I think what is really happening is the base is just moving. The western player base has been with this game since it's launch. Expansions bring many of the older players back, but after a month or two many end up leaving because the 'new' wears off and its back to business as usual.
So as the western base is starting to thin down (slowly, but it is happening), the eastern base is picking up due to many regions just getting the game and areas like China finally getting new expansions. There are also quite a few untapped areas in the east that could maybe add a few more million players, making the western drop in players almost unnoticed.
If you believe this thing at all, it looks to suggest their western plateau right now has been just over 5 million for a while. They aren't really losing subs in the west, they are just kind of holding steady.
I'm betting they'll grab a pretty good chunk more than 5 million once Cata is actually released.
Eh, you could be right.
I don't really see it grabbing much more than what is already in the game as far as western players goes when Cataclysm releases. I mean if it changes by 500k to a million more I would be surprised because I think it's currently at a state of 'replacement subscriptions' where for every 1 person who leaves another joins.
I just have a feeling that in the west WoW has hit it's optimum growth and will stay at (or very near) to that number as that chart shows. In the east however there is still a *ton* of room for growth. And that will be where most of the subscription growth will come from.
There are 3 types of people in the world. 1.) Those who make things happen 2.) Those who watch things happen 3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
LOL you forgot Habbo Hotel and Runescapes supposed sub numbers. I honestly dont know whats going to happen with the WOW player base, it didn't rise as far or as quick as the fanatics said it would back when it hit 11.5 million after WOTLK. Now they JUST released it in China but sub numbers had been slipping in the USA and I said they would NEVER release another statement on subs until it was passed their old number. Now the Chinese havnt had the time yet to realize just how Bad WOTLK is and/or probably dont know how bad Cataclysm is going to be and have not had the time to let it sink in just what a butcher job they did on the game with Wrath. They have not had top guilds leave in droves all at once or experienced how bad their Shaman, Priests, Hunters are or how ungodly over the top Paladins, Death Knights and Warriors are going to be.
But like I said I dont know, the Chinese/Asian player base tend to care more about things than how playable the game is, so I think WOW will just keep the vanity pets up and mounts up to keep them satisfied, I dont see the player base rising too much though... and Cataclysm might just be that... I might be wrong... but Cataclysm might be worse than WOTLK if thats possible.
Yeah, only 5 million Chinese players in mid-2009...no reason to believe there are over 6 million Chinese players now...
I have no doubt that there will be a surge in people resubbing. How much really remains a question. The subscription increases for WoW for Wrath were rather lackluster (1 million possible increase in the immediate months prior and few months after release...followed by about 1/2 million drops and fairly steady state - about 1/2 million growth over the past 20 months).
While Cata may do much better than Wrath, it is just as likely that the game really won't grow much more unless they find a new market...which is just fine when you are talking cash cows. Keep that money rolling in...
Again, blizzards press release stated ASIA, not CHINA.
Everyone keep repeating these numbers as if somewhere it stated all those Asian players were in China, but to my knowledge it never was. There are a ton of servers in the Asian market for countries other than China, which sort of makes it impossible for all those players to be in China alone.
Yeah, only 5 million Chinese players in mid-2009...no reason to believe there are over 6 million Chinese players now...
I have no doubt that there will be a surge in people resubbing. How much really remains a question. The subscription increases for WoW for Wrath were rather lackluster (1 million possible increase in the immediate months prior and few months after release...followed by about 1/2 million drops and fairly steady state - about 1/2 million growth over the past 20 months).
While Cata may do much better than Wrath, it is just as likely that the game really won't grow much more unless they find a new market...which is just fine when you are talking cash cows. Keep that money rolling in...
Again, blizzards press release stated ASIA, not CHINA.
Everyone keep repeating these numbers as if somewhere it stated all those Asian players were in China, but to my knowledge it never was. There are a ton of servers in the Asian market for countries other than China, which sort of makes it impossible for all those players to be in China alone.
Again, as long as Blizzard rakes in around $ 1.200.000.000 yearly (and outperforms anything other in the world), it really doesn't matter if this game has 3, 6, 12 or 15 million players.
Have a nice attempt at making another game against a company that now sits on a few billion dollars to develop anything they want.
