Imo, it boils down to several issues, and it's not just about the terrible garrisons (which actually could have been great with a few changes). Sending followers out on missions is micromanagement we didn't need, and I can't understand why the hell they made another such system in 6.2...
No flying mounts in Draenor is a huge issue for a lot of players, including myself. Yeah, I know they're "fixing" this, but I'm not going to grind a gazillion mobs to get the required rep for it, so the "fix" means nothing to me.
Tanaan is just a bad version of Timeless Isle. It's butt ugly and worse to navigate.
Weird stuff that doesn't make sense. For example, having to do Training Grounds, Silver, to do heroics, but for raids you just gear up and join. Another one is having to grind a certain type of mobs, to trigger the garrison invasions you need/want. Just a couple examples, could easily make a long list.
Pokemon garbage. Started before WoD, though. Really wish they stopped wasting resources on this!
If you're going for the achievements, you need to either have a few alts, or tear down garrison buildings and replace them, since a lot of achs are tied to specific buildings. One of the worst things about garrisons, imo.
Grind, grind, grind... The heavily extended apexis stuff in 6.2 made this far, far worse.
Etc.
WoD was a great experience when leveling, but it's terrible at top level. The new expansion needs to be great, and it needs to come ASAP, or there's no telling how far the numbers will drop.
Originally posted by Bentusi What amazes me is that 5,6 million people are still playing it. Then again I guess this is Blizzard counting all the gold sellers and Chinese farmers twice to make themselves look good as usual.
Why would you give a fuck who is still playing it, fact is wow isn't going anywhere soon.
By the end of the year i bet the figures would of gone up . Blizzard known the winning formula and no amount of bitter ex players can change that.
Blame the other mmo devs for not being able to up there game and bring anything new to the table these past eleven year.
Imo, it boils down to several issues, and it's not just about the terrible garrisons (which actually could have been great with a few changes). Sending followers out on missions is micromanagement we didn't need, and I can't understand why the hell they made another such system in 6.2...
No flying mounts in Draenor is a huge issue for a lot of players, including myself. Yeah, I know they're "fixing" this, but I'm not going to grind a gazillion mobs to get the required rep for it, so the "fix" means nothing to me.
Tanaan is just a bad version of Timeless Isle. It's butt ugly and worse to navigate.
Weird stuff that doesn't make sense. For example, having to do Training Grounds, Silver, to do heroics, but for raids you just gear up and join. Another one is having to grind a certain type of mobs, to trigger the garrison invasions you need/want. Just a couple examples, could easily make a long list.
Pokemon garbage. Started before WoD, though. Really wish they stopped wasting resources on this!
If you're going for the achievements, you need to either have a few alts, or tear down garrison buildings and replace them, since a lot of achs are tied to specific buildings. One of the worst things about garrisons, imo.
Grind, grind, grind... The heavily extended apexis stuff in 6.2 made this far, far worse.
Etc.
WoD was a great experience when leveling, but it's terrible at top level. The new expansion needs to be great, and it needs to come ASAP, or there's no telling how far the numbers will drop.
TLDR but of course I care about a game that I have never played just because I posted on a thread about it. lmao
Imo, it boils down to several issues, and it's not just about the terrible garrisons (which actually could have been great with a few changes). Sending followers out on missions is micromanagement we didn't need, and I can't understand why the hell they made another such system in 6.2...
No flying mounts in Draenor is a huge issue for a lot of players, including myself. Yeah, I know they're "fixing" this, but I'm not going to grind a gazillion mobs to get the required rep for it, so the "fix" means nothing to me.
Tanaan is just a bad version of Timeless Isle. It's butt ugly and worse to navigate.
Weird stuff that doesn't make sense. For example, having to do Training Grounds, Silver, to do heroics, but for raids you just gear up and join. Another one is having to grind a certain type of mobs, to trigger the garrison invasions you need/want. Just a couple examples, could easily make a long list.
Pokemon garbage. Started before WoD, though. Really wish they stopped wasting resources on this!
If you're going for the achievements, you need to either have a few alts, or tear down garrison buildings and replace them, since a lot of achs are tied to specific buildings. One of the worst things about garrisons, imo.
Grind, grind, grind... The heavily extended apexis stuff in 6.2 made this far, far worse.
Etc.
