300k is a lot, but I agree they could have retained more of the playerbase if they'd released a more polished product. Though that's the way of MMOs.
Yes, 300k is a lot but that was over a month back. Nothing new, nothing exciting and no new content in all that time and nothing new planned either. Unless you count the "expansion" as something to draw people in with, yeah right.
A more current accurate estimate is probably around 100-150k subscribers and still dropping. Again, the 300k was more than a month ago and subscribers have gone massively down since.
No wonder now why most of all the servers feel dead.
I would have guesstimated a number near 250K so this probably isn't that far off. Not a roaring success, but certainly enough perhaps to keep the doors open.
It's kind of sad when you think about it. Warhammer from all the stuff I read on it. Is a very well liked IP, that if anything could have easily snagged 500k to 600k subs in just the US alone. 350k for US and EU combine is just really sad.
Before any of the fans start screaming off with his head. That's just my personal opinion on it. Mythic after what they did with DAOC + Warhammer IP. I sure enough thought it would be like A1 sauce on the most juicy steak ever. Instead I got a hamburger with ketchup. Not bad by any means, but not the mouth watering steak I was expecting.
I think of new MMORPG's and WAR especially as a brand new shiny sports car. It looks awesome in the displays and at the dealer, it smells great and handles well and it feels even better as you get behind the wheel after having purchased it. It's so exciting and fun that you actually drive it for days, maybe weeks without refueling and one day you run out of gas. After having painstakenly at that point pushed it to the gas station, to your amazement you discover there's no cap on the vehicle to refuel it through.
at the end of 08 they had 300k subscriptions worldwide. thats great if you dont have 119 servers worldwide. and the population has continued to plummet throughout jan and another big drop after the underwhelming 1/29 announcement. so the population has dropped from 750k subscribers in sept/october to well below 300k but we still have the same 119 servers (not to mention subscribers actually played more in sept/oct). is it any surprise that even people who like the game choose not to stay when the playerbase is stretched so thin?
at the end of 08 they had 300k subscriptions worldwide. thats great if you dont have 119 servers worldwide. and the population has continued to plummet throughout jan and another big drop after the underwhelming 1/29 announcement. so the population has dropped from 750k subscribers in sept/october to well below 300k but we still have the same 119 servers (not to mention subscribers actually played more in sept/oct). is it any surprise that even people who like the game choose not to stay when the playerbase is stretched so thin?
It's not the amount of servers that did it, too many servers at launch is a common mistake when launching a new MMORPG. It was the lack of something interesting to do.
There are a few speedbumps in the way that have nothing to do with infusion of content regarding WAR.
First, how many of the people listed in that press release were on 3 month subs who paid once, but have no intention of resubbing again? Or how many were six monthers? That's the biggest X factor I'd say. Because if there are people in that category that were thinking of leaving, they aren't going to stay just because a Slayer is coming. A poll they had on another forum asked existing people in WAR what they wanted and I believe 90% or more wanted fixes to classes and such, not new classes and new content. So the bulk of the existing customers were asking for A, but Mythic said B, C and D is coming, with no a little mention of A. Not good.
Second, what new games released this year might have an effect on their already lower expectations of market share? Will Darkfall release... and will it be any good? Y factor. If it is just halfway good, it could pull probably 50k from WAR. Now when everyone thought WAR had 600k subs, thats not a big deal. Now we know its officially 300k (or less) and losing 50k is like losing a left leg. Aion.. how will that do? It's already pretty much out and is getting polished before hitting EA and EU and has excellent sub numbers. That one could hurt WAR as their Pvp has a third factor (NPCs) which can spice the game up by attacking a winning side. Mortal Online? GW2? That's just the MMOs. People may say "Screw MMOs" and just go with Blizzard's Starcraft2 or Diablo3.
Third, if they had all the above not even in play, they still have a badly flawed endgame that gives people little purpose to do anything with insance loot rules and conditions no one can figure. They would probably need to redesign lots of stuff like keeps and fort seiges regarding it, which was said by lots of folks smarter than me. That is a enormous task. What will happen when they release two more cities into a total player base environment of 300k already spread out? People spread out even worse.
never said too many servers was the main reason war is failing but it is a reason. they lost the first half because the game under delivered, they are losing the second half because there is noone to play against
I dont know so much about the coming game: Darkfall. Haven't been following that game at all but I've heard that it will focus heavely on PVP, right? Will that draw away even more subs from War then perhaps? (since pvp is one or Wars main things)
Darkfall is most likely going to be a failure as well. People really need to start realizing it's mostly hype.
