I seriously doubt wow hit 8 million subscribers more like 8 million accounts ever made acctive and non active. The reasons EVE won is because the community really cares aobut the game and cam out to vote in masses because they loved it soo much *yes im a fanboy *.
Well 8 million is actually a November and before number, it actually is more likely a Q3 2006 number. They havent reported thier December/January numbers yet. Considering Xmas I would say it would go up and not down. Then start adding to the Xmas number the new expansion volume and you are talking about some serious subscriber numbers being released Q1 from Blizzard, you can bet on it. Almost every MMO sees spikes in customers purchases during Xmas and new expansions, why would that be different for Blizzard.
Blizzard has released 6months ago they passed 2 million in North America, and in November they reported 2.5million in North America with active subscriptions.
Everyone has been saying Blizzard subscriber numbers are on the decline, all the way up until another official press release, then all of a sudden the numbers go up again. One good indicator to tell if a game is gaining or losing customers, is to see if they are adding more servers. Guess what, Blizzard has been adding new servers.
Actually, blizzard doesnt have 8 million subscribers PERIOD!
Blizzard has between 2 and 3 million subscribers for WOW (IF they are honest which i sure hope).
The rest are subscribers to "The9"s world of warcraft (world of warcraft in china, licensed ). At most the9 pointed out 5 million chinese players (NOT subscribers) of WOW.
The9 is a company that runs the servers and software, and are also running "MU" with 15 million players. The chinese model of "subscribers" doesnt exist as the chinese people dont buy the game, the expansion nor do they pay any monthly fee but per hour/day they play.
If you dont believe me, look it up.....
Oft.. Still with the 2 million NA and 1.5 EU subs is still a major success.
I seriously doubt wow hit 8 million subscribers more like 8 million accounts ever made acctive and non active. The reasons EVE won is because the community really cares aobut the game and cam out to vote in masses because they loved it soo much *yes im a fanboy *.
I doubt that is the reason it won..
I voted for EVE just to hope WOW wouldn't win.
And that's the truth.
And thats why the MMORPG awards are meaningless. Yes I play WOW and EVE, and enjoy them both.
Originally posted by Recant Arf. I get the feeling people don't care about what happens overseas, or that 'foreign' players somehow don't count... how modern. You haters in constant denial, should be proud of yourselves.... not.
China has a completely different culture when it comes to gaming, it's a far more public and social activitiy than here in Europe or over in the US. So while most Chinamen are paying to play the game per hour, the subscription figures take into account those Chinamen that have played within the last month. The 8 million figure is a very fair way of expressing how many people are actually PAYING to play this game.
Subscriber or pay-per-hour... whatever... semantics....
Just because it's a different method of payment, it doesn't make the 8 million figure a lie.
Now how about you haters come back with a reasonable argument? Oh right, there isn't one.
If you want to include the players in China use the term active accounts because these players do not have subscriptions and therefore are not subscribers. In addition, because they pay per hour and each account has daily limits on play time it's very common for each person to have multiple accounts and just switch to a differnt one when the first one times out.
Subscribers pay Blizzard $14 per month. The Asian accounts dont pay Blizzard a dime, they pay The9 less then 2 cents an hour to the tune of a ~$1 per month. The9 pays Blizzard a few million $ per year for the right distribute the game, manages the accounts, and bill the customers.
As for not caring about these players why should I? We dont speak a common language cant play on the same servers, have totally different cultural backgrounds and therefore totally different tastes. They are happy and good for them, but they have no more impact on me the millions of players in other Chinese MMOs.
Player population in North America now exceeds 2 million, while Europe and China pass the 1.5 million player and 3.5 million player marks, respectively"
From reading that, I have no idea how 2+3.5+1.5=8,,,,
It's not uncommon for one person in China or Korea to use up to a dozen accounts, easily. Instead of keeping all of their characters on one account, they make a seperate account for every alt because it makes more sense.
Player population in North America now exceeds 2 million, while Europe and China pass the 1.5 million player and 3.5 million player marks, respectively"
From reading that, I have no idea how 2+3.5+1.5=8,,,,
Anyhow it does say subscribers
LOL, good point...that is some interesting math..must be due to rounding up or something...
But, that said, I'm thinking, there is probably no law requiring them to be accurate with this figure. As long as they are straight on the financials, i.e. how much money they take in and pay out.... the number of subscribers is not a matter for concern.
Besides, bigger firms with more at stake have lied in the past, (Worldcom, Enron) so no reason to suppose this couldnt be the first big scandal in gaming
That said... I don't think they really have any reason to fudge this number....