But in anycase.. WHO the hell cares.. There is only ONE number that means anything to me.. "1".. ME, myself and I.. LOL I wouldn't care if WoW was played by 5 people to 5 billion people.. I'm done with it because the game is OLD to me, and it has nothing new to offer me for entertainment.. Ill stay with EQ2 for the time being since it's still discoverying the game for the first time.. Have a great day
Yeah, only 5 million Chinese players in mid-2009...no reason to believe there are over 6 million Chinese players now...
I have no doubt that there will be a surge in people resubbing. How much really remains a question. The subscription increases for WoW for Wrath were rather lackluster (1 million possible increase in the immediate months prior and few months after release...followed by about 1/2 million drops and fairly steady state - about 1/2 million growth over the past 20 months).
While Cata may do much better than Wrath, it is just as likely that the game really won't grow much more unless they find a new market...which is just fine when you are talking cash cows. Keep that money rolling in...
Again, blizzards press release stated ASIA, not CHINA.
Everyone keep repeating these numbers as if somewhere it stated all those Asian players were in China, but to my knowledge it never was. There are a ton of servers in the Asian market for countries other than China, which sort of makes it impossible for all those players to be in China alone.
Interesting. I wasn't actually referencing any press releases, since the last press release I read from Blizzard that mentioned Asian subscriptions was from early 2008 (5.5 million announced at that time). If you check out MMOdata.net, you can see a 5 million subscription drop in mid-2009...this was due to a problem with a switch in providers in China. Other Asian countries typically use the South Korean servers. So, actually, 6 million or more subscriptions in China is actually very likely.
Interesting. I wasn't actually referencing any press releases, since the last press release I read from Blizzard that mentioned Asian subscriptions was from early 2008 (5.5 million announced at that time). If you check out MMOdata.net, you can see a 5 million subscription drop in mid-2009...this was due to a problem with a switch in providers in China. Other Asian countries typically use the South Korean servers. So, actually, 6 million or more subscriptions in China is actually very likely.
And what do you do with the Russians, Koreans, Taiwanese, South American numbers... ?
Bobby Kotick stated it clearly in June 2009 in a TV interview: MAINLAND China accounted for roughly 4.5 million players the moment Blizzard switched partners in China (and when there was a small hic up of players due to this).
It can also be found that 9% of total revenue in 2009 came from the mainland China license (see Activision Blizzard report on their website). The average salary of a Chinese worker is less than 10% of the average US wages.
But all in all: the 12 M is a nice PR stunt. In the end the 1.25 billion dollars income makes the only difference for the players.
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Interesting. I wasn't actually referencing any press releases, since the last press release I read from Blizzard that mentioned Asian subscriptions was from early 2008 (5.5 million announced at that time). If you check out MMOdata.net, you can see a 5 million subscription drop in mid-2009...this was due to a problem with a switch in providers in China. Other Asian countries typically use the South Korean servers. So, actually, 6 million or more subscriptions in China is actually very likely.
And what do you do with the Russians, Koreans, Taiwanese, South American numbers... ?
Bobby Kotick stated it clearly in June 2009 in a TV interview: MAINLAND China accounted for roughly 4.5 million players the moment Blizzard switched partners in China (and when there was a small hic up of players due to this).
It can also be found that 9% of total revenue in 2009 came from the mainland China license (see Activision Blizzard report on their website). The average salary of a Chinese worker is less than 10% of the average US wages.
But all in all: the 12 M is a nice PR stunt. In the end the 1.25 billion dollars income makes the only difference for the players.
More income, more polish and future products.
lol...I never made any statements about the other numbers. Please note that nothing you've stated above disagrees with what I've stated in my posts (unless you are going to be picky about the difference between "roughly 4.5 million" and "about 5 million").
Keep in mind that June 2009 was 15 months ago. There is no reason not to think that China could have grown by a million or so subscribers. I've not seen anything that tells a definitive story about how the subscriptions are changing (e.g. is there an equal replacement of subscriptions in the US, are the US subscriptions waning while Asian subscriptions are on the rise, how about European subscriptions - same story, something different?).