Funny how 250-300k was considered a massive success pre-WoW. How the times have changed.
250-300k is still good. But they lost 550k in 2 or so months. No clue how many they lost in the last month, maybe another 50k or so. The problem isn't the 300k. The problem is it's not staying at 300k and nothing even planned to begin to remedy that fact.
I wouldn't be surprised if EA has already started pulling off a bit on the funding, given no news about anything really.
I would have guesstimated a number near 250K so this probably isn't that far off. Not a roaring success, but certainly enough perhaps to keep the doors open.
It's kind of sad when you think about it. Warhammer from all the stuff I read on it. Is a very well liked IP, that if anything could have easily snagged 500k to 600k subs in just the US alone. 350k for US and EU combine is just really sad.
Before any of the fans start screaming off with his head. That's just my personal opinion on it. Mythic after what they did with DAOC + Warhammer IP. I sure enough thought it would be like A1 sauce on the most juicy steak ever. Instead I got a hamburger with ketchup. Not bad by any means, but not the mouth watering steak I was expecting.
Whatever happened to the million that applied for beta and teh million boxes they sold?? IS it that bad of a game that only 30 percent of the people that bought the game are still playing it only a short time later??... They invisioned this game getting millions of subs at one time (AoC also but WAR even more).........
never said too many servers was the main reason war is failing but it is a reason. they lost the first half because the game under delivered, they are losing the second half because there is noone to play against
Well that's the reason why i left, too many servers, not enough peoples to play with. They spread out the population too much by releasing WAY too many servers at launch. They should have start with a very small amount and open up more as population build.
The day they'll shut down half the servers (merge) i might come back, until then, no thanks.
I would have guesstimated a number near 250K so this probably isn't that far off. Not a roaring success, but certainly enough perhaps to keep the doors open.
It's kind of sad when you think about it. Warhammer from all the stuff I read on it. Is a very well liked IP, that if anything could have easily snagged 500k to 600k subs in just the US alone. 350k for US and EU combine is just really sad.
Before any of the fans start screaming off with his head. That's just my personal opinion on it. Mythic after what they did with DAOC + Warhammer IP. I sure enough thought it would be like A1 sauce on the most juicy steak ever. Instead I got a hamburger with ketchup. Not bad by any means, but not the mouth watering steak I was expecting.
Whatever happened to the million that applied for beta and teh million boxes they sold?? IS it that bad of a game that only 30 percent of the people that bought the game are still playing it only a short time later??... They invisioned this game getting millions of subs at one time (AoC also but WAR even more).........
Sometimes in big business, vaporware, propaganda, closedness and so on can even rub off on the people in charge of the very projects being hyped to the skies. It's actually a very common and proven psychological state. Basically you start believing the lies and broken promises you shell out, even though you KNOW they're not true.
never said too many servers was the main reason war is failing but it is a reason. they lost the first half because the game under delivered, they are losing the second half because there is noone to play against
Well that's the reason why i left, too many servers, not enough peoples to play with. They spread out the population too much by releasing WAY too many servers at launch. They should have start with a very small amount and open up more as population build.
The day they'll shut down half the servers (merge) i might come back, until then, no thanks.
And you don't mind the lack of interesting content at all? That's a huge reason so many people left too. It turned out to be nothing more than your every day run of the mill MMORPG. PvP wasn't even remotely close to the impact they said it had and I'm not even going to mention the hyping of the things you could do in game.
Makes you wondering about how long this game will survive.... ?
If this trend keeps going and with no new content planned at all for months and months, no, a dungeon and 2 new classes is not new content in an extent to fix the current exodus, I'd say about a year before EA pulls the plug.
Mythic needs to MASSIVELY get their act together but in reality, what exactly are they able to do? Fact is a majority of the people who try WAR are bored to death within the first month and it's going to take more than just adding fluff here and there. Not to mention people are in particular blaming the lack of PvP and content as the reason they're leaving. It was my reason for leaving as well.
"and combined with the appearance of the Tomb Kings and their RvR dungeon" - Mark Jacobs
He just killed two birds with one stone. It's content AND helps with the lack of RvR. I think that just dismissing The Tomb Kings as just another dungeon is a mistake and a bit ignorant.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
Makes you wondering about how long this game will survive.... ?
If this trend keeps going and with no new content planned at all for months and months, no, a dungeon and 2 new classes is not new content in an extent to fix the current exodus, I'd say about a year before EA pulls the plug.
Mythic needs to MASSIVELY get their act together but in reality, what exactly are they able to do? Fact is a majority of the people who try WAR are bored to death within the first month and it's going to take more than just adding fluff here and there. Not to mention people are in particular blaming the lack of PvP and content as the reason they're leaving. It was my reason for leaving as well.