WoD was a great experience when leveling, but it's terrible at top level. The new expansion needs to be great, and it needs to come ASAP, or there's no telling how far the numbers will drop.
TLDR but of course I care about a game that I have never played just because I posted on a thread about it. lmao
Obviously you do, perhaps if you actually had something constructive to say you might come across better.
"Wow is old and outdated so who cares" how long did it take you to think that inspirational line up lol.
i will likely never play wow again unless they really do something special with a new expansion. it's not because it's a terrible game, it's just that i have over 250 days played in that game.
i can't bare the thought of playing it any more, it's just been around too long and i have spent too much time playing it.
i suspect i am not the only one that feels this way, which is why losing subs is inevitable after 10 years if they don't bring in many new players.
I just picked this game back up this month because my 10 year old wanted to try an MMO and I felt this would be a good experience for him and allow us to play together in a relatively safe environment. We picked the Garona server since it was listed as only "MED" in population. I can honestly tell you there are people all over the place and everyday we have to fight someone for mobs to finish a quest or wait in a line of 2 to 4 others to get to a quest boss and this has been happening from level 1 to 60.
5.6 million is still a lot of players to deal with. You can say its dying and past its prime but even if it falls to 2 million subscribers, it will have more players than most other games could even dream of. I dont see it closing shop for another 10 years as it is a great place for those new to the MMO genre.
"Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game." - SEANMCAD
I just picked this game back up this month because my 10 year old wanted to try an MMO and I felt this would be a good experience for him and allow us to play together in a relatively safe environment. We picked the Garona server since it was listed as only "MED" in population. I can honestly tell you there are people all over the place and everyday we have to fight someone for mobs to finish a quest or wait in a line of 2 to 4 others to get to a quest boss and this has been happening from level 1 to 60.
5.6 million is still a lot of players to deal with. You can say its dying and past its prime but even if it falls to 2 million subscribers, it will have more players than most other games could even dream of. I dont see it closing shop for another 10 years as it is a great place for those new to the MMO genre.
Your son - and you if you have never played - is absolutely the type of person Blizzard wants to attract: a new player.
WoW is an "excellent" game and in the course of 10 years a lot of "solid" content has been produced. And Activision Blizard are seeking to maximise their return on this investment - as they said in the results conference call they are looking to the movie to bring in new players.
And for new player the levelling should prove enjoyable. Maybe you will get bored at some point but probably not before you are 100 since levelling these days is very fast. (By this month did you mean August and you are already talking about level 60 content on the 6th?)
However the flip side is that - in looking to maximise their return on investment they have "scaled back" their content production. There was no new content for c. 14 months prior to the latest expansion. The content provided by latest expansion was "over all to soon" and maybe 25% of previous expansions and subsequently they have released only 1 "content" patch. Which has upset many, many people with how monotonous it is. And - understandably - this has upset people who have played "a long time".
And as a result subs are dropping. 5.6M at the end of June. Predictions of under 4M at the end of Sept. Lower still at the end of the year. With cross-server technology though you will / should see people - at least until you get to 100 when the game now "encourages" people to just sit in their garrisons. If you did indeed start this month that should be pretty soon; a bit longer if you started in July.
At that point it would be interesting to hear what you think. Is WoW still a "long term" mmo or has it simply become a "pseudo-b2p" game? Buy, level to 100 in under a month, maybe play another month, leave.
As I said you represent exactly the customer Blizzard want to attract: a new customer. They probably hoped to keep "more" of their old subscribers - like the ones who stuck around for 14 months when no content was released, despite them paying a subscription.
Originally posted by Bentusi What amazes me is that 5,6 million people are still playing it. Then again I guess this is Blizzard counting all the gold sellers and Chinese farmers twice to make themselves look good as usual.
Why would you give a fuck who is still playing it, fact is wow isn't going anywhere soon.
By the end of the year i bet the figures would of gone up . Blizzard known the winning formula and no amount of bitter ex players can change that.
Blame the other mmo devs for not being able to up there game and bring anything new to the table these past eleven year.
The "winning formula" is a trainwreck of an expansion causing half of the playerbase to drop out in just 7-8 months?
Imo, it boils down to several issues, and it's not just about the terrible garrisons (which actually could have been great with a few changes). Sending followers out on missions is micromanagement we didn't need, and I can't understand why the hell they made another such system in 6.2...
