Do you actually think before you post or do your fat, little fingers have a life all their own? You smell an awful lot like the rancid playerbase that has developed in WoW and marginalized people like me who played the game from Day One as something short of a full-time job dealing with self-centered idiots.
I wish someone would say something this arrogant to me in real life. It would truly make for a very entertaining day.
Internet balls impress very few.
Yeah, I'll bet you're impressive as hell. I don't know why you felt the need to weigh in on a statement that wasn't directed at you, but yet, here you are. So, am I to assume that Blizzard's design structure over especially the last couple of years warrants praise, or do you simply post without reading first as well? Attention starved?
No it doesn't deserve praise but your behaviour on this site was worth calling you out on. Do you get very aggressive and rude when you drive as well? How come I never meet people like you in real life face to face?
People are not required to speak to me directly to warrant a reaction. I make that call myself.
Cecropia, he was provoked if you read all entries. A neighborly suggestion to let it die.
OT: With games like TOR, FFXIV, GW2 due in the immediate to near future, along with the slowly increasing sub numbers other current AAA titles are boasting.... CATA looks to be more like a 'final hoorah' than a 'fresh start in growth'.
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc. We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be. So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away. - MMO_Doubter
Do you actually think before you post or do your fat, little fingers have a life all their own? You smell an awful lot like the rancid playerbase that has developed in WoW and marginalized people like me who played the game from Day One as something short of a full-time job dealing with self-centered idiots.
I wish someone would say something this arrogant to me in real life. It would truly make for a very entertaining day.
Internet balls impress very few.
Yeah, I'll bet you're impressive as hell. I don't know why you felt the need to weigh in on a statement that wasn't directed at you, but yet, here you are. So, am I to assume that Blizzard's design structure over especially the last couple of years warrants praise, or do you simply post without reading first as well? Attention starved?
No it doesn't deserve praise but your behaviour on this site was worth calling you out on. Do you get very aggressive and rude when you drive as well? How come I never meet people like you in real life face to face?
People are not required to speak to me directly to warrant a reaction. I make that call myself.
Cecropia, he was provoked if you read all entries. A neighborly suggestion to let it die.
OT: With games like TOR, FFXIV, GW2 due in the immediate to near future, along with the slowly increasing sub numbers other current AAA titles are boasting.... CATA looks to be more like a 'final hoorah' than a 'fresh start in growth'.
It does sound like a "final Hurrah"too bad! Great game for its time
Cecropia, he was provoked if you read all entries. A neighborly suggestion to let it die.
OT: With games like TOR, FFXIV, GW2 due in the immediate to near future, along with the slowly increasing sub numbers other current AAA titles are boasting.... CATA looks to be more like a 'final hoorah' than a 'fresh start in growth'.
Suggestion taken, and thank you. Consider my mouth zipped.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Of course they are going to grow again. The real question is how long will people stick around this time after the expansion. I've played that game off and on again since the month after launch and I feel like it's going to be more of a been there done that deal for me. I tried playing again recently and only lasted 6 weeks this time, and to be honest I started losing interest at a little over 3 week this time but stuck it out for my badge set. I still don't know if I'm going to get the expansion or not this time around. Chances are I will get it and level at least one of my toons to cap again, I just don't know if I'll stick around for long after that.
How did you arrive at your number via blizzards finacial statements?
On Activision's website, somewhere, are their financials statements. You can get from that Blizzard's quarterly subscription revenue, and see how they are recognizing box sales within the the subscription line, and get a ballpark estimate as to how many subs they have.
Even if you assumed they had no sales other than subs (i.e., discounting the minor influence of Chinese pay-per-hour model), the last time I checked I came up with around 5 million subs. There might be a 10% fudge factor either way, or maybe 20%.
but HOW did you come to that number? Divide by $15?
I recall reading somewhere that China (not Asia, just China) only represents about 5-10% of wows total revenue, even though it represents a huge number of wows subscriber base. Perhaps due to the low cost of the game or the way they share revenues with the hosting companies in other countries.
The point being that I don't think you can simply divide a revenue number by 15 dollars.
Blizzard's Q1 2010 "Subscription, licensing, and other revenues" totalled $322 MM. Let's say ~6.8% of that is Chinese "pay-per-hour" and other various non-Western WoW revenues. That leaves $300 million for 3 months. $100 million per month (still a nice haul for any MMO, btw).
