If Classic WOW is a huge success how does that effect Retail and future expansions ?

JeffSpicoli

 Lets just say Classic is a huge success, I'm not talking about initial success, we know thats a given. I am talking what if 9 -12 months after Classic launches a overwhelming amount of people are playing Classic over Retail. Blizzard Subs are going up in droves and WOW is seeing growth that it hasn't seen in years.

   Hypothetically  if this was to happen do you think Blizzard begins to rethink the future direction of WOW and makes retail more classic like ? Does Blizzard build upon Classic and if so in what way ? Or does Blizzard do what Blizzard does best and just plow straight ahead with their own plan giving us more of the same  ?

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JeffSpicoli

wargfoot said:

Is there a reason why there cannot be two successful versions of the game?
Why would there be a need to draw players from classic back into the standard game?

a overwhelming amount of people are playing Classic over Retail.


Thats the line you missed in my post. Im not trying to trash retail so if your a fan please don't get offended, for the sake of conversation/debate please reread my post . The question I'm really asking is if Classic is a overwhelming success and is bringing in a tremendous amount of growth how does this effect WOW.

   The debate or question is not why cant both be successful , that may very well happen. The question is, WHAT IF classic is overwhelmingly more popular.

BadSpock

Blizzard is making enough money off of Overwatch and Hearthstone to really not give too many shits if WoW strives or stifles.

Also, especially if they announce some kind of new Diablo game tomorrow (fingers crossed!)

Classic is a "meh, why not?" kind of thing. Throw a relatively small team together, do something interesting to generate good PR and make some fans happy.

They also still made their development costs back and then some with the way BfA sold (I'm guessing anyway), doesn't really matter how many subs they maintain.

The success or failure of Classic does not matter at all: not in the future direction of WoW, nor in the future direction Blizzard.

SBFord

They have two development teams. It won't affect live at all. 

Huge success includes two different groups of people: Those who love the old time experience and those who love the current experience.

My prediction is that if "huge numbers" play Classic, they will move to progression servers or "frozen in time" servers.

Classic is the perfect thing to do during live slow times. Get bored with live or too long between patches? Go play Classic for awhile. Bounce back to live when new content or big patches arrive. Rinse, repeat, profit.

They have a vested interest in full teams working on both.

starstorm777

I've been playing the "Starter Edition" for over 20 hours straight almost and only encountered ONE player besides my boyfriend, is there a limit of players for starter editions or something? I'm on server Sisters of Elune, yes it's an RP server, but STILL, to see ghost towns everywhere is sad. I'm a vet of the game but left for a few years and was thinking of coming back and purchasing the complete edition with a new account and starting over, but not sure if I should now. I don't want to get on a server either where there is no population and no economy on the marketplace. Any ideas what's going on or suggestions?!

JeffSpicoli

BadSpock said:

Blizzard is making enough money off of Overwatch and Hearthstone to really not give too many shits if WoW strives or stifles.

Also, especially if they announce some kind of new Diablo game tomorrow (fingers crossed!)

Classic is a "meh, why not?" kind of thing. Throw a relatively small team together, do something interesting to generate good PR and make some fans happy.

They also still made their development costs back and then some with the way BfA sold (I'm guessing anyway), doesn't really matter how many subs they maintain.

The success or failure of Classic does not matter at all: not in the future direction of WoW, nor in the future direction Blizzard.

Interesting take, Thats a shame.

cheyane

If classic is insanely popular it isn't really going to change their philosophy as far as current retail goes as they do have a steady population supporting it and dead end content meaning no more content for the classic isn't costing them much.

The expansions for current content allows them more opportunity  to make money however based on merchandise and new story and concept. Classic is already set in stone and it won't change. Like someone already pointed out they may consider making  expansion based servers with no ability to get new content. It's a no brainer for them if indeed classic becomes that popular.

Since there is no longer a private server PvE version of WoW any more, classic is something I am looking forward to.

SBFord

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

SBFord said:

They have two development teams. It won't affect live at all. 

