Originally posted by Sigilaea Going from 10 million users to 7 million is like moving from a 20 room mansion to a 16 room mansion. Oh the horror, how will they survive now that it takes them an extra 2 months to make $1 Billion.
Originally posted by GolbezTheLion
So, basically, they lost what they gained and ended up back at the 6-7 million they were originally holding strong at pre-WoD?
Doesn't seem very grim at all, as that is still 6.0-6.5 mil higher than the majority of MMORPGs. Blizzard reigns supreme as usual, nobody is going to dethrone the juggernaut.
Corporations and shareholders don't think like this. No business that plans on success for the long haul thinks like this. This is what business think - they saw a 30% drop in a major revenue stream inside a single quarter. It's very concerning from a business perspective. They're thinking, what are we going to do about it.
Torval you are exactly right and for those that think that this expansion is the best the numbers certainly do not support you! WTLK had 12.1m subs
I wondered how long the surge would last. I expected this, but not at this rate. I expected subs to dwindle to 7M over the course of 6 months or so. That is quite a fallout and could carry its own momentum. It will really depend on what is seen next quarter.
It has been almost seven months.....
That's not exactly true. The last shareholder meeting that confirmed 10 million subscribers played in December. This shareholder's meeting only reports on active subscriber numbers until the end of March.
What we saw was a 10 million to 7.1 million drop over the course of only 3 months.
It's safe to say that nothing's stopped subscribers from pummeting in the month of April and May respectively. If the current number of subscribers, today, is anything over 6.5 million, I'd be surprised.
Myself and most of my friends unsubbed this month...simply because we cant dedicate time to a raid guild, and there is absolutly no reason to run dungeons once you are in full 630 blues. Its the same problem with Wildstar.
I had so much hope for this xpac because they were making the dungeons hard again, but there is just no point in doing them anymore. They removed PVE tokens completely from the game, so there is no more chain running heroics to attain justice points to buy a couple of newer tier pieces (usually capped at a few slots), or capping justice tokens and convert them to PVP currencies etc etc. When your entire game is based on "carrot on a stick" (nothing wrong with that), why on earth would they remove the carrot for half of the PVE endgame...
With that said...7.1 million is still incredible, and still not their lowest point of the last few years...the game is still doing more than fine.
I know quoting myself is a little douchy, but i just wanted to share this.
Blizz recently spoke on the sub losses, and what they think contributed to them. They basically echo'd exactly what I wrote above...so it looks like they do indeed have a good pulse of whats wrong, and are taking steps to fix it.
Here is what Blizz said:
Dungeons
The new dungeons in Warlords were great, but there was no incentive to keep running them after the start of the expansion.
Previous expansions had something like Valor Points to keep players coming back for more dungeons.
It felt silly to run the same content over and over even as your character got stronger, which is why the dungeon rewards were removed, but they went too far in Warlords.
Group dungeons are one of the greatest strengths in the MMO genre and it is a shame that there hasn't been more of a reason to do them recently.
This has been the problem since wotlk, they say one thing but have to do another because they are trapped in a model driven by shareholder demands for short term gains which is translated by the untalented as aim for all player types all ages.
I'm sure most would agree very difficult 5 mans that requires crowd control and use of all skills is much more satisfying, and yet....
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
'It felt silly to run the same content over and over even as your character got stronger, which is why the dungeon rewards were removed, but they went too far in Warlords.'
While the game rotates about getting ever more powerful it's screwed and condemned to a cycle of content X makes content Y irrelevant.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Blizzard knows the truth, in that their player base is now 10 years older and Blizzard has not built a stepping stone for those people who are Graduating WoW.
Blizzard knows that eventually a good portion of their players will graduate from their pre-school mechanics, & seek a higher learning curve game aimed at adults, with more challenging content. This is not news, but what is odd is there is no adult version of WoW, no sophisticated MMORPG to catch Blizzard's waning base.
Watch for the Baby Bells of the MMORPG industry to spring up over the next 2 to 4 years. (As WoW collapses over the coming years.)