No flying mounts in Draenor is a huge issue for a lot of players, including myself. Yeah, I know they're "fixing" this, but I'm not going to grind a gazillion mobs to get the required rep for it, so the "fix" means nothing to me.
Tanaan is just a bad version of Timeless Isle. It's butt ugly and worse to navigate.
Weird stuff that doesn't make sense. For example, having to do Training Grounds, Silver, to do heroics, but for raids you just gear up and join. Another one is having to grind a certain type of mobs, to trigger the garrison invasions you need/want. Just a couple examples, could easily make a long list.
Pokemon garbage. Started before WoD, though. Really wish they stopped wasting resources on this!
If you're going for the achievements, you need to either have a few alts, or tear down garrison buildings and replace them, since a lot of achs are tied to specific buildings. One of the worst things about garrisons, imo.
Grind, grind, grind... The heavily extended apexis stuff in 6.2 made this far, far worse.
Etc.
WoD was a great experience when leveling, but it's terrible at top level. The new expansion needs to be great, and it needs to come ASAP, or there's no telling how far the numbers will drop.
TLDR but of course I care about a game that I have never played just because I posted on a thread about it. lmao
Maybe you don't. Wouldn't surprise me if you did it just to boost your posts count. That would explain a few things.
Blame the other mmo devs for not being able to up there game and bring anything new to the table these past eleven year.
So what did WoW invent the past eleven years, what content did they not 'borrow' from other games, when did WoW put something new in the game that none other game/program has done before?
Btw: phasing, quests, dungeons, pvp, raids, tamagotchi fights, selfies, garrisons+followers are ALL content taken from other media+games.
The fact that they dropped 50% is a sign that Blizzard is on the wrong track my friend. And sorry for not having pink glasses as WoW is concerned, you can rant on every non WoW fanboy out there but they are right when they say -50% is a bad thing.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
People nothing lasts forever, from now on, just expect some spike in subs after a new expansion followed by a faster decline of the same subs.
I still believe there will be a point in the future when WoW will lose the #1 position subscription MMO and Lineage 1 will assume this spot.
Interesting that you chose to start off by saying nothing last forever then you pick a much older game to surpass WoW.
L1 has a stable population over 15+ years, and its revenue actually increased compared to the same period of 2014, it made 85 billion korean won in 2Q 15 against 56 billion KRW in 2Q 14. It doesn't have a spike due to an update followed by a 50% (and increasing year after year) drop in subs in 6 months.
L1 has a stable population over 15+ years, and its revenue actually increased compared to the same period of 2014, it made 85 billion korean won in 2Q 15 against 56 billion KRW in 2Q 14. It doesn't have a spike due to an update followed by a 50% (and increasing year after year) drop in subs in 6 months.
If this rate continues, and the drop in subs after a spike increases each new expasion, there will be a point that WoW will have less subs than L1.
This is actually a very serious point.
85 billion KRW using the current googled exchange rate: $73M.
Blizzard in their SEC filing reported that WoW made $154M with negative $67M deferred. There will be a reason for the deferred revenue and it will probably mean that next quarter's WoW earnings will be terrible. Combine the two and you get $97M net.
Remember their are different ways that companies can - and do - report their earnings but $73M and stable vs. $97M and falling ... next quarter could make for interesting comparisions.
Imo, it boils down to several issues, and it's not just about the terrible garrisons (which actually could have been great with a few changes). Sending followers out on missions is micromanagement we didn't need, and I can't understand why the hell they made another such system in 6.2...
No flying mounts in Draenor is a huge issue for a lot of players, including myself. Yeah, I know they're "fixing" this, but I'm not going to grind a gazillion mobs to get the required rep for it, so the "fix" means nothing to me.
Tanaan is just a bad version of Timeless Isle. It's butt ugly and worse to navigate.
Weird stuff that doesn't make sense. For example, having to do Training Grounds, Silver, to do heroics, but for raids you just gear up and join. Another one is having to grind a certain type of mobs, to trigger the garrison invasions you need/want. Just a couple examples, could easily make a long list.
Pokemon garbage. Started before WoD, though. Really wish they stopped wasting resources on this!
If you're going for the achievements, you need to either have a few alts, or tear down garrison buildings and replace them, since a lot of achs are tied to specific buildings. One of the worst things about garrisons, imo.