I would caution against your last statement though. Knowing corporate behavior, more income rarely leads to more polish for the existing product (especially when that product is a clear cash cow)...however, it will definitely lead to future products.
Yeah, only 5 million Chinese players in mid-2009...no reason to believe there are over 6 million Chinese players now...
I have no doubt that there will be a surge in people resubbing. How much really remains a question. The subscription increases for WoW for Wrath were rather lackluster (1 million possible increase in the immediate months prior and few months after release...followed by about 1/2 million drops and fairly steady state - about 1/2 million growth over the past 20 months).
While Cata may do much better than Wrath, it is just as likely that the game really won't grow much more unless they find a new market...which is just fine when you are talking cash cows. Keep that money rolling in...
Again, blizzards press release stated ASIA, not CHINA.
Everyone keep repeating these numbers as if somewhere it stated all those Asian players were in China, but to my knowledge it never was. There are a ton of servers in the Asian market for countries other than China, which sort of makes it impossible for all those players to be in China alone.
Again, as long as Blizzard rakes in around $ 1.200.000.000 yearly (and outperforms anything other in the world), it really doesn't matter if this game has 3, 6, 12 or 15 million players.
Have a nice attempt at making another game against a company that now sits on a few billion dollars to develop anything they want.
You would think with all that money we would be looking at 1 godlike MMORPG. Yet we aren't. It would be intresting to see what the numbers was around the time of other big MMORPG's releases. We could see if any noticable number of people even care about other MMO's.
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
They did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath. Subscriptions dipped to about 11.5 million and recently reached 12 million again. Check out http://www.mmodata.net/ charts are to the left side (Subscriptions: 1m - 12m).
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
They did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath. Subscriptions dipped to about 11.5 million and recently reached 12 million again. Check out http://www.mmodata.net/ charts are to the left side (Subscriptions: 1m - 12m).
mmodata is nothing official...I would like to see when Blizzard said they had reached 12 million before this.
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
They did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath. Subscriptions dipped to about 11.5 million and recently reached 12 million again. Check out http://www.mmodata.net/ charts are to the left side (Subscriptions: 1m - 12m).
mmodata is nothing official...I would like to see when Blizzard said they had reached 12 million before this.
MMODATA is an invention. The man behind it keeps guessing numbers and always strikes the ball at odd angles for every game he mentions.. Blizzard never confirmed 12 million before.
11.6 M was the previous record and the dip in China is pure guessing work from the chart maker.
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
They did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath. Subscriptions dipped to about 11.5 million and recently reached 12 million again. Check out http://www.mmodata.net/ charts are to the left side (Subscriptions: 1m - 12m).
mmodata is nothing official...I would like to see when Blizzard said they had reached 12 million before this.
Sheesh...."...did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath"
MMOdata gets their information from various methods...in the case of games like WoW where there are announcements, they use the announcements. The game has been pretty steady state for the past 2 years now. I'm baffled as to why people have any issues with this simple, accurate, straight-forward statement...
Interesting. I wasn't actually referencing any press releases, since the last press release I read from Blizzard that mentioned Asian subscriptions was from early 2008 (5.5 million announced at that time). If you check out MMOdata.net, you can see a 5 million subscription drop in mid-2009...this was due to a problem with a switch in providers in China. Other Asian countries typically use the South Korean servers. So, actually, 6 million or more subscriptions in China is actually very likely.
Where do you think mmodata got their 6 million China figure from? Anyone have any real link showing anything specific about the number of subscribers in China and not specifically stating Asia?
If China was almost the entire Asian population then there would not be somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of the servers supporting Non-China players in that area. 6 million would mean almost every single subscriber outside of NA/Europe lives in China.
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
They did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath. Subscriptions dipped to about 11.5 million and recently reached 12 million again. Check out http://www.mmodata.net/ charts are to the left side (Subscriptions: 1m - 12m).
mmodata is nothing official...I would like to see when Blizzard said they had reached 12 million before this.
MMODATA is an invention. The man behind it keeps guessing numbers and always strikes the ball at odd angles for every game he mentions.. Blizzard never confirmed 12 million before.
11.6 M was the previous record and the dip in China is pure guessing work from the chart maker.
Then please post the press release when blizzard announced they reached 12 Million before this time.