Blizzard knows the truth, in that their player base is now 10 years older and Blizzard has not built a stepping stone for those people who are Graduating WoW.
Blizzard knows that eventually a good portion of their players will graduate from their pre-school mechanics, & seek a higher learning curve game aimed at adults, with more challenging content. This is not news, but what is odd is there is no adult version of WoW, no sophisticated MMORPG to catch Blizzard's waning base.
Watch for the Baby Bells of the MMORPG industry to spring up over the next 2 to 4 years. (As WoW collapses over the coming years.)
.....name one MMO on the market with harder raid encounters....
Originally posted by Horusra Name a MMORPG with better small group PvP.
Small group pvp has always been a bit of a outlier in the world of mmorpg's, but GW1 was the best, special nod to the huge amount of skills players could choose from. Eve is also awesome for small battles, TERa pvp is good as well along with GW2. Common theme is a more modern action based fights with huge skill sets that isn't handicapped by simplistic skills and the need to run in circles around pillars.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Blizzard still think that WoW will be #1 an d stay top for years to come and that there is no need to make or start working on something new.
I returned myself in Feb, subscription now ended and i can tell you that the 7 mill subscribers must be 6 mill now. Was ok but once you got things done it was the same thing of - oohhh can now leave and not return till several months AFTER the next expansion release, after all, it only take a month to get back and geared and the roll an ALT is kinda dull and boring now.
I had a year worth of game time cards and still have at least 4 to use. I will use them but only when i can be bothered to play, it just does not have the hold nor the fun factor to the game anymore. Its the same old same old and quiet frankly have just got plain boring these days.
Comments
Torval you are exactly right and for those that think that this expansion is the best the numbers certainly do not support you! WTLK had 12.1m subs
I know quoting myself is a little douchy, but i just wanted to share this.
Blizz recently spoke on the sub losses, and what they think contributed to them. They basically echo'd exactly what I wrote above...so it looks like they do indeed have a good pulse of whats wrong, and are taking steps to fix it.
Here is what Blizz said:
Dungeons
I'm sure most would agree very difficult 5 mans that requires crowd control and use of all skills is much more satisfying, and yet....
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
'It felt silly to run the same content over and over even as your character got stronger, which is why the dungeon rewards were removed, but they went too far in Warlords.'
While the game rotates about getting ever more powerful it's screwed and condemned to a cycle of content X makes content Y irrelevant.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
This is to be expected.
Blizzard knows the truth, in that their player base is now 10 years older and Blizzard has not built a stepping stone for those people who are Graduating WoW.
Blizzard knows that eventually a good portion of their players will graduate from their pre-school mechanics, & seek a higher learning curve game aimed at adults, with more challenging content. This is not news, but what is odd is there is no adult version of WoW, no sophisticated MMORPG to catch Blizzard's waning base.
Watch for the Baby Bells of the MMORPG industry to spring up over the next 2 to 4 years. (As WoW collapses over the coming years.)
.....name one MMO on the market with harder raid encounters....
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Small group pvp has always been a bit of a outlier in the world of mmorpg's, but GW1 was the best, special nod to the huge amount of skills players could choose from. Eve is also awesome for small battles, TERa pvp is good as well along with GW2. Common theme is a more modern action based fights with huge skill sets that isn't handicapped by simplistic skills and the need to run in circles around pillars.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Blizzard still think that WoW will be #1 an d stay top for years to come and that there is no need to make or start working on something new.
I returned myself in Feb, subscription now ended and i can tell you that the 7 mill subscribers must be 6 mill now. Was ok but once you got things done it was the same thing of - oohhh can now leave and not return till several months AFTER the next expansion release, after all, it only take a month to get back and geared and the roll an ALT is kinda dull and boring now.
I had a year worth of game time cards and still have at least 4 to use. I will use them but only when i can be bothered to play, it just does not have the hold nor the fun factor to the game anymore. Its the same old same old and quiet frankly have just got plain boring these days.