Blizzard recognizes box sales by spreading out the revenue over the expected life of a subscription. Lets call that a year. So $90/12 = $7.
So if you take $14 for the sub (assuming some do multi-month subs), plus $7, you get $21 per month per sub. $100 million/ $21= 4.76 Million subs.
Obviously it's not exact, but it's got to be within 10-20% of the actual number of subs. Either way, there's no 11.5 million active subscribers. It's in the 4-6 million range, closer to 5. Still the 800 lb gorilla, but you have to wonder why they bandy about the 11.5 million number, leading folks to believe it's subscriptions, when their financials clearly show something far less.
How did you arrive at your number via blizzards finacial statements?
On Activision's website, somewhere, are their financials statements. You can get from that Blizzard's quarterly subscription revenue, and see how they are recognizing box sales within the the subscription line, and get a ballpark estimate as to how many subs they have.
Even if you assumed they had no sales other than subs (i.e., discounting the minor influence of Chinese pay-per-hour model), the last time I checked I came up with around 5 million subs. There might be a 10% fudge factor either way, or maybe 20%.
but HOW did you come to that number? Divide by $15?
I recall reading somewhere that China (not Asia, just China) only represents about 5-10% of wows total revenue, even though it represents a huge number of wows subscriber base. Perhaps due to the low cost of the game or the way they share revenues with the hosting companies in other countries.
The point being that I don't think you can simply divide a revenue number by 15 dollars.
Blizzard's Q1 2010 "Subscription, licensing, and other revenues" totalled $322 MM. Let's say ~6.8% of that is Chinese "pay-per-hour" and other various non-Western WoW revenues. That leaves $300 million for 3 months. $100 million per month (still a nice haul for any MMO, btw).
Blizzard recognizes box sales by spreading out the revenue over the expected life of a subscription. Lets call that a year. So $90/12 = $7.
So if you take $14 for the sub (assuming some do multi-month subs), plus $7, you get $21 per month per sub. $100 million/ $21= 4.76 Million subs.
Obviously it's not exact, but it's got to be within 10-20% of the actual number of subs. Either way, there's no 11.5 million active subscribers. It's in the 4-6 million range, closer to 5. Still the 800 lb gorilla, but you have to wonder why they bandy about the 11.5 million number, leading folks to believe it's subscriptions, when their financials clearly show something far less.
For total markets then, Aion and L2 aren't that distant of a second and third, then. Never bothered to break it down like you've done here (the math checks out), but always knew based on marketting practice and skewing 'numbers to say things you want them to' that 11.5 was easily inflated.
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc. We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be. So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away. - MMO_Doubter
Blizzard's Q1 2010 "Subscription, licensing, and other revenues" totalled $322 MM. Let's say ~6.8% of that is Chinese "pay-per-hour" and other various non-Western WoW revenues. That leaves $300 million for 3 months. $100 million per month (still a nice haul for any MMO, btw).
Blizzard recognizes box sales by spreading out the revenue over the expected life of a subscription. Lets call that a year. So $90/12 = $7.
So if you take $14 for the sub (assuming some do multi-month subs), plus $7, you get $21 per month per sub. $100 million/ $21= 4.76 Million subs.
Obviously it's not exact, but it's got to be within 10-20% of the actual number of subs. Either way, there's no 11.5 million active subscribers. It's in the 4-6 million range, closer to 5. Still the 800 lb gorilla, but you have to wonder why they bandy about the 11.5 million number, leading folks to believe it's subscriptions, when their financials clearly show something far less.
You are just randomly plugging in numbers and treating that as if it is accurate.
Such as your $7 a month for box sales? Where did that come from? Are you really saying every wow player spends $90 a year on box sales and blizzard gets 100% of that? Don't you think retailers would like to make some money off the box sales too?
Blizzard stated China is about 10%, but there is MORE to the asian market than just China. It takes far less revenue in the Asian market to represent a much larger playerbase, because they pay less. We have no idea how much money each player in the Asian market represent each month. Is it $1... $5... $10?
Nor are you factoring in how much LICENSING money blizzard never sees from its partnerships with their providers. For example: The9 was making the majority of the revenue off wow subscriptions in China which is why blizzard changed providers. That is subscription money that will never be represented on the blizzard financials. Blizzard will only see a portion of every dollar spent on subscriptions in regions where they license wow to their providers. Again it is just another huge unknown.
That isn't evey touching all the little untangibles like free months, referals, interuption in payments, etc.