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
They did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath. Subscriptions dipped to about 11.5 million and recently reached 12 million again. Check out http://www.mmodata.net/ charts are to the left side (Subscriptions: 1m - 12m).
mmodata is nothing official...I would like to see when Blizzard said they had reached 12 million before this.
Sheesh...."...did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath"
MMOdata gets their information from various methods...in the case of games like WoW where there are announcements, they use the announcements. The game has been pretty steady state for the past 2 years now. I'm baffled as to why people have any issues with this simple, accurate, straight-forward statement...
Maybe you have an issue with numbers but that quote does clearly say 11.5 million.
As for how many Chinese subs there are, look here as an analysis report.
It makes an estimate of 5.5 million Chinese players, I can recall the Chinese WoW provider talking about 5 million 'subs' in China a year ago.
There were some surveys and studies that pointed towards WoW losing market share in the west and less MMO gamers playing WoW and spending more time on other MMO's.
No, I'm not going to look up any sources or links for that, this is what I can recall from those articles I read, feel free to not believe them
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
As for how many Chinese subs there are, look here as an analysis report.
It makes an estimate of 5.5 million Chinese players, I can recall the Chinese WoW provider talking about 5 million 'subs' in China a year ago.
There were some surveys and studies that pointed towards WoW losing market share in the west and less MMO gamers playing WoW and spending more time on other MMO's.
No, I'm not going to look up any sources or links for that, this is what I can recall from those articles I read, feel free to not believe them
From the Bloggers article
"it is possible that between 4 to 6 millions subscribers are from China and they pay 6 cents per hour to play the game. Assuming 5.5 million subscribers and adopting a conservative estimate of 10 hours played per month, annual Chinese revenue works out to,
10 hours X $0.06 X 12 months X 5.5 million subscribers = 39.6 million
Chinese revenue is probably even smaller after Activision splits the proceeds with its Chinese partner Netease.com (NTES). The rest of the non-Chinese 6 million subscribers generate approximately $1 billion in revenue, putting the total WoW subscription revenue at $1.04 billion. Taking the sales of legacy titles like Diablo, Starcraft, etc., into account, we get very close to the $1.2 billion in annual revenue Blizzard reported for 2009."
Possible? Assuming? Estimate? Probably? Approximately? Very close?
That is a nice theory crafting article, but it is just guess work. Anyone could take those same numbers, spin them a different direction and come up with a different set of subscriber numbers.
I just posted a link that I found, when I saw this, I wondered and posted something that seemed like it didn't have a bias.
It is curious that everyone thinks that the only real numbers are the WoW numbers, in a WoW forum, and then people get upset and bring up money....Read the title, its about subs.
I could care less if WoW has 1 billion subscribers, just posted info I found. If I enjoyed a game, I would enjoy it weither it had 100,000 , or 1,000,000,000 people playing it. I would only care if they didn't have enough to keep going, and then I wouldn't have the game to enjoy...which WoW is not worrying about.
If you need number validation for your game, to enjoy it, then get mad at yourself, not me, or some seemingly unbiased webpage I posted figures from.
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
They did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath. Subscriptions dipped to about 11.5 million and recently reached 12 million again. Check out http://www.mmodata.net/ charts are to the left side (Subscriptions: 1m - 12m).
mmodata is nothing official...I would like to see when Blizzard said they had reached 12 million before this.
Sheesh...."...did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath"
MMOdata gets their information from various methods...in the case of games like WoW where there are announcements, they use the announcements. The game has been pretty steady state for the past 2 years now. I'm baffled as to why people have any issues with this simple, accurate, straight-forward statement...
Maybe you have an issue with numbers but that quote does clearly say 11.5 million.
Maybe you have an issue with actually reading. :-) From the linked article, "...boasting a subscriber pool more than 11.5 million people strong."
As for how many Chinese subs there are, look here as an analysis report.
It makes an estimate of 5.5 million Chinese players, I can recall the Chinese WoW provider talking about 5 million 'subs' in China a year ago.
There were some surveys and studies that pointed towards WoW losing market share in the west and less MMO gamers playing WoW and spending more time on other MMO's.