Grind, grind, grind... The heavily extended apexis stuff in 6.2 made this far, far worse.
Etc.
WoD was a great experience when leveling, but it's terrible at top level. The new expansion needs to be great, and it needs to come ASAP, or there's no telling how far the numbers will drop.
TLDR but of course I care about a game that I have never played just because I posted on a thread about it. lmao
Obviously you do, perhaps if you actually had something constructive to say you might come across better.
"Wow is old and outdated so who cares" how long did it take you to think that inspirational line up lol.
You aint seen nothing yet. Cant wait to see the next report.
Not good news for Blizzard but I fear the latest expansion were botched, garrisons and shipyards really isn't good MMO features.
Actually they are. Just not how it was implemented in WoW. Like so many other interesting stuff its fire & forget, just like items for stats already been marked as useless on release by the next unannounced add-on. So why bother?
WoW removes more then 100,000+ users that are cheating in first quarter of 2015. All users have a (6) six month account banned for using known third party programs on a (PVP) server. All users can come back afterwords.
WoW comes into its final years and tries to save itself. Projected fall of WoW by 2021.
Activision Blizzard Networth at: US$18.9 billion
Warlords of Draenor - fails 1.5 million users, walk away disappointed of expansion.
WoW expansion Legion release in 2016 is the hope of bring back its numbers and offers a gold mine of new updates unlike any from the past.
WoW losing 44 percent of its active player base in six months and 18 percent from its MoP low a year ago is news. The last time WoW had this few players was before the release of AQ. You'll take longer to fall from a eightieth-floor window than a eighth-floor window, but you're dead either way. WoD was heavily touted by fans as the expansion where Blizzard finally "got it" and stopped the bleeding that has been going on since the end of WotLK. Instead, it seems to have made Blizzard look more out of touch than ever.
The movie may bring some players back for awhile out of nostalgia -- as long as it itself doesn't trample all over lore as the players have known it -- but it's hard to say for how long. Incidentally, I personally think the right thing to do at this point is to give long-time WarCraft fans some closure. Let us fight Sargeras and put an end to the era. For the million or so folks that want to stick around, they can explore -- without flying mounts -- the old gods and time travel and heroes turning into villains all they want for as long as Blizzard is willing to keep the servers open.
L1 has a stable population over 15+ years, and its revenue actually increased compared to the same period of 2014, it made 85 billion korean won in 2Q 15 against 56 billion KRW in 2Q 14. It doesn't have a spike due to an update followed by a 50% (and increasing year after year) drop in subs in 6 months.
If this rate continues, and the drop in subs after a spike increases each new expasion, there will be a point that WoW will have less subs than L1.
This is actually a very serious point.
85 billion KRW using the current googled exchange rate: $73M.
Blizzard in their SEC filing reported that WoW made $154M with negative $67M deferred. There will be a reason for the deferred revenue and it will probably mean that next quarter's WoW earnings will be terrible. Combine the two and you get $97M net.
Remember their are different ways that companies can - and do - report their earnings but $73M and stable vs. $97M and falling ... next quarter could make for interesting comparisions.
You don't know how accounting works then. Deferred income is a liability as it refers to revenue which hasn't been earned yet. For example if you paid blizzard a 3 month sub and only 1month of that falls within this accounting period, the other 2 months will be deferred as the service has technically still not been provided.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
L1 has a stable population over 15+ years, and its revenue actually increased compared to the same period of 2014, it made 85 billion korean won in 2Q 15 against 56 billion KRW in 2Q 14. It doesn't have a spike due to an update followed by a 50% (and increasing year after year) drop in subs in 6 months.
If this rate continues, and the drop in subs after a spike increases each new expasion, there will be a point that WoW will have less subs than L1.
This is actually a very serious point.
85 billion KRW using the current googled exchange rate: $73M.
Blizzard in their SEC filing reported that WoW made $154M with negative $67M deferred. There will be a reason for the deferred revenue and it will probably mean that next quarter's WoW earnings will be terrible. Combine the two and you get $97M net.
Remember their are different ways that companies can - and do - report their earnings but $73M and stable vs. $97M and falling ... next quarter could make for interesting comparisions.