Lets say blizzard has 5 million NA/EU subscribers with zero interruptions in payment all paying full price for 12 months non stop.
5,000,000 * 15 = $225,000,000.
That leave ~$100,000,000 for other subscribers, box sales, etc.
Lets say 50% of that is sub fees from Asian market players. $50,000,000 / 6,500,000 subscribers = 7.69/month average for each player in the Asian market.
That still leaves $50,000,000 dollars each 3 months for everything not related to subscriptions.
Anyone can plug in numbers and make a convinving argument, but it really is just baseless assumptions and wild speculation. That is why I say we can't deterime subs from the revenue statements. There are just to many unknowns. Especially to make claims that blizzard is lieing about sub numbers.
I forget the actual number, but there are somewhere around 800 or so servers running wow around the world.
Blizzard gets a very small amount of money from Chinese subs. A lot of it goes to NetEase, and one would assume to pay off the communist government. Of course, conspiracy theorist would think that Blizzard gets the entire 15 dollars, which makes no sense to even the most hard-headed of person. NetEase wouldn't want the deal if they weren't making good money off it.
all I can say is you all need to come to Australia.. you'll see where they get their money.. Australia pays about a 25% markup on everything from Hardware to Software..
Not counting numbers here just complaining at the prices we pay
... carry on with the numbers people... nothing to see here
You can be sure that if Blizzard make a statement saying there are 11.5 million subs, then the figure is accurate, MMO companies tend to hide figures through other 'statistics' to hide true sub numbers, so if Blizzard state sub numbers you can be sure they have the proof to back it up, because there are so many others out there at the moment who would challenge these figures if they couldnt (and i dont mean random posters here, but other MMO companies for one..) As for whether Cataclysm will break this 11.5m figure, its debateable, for the short term, its quite possible, but long term figures, i would expect to return to pre cataclysm figures, probably after 3-6 months. The only real question is whether or not the new MMO's due to be released will have any effect, FFXIV .. doubtful, tbh i think that game will only affect the player base of their own MMO, TOR.. is another thing entirely, its a scifi mmo for one thing, and im not sure how much that will appeal to the largely fantasy orientated playerbase of WoW, perhaps closer to launch we'll have a better idea, of course, if that launch is within 2-3 months of cataclysm, that might not bode too well for TOR. So it might even be in Biowares interest to delay the launch of TOR until 4months after that of Cataclysm.. though fans of TOR might well be thanking Blizzard, if nothing else, it will make sure that Bioware have polished their game to perfection. Now.. if only i could persuade Blizzard and Bioware to stop using cartoony graphics...
Bah screw wow.. seriously if you all would stop playing it.. we might see diablo 3 launch a bit sooner and hopefully the new MMO they are working on. None of the figure above anyone has extrapolated even include the merchandise revenue stream for the authenticators, stuff toys, bags and the other marketing junk.. oh and the pixualated mounts...
Look at history.. former MW2 execs announce lawsuit against Blizzard/Activision, the VERY next day - Launch date announced for SC2. Stop giving them money and the blizzard/activision accountants will force a launch to increase revenue.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Bah screw wow.. seriously if you all would stop playing it.. we might see diablo 3 launch a bit sooner and hopefully the new MMO they are working on. None of the figure above anyone has extrapolated even include the merchandise revenue stream for the authenticators, stuff toys, bags and the other marketing junk.. oh and the pixualated mounts...
Look at history.. MW2 execs announce lawsuit against Blizzard/Activision, the VERY next day - Launch date annouinced for SC2. Stop giving them money and the blizzard/activision accountants will force a launch to increase revenue.
MW2 i thought was a rip-off for the PC player tbh, and didnt buy into it - MW1 was .. imo.. a far far better game, SC2.. meh.. diablo.... probably go straight to console, but the cash shop items, well, the authenticator imo should have been free for all WoW players, they made the accounts insecure in the first place, by tying the games to peoples email addresses, rather than a 'unique' account name.. but, seriously do you really think if people stopped playing/paying for WoW these games would even get released, let alone released earlier? do things on the cheap.. in a hurry and you get more STO's imo.. same as i keep on paying to play Eve, at some point, CCP will release WoD and DUST514.. without Eve, would these games really happen?
Bah screw wow.. seriously if you all would stop playing it.. we might see diablo 3 launch a bit sooner and hopefully the new MMO they are working on. None of the figure above anyone has extrapolated even include the merchandise revenue stream for the authenticators, stuff toys, bags and the other marketing junk.. oh and the pixualated mounts...