"and combined with the appearance of the Tomb Kings and their RvR dungeon" - Mark Jacobs
He just killed two birds with one stone. It's content AND helps with the lack of RvR. I think that just dismissing The Tomb Kings as just another dungeon is a mistake and a bit ignorant.
It's not content, it's empty fluff. 2 new classes, a dungeon is still all that's there. The rest is bug fixes, changing the way some things work. It's NOT adding any endgame still. Even many of the comments in the thread you linked are saying that's not going to fix anything.
But actually, what is so very special about this dungeon?
idk if any of u guys pay attention to how much money they are actually making with 300k users, its about 4.5mill a month, sure not as much as WoW, but its well enough to keep a company striving.
LOL Post #32 where he compares the number to where WoW was when it was about the same age. He entirely missed the fact the subscribers were massing to WoW, not dropping like flies.
idk if any of u guys pay attention to how much money they are actually making with 300k users, its about 4.5mill a month, sure not as much as WoW, but its well enough to keep a company striving.
They won't be makeing anywhere near that after costs.
idk if any of u guys pay attention to how much money they are actually making with 300k users, its about 4.5mill a month, sure not as much as WoW, but its well enough to keep a company striving.
It's been stated before that Mark Jacobs said something about 240k being the magic number. Too much below that and it stops being profitable. EA won't keep pumping in cash forever either.
Another factor is, did it ever occur to some people that WAR might just be a crappy game? This is the pile of dung they came up with after years in development, thinking it would be the end all PvP MMORPG. With that in mind, how can they possibly even begin to think they can save it all within a year or so?
wotlk took alot of the player base. we are just starting to see old faces coming back to our server who left for wow. the game gets better every update and is far from being in trouble...but go ahead and root against it for what ever reason lol.
never said too many servers was the main reason war is failing but it is a reason. they lost the first half because the game under delivered, they are losing the second half because there is noone to play against
Well that's the reason why i left, too many servers, not enough peoples to play with. They spread out the population too much by releasing WAY too many servers at launch. They should have start with a very small amount and open up more as population build.
The day they'll shut down half the servers (merge) i might come back, until then, no thanks.
See thats one of the mistakes a company makes when releasing an MMO, too many servers at the start.
Best thing would be to start with between 5-8 servers, having maybe several others on standby as well (incase the pop explodes) Once the first few servers reach a que status you then start throwing new servers online.
Sadly most companies do the opposite and over compensate for servers which leads to low pops and eventually people start leaving the game because there is hardly anyone in an area and starting fresh on a new server seems like a waste.
But again, 200k+ is by no means a failure, unless compared to WoW populations (which make some countries look like a failure pop wise as well)
There are 3 types of people in the world. 1.) Those who make things happen 2.) Those who watch things happen 3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Comments
Yes, 300k is a lot but that was over a month back. Nothing new, nothing exciting and no new content in all that time and nothing new planned either. Unless you count the "expansion" as something to draw people in with, yeah right.
A more current accurate estimate is probably around 100-150k subscribers and still dropping. Again, the 300k was more than a month ago and subscribers have gone massively down since.
No wonder now why most of all the servers feel dead.
LOL
He that lives upon Hope dies farting.
It's kind of sad when you think about it. Warhammer from all the stuff I read on it. Is a very well liked IP, that if anything could have easily snagged 500k to 600k subs in just the US alone. 350k for US and EU combine is just really sad.
Before any of the fans start screaming off with his head. That's just my personal opinion on it. Mythic after what they did with DAOC + Warhammer IP. I sure enough thought it would be like A1 sauce on the most juicy steak ever. Instead I got a hamburger with ketchup. Not bad by any means, but not the mouth watering steak I was expecting.
I think of new MMORPG's and WAR especially as a brand new shiny sports car. It looks awesome in the displays and at the dealer, it smells great and handles well and it feels even better as you get behind the wheel after having purchased it. It's so exciting and fun that you actually drive it for days, maybe weeks without refueling and one day you run out of gas. After having painstakenly at that point pushed it to the gas station, to your amazement you discover there's no cap on the vehicle to refuel it through.
at the end of 08 they had 300k subscriptions worldwide. thats great if you dont have 119 servers worldwide. and the population has continued to plummet throughout jan and another big drop after the underwhelming 1/29 announcement. so the population has dropped from 750k subscribers in sept/october to well below 300k but we still have the same 119 servers (not to mention subscribers actually played more in sept/oct). is it any surprise that even people who like the game choose not to stay when the playerbase is stretched so thin?
It's not the amount of servers that did it, too many servers at launch is a common mistake when launching a new MMORPG. It was the lack of something interesting to do.
There are a few speedbumps in the way that have nothing to do with infusion of content regarding WAR.
First, how many of the people listed in that press release were on 3 month subs who paid once, but have no intention of resubbing again? Or how many were six monthers? That's the biggest X factor I'd say. Because if there are people in that category that were thinking of leaving, they aren't going to stay just because a Slayer is coming. A poll they had on another forum asked existing people in WAR what they wanted and I believe 90% or more wanted fixes to classes and such, not new classes and new content. So the bulk of the existing customers were asking for A, but Mythic said B, C and D is coming, with no a little mention of A. Not good.
Second, what new games released this year might have an effect on their already lower expectations of market share? Will Darkfall release... and will it be any good? Y factor. If it is just halfway good, it could pull probably 50k from WAR. Now when everyone thought WAR had 600k subs, thats not a big deal. Now we know its officially 300k (or less) and losing 50k is like losing a left leg. Aion.. how will that do? It's already pretty much out and is getting polished before hitting EA and EU and has excellent sub numbers. That one could hurt WAR as their Pvp has a third factor (NPCs) which can spice the game up by attacking a winning side. Mortal Online? GW2? That's just the MMOs. People may say "Screw MMOs" and just go with Blizzard's Starcraft2 or Diablo3.
Third, if they had all the above not even in play, they still have a badly flawed endgame that gives people little purpose to do anything with insance loot rules and conditions no one can figure. They would probably need to redesign lots of stuff like keeps and fort seiges regarding it, which was said by lots of folks smarter than me. That is a enormous task. What will happen when they release two more cities into a total player base environment of 300k already spread out? People spread out even worse.
I do not envy Mythic.
"TO MICHAEL!"
never said too many servers was the main reason war is failing but it is a reason. they lost the first half because the game under delivered, they are losing the second half because there is noone to play against
I bet if they brought up 2 origins servers they would outlast WAR in the long run.
I dont know so much about the coming game: Darkfall. Haven't been following that game at all but I've heard that it will focus heavely on PVP, right?
Will that draw away even more subs from War then perhaps? (since pvp is one of Wars main things)
Darkfall is most likely going to be a failure as well. People really need to start realizing it's mostly hype.
Funny how 250-300k was considered a massive success pre-WoW. How the times have changed.
---
Grammar nazi's. This one is for you.
250-300k is still good. But they lost 550k in 2 or so months. No clue how many they lost in the last month, maybe another 50k or so. The problem isn't the 300k. The problem is it's not staying at 300k and nothing even planned to begin to remedy that fact.
I wouldn't be surprised if EA has already started pulling off a bit on the funding, given no news about anything really.
Interesting...well. I have a 13min wait on my WoW server.
Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands? ~Ernest Gaines
It's kind of sad when you think about it. Warhammer from all the stuff I read on it. Is a very well liked IP, that if anything could have easily snagged 500k to 600k subs in just the US alone. 350k for US and EU combine is just really sad.
Before any of the fans start screaming off with his head. That's just my personal opinion on it. Mythic after what they did with DAOC + Warhammer IP. I sure enough thought it would be like A1 sauce on the most juicy steak ever. Instead I got a hamburger with ketchup. Not bad by any means, but not the mouth watering steak I was expecting.
Whatever happened to the million that applied for beta and teh million boxes they sold?? IS it that bad of a game that only 30 percent of the people that bought the game are still playing it only a short time later??... They invisioned this game getting millions of subs at one time (AoC also but WAR even more).........
Well that's the reason why i left, too many servers, not enough peoples to play with. They spread out the population too much by releasing WAY too many servers at launch. They should have start with a very small amount and open up more as population build.
The day they'll shut down half the servers (merge) i might come back, until then, no thanks.
It's kind of sad when you think about it. Warhammer from all the stuff I read on it. Is a very well liked IP, that if anything could have easily snagged 500k to 600k subs in just the US alone. 350k for US and EU combine is just really sad.
Before any of the fans start screaming off with his head. That's just my personal opinion on it. Mythic after what they did with DAOC + Warhammer IP. I sure enough thought it would be like A1 sauce on the most juicy steak ever. Instead I got a hamburger with ketchup. Not bad by any means, but not the mouth watering steak I was expecting.
Whatever happened to the million that applied for beta and teh million boxes they sold?? IS it that bad of a game that only 30 percent of the people that bought the game are still playing it only a short time later??... They invisioned this game getting millions of subs at one time (AoC also but WAR even more).........
Sometimes in big business, vaporware, propaganda, closedness and so on can even rub off on the people in charge of the very projects being hyped to the skies. It's actually a very common and proven psychological state. Basically you start believing the lies and broken promises you shell out, even though you KNOW they're not true.
It's happened time and again.
Well that's the reason why i left, too many servers, not enough peoples to play with. They spread out the population too much by releasing WAY too many servers at launch. They should have start with a very small amount and open up more as population build.
The day they'll shut down half the servers (merge) i might come back, until then, no thanks.
And you don't mind the lack of interesting content at all? That's a huge reason so many people left too. It turned out to be nothing more than your every day run of the mill MMORPG. PvP wasn't even remotely close to the impact they said it had and I'm not even going to mention the hyping of the things you could do in game.
If this trend keeps going and with no new content planned at all for months and months, no, a dungeon and 2 new classes is not new content in an extent to fix the current exodus, I'd say about a year before EA pulls the plug.
Mythic needs to MASSIVELY get their act together but in reality, what exactly are they able to do? Fact is a majority of the people who try WAR are bored to death within the first month and it's going to take more than just adding fluff here and there. Not to mention people are in particular blaming the lack of PvP and content as the reason they're leaving. It was my reason for leaving as well.
"and combined with the appearance of the Tomb Kings and their RvR dungeon" - Mark Jacobs
http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/110104040/p1/?810
second to last full paragraph
He just killed two birds with one stone. It's content AND helps with the lack of RvR. I think that just dismissing The Tomb Kings as just another dungeon is a mistake and a bit ignorant.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
It amuzes me how amazed some fans are about the great numbers of 300k as they, alteast some of them say, expected it to be 200k+ by now , over at happyland WHA ! (http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245350&page=3 )
Some of them just wont admit defeat...
If this trend keeps going and with no new content planned at all for months and months, no, a dungeon and 2 new classes is not new content in an extent to fix the current exodus, I'd say about a year before EA pulls the plug.
Mythic needs to MASSIVELY get their act together but in reality, what exactly are they able to do? Fact is a majority of the people who try WAR are bored to death within the first month and it's going to take more than just adding fluff here and there. Not to mention people are in particular blaming the lack of PvP and content as the reason they're leaving. It was my reason for leaving as well.
"and combined with the appearance of the Tomb Kings and their RvR dungeon" - Mark Jacobs
http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/110104040/p1/?810
second to last full paragraph
He just killed two birds with one stone. It's content AND helps with the lack of RvR. I think that just dismissing The Tomb Kings as just another dungeon is a mistake and a bit ignorant.
It's not content, it's empty fluff. 2 new classes, a dungeon is still all that's there. The rest is bug fixes, changing the way some things work. It's NOT adding any endgame still. Even many of the comments in the thread you linked are saying that's not going to fix anything.
But actually, what is so very special about this dungeon?
idk if any of u guys pay attention to how much money they are actually making with 300k users, its about 4.5mill a month, sure not as much as WoW, but its well enough to keep a company striving.
LOL Post #32 where he compares the number to where WoW was when it was about the same age. He entirely missed the fact the subscribers were massing to WoW, not dropping like flies.
They won't be makeing anywhere near that after costs.
It's been stated before that Mark Jacobs said something about 240k being the magic number. Too much below that and it stops being profitable. EA won't keep pumping in cash forever either.
Another factor is, did it ever occur to some people that WAR might just be a crappy game? This is the pile of dung they came up with after years in development, thinking it would be the end all PvP MMORPG. With that in mind, how can they possibly even begin to think they can save it all within a year or so?
wotlk took alot of the player base. we are just starting to see old faces coming back to our server who left for wow. the game gets better every update and is far from being in trouble...but go ahead and root against it for what ever reason lol.
Well that's the reason why i left, too many servers, not enough peoples to play with. They spread out the population too much by releasing WAY too many servers at launch. They should have start with a very small amount and open up more as population build.
The day they'll shut down half the servers (merge) i might come back, until then, no thanks.
See thats one of the mistakes a company makes when releasing an MMO, too many servers at the start.
Best thing would be to start with between 5-8 servers, having maybe several others on standby as well (incase the pop explodes) Once the first few servers reach a que status you then start throwing new servers online.
Sadly most companies do the opposite and over compensate for servers which leads to low pops and eventually people start leaving the game because there is hardly anyone in an area and starting fresh on a new server seems like a waste.
But again, 200k+ is by no means a failure, unless compared to WoW populations (which make some countries look like a failure pop wise as well)
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"