Huge success includes two different groups of people: Those who love the old time experience and those who love the current experience.

My prediction is that if "huge numbers" play Classic, they will move to progression servers or "frozen in time" servers.

Classic is the perfect thing to do during live slow times. Get bored with live or too long between patches? Go play Classic for awhile. Bounce back to live when new content or big patches arrive. Rinse, repeat, profit.

They have a vested interest in full teams working on both.

@SBFord would we get enough player to make a WoW Classic MMORPG.COM guild ?

Could be fun...

I'm sure we would.

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KalebGrayson

Can you imagine a Wrath of the Lich King Frozen Server?  OMG!  I could have my beloved Unholy Tanking Death Knight back.  I wonder if I'd get tired of it after awhile?  Not playing the DK, but maybe run out of things to do. 

Theocritus

Most likely 2 entirely different crowds.

Rnjypsy

wargfoot said:

Is there a reason why there cannot be two successful versions of the game?
Why would there be a need to draw players from classic back into the standard game?

I agree.  I think that WoW Classic will, at least initially, be a huge success for those awaiting it's launch.  There are many though who have little to no interest in WoW classic, even some of us who played it.  I know it's difficult to believe but, it's true :P  I think there is room for both WoW Classic and Retail as long as Blizzard markets with the long haul in mind and not a flash in the pan marketing strategy.

Gutlard

IF Classic WAI and isn't bastardized into something evil, and is hugely successful, I hope it will show them that us players DO know what we want.

I hope it would change the Dev's perspective into considering a wider audience range into their design choices, and make them spend more time on their future systems/mechanics by adding more depths for a wider playerbase to enjoy.

Gut Out!

danwest58

Classic will be more successful for 1 to 2 years after it releases.   It will prove that MMORPGS need to be time sinks that dont hand people shit.  We already know that casual MMORPGS dont work, yea 1 or 2 in the genera work but not then entire genera.   

The question is how long will classic work for, will Blizzard push it into TBC?   Will players leave Classic to go to games like Ashes of Creation, CU, and Pantheon?   If Any of these games or most of these games keeps a Million + Subscription population in their game for a year or more it will change the MMORPG genera as a whole.  It will push for fewer MMORPGS but more innovation AND time sinks.   Not the Fast Food game play that is today's MMORPGS.   

So lets draw this out.  2020 - 2021

Ashes Of Creation  - 3 to 5 Million Subs year round
CU - 1 to 3 Million subs year round
Pantheon - 2 to 3 Million subs year round
Classic WOW\TBC WOW - 5 Million+ Subs year round

Year round means that most players have a Subscription for 8 to 12 months a year not the current 1 to 2 months unsub until the next content patch which happens in most MMORPGS right now.  

What do you think this will prove to the MMORPG genera as a whole when you see retail WOW under 2 million subs and up to 50% lost in subs between patches.   SWTOR under 400K Subs.  ESO Subs 1 Million or less.   G2W game play way down and fewer and fewer players playing content.   

This would push MMORPGs into a more of a old school mind set and publishers will accept that they cannot cater to the 1 or 2 hour a week players because the real MMORPG players like myself are were the money is.  Not in the single player type player.   These players would be better in a LOL or HOTS.  

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KalebGrayson

Yeah, those projected sub numbers seem WAY to high.

Coolit

One things for sure its going to be interesting to see how things develop once Classic launches.

Several of my fiends are not interested in classic because they see it as a dead end if Bliz don't add content, however if there is an option similar to Oldschool Runescape with community content voting and progression past the original game version I think its appeal would be ten fold and may echo Runescape where 90% of the population play Oldschool over Runescape 3.

I'm fairly confidant its going to be a success however time will tell how much of a success its going to be.

Gutlard

If at it's peak WoW had 12M subscribers, and we can only guess where they are now, where did all those MMORPG players go?

If WoW's current sub's are even half what they used to be at peak, that's still 6M players up in smoke.

Gut Out!