Look at history.. MW2 execs announce lawsuit against Blizzard/Activision, the VERY next day - Launch date annouinced for SC2. Stop giving them money and the blizzard/activision accountants will force a launch to increase revenue.
MW2 i thought was a rip-off for the PC player tbh, and didnt buy into it - MW1 was .. imo.. a far far better game, SC2.. meh.. diablo.... probably go straight to console, but the cash shop items, well, the authenticator imo should have been free for all WoW players, they made the accounts insecure in the first place, by tying the games to peoples email addresses, rather than a 'unique' account name.. but, seriously do you really think if people stopped playing/paying for WoW these games would even get released, let alone released earlier? do things on the cheap.. in a hurry and you get more STO's imo.. same as i keep on paying to play Eve, at some point, CCP will release WoD and DUST514.. without Eve, would these games really happen?
All true, but your talking from a quality perspective based on a company having not allot of dev $$ - I just mean have Blizzard/Acti got enough of our money? and by taking a boycott on wow might force the release date? Look at SC2 - they may need a cool $300m-600m if that law suit sticks.. and the launch date happens to come out the next day after the suit was filed?
Speculation - ABSOLUTELY - Coincidence? I THINK NOT. :-)
Counting on expanding the customer base by releasing existing content to China is the telling detail here. First of all, this smacks of raw greed. How much is ever enough? It's not like Blizzard is putting all that capital back into development. They're not. In fact, customers are getting less from Blizzard these days. The latest incarnation of the development team has pretty much ransacked what the game was on release and left players with a lukewarm chat room experience.
I'll stay subbed until Cataclysm, then play that until I get tired of leveling new characters. Since I don't raid or PvP, it's a given that Blizzard isn't designing the game for people like me. They've pretty much devastated everything that made me play WoW in the first place. I'm hoping Guild Wars 2 will fulfill its potential and encourage me to say goodbye to WoW for good.
WoW has always had some free content updates. New raiding dungeons mostly. Compare that to Everquest 2 where you always have to pay for new content.
Bah screw wow.. seriously if you all would stop playing it.. we might see diablo 3 launch a bit sooner and hopefully the new MMO they are working on. None of the figure above anyone has extrapolated even include the merchandise revenue stream for the authenticators, stuff toys, bags and the other marketing junk.. oh and the pixualated mounts...
Look at history.. former MW2 execs announce lawsuit against Blizzard/Activision, the VERY next day - Launch date announced for SC2. Stop giving them money and the blizzard/activision accountants will force a launch to increase revenue.
Really? I can't believe that after all the carnage we have seen in the mmo industry from rushed releases that anyone would still rally support for getting games to market quicker! If anything has caused more harm to the industry than that one thing I couldn't think of what it might possibly be.
No sir, I disagree with you entirely. Companies that take their time and release quality products deserve our support. Companies that rush unfinished crap to market just to boost a profit margin for a quarterly report need to be purged from the industry.
I agree that WoW isn't going to grow anymore, especially with TOR coming soon, but Blizzard still has a few tricks up their sleeves. If you look at their job postings, you'll notice that they are, and have been for about 1-2 years now, looking for programmers for their new "next-gen mmo." Perhaps something will be revealed at BlizzCon, but either way, WoW ain't dead. WoW won't be dead until Blizzard says so.
Well here's the thing. WoW is a solid piece of pop culture now. It's pushed far beyond the threshold that any other MMOs in history have set. WoW and Blizzard entertainment have pulled in so many players that would otherwise have never played an MMO. Thanks to WoW playing an MMO no longer always means you're some nerd living in your mom and dads basement who won't ever possibly get a girl or have sex with anything that has a pulse.
And to be honest no matter where you turn after WoW many of those people may never again play another MMO because they aren't MMO players, they're just WoW players. No other game company can say they've done this. and Blizzard to this date is the only company to have made a MMO that has reach such success. Like it or not, no other MMO has or likely will meet the bar WoW has set.
It's sad that Cataclysm is as they say the last retailed expansion they will do. Which in some way tells many of us that the majority of WoW's growth is probably over. Cataclysm can give WoW a facelift, and that's really all the expansion is intended to do. But if this is truely that last expansion, then what more can Blizzard hope to accomplish?
New content is needed to keep players interested replay only holds so much until it's stale old and boring.. Even with the face lift.
They say 11.5 million, because they can. Lieing about those subscription numbers to their investors is a crime. If any mmo company could make up whatever subscribers numbers they wanted, they would. That is why some companies talk about how many "characters" have been made or how many people have signed up for accounts on their website and never say how many people are actually paying subscription fees.
Of course it's not a lie, but most likely stretched semantics. I doubt they have 11.5m subsctiprions/subscribers, I think a better statement would be players or probably the most accurate playable active accounts. A better apples to apples comparison would be to tell us their NA+EU sub numbers, but that is a closely guarded secret.
It's sad that Cataclysm is as they say the last retailed expansion they will do. Which in some way tells many of us that the majority of WoW's growth is probably over. Cataclysm can give WoW a facelift, and that's really all the expansion is intended to do. But if this is truely that last expansion, then what more can Blizzard hope to accomplish?
Did they really say that? Link please, not that I don't believe you I just find that interesting. Usually that is not something you would announce in any form of business.
It's sad that Cataclysm is as they say the last retailed expansion they will do. Which in some way tells many of us that the majority of WoW's growth is probably over. Cataclysm can give WoW a facelift, and that's really all the expansion is intended to do. But if this is truely that last expansion, then what more can Blizzard hope to accomplish?
Did they really say that? Link please, not that I don't believe you I just find that interesting. Usually that is not something you would announce in any form of business.
I think he is talking about the number of people that keep saying lore-wise, there is little else they can do with the storyline. I never got that, but maybe someone else could explain that perspective better.
All I see is that it's their IP and they can say all the races become one and fly off to another planet if they want. Sky is the limit for the future of Azeroth. There's no way they are going to stop releasing expansions or some other form of bonus revenue from this cash cow. It'd be the dumbest mistake they could ever make.
It's sad that Cataclysm is as they say the last retailed expansion they will do. Which in some way tells many of us that the majority of WoW's growth is probably over. Cataclysm can give WoW a facelift, and that's really all the expansion is intended to do. But if this is truely that last expansion, then what more can Blizzard hope to accomplish?
Did they really say that? Link please, not that I don't believe you I just find that interesting. Usually that is not something you would announce in any form of business.
it would be interesting to see if this is in fact the last expansion, though if they switch to the method CCP use of giving them all away for free - that would be an improvement imo...
They will sell more boxes and have a spike in players but it wont grow.. WoW is old and with the new big titles coming WoW will shrink but i bet according to Blizzard there will be 30 million players the day they shut down the servers...
To think befor you speak is like whiping your @ss befor you take a dump
Comments
Cecropia, he was provoked if you read all entries. A neighborly suggestion to let it die.
OT: With games like TOR, FFXIV, GW2 due in the immediate to near future, along with the slowly increasing sub numbers other current AAA titles are boasting.... CATA looks to be more like a 'final hoorah' than a 'fresh start in growth'.
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc.
We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be.
So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away.
- MMO_Doubter
It does sound like a "final Hurrah"too bad! Great game for its time
Suggestion taken, and thank you. Consider my mouth zipped.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Of course they are going to grow again. The real question is how long will people stick around this time after the expansion. I've played that game off and on again since the month after launch and I feel like it's going to be more of a been there done that deal for me. I tried playing again recently and only lasted 6 weeks this time, and to be honest I started losing interest at a little over 3 week this time but stuck it out for my badge set. I still don't know if I'm going to get the expansion or not this time around. Chances are I will get it and level at least one of my toons to cap again, I just don't know if I'll stick around for long after that.
Soon as people finish off Cataclysm which will be about 2 - 3 months if they roll a new character to experience everything new
I'd dare say that those REAL numbers will halve themselves as there will just be TOO much out there to choose from to stick to WoW for long.
Blizzard's Q1 2010 "Subscription, licensing, and other revenues" totalled $322 MM. Let's say ~6.8% of that is Chinese "pay-per-hour" and other various non-Western WoW revenues. That leaves $300 million for 3 months. $100 million per month (still a nice haul for any MMO, btw).
Blizzard recognizes box sales by spreading out the revenue over the expected life of a subscription. Lets call that a year. So $90/12 = $7.
So if you take $14 for the sub (assuming some do multi-month subs), plus $7, you get $21 per month per sub. $100 million/ $21= 4.76 Million subs.
Obviously it's not exact, but it's got to be within 10-20% of the actual number of subs. Either way, there's no 11.5 million active subscribers. It's in the 4-6 million range, closer to 5. Still the 800 lb gorilla, but you have to wonder why they bandy about the 11.5 million number, leading folks to believe it's subscriptions, when their financials clearly show something far less.
For total markets then, Aion and L2 aren't that distant of a second and third, then. Never bothered to break it down like you've done here (the math checks out), but always knew based on marketting practice and skewing 'numbers to say things you want them to' that 11.5 was easily inflated.
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc.
We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be.
So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away.
- MMO_Doubter
You are just randomly plugging in numbers and treating that as if it is accurate.
Such as your $7 a month for box sales? Where did that come from? Are you really saying every wow player spends $90 a year on box sales and blizzard gets 100% of that? Don't you think retailers would like to make some money off the box sales too?
Blizzard stated China is about 10%, but there is MORE to the asian market than just China. It takes far less revenue in the Asian market to represent a much larger playerbase, because they pay less. We have no idea how much money each player in the Asian market represent each month. Is it $1... $5... $10?
Nor are you factoring in how much LICENSING money blizzard never sees from its partnerships with their providers. For example: The9 was making the majority of the revenue off wow subscriptions in China which is why blizzard changed providers. That is subscription money that will never be represented on the blizzard financials. Blizzard will only see a portion of every dollar spent on subscriptions in regions where they license wow to their providers. Again it is just another huge unknown.
That isn't evey touching all the little untangibles like free months, referals, interuption in payments, etc.
Lets say blizzard has 5 million NA/EU subscribers with zero interruptions in payment all paying full price for 12 months non stop.
5,000,000 * 15 = $225,000,000.
That leave ~$100,000,000 for other subscribers, box sales, etc.
Lets say 50% of that is sub fees from Asian market players. $50,000,000 / 6,500,000 subscribers = 7.69/month average for each player in the Asian market.
That still leaves $50,000,000 dollars each 3 months for everything not related to subscriptions.
Anyone can plug in numbers and make a convinving argument, but it really is just baseless assumptions and wild speculation. That is why I say we can't deterime subs from the revenue statements. There are just to many unknowns. Especially to make claims that blizzard is lieing about sub numbers.
I forget the actual number, but there are somewhere around 800 or so servers running wow around the world.
I call bullshit
return to growth?
the formula isn't changing
they are just moving the carrot forward.
it'll get a bump on release of their newest carrot release, but afterwards people will get their gear and then stop playing again
Blizzard gets a very small amount of money from Chinese subs. A lot of it goes to NetEase, and one would assume to pay off the communist government. Of course, conspiracy theorist would think that Blizzard gets the entire 15 dollars, which makes no sense to even the most hard-headed of person. NetEase wouldn't want the deal if they weren't making good money off it.
all I can say is you all need to come to Australia.. you'll see where they get their money.. Australia pays about a 25% markup on everything from Hardware to Software..
Not counting numbers here just complaining at the prices we pay
... carry on with the numbers people... nothing to see here
You can be sure that if Blizzard make a statement saying there are 11.5 million subs, then the figure is accurate, MMO companies tend to hide figures through other 'statistics' to hide true sub numbers, so if Blizzard state sub numbers you can be sure they have the proof to back it up, because there are so many others out there at the moment who would challenge these figures if they couldnt (and i dont mean random posters here, but other MMO companies for one..) As for whether Cataclysm will break this 11.5m figure, its debateable, for the short term, its quite possible, but long term figures, i would expect to return to pre cataclysm figures, probably after 3-6 months. The only real question is whether or not the new MMO's due to be released will have any effect, FFXIV .. doubtful, tbh i think that game will only affect the player base of their own MMO, TOR.. is another thing entirely, its a scifi mmo for one thing, and im not sure how much that will appeal to the largely fantasy orientated playerbase of WoW, perhaps closer to launch we'll have a better idea, of course, if that launch is within 2-3 months of cataclysm, that might not bode too well for TOR. So it might even be in Biowares interest to delay the launch of TOR until 4months after that of Cataclysm.. though fans of TOR might well be thanking Blizzard, if nothing else, it will make sure that Bioware have polished their game to perfection. Now.. if only i could persuade Blizzard and Bioware to stop using cartoony graphics...
Bah screw wow.. seriously if you all would stop playing it.. we might see diablo 3 launch a bit sooner and hopefully the new MMO they are working on. None of the figure above anyone has extrapolated even include the merchandise revenue stream for the authenticators, stuff toys, bags and the other marketing junk.. oh and the pixualated mounts...