And as was pointed out...servers keep filling up over capacity all over and they have to transfer folks off of them to balance the load.... I'd say they are gaining customers here in the US at the moment.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Telia is a Swedish company hosting blizzards european servers. Pls look things up before you say something like that. To prove that THE9 runs WOW in china...
And NO blizzard has NOT sold 8 million copies of WOW worldwide as the Chinese doesnt buy the game.
Its just a clever company statement with the 8 million players, WHICH if compared with other mmos in china isnt very much. Here is the quarterly reports of THE9 (a nasdaq company) as presented, can we please put this discussion to rest? http://www.corp.the9.com/IR/sub_5.htm
incredible.... you cannot even read your own links.
here, let me quote for you, FROM YOUR OWN LINK
"Subsequent to the quarter end with the launch of the seventh server site, we have achieved peak concurrent users of over 660,000 for the WoW game. As of September 30, 2006, over 5.9 million paid accounts have been activated."
5.9 millions account ACTIVATED, but wait, there is more. what is that little "2" there? let's go read the small print shall we?
"Activated paid accounts represent the number of CD Keys that we sold to customers and have been activated by customers to log-on to Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraftgame in China . "
so, they sold 5.9 millions account (since start of operations). they DO NOT HAVE AND NEVER CLAIMED TO HAVE 5.9 MILLIONS ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS
can now put this to rest?
as for maths, 1.5+2+3.5=7 millions. but hey, guess what? wow has been released also in Korea, Taiwan, Honk Kong, Australia, New Zealeand etc etc. last time i checked my atlas, "China" was part of Asia, not the whole deal. there is your "missing" million.
have a nice day.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
they also have htere own cenvention, what other game developers have that?
Sony for one. Never hear of Fan Faire? I believe that started the official gathers of the players. EQ also had a summit several times. Also Mythic followed suit with a round table event and I'm sure others do this as well. Welcome to 8 years ago. uhm, correct me if im wrong but. sony isnt a game developer they are a HUGE company making tv's, radio,s walkmans etc.
Sony Online Entertainment though, is game developers which is just a small part of sony that FAILS and cant deliver.
anyways, thats not the point. Blizzcon had 8000+ guests, they had FAMOUS bands playing at their convention and they had competition where you could win 10000 dollar and all that.
but as i said, i dont know much about the other cons like EQ's and such, but i do know they werent big since i barely heard of it.
Its a worldwide figure. The majority of players are in China and Korea. Hell, China even had to make a few new laws concerning WoW because of its popularity there.
I remember reading that the USA only had like 5% of the total game population.
I have played World Of Warcraft before, and eventually I learned to hate it. I strongly believe that this game is one of the few elite, but the community withing WoW was not suitable to keep me playing. The Game over all is well developed, and I can completley imagine that they can achieve 10 million ACTIVATED ACCOUNTS (Not ACTIVE ACCOUNTS), especially with TBC out now. The reason that I can see that people leave WoW is because they have a life to get on with outside of Computer Gaming. In this game, when you do end up reaching about level 15, (I have 2 60's I know xD) you become more than addicted to this game. I do think however the Community Support such as GM and Techies, frankly don't care. I know from reading around the big Gripe about botters. I have seen numerous botters, reported them only to get the standard "We are assessing this problem." And two weeks later see the same botter 20 levels higher running around. The fact that a majority of people who dont play WoW despise it, because frankly the people who DO play this game just troll the forums and other games talking about how it pales in comparison to WoW and that they are "Too poor to pay for $15.00 a month" When the subsrciption fees apply to nearly all MMORPGs. It isn't the fact that people don't Like the game, they don't like the community.
lol the wow haters just can't accept that the game is actually popular. People are allowed to like games even though you may not. Just stop flaming, sorry your game isn't as successful.
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.
Its not 8 million accounts created. its 8 million current subscribers.
Player population in North America now exceeds 2 million, while Europe and China pass the 1.5 million player and 3.5 million player marks, respectively"
From reading that, I have no idea how 2+3.5+1.5=8,,,,
Anyhow it does say subscribers
Read it again! I have highlighted the most important words for you....
now lets try more than 2 million + more than 1.5 million + more than 3.5 million = a potential +8,000,000
Player population in North America now exceeds 2 million, while Europe and China pass the 1.5 million player and 3.5 million player marks, respectively"
From reading that, I have no idea how 2+3.5+1.5=8,,,,
Anyhow it does say subscribers
Read it again! I have highlighted the most important words for you....
now lets try more than 2 million + more than 1.5 million + more than 3.5 million = a potential +8,000,000
it might mean Europe and China both passed 1.5, so then that would be 3 million?
Comments
I doubt that is the reason it won..
I voted for EVE just to hope WOW wouldn't win.
And that's the truth.