You don't know how accounting works then. Deferred income is a liability as it refers to revenue which hasn't been earned yet. For example if you paid blizzard a 3 month sub and only 1month of that falls within this accounting period, the other 2 months will be deferred as the service has technically still not been provided.
I know how deferred income works. Indeed the example you gave is very much like one I posted myself earlier. Your example of 2 months deferred would generate a deferred income of "$30". Money that Blizzard has been paid for a service they have not yet provided. To get technical it is a receivables account.
What is different here is that the SEC filing has a NEGATIVE deferred value.
A negative value would ordinarily come about if a customer has overpaid or has had a credit applied to the account.
What I think has happened is that Blizzard has booked the money earned from selling tokens and providing the service of plcing the token on the AH but - because it has not yet provided the service of 30 days play indirectly sold to people who have bought the tokens on the AH.
And they did introduce some restrictions several days ago -how many tokens could be held etc.
If you have a different interpretation of the negative deferred income though please share. A token is a - sort of - credit when applied and maybe it is down to what they have done this quarter.
Negative deferred revenue here refers to a reduction in deferred revenue, not the actual balance in the deferred revenue account. Because the business model of companies like EA and Activision involves a lot of deferred revenue, it can make sense to separately acknowledge it when talking about revenues and net income. The reason being is that the effect on the income statement of poor "sales" may be delayed when those transactions are booked as deferred revenue.
I give you $100 during Q1 to mow my lawn next quarter. Because you won't mow my lawn until Q2, you book the $100 as deferred revenue. During Q2 you mow the lawn and the deferred revenue is now earned; you recognize $100 of revenue in Q2. However, you did a shitty job, so I decided I won't pay you to mow my lawn again. Your deferred revenues for the quarter are "negative $100" (as far as the way the term is being used by Activision). Just looking at the income statement, it looks like you had a good quarter. You made $100, after all. In reality, though, you screwed up and will pay for it with a big fat zero next quarter.
blizzard has been taking in at least 5 million subs for 10 years
if they dont have a back up mmo waiting in he wings ready to go for when world of warcraft drops to less than 1 million players they are fools
just imagine if next week they released a new mmo
not only would 90% of current players play the new game but 90% of every one who left wow
by keeping wow they are probably loosing out to a 30 million player base game
if you think wow is big the next blizzard mmo good or bad will be the biggest ever even if its only semi good almost every mmo player past present and future will buy it
Comments
You read, and you posted. I'd say YOU care.
OT:
Not surprised, my guess was a drop to around 5M.
Imo, it boils down to several issues, and it's not just about the terrible garrisons (which actually could have been great with a few changes). Sending followers out on missions is micromanagement we didn't need, and I can't understand why the hell they made another such system in 6.2...
No flying mounts in Draenor is a huge issue for a lot of players, including myself. Yeah, I know they're "fixing" this, but I'm not going to grind a gazillion mobs to get the required rep for it, so the "fix" means nothing to me.
Tanaan is just a bad version of Timeless Isle. It's butt ugly and worse to navigate.
Weird stuff that doesn't make sense. For example, having to do Training Grounds, Silver, to do heroics, but for raids you just gear up and join. Another one is having to grind a certain type of mobs, to trigger the garrison invasions you need/want. Just a couple examples, could easily make a long list.
Pokemon garbage. Started before WoD, though. Really wish they stopped wasting resources on this!
If you're going for the achievements, you need to either have a few alts, or tear down garrison buildings and replace them, since a lot of achs are tied to specific buildings. One of the worst things about garrisons, imo.
Grind, grind, grind... The heavily extended apexis stuff in 6.2 made this far, far worse.
Etc.
WoD was a great experience when leveling, but it's terrible at top level. The new expansion needs to be great, and it needs to come ASAP, or there's no telling how far the numbers will drop.
Why would you give a fuck who is still playing it, fact is wow isn't going anywhere soon.
By the end of the year i bet the figures would of gone up . Blizzard known the winning formula and no amount of bitter ex players can change that.
Blame the other mmo devs for not being able to up there game and bring anything new to the table these past eleven year.
one has to keep in mind it's a 10 year old game by now.
imo 5.6 subs after 10 years is still quite impressive (and yes, i am among those, even tho i dont play alot atm)
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
TLDR but of course I care about a game that I have never played just because I posted on a thread about it. lmao
Obviously you do, perhaps if you actually had something constructive to say you might come across better.
"Wow is old and outdated so who cares" how long did it take you to think that inspirational line up lol.
i will likely never play wow again unless they really do something special with a new expansion. it's not because it's a terrible game, it's just that i have over 250 days played in that game.
i can't bare the thought of playing it any more, it's just been around too long and i have spent too much time playing it.
i suspect i am not the only one that feels this way, which is why losing subs is inevitable after 10 years if they don't bring in many new players.
I just picked this game back up this month because my 10 year old wanted to try an MMO and I felt this would be a good experience for him and allow us to play together in a relatively safe environment. We picked the Garona server since it was listed as only "MED" in population. I can honestly tell you there are people all over the place and everyday we have to fight someone for mobs to finish a quest or wait in a line of 2 to 4 others to get to a quest boss and this has been happening from level 1 to 60.
5.6 million is still a lot of players to deal with. You can say its dying and past its prime but even if it falls to 2 million subscribers, it will have more players than most other games could even dream of. I dont see it closing shop for another 10 years as it is a great place for those new to the MMO genre.
Your son - and you if you have never played - is absolutely the type of person Blizzard wants to attract: a new player.
WoW is an "excellent" game and in the course of 10 years a lot of "solid" content has been produced. And Activision Blizard are seeking to maximise their return on this investment - as they said in the results conference call they are looking to the movie to bring in new players.
And for new player the levelling should prove enjoyable. Maybe you will get bored at some point but probably not before you are 100 since levelling these days is very fast. (By this month did you mean August and you are already talking about level 60 content on the 6th?)
However the flip side is that - in looking to maximise their return on investment they have "scaled back" their content production. There was no new content for c. 14 months prior to the latest expansion. The content provided by latest expansion was "over all to soon" and maybe 25% of previous expansions and subsequently they have released only 1 "content" patch. Which has upset many, many people with how monotonous it is. And - understandably - this has upset people who have played "a long time".
And as a result subs are dropping. 5.6M at the end of June. Predictions of under 4M at the end of Sept. Lower still at the end of the year. With cross-server technology though you will / should see people - at least until you get to 100 when the game now "encourages" people to just sit in their garrisons. If you did indeed start this month that should be pretty soon; a bit longer if you started in July.
At that point it would be interesting to hear what you think. Is WoW still a "long term" mmo or has it simply become a "pseudo-b2p" game? Buy, level to 100 in under a month, maybe play another month, leave.
As I said you represent exactly the customer Blizzard want to attract: a new customer. They probably hoped to keep "more" of their old subscribers - like the ones who stuck around for 14 months when no content was released, despite them paying a subscription.
The "winning formula" is a trainwreck of an expansion causing half of the playerbase to drop out in just 7-8 months?
Ok...
Maybe you don't. Wouldn't surprise me if you did it just to boost your posts count. That would explain a few things.
So what did WoW invent the past eleven years, what content did they not 'borrow' from other games, when did WoW put something new in the game that none other game/program has done before?
Btw: phasing, quests, dungeons, pvp, raids, tamagotchi fights, selfies, garrisons+followers are ALL content taken from other media+games.
The fact that they dropped 50% is a sign that Blizzard is on the wrong track my friend. And sorry for not having pink glasses as WoW is concerned, you can rant on every non WoW fanboy out there but they are right when they say -50% is a bad thing.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
People nothing lasts forever, from now on, just expect some spike in subs after a new expansion followed by a faster decline of the same subs.
I still believe there will be a point in the future when WoW will lose the #1 position subscription MMO and Lineage 1 will assume this spot.
Interesting that you chose to start off by saying nothing last forever then you pick a much older game to surpass WoW.
L1 has a stable population over 15+ years, and its revenue actually increased compared to the same period of 2014, it made 85 billion korean won in 2Q 15 against 56 billion KRW in 2Q 14. It doesn't have a spike due to an update followed by a 50% (and increasing year after year) drop in subs in 6 months.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/437546/page/1
If this rate continues, and the drop in subs after a spike increases each new expasion, there will be a point that WoW will have less subs than L1.
This is actually a very serious point.
85 billion KRW using the current googled exchange rate: $73M.
Blizzard in their SEC filing reported that WoW made $154M with negative $67M deferred. There will be a reason for the deferred revenue and it will probably mean that next quarter's WoW earnings will be terrible. Combine the two and you get $97M net.
