A small dip in WoW subscriber numbers

Yamota

From 12 million to 11.4 million: http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/05/09/world-of-warcraft-dips-to-a-mere-11-4-million-subscribers/

I guess that is the small dent that Rift could do to the aging MMORPG. Lets see what GW 2, SW:TOR and TERA can do. I cant imagine it will be much more.

SirAoS

WoW wont last forever bro. 11.4 million people wont keep playing it for the next 10 years. WoW will eventually meet its doom. Atleast i hope so *lol!*

Tardcore

I'd be willing to bet that Rift has absolutely nothing to do with this drop. This is just from people burning through everythng fun to do in the expansion and letting their accounts go fallow again until the next one. Just like they always do. Or are you claiming every Wow player that also purchased Rift cancelled their wow account?  Honestly Yamota out of all the people giving Rift more credit than is due, you are one of the biggest.

DarkPony

"We're not back in Azeroth anymore once more" ?

Xasapis

Originally posted by Tardcore

I'd be willing to bet that Rift has absolutely nothing to do with this drop. This is just from people burning through everythng fun to do in the expansion and letting their accounts go fallow again until the next one. Just like they always do. Or are you claiming every Wow player that also purchased Rift cancelled their wow account?  Honestly Yamota out of all the people giving Rift more credit than is due, you are one of the biggest.

I really don't think that it was his intention hehe.

 

Speaking of Rift, I wonder if the new patch will be up when I get back home and how much it will rock/suck to be a healing cleric in it (speaking of PvP of course).

SignusM

Other MMOs don't touch WoW. Age touches WoW. WoW exists in its own bubble, when are people going to realize that? How did Rift, a game identical to WoW, pull people from WoW? Most people that play WoW don't even know there's an MMO market.

Nobadeeftw

Originally posted by DarkPony

"We're not back in Azeroth anymore once more" ?

 

 lol ^^^

Would make a funny advertisement for Blizzard.  A bunch of characters stumble into a rift and land in Azeroth.  ha ha

Nobadeeftw

Originally posted by SignusM

Other MMOs don't touch WoW. Age touches WoW. WoW exists in its own bubble, when are people going to realize that? How did Rift, a game identical to WoW, pull people from WoW? Most people that play WoW don't even know there's an MMO market.

WoW was created when Chuck Norris installed warcraft 3 on his home computer.

SirAoS

Originally posted by Nobadeeftw

Originally posted by DarkPony

"We're not back in Azeroth anymore once more" ?

 

 lol ^^^

Would make a funny advertisement for Blizzard.  A bunch of characters stumble into a rift and land in Azeroth.  ha ha

Thank god i didn't end back up in Azeroth!

treisty

my opinion about the lowering of the number of players  is that its all about the price of the game. Its too expensive and when u are out of cash ofcourse u take a break from playing.They just keep throwing expansions that are way too expensive. with the price of cata,wrath,bc,and vanilla i could almost buy half of an iphone. It cost 110 dollars!!

Yamota

Originally posted by Tardcore

I'd be willing to bet that Rift has absolutely nothing to do with this drop. This is just from people burning through everythng fun to do in the expansion and letting their accounts go fallow again until the next one. Just like they always do. Or are you claiming every Wow player that also purchased Rift cancelled their wow account?  Honestly Yamota out of all the people giving Rift more credit than is due, you are one of the biggest.

From the article:

"The month of March may also have just been a bad month to poll, as competition such as RIFTlaunched that month. Even if the majority of the players that left World of Warcraft for RIFTeventually find their way back, the damage has been done for the month of March."

So it did have some impact but apparently it was just temporary.

As for me giving Rift credit. LOL

I have been nothing but criticizing the game for being a soul less WoW clone. I have nothing but disdain for the game.

Xasapis

Come on Yamota. You clearly want to play Rift ... don't fight your urges, just do it!

 

lol

Yamota

Originally posted by Xasapis

Come on Yamota. You clearly want to play Rift ... don't fight your urges, just do it!

 

lol

I rather play WoW and that is saying alot seeing as I dislike WoW almost as much. Scourge of the MMORPG industry I tell you! 

SirAoS

Originally posted by Xasapis

Come on Yamota. You clearly want to play Rift ... don't fight your urges, just do it!

 

lol

/Agree

DarkPony

Yeah, looks like someone has a hard time coming out of the Rift closet.