No, I'm not going to look up any sources or links for that, this is what I can recall from those articles I read, feel free to not believe them
From the Bloggers article
"it is possible that between 4 to 6 millions subscribers are from China and they pay 6 cents per hour to play the game. Assuming 5.5 million subscribers and adopting a conservative estimate of 10 hours played per month, annual Chinese revenue works out to,
10 hours X $0.06 X 12 months X 5.5 million subscribers = 39.6 million
Chinese revenue is probably even smaller after Activision splits the proceeds with its Chinese partner Netease.com (NTES). The rest of the non-Chinese 6 million subscribers generate approximately $1 billion in revenue, putting the total WoW subscription revenue at $1.04 billion. Taking the sales of legacy titles like Diablo, Starcraft, etc., into account, we get very close to the $1.2 billion in annual revenue Blizzard reported for 2009."
Possible? Assuming? Estimate? Probably? Approximately? Very close?
That is a nice theory crafting article, but it is just guess work. Anyone could take those same numbers, spin them a different direction and come up with a different set of subscriber numbers.
Well, the analysis is better than a lot of others I've read, plus it comes close to what the Chinese provider themselves stated. The total revenues is known, also how high the sub fees are in western regions, if there were more of those subs in the western regions they'd have had even more total revenues than what they stated, and that is even without extracting legacy sales.
So believe whatever you want to believe, I think those reports and figures were pretty close, the number of subs reaching 12 million a month after WotLK release seem to add to that.
edit: wait... didn't I have this debate with you before? I'm so out of this conversation, hf.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Maybe you have an issue with numbers but that quote does clearly say 11.5 million.
Maybe you have an issue with actually reading. :-) From the linked article, "...boasting a subscriber pool more than 11.5 million people strong."
If it was anything significantly higher than 11.5 million, then Blizzard would have definitely given a solid number. More=nothing worth talking about but let's make it sound nice.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
They did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath. Subscriptions dipped to about 11.5 million and recently reached 12 million again. Check out http://www.mmodata.net/ charts are to the left side (Subscriptions: 1m - 12m).
mmodata is nothing official...I would like to see when Blizzard said they had reached 12 million before this.
Sheesh...."...did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath"
MMOdata gets their information from various methods...in the case of games like WoW where there are announcements, they use the announcements. The game has been pretty steady state for the past 2 years now. I'm baffled as to why people have any issues with this simple, accurate, straight-forward statement...
Maybe you have an issue with numbers but that quote does clearly say 11.5 million.
Maybe you have an issue with actually reading. :-) From the linked article, "...boasting a subscriber pool more than 11.5 million people strong."
More than 11.5 million is 11,500,001 ....if it was anything close to 12 million then blizzard would have just said 12 million not 11.5 million.
Comments
Eh, you could be right.
I don't really see it grabbing much more than what is already in the game as far as western players goes when Cataclysm releases. I mean if it changes by 500k to a million more I would be surprised because I think it's currently at a state of 'replacement subscriptions' where for every 1 person who leaves another joins.
I just have a feeling that in the west WoW has hit it's optimum growth and will stay at (or very near) to that number as that chart shows. In the east however there is still a *ton* of room for growth. And that will be where most of the subscription growth will come from.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
LOL you forgot Habbo Hotel and Runescapes supposed sub numbers. I honestly dont know whats going to happen with the WOW player base, it didn't rise as far or as quick as the fanatics said it would back when it hit 11.5 million after WOTLK. Now they JUST released it in China but sub numbers had been slipping in the USA and I said they would NEVER release another statement on subs until it was passed their old number. Now the Chinese havnt had the time yet to realize just how Bad WOTLK is and/or probably dont know how bad Cataclysm is going to be and have not had the time to let it sink in just what a butcher job they did on the game with Wrath. They have not had top guilds leave in droves all at once or experienced how bad their Shaman, Priests, Hunters are or how ungodly over the top Paladins, Death Knights and Warriors are going to be.
But like I said I dont know, the Chinese/Asian player base tend to care more about things than how playable the game is, so I think WOW will just keep the vanity pets up and mounts up to keep them satisfied, I dont see the player base rising too much though... and Cataclysm might just be that... I might be wrong... but Cataclysm might be worse than WOTLK if thats possible.