Look at history.. former MW2 execs announce lawsuit against Blizzard/Activision, the VERY next day - Launch date announced for SC2. Stop giving them money and the blizzard/activision accountants will force a launch to increase revenue.
Yea what ever.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
MW2 i thought was a rip-off for the PC player tbh, and didnt buy into it - MW1 was .. imo.. a far far better game, SC2.. meh.. diablo.... probably go straight to console, but the cash shop items, well, the authenticator imo should have been free for all WoW players, they made the accounts insecure in the first place, by tying the games to peoples email addresses, rather than a 'unique' account name.. but, seriously do you really think if people stopped playing/paying for WoW these games would even get released, let alone released earlier? do things on the cheap.. in a hurry and you get more STO's imo.. same as i keep on paying to play Eve, at some point, CCP will release WoD and DUST514.. without Eve, would these games really happen?
All true, but your talking from a quality perspective based on a company having not allot of dev $$ - I just mean have Blizzard/Acti got enough of our money? and by taking a boycott on wow might force the release date? Look at SC2 - they may need a cool $300m-600m if that law suit sticks.. and the launch date happens to come out the next day after the suit was filed?
Speculation - ABSOLUTELY - Coincidence? I THINK NOT. :-)
WoW has always had some free content updates. New raiding dungeons mostly. Compare that to Everquest 2 where you always have to pay for new content.
Really? I can't believe that after all the carnage we have seen in the mmo industry from rushed releases that anyone would still rally support for getting games to market quicker! If anything has caused more harm to the industry than that one thing I couldn't think of what it might possibly be.
No sir, I disagree with you entirely. Companies that take their time and release quality products deserve our support. Companies that rush unfinished crap to market just to boost a profit margin for a quarterly report need to be purged from the industry.
I agree that WoW isn't going to grow anymore, especially with TOR coming soon, but Blizzard still has a few tricks up their sleeves. If you look at their job postings, you'll notice that they are, and have been for about 1-2 years now, looking for programmers for their new "next-gen mmo." Perhaps something will be revealed at BlizzCon, but either way, WoW ain't dead. WoW won't be dead until Blizzard says so.
Hi
Well here's the thing. WoW is a solid piece of pop culture now. It's pushed far beyond the threshold that any other MMOs in history have set. WoW and Blizzard entertainment have pulled in so many players that would otherwise have never played an MMO. Thanks to WoW playing an MMO no longer always means you're some nerd living in your mom and dads basement who won't ever possibly get a girl or have sex with anything that has a pulse.
And to be honest no matter where you turn after WoW many of those people may never again play another MMO because they aren't MMO players, they're just WoW players. No other game company can say they've done this. and Blizzard to this date is the only company to have made a MMO that has reach such success. Like it or not, no other MMO has or likely will meet the bar WoW has set.
It's sad that Cataclysm is as they say the last retailed expansion they will do. Which in some way tells many of us that the majority of WoW's growth is probably over. Cataclysm can give WoW a facelift, and that's really all the expansion is intended to do. But if this is truely that last expansion, then what more can Blizzard hope to accomplish?
New content is needed to keep players interested replay only holds so much until it's stale old and boring.. Even with the face lift.
Of course it's not a lie, but most likely stretched semantics. I doubt they have 11.5m subsctiprions/subscribers, I think a better statement would be players or probably the most accurate playable active accounts. A better apples to apples comparison would be to tell us their NA+EU sub numbers, but that is a closely guarded secret.
Did they really say that? Link please, not that I don't believe you I just find that interesting. Usually that is not something you would announce in any form of business.
I think he is talking about the number of people that keep saying lore-wise, there is little else they can do with the storyline. I never got that, but maybe someone else could explain that perspective better.
All I see is that it's their IP and they can say all the races become one and fly off to another planet if they want. Sky is the limit for the future of Azeroth. There's no way they are going to stop releasing expansions or some other form of bonus revenue from this cash cow. It'd be the dumbest mistake they could ever make.
it would be interesting to see if this is in fact the last expansion, though if they switch to the method CCP use of giving them all away for free - that would be an improvement imo...
They will sell more boxes and have a spike in players but it wont grow.. WoW is old and with the new big titles coming WoW will shrink but i bet according to Blizzard there will be 30 million players the day they shut down the servers...
To think befor you speak is like whiping your @ss befor you take a dump