Remember their are different ways that companies can - and do - report their earnings but $73M and stable vs. $97M and falling ... next quarter could make for interesting comparisions.
You aint seen nothing yet. Cant wait to see the next report.
I can see that happening sooner then later.
And then what?
Actually they are. Just not how it was implemented in WoW. Like so many other interesting stuff its fire & forget, just like items for stats already been marked as useless on release by the next unannounced add-on. So why bother?
WoW removes more then 100,000+ users that are cheating in first quarter of 2015. All users have a (6) six month account banned for using known third party programs on a (PVP) server. All users can come back afterwords.
WoW comes into its final years and tries to save itself. Projected fall of WoW by 2021.
Activision Blizzard Networth at: US$18.9 billion
Warlords of Draenor - fails 1.5 million users, walk away disappointed of expansion.
WoW expansion Legion release in 2016 is the hope of bring back its numbers and offers a gold mine of new updates unlike any from the past.
WoW losing 44 percent of its active player base in six months and 18 percent from its MoP low a year ago is news. The last time WoW had this few players was before the release of AQ. You'll take longer to fall from a eightieth-floor window than a eighth-floor window, but you're dead either way. WoD was heavily touted by fans as the expansion where Blizzard finally "got it" and stopped the bleeding that has been going on since the end of WotLK. Instead, it seems to have made Blizzard look more out of touch than ever.
The movie may bring some players back for awhile out of nostalgia -- as long as it itself doesn't trample all over lore as the players have known it -- but it's hard to say for how long. Incidentally, I personally think the right thing to do at this point is to give long-time WarCraft fans some closure. Let us fight Sargeras and put an end to the era. For the million or so folks that want to stick around, they can explore -- without flying mounts -- the old gods and time travel and heroes turning into villains all they want for as long as Blizzard is willing to keep the servers open.
You don't know how accounting works then. Deferred income is a liability as it refers to revenue which hasn't been earned yet. For example if you paid blizzard a 3 month sub and only 1month of that falls within this accounting period, the other 2 months will be deferred as the service has technically still not been provided.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
I know how deferred income works. Indeed the example you gave is very much like one I posted myself earlier. Your example of 2 months deferred would generate a deferred income of "$30". Money that Blizzard has been paid for a service they have not yet provided. To get technical it is a receivables account.
What is different here is that the SEC filing has a NEGATIVE deferred value.
A negative value would ordinarily come about if a customer has overpaid or has had a credit applied to the account.
What I think has happened is that Blizzard has booked the money earned from selling tokens and providing the service of plcing the token on the AH but - because it has not yet provided the service of 30 days play indirectly sold to people who have bought the tokens on the AH.
And they did introduce some restrictions several days ago -how many tokens could be held etc.
If you have a different interpretation of the negative deferred income though please share. A token is a - sort of - credit when applied and maybe it is down to what they have done this quarter.
Negative deferred revenue here refers to a reduction in deferred revenue, not the actual balance in the deferred revenue account. Because the business model of companies like EA and Activision involves a lot of deferred revenue, it can make sense to separately acknowledge it when talking about revenues and net income. The reason being is that the effect on the income statement of poor "sales" may be delayed when those transactions are booked as deferred revenue.
I give you $100 during Q1 to mow my lawn next quarter. Because you won't mow my lawn until Q2, you book the $100 as deferred revenue. During Q2 you mow the lawn and the deferred revenue is now earned; you recognize $100 of revenue in Q2. However, you did a shitty job, so I decided I won't pay you to mow my lawn again. Your deferred revenues for the quarter are "negative $100" (as far as the way the term is being used by Activision). Just looking at the income statement, it looks like you had a good quarter. You made $100, after all. In reality, though, you screwed up and will pay for it with a big fat zero next quarter.
blizzard has been taking in at least 5 million subs for 10 years
if they dont have a back up mmo waiting in he wings ready to go for when world of warcraft drops to less than 1 million players they are fools
just imagine if next week they released a new mmo
not only would 90% of current players play the new game but 90% of every one who left wow
by keeping wow they are probably loosing out to a 30 million player base game
if you think wow is big the next blizzard mmo good or bad will be the biggest ever even if its only semi good almost every mmo player past present and future will buy it