Actually The top 10 of MMO's of 2009 ...officialy by ... FORBES is :
So WOW is bigger than numbers 2, 3, 4 and 5 combined.
It will enter around 6.000.000.000 $ dollars revenue in 2010 (6 years).
That's all other top 100 MMo's ... combined.
1. World of Warcraft
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
1.25 billion dollars
2. Fantasy Westward Journey
Developer: NetEase
400 mln
3. Perfect World
Developer: Perfect World (China)
2005
300 mln
4. Lineage I & Lineage II
Developer: NCsoft
270 mln
5. Dragon Oath
Developer: Changyou
250 mln
6. Aion
Developer: NCsoft
230 mln
7. MapleStory
Developer: Nexon Corp. 200 mln
8. ZT Online
Developer: Giant Interactive
190 mln
9. The World Of Legend
Developer: Shanda Interactive Entertainment
150 mln
10. Final Fantasy XI
Developer: Square Enix
117 mln
reference:
http://blogs.forbes.com/velocity/2010/06/10/top-moneymaking-online-games-of-2009/
Again, blizzards press release stated ASIA, not CHINA.
Everyone keep repeating these numbers as if somewhere it stated all those Asian players were in China, but to my knowledge it never was. There are a ton of servers in the Asian market for countries other than China, which sort of makes it impossible for all those players to be in China alone.
Again, as long as Blizzard rakes in around $ 1.200.000.000 yearly (and outperforms anything other in the world), it really doesn't matter if this game has 3, 6, 12 or 15 million players.
Have a nice attempt at making another game against a company that now sits on a few billion dollars to develop anything they want.
But in anycase.. WHO the hell cares.. There is only ONE number that means anything to me.. "1".. ME, myself and I.. LOL I wouldn't care if WoW was played by 5 people to 5 billion people.. I'm done with it because the game is OLD to me, and it has nothing new to offer me for entertainment.. Ill stay with EQ2 for the time being since it's still discoverying the game for the first time.. Have a great day
Interesting. I wasn't actually referencing any press releases, since the last press release I read from Blizzard that mentioned Asian subscriptions was from early 2008 (5.5 million announced at that time). If you check out MMOdata.net, you can see a 5 million subscription drop in mid-2009...this was due to a problem with a switch in providers in China. Other Asian countries typically use the South Korean servers. So, actually, 6 million or more subscriptions in China is actually very likely.
And what do you do with the Russians, Koreans, Taiwanese, South American numbers... ?
Bobby Kotick stated it clearly in June 2009 in a TV interview: MAINLAND China accounted for roughly 4.5 million players the moment Blizzard switched partners in China (and when there was a small hic up of players due to this).
It can also be found that 9% of total revenue in 2009 came from the mainland China license (see Activision Blizzard report on their website). The average salary of a Chinese worker is less than 10% of the average US wages.
But all in all: the 12 M is a nice PR stunt. In the end the 1.25 billion dollars income makes the only difference for the players.
More income, more polish and future products.
Wait I thought they hit 12 million before??? Did they dip down below and build back up to 12 million or something?!!?
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
lol...I never made any statements about the other numbers. Please note that nothing you've stated above disagrees with what I've stated in my posts (unless you are going to be picky about the difference between "roughly 4.5 million" and "about 5 million").
Keep in mind that June 2009 was 15 months ago. There is no reason not to think that China could have grown by a million or so subscribers. I've not seen anything that tells a definitive story about how the subscriptions are changing (e.g. is there an equal replacement of subscriptions in the US, are the US subscriptions waning while Asian subscriptions are on the rise, how about European subscriptions - same story, something different?).
I would caution against your last statement though. Knowing corporate behavior, more income rarely leads to more polish for the existing product (especially when that product is a clear cash cow)...however, it will definitely lead to future products.
You would think with all that money we would be looking at 1 godlike MMORPG. Yet we aren't. It would be intresting to see what the numbers was around the time of other big MMORPG's releases. We could see if any noticable number of people even care about other MMO's.