Well 8 million is actually a November and before number, it actually is more likely a Q3 2006 number. They havent reported thier December/January numbers yet. Considering Xmas I would say it would go up and not down. Then start adding to the Xmas number the new expansion volume and you are talking about some serious subscriber numbers being released Q1 from Blizzard, you can bet on it. Almost every MMO sees spikes in customers purchases during Xmas and new expansions, why would that be different for Blizzard.
Blizzard has released 6months ago they passed 2 million in North America, and in November they reported 2.5million in North America with active subscriptions.
Everyone has been saying Blizzard subscriber numbers are on the decline, all the way up until another official press release, then all of a sudden the numbers go up again. One good indicator to tell if a game is gaining or losing customers, is to see if they are adding more servers. Guess what, Blizzard has been adding new servers.
I doubt that is the reason it won..
I voted for EVE just to hope WOW wouldn't win.
And that's the truth.
And thats why the MMORPG awards are meaningless. Yes I play WOW and EVE, and enjoy them both.Sadly though the wrong crowd has joined in force.
*** edit more thoughts
If you want to include the players in China use the term active accounts because these players do not have subscriptions and therefore are not subscribers. In addition, because they pay per hour and each account has daily limits on play time it's very common for each person to have multiple accounts and just switch to a differnt one when the first one times out.
Subscribers pay Blizzard $14 per month. The Asian accounts dont pay Blizzard a dime, they pay The9 less then 2 cents an hour to the tune of a ~$1 per month. The9 pays Blizzard a few million $ per year for the right distribute the game, manages the accounts, and bill the customers.
As for not caring about these players why should I? We dont speak a common language cant play on the same servers, have totally different cultural backgrounds and therefore totally different tastes. They are happy and good for them, but they have no more impact on me the millions of players in other Chinese MMOs.
"WORLD OF WARCRAFT® SURPASSES 8 MILLION
SUBSCRIBERS WORLDWIDE
Player population in North America now exceeds 2 million, while Europe and China pass the 1.5 million player and 3.5 million player marks, respectively"
From reading that, I have no idea how 2+3.5+1.5=8,,,,
Anyhow it does say subscribers
LOL, good point...that is some interesting math..must be due to rounding up or something...
But, that said, I'm thinking, there is probably no law requiring them to be accurate with this figure. As long as they are straight on the financials, i.e. how much money they take in and pay out.... the number of subscribers is not a matter for concern.
Besides, bigger firms with more at stake have lied in the past, (Worldcom, Enron) so no reason to suppose this couldnt be the first big scandal in gaming
That said... I don't think they really have any reason to fudge this number....
And as was pointed out...servers keep filling up over capacity all over and they have to transfer folks off of them to balance the load.... I'd say they are gaining customers here in the US at the moment.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
incredible.... you cannot even read your own links.
here, let me quote for you, FROM YOUR OWN LINK
"Subsequent to the quarter end with the launch of the seventh server site, we have achieved peak concurrent users of over 660,000 for the WoW game. As of September 30, 2006, over 5.9 million paid accounts have been activated
."
5.9 millions account ACTIVATED, but wait, there is more. what is that little "2" there? let's go read the small print shall we?
"Activated paid accounts represent the number of CD Keys that we sold to customers and have been activated by customers to log-on to Blizzard Entertainment
's World of Warcraft
game in China . "
so, they sold 5.9 millions account (since start of operations). they DO NOT HAVE AND NEVER CLAIMED TO HAVE 5.9 MILLIONS ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS
can now put this to rest?
as for maths, 1.5+2+3.5=7 millions. but hey, guess what? wow has been released also in Korea, Taiwan, Honk Kong, Australia, New Zealeand etc etc. last time i checked my atlas, "China" was part of Asia, not the whole deal. there is your "missing" million.
have a nice day.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
Sony Online Entertainment though, is game developers which is just a small part of sony that FAILS and cant deliver.
anyways, thats not the point. Blizzcon had 8000+ guests, they had FAMOUS bands playing at their convention and they had competition where you could win 10000 dollar and all that.
but as i said, i dont know much about the other cons like EQ's and such, but i do know they werent big since i barely heard of it.
I remember reading that the USA only had like 5% of the total game population.
Kai
Here, I'll quote myself.
Peter Griffin:
"Oh yeah I read it in a book...."
Brian Griffin:
"Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't.....nothing?"
I.E. I don't think so, but sure!
now lets try more than 2 million + more than 1.5 million + more than 3.5 million = a potential +8,000,000
now lets try more than 2 million + more than 1.5 million + more than 3.5 million = a potential +8,000,000
it might mean Europe and China both passed 1.5, so then that would be 3 million?
so 2 + 3 + 3.5 = 8.5million players
i guess we'll never know