It's ok Yamota, we'd understand ^_^

There's a Riftalicious world out there, waiting for you to explore!

Tardcore

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Tardcore

I'd be willing to bet that Rift has absolutely nothing to do with this drop. This is just from people burning through everythng fun to do in the expansion and letting their accounts go fallow again until the next one. Just like they always do. Or are you claiming every Wow player that also purchased Rift cancelled their wow account?  Honestly Yamota out of all the people giving Rift more credit than is due, you are one of the biggest.

From the article:

"The month of March may also have just been a bad month to poll, as competition such as RIFTlaunched that month. Even if the majority of the players that left World of Warcraft for RIFTeventually find their way back, the damage has been done for the month of March."

So it did have some impact but apparently it was just temporary.

As for me giving Rift credit. LOL

I have been nothing but criticizing the game for being a soul less WoW clone. I have nothing but disdain for the game.

Oh trust me I know this. I just like having you repeat it so people can see it and take your posts with the grain of salt they deserve.

From the article as well:

"Cataclysm launched in early December, putting the end of March a good four months out. You can only expect players to consume the same content for so long, and four months is a pretty long time. If this were a single-player game and not an MMO, no developer could reasonably expect a player to consume the same content for four months"

So to sum up the writers opinon, he isn't sure. So could be six of one and half a dozen of the other. Funny though how you start trumping this "could be" as absolute fact. If that's the case then what this also means is that from Wow customers alone Rift garnered 600,000 subs. Combine that with the number of non-wow players and players who's first game is Rift and they just may have gotten the one million subscribers at launch that you claimed could in no way be possible.

Yamota

Originally posted by Tardcore

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Tardcore

I'd be willing to bet that Rift has absolutely nothing to do with this drop. This is just from people burning through everythng fun to do in the expansion and letting their accounts go fallow again until the next one. Just like they always do. Or are you claiming every Wow player that also purchased Rift cancelled their wow account?  Honestly Yamota out of all the people giving Rift more credit than is due, you are one of the biggest.

From the article:

"The month of March may also have just been a bad month to poll, as competition such as RIFTlaunched that month. Even if the majority of the players that left World of Warcraft for RIFTeventually find their way back, the damage has been done for the month of March."

So it did have some impact but apparently it was just temporary.

As for me giving Rift credit. LOL

I have been nothing but criticizing the game for being a soul less WoW clone. I have nothing but disdain for the game.

Oh trust me I know this. I just like having you repeat it so people can see it and take your posts with the grain of salt they deserve.

From the article as well:

"Cataclysm launched in early December, putting the end of March a good four months out. You can only expect players to consume the same content for so long, and four months is a pretty long time. If this were a single-player game and not an MMO, no developer could reasonably expect a player to consume the same content for four months"

So to sum up the writers opinon, he isn't sure. So could be six of one and half a dozen of the other. Funny though how you start trumping this "could be" as absolute fact. If that's the case then what this also means is that from Wow customers alone Rift garnered 600,000 subs. Combine that with the number of non-wow players and players who's first game is Rift and they just may have gotten the one million subscribers at launch that you claimed could in no way be possible.

Are you misstaken me with someone else? Because I have said in the past that I believe Rift sold about a million boxes (boxes =/= subscribers) but has since then only retained less than half of that in subs, after a couple of months.

And where did I say it is absolute fact? I simply qouted the article, draw whatever conclusion you like from that.

I believe that the dip was primarily caused by the release of Rift, as it is a very well done WoW clone and it was released in March, but seeing as Rift retainted less than half of its box sales those people will go back to somewhere. Most likely they went back to WoW hence why I think the conclusion of the article is correct.

Yamota

Originally posted by DarkPony

Yeah, looks like someone has a hard time coming out of the Rift closet.

It's ok Yamota, we'd understand ^_^

There's a Riftalicious world out there, waiting for you to explore!

I think Im going to be sick. 

BribarianI

Originally posted by DarkPony

"We're not back in Azeroth anymore once more" ?

 

Man I laugh everytime I see your signature, nice work.

CalmOceans

It happens every year, it's called "summer".

Yamota

Originally posted by CalmOceans

It happens every year, it's called "summer".

March is considered Summer? 

Xasapis

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by CalmOceans

It happens every year, it's called "summer".

March is considered Summer? 

No, but May is, depending on how close to the equator your country is.

Yamota

Originally posted by Xasapis

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by CalmOceans

It happens every year, it's called "summer".

March is considered Summer? 

No, but May is, depending on how close to the equator your country is.

The article is implying that the subscriber polls are from March, not May.

OkhamsRazor

To be honest I'm past caring how many subs WoW has now . Theres other decent games out there like RIFT now and when I last went back to WoW for a month ( in Feb ) it felt like a shadow of its former self . The only thing I still enjoyed was the Battlegrounds because there was still some element of challenge there . The rest of it was so easy it was boring . I think WoW will survive a good ten years yet . It will appeal to children for quite a while yet and I would guess the bulk of the WoW userbase is now under 16 and many proberbly as young as 7 .  To me its good they have a place to go . It leaves the rest of the games untouched by the attitudes you currently see in the Warcraft community . I can't be dealing with all the immature players anymore its like being back in the schoolyeard now . I left that behind me many years ago and have no desire to revisit in a virtual enviroment .

Tardcore

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Tardcore

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Tardcore

I'd be willing to bet that Rift has absolutely nothing to do with this drop. This is just from people burning through everythng fun to do in the expansion and letting their accounts go fallow again until the next one. Just like they always do. Or are you claiming every Wow player that also purchased Rift cancelled their wow account?  Honestly Yamota out of all the people giving Rift more credit than is due, you are one of the biggest.

From the article:

"The month of March may also have just been a bad month to poll, as competition such as RIFTlaunched that month. Even if the majority of the players that left World of Warcraft for RIFTeventually find their way back, the damage has been done for the month of March."

So it did have some impact but apparently it was just temporary.

As for me giving Rift credit. LOL

I have been nothing but criticizing the game for being a soul less WoW clone. I have nothing but disdain for the game.

Oh trust me I know this. I just like having you repeat it so people can see it and take your posts with the grain of salt they deserve.

From the article as well:

"Cataclysm launched in early December, putting the end of March a good four months out. You can only expect players to consume the same content for so long, and four months is a pretty long time. If this were a single-player game and not an MMO, no developer could reasonably expect a player to consume the same content for four months"

So to sum up the writers opinon, he isn't sure. So could be six of one and half a dozen of the other. Funny though how you start trumping this "could be" as absolute fact. If that's the case then what this also means is that from Wow customers alone Rift garnered 600,000 subs. Combine that with the number of non-wow players and players who's first game is Rift and they just may have gotten the one million subscribers at launch that you claimed could in no way be possible.

Are you misstaken me with someone else?

 

Its entirely possible I am. That could have been someone like Rabenwolf I was thinking of.

And where did I say it is absolute fact? I simply qouted the article, draw whatever conclusion you like from that.

You quoted the part of the article that supported your opinion but not the other one. That takes the writers words of of context and I don't feel that is fair treatment as the writer expressed an opinion his results were inconclusive.

I believe that the dip was primarily caused by the release of Rift, as it is a very well done WoW clone and it was released in March, but seeing as Rift retainted less than half of its box sales those people will go back to somewhere. Most likely they went back to WoW hence why I think the conclusion of the article is correct.

Again we disagree here. I think most the people that Wow just lost are those that only returned for the expansion in the first place and now that they are done with it, they have gone inactive again. All the long time wow players I know continued to pay for both subscriptions. Unlike yourself, i personalIy don't feel Rift has had any impact on Wow at all because Wow is in a league all its own. Wow is Elvis (or the Beatles) of the MMO world, nothing will touch it save time and its own excesses.

As to whether Rift will manage to retain the bulk of its player base, I've always said we will have to wait and see. And so far I think its still too early to tell. And again I do not feel these Wow numbers give us any real insight one way or another.

Azrile

The problem with the expansion is a huge chunk of the development time and money went into redoing the 1-60 zones.  80 to 85 was very fast so a lot of casual players that don´t raid got to the point where random heroics were all they were doing by the end of december.  Heroics were fairly difficult for about 2 weeks, by march they were  a cakewalk.

They also streamlined questing and made a couple system changes that just eliminate a lot of the downtime associated with qeusting.  there are now markers on the maps, so you never spend any time trying to find the quest objective and they have broken the quest hubs down into much smaller sizes so you do less running back to quest hubs.  It just made 80 to 85 that much faster.

4.1 helped a little because heroics are hard again (at least for a few more weeks) and 4.2 is coming very soon which adds a lot of questing and a big, complex daily hub which will keep players logging in.