They did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath. Subscriptions dipped to about 11.5 million and recently reached 12 million again. Check out http://www.mmodata.net/ charts are to the left side (Subscriptions: 1m - 12m).
mmodata is nothing official...I would like to see when Blizzard said they had reached 12 million before this.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
MMODATA is an invention. The man behind it keeps guessing numbers and always strikes the ball at odd angles for every game he mentions.. Blizzard never confirmed 12 million before.
11.6 M was the previous record and the dip in China is pure guessing work from the chart maker.
Sheesh...."...did hit about 12 million shortly after the launch of Wrath"
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6202679.html - more than 11.5 million
MMOdata gets their information from various methods...in the case of games like WoW where there are announcements, they use the announcements. The game has been pretty steady state for the past 2 years now. I'm baffled as to why people have any issues with this simple, accurate, straight-forward statement...
Where do you think mmodata got their 6 million China figure from? Anyone have any real link showing anything specific about the number of subscribers in China and not specifically stating Asia?
If China was almost the entire Asian population then there would not be somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of the servers supporting Non-China players in that area. 6 million would mean almost every single subscriber outside of NA/Europe lives in China.
Then please post the press release when blizzard announced they reached 12 Million before this time.
Last I checked it was 11.5 million 2 years ago.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Maybe you have an issue with numbers but that quote does clearly say 11.5 million.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
As for how many Chinese subs there are, look here as an analysis report.
It makes an estimate of 5.5 million Chinese players, I can recall the Chinese WoW provider talking about 5 million 'subs' in China a year ago.
There were some surveys and studies that pointed towards WoW losing market share in the west and less MMO gamers playing WoW and spending more time on other MMO's.
No, I'm not going to look up any sources or links for that, this is what I can recall from those articles I read, feel free to not believe them
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
From the Bloggers article
"it is possible that between 4 to 6 millions subscribers are from China and they pay 6 cents per hour to play the game. Assuming 5.5 million subscribers and adopting a conservative estimate of 10 hours played per month, annual Chinese revenue works out to,
10 hours X $0.06 X 12 months X 5.5 million subscribers = 39.6 million
Chinese revenue is probably even smaller after Activision splits the proceeds with its Chinese partner Netease.com (NTES). The rest of the non-Chinese 6 million subscribers generate approximately $1 billion in revenue, putting the total WoW subscription revenue at $1.04 billion. Taking the sales of legacy titles like Diablo, Starcraft, etc., into account, we get very close to the $1.2 billion in annual revenue Blizzard reported for 2009."
Possible? Assuming? Estimate? Probably? Approximately? Very close?
That is a nice theory crafting article, but it is just guess work. Anyone could take those same numbers, spin them a different direction and come up with a different set of subscriber numbers.
Guys, if you enjoy the game, enjoy it....
I just posted a link that I found, when I saw this, I wondered and posted something that seemed like it didn't have a bias.
It is curious that everyone thinks that the only real numbers are the WoW numbers, in a WoW forum, and then people get upset and bring up money....Read the title, its about subs.
I could care less if WoW has 1 billion subscribers, just posted info I found. If I enjoyed a game, I would enjoy it weither it had 100,000 , or 1,000,000,000 people playing it. I would only care if they didn't have enough to keep going, and then I wouldn't have the game to enjoy...which WoW is not worrying about.
If you need number validation for your game, to enjoy it, then get mad at yourself, not me, or some seemingly unbiased webpage I posted figures from.
Maybe you have an issue with actually reading. :-) From the linked article, "...boasting a subscriber pool more than 11.5 million people strong."
Well, the analysis is better than a lot of others I've read, plus it comes close to what the Chinese provider themselves stated. The total revenues is known, also how high the sub fees are in western regions, if there were more of those subs in the western regions they'd have had even more total revenues than what they stated, and that is even without extracting legacy sales.
So believe whatever you want to believe, I think those reports and figures were pretty close, the number of subs reaching 12 million a month after WotLK release seem to add to that.
edit: wait... didn't I have this debate with you before? I'm so out of this conversation, hf.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
If it was anything significantly higher than 11.5 million, then Blizzard would have definitely given a solid number. More=nothing worth talking about but let's make it sound nice.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
More than 11.5 million is 11,500,001 ....if it was anything close to 12 million then blizzard would have just said 12 million not 11.5 million.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon