more variety in the genre.
It would be nice.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Dont call them WoW copycats, call them Everquest copycats, its more like it.
The only downside of this is that WoW is also an EQ copycat.... crap
Then, how do you, an intelligent guy, i suppose. Explain the fact that for over a year Blizz doesnt release official sub number report when they always did it regularly?
Can you honestly tell us all, that you do believe that the game is increasing and still the company chooses not to advertise it? How gullible are you and how gullible do you think the rest of the people are?
Last time blizzard released numbers they grouped numbers worldwide, there was no seperation of western/asian numbers.. so they quoted "11 million"
Blizzard could release numbers about the west but it would of-course not be 11million as quoted before due to the missing china numbers... news-agencies would simply pick up on the sub numbers not the calculation behind them and the web would be hit by headlines such as "wow subs drop from 11million to 4million in 12 months"... thats not good business.
We already saw such headlines when WoW-china went offline for a month ot two.
Its just not a good time to release numbers untill the issues in china is sorted and the player base is again established.
But I have not said that subs have not dropped have I, I very much doubt they have increased but they could be holding steady, atleast I have not seen a change on my server, none of my guild have quit and as I said WoW is still selling.
Funny thing is China servers are back up again.
Dont call them WoW copycats, call them Everquest copycats, its more like it.
The only downside of this is that WoW is also an EQ copycat.... crap
Point me to a EQ copycat I would love to play it.
A raid or die, group focused with a focus on RP and exploration and a game with an actual death penalty is what EQ was.
Every new game copies what WoW has done, basically tossing us a single player adventure game with a Co-op option.
I haven't seen a EQ clone yet.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Stay on topic please.
They won't announce it if it won't be more than 11.6millions subs, everytime they announce it was increases from last announcement only. They are going to wait till cata to see if it increases, and if not they are never going to announce it again unless ppl are going to push them to announce and will do rumors of much lower subs than the actually number is.
11.5 million was quite a milestone, I doubt Blizzard has eclipsed that number since. My assumption is that we'll get an accurate count when Activision-Blizzard releases their 2009 Annual Report.
Ultimately who cares, the folks of Eve seem to be happy with a few 100k; I see no correlation between high subscription numbers and enjoyment of a game.
As for sub numbers...lets just see, 3.3 just released and when the raider burnout of their new gated progression system starts.....it will spread like wildfire.
I play all ghame
300K+ please. Yah, I know, lots of them are multiple subscription accounts, but we did have near record users online again this weekend and you are correct, you don't need "millions" of people playing to have a good time.
I agree, Blizzard will probably release sub numbers again when they go up again, most likely with the new expansion next year.
They'll only release information that paints the company/game in a good light, no law forces them to do otherwise)
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The reason why I think that WOW is in decline is the fact that they are selling his client for just $5 dollars. If they would have strong sales then why not selling the client at full price and take more money? They want the people at least buy the client so they can get some revenue since not even it was selling well lately. Perhaps they keep the hope that with a cheap client they will have more people trying the game and so they can grab more subs however my prediction is that they will be soon offering the client for free and the sub fee will be lowered.