Powermike

I can see that happening. But I also see an obstacle: WoW nowadays is about fast money with less effort. I'm a vanilla player thinking about returning to classic. But quite probably I won't pay the full sub price, because it's a game that I have played in the past. Blizzard would have to realize that and invest in creating a larger player base. I doubt they'd do that.

Machkeznho

I can foresee retail becoming the casual version and classic perhaps post BC expansion being polished and developed independently to maintain the hardcore nature of the game maybe a different timeline and series of events and different direction of the two games but thats wishful thinking and blizz has become lazy if the new allied races are any indication.

btdt

Well the forums are all lit up about the sharding/phasing.... the very essence of vanilla is that you are on your own unique server... the whole concept of putting players from other realms together with your own is completely opposite of what vanilla is.  

In vanilla you knew who the good players were, the asshats, the realm firsts, the best guilds, the best crafters, the best duelers, pvpers...  All that goes out the window once you are on a shard or phased.  It's retail all over again just with an older story.

PEOPLE DON'T FUCKING WANT RETAIL.

Subscriptions are going to take a nose dive now... the future isn't what people thought it was going to be... now it's private servers or nothing.

missegan24

Coming from Lightshope private server here..

Theres an entire community of people who literally live for Vanilla WoW. They never get tired of it. Once everyone reaches max level and gear cap, they literally REMAKE the server and everyone starts over again. Because thats how much they love it. Masochists if you ask me. But I really do love Vanilla too. I still play retail on a regular basis I enjoy it. 

But to add into the discussion, I really dont think Classic WoW will eat into the population of retail. That community I spoke of will all move to Blizzards Classic server so now they wont have to deal with bugs and server downtime. At least not at the rate in which private servers are run. No chance of character wipes, much less chance of server crash mid raid boss. Stuff like that. 

Blizzard is capitalizing on this community of masochists. Instead of them playing on their private servers, theyre going to be paying $15 a month to play on Blizzards. And theyre never going to go anywhere. Theres a few seriously successful private servers out there. I would imagine around 20k-30k people that will remain subbed just to play Classic. 

Sure some retail crowd will come over for nostalgia purposes, but the long term success rate of Classic is going to be determined by the long time die hard community. I will be one of them. 

laserit

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

I played the demo and I loved it.

I will definitely be there at launch of Classic.

And this is priceless...

I'm looking forward to loving my Shaman again

delete5230

thunderC said:

 Lets just say Classic is a huge success, I'm not talking about initial success, we know thats a given. I am talking what if 9 -12 months after Classic launches a overwhelming amount of people are playing Classic over Retail. Blizzard Subs are going up in droves and WOW is seeing growth that it hasn't seen in years.

   Hypothetically  if this was to happen do you think Blizzard begins to rethink the future direction of WOW and makes retail more classic like ? Does Blizzard build upon Classic and if so in what way ? Or does Blizzard do what Blizzard does best and just plow straight ahead with their own plan giving us more of the same  ?

I feel their at the point, they should start all over with WoW 2.  
I don't think the current version could run the gambit anymore.  

The question is:
Will World of Warcraft 2 be a children's squishy game like the current.  I hope classic Vanilla will open their eyes.

Scorchien

parrotpholk said:

BadSpock said:

Blizzard is making enough money off of Overwatch and Hearthstone to really not give too many shits if WoW strives or stifles.

Also, especially if they announce some kind of new Diablo game tomorrow (fingers crossed!)

Classic is a "meh, why not?" kind of thing. Throw a relatively small team together, do something interesting to generate good PR and make some fans happy.

They also still made their development costs back and then some with the way BfA sold (I'm guessing anyway), doesn't really matter how many subs they maintain.

The success or failure of Classic does not matter at all: not in the future direction of WoW, nor in the future direction Blizzard.

Yes a company cares not for 100+ million a year in revenue.  This is one of the more brain numbing posts I have ever read here.  

Well i wont say they dont care .. They do .. But Wow is most ceratainly not Blizzs focus any longer ,and Classic will have an intial surge , and then many will return to there mains servers ,and it will settle into a respectable pop and spot ..