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WoW Loses 1.1 Million subs, down to 9.1 Million subs.
Celcius
Member RarePosts: 1,878
At June 30, 2012, the worldwide subscriber base for World of Warcraft was 9.1 million, compared to a subscriber base of 10.2 million at March 31, 2012, and 11.1 million at June 30, 2011, with a greater loss of subscribers in the East than in the West for both the 3-month and 12-month periods (in which the “East” includes China, Taiwan, and Korea, and the “West” includes the regions of North America and Europe).
Contributing factors to the lower subscribers were likely the launch of Diablo III in the quarter, which provided consumers with an alternative gaming experience to World of Warcraft (although Diablo III has not yet launched in China), as well as the lack of new content patches in all geographies resulting in less overall game play. Looking forward, Blizzard Entertainment expects to release World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria™ on September 25, 2012, which will deliver new game content in all regions that is expected to further appeal to the gaming community (with availability in mainland China to be announced at a later date).
http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=697761
Comments
I honestly don't really see them recovering those numbers with this expansion. Too much competition that they have to deal with in the next quarter. I feel like they will be lucky to gain back a few hundred tousand subs, but lose even more the quarter following MoP release.
Or if no big boost in subs after Panda's come to Azaroth, then WoW is really on it's 'return'. Just will take half a decade though
Anyhow, I'm interested in the Panda release as well what it does to the subs. Personally I was not impressed during the beta of it.
Still a big number thoe. That most comapnys would love to have.
I have a feeling that this drop won't be as big as the drop in subs once everyone has finished their 1 year subscriptions to pay for Diablo III.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
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Yeah, pretty much everyone I have heard about it is either not too excited or does not find the beta to be that great. I think that the quarter following (the first one they have in 2013) we will really get to see what happens. If GW2 is a huge hit and if any other MMO coming out takes subs from WoW they will start to lose more and more. This is the biggest loss they have experienced and I would expect the next delay between a final patch and expansion will be upwards of 2million subs lost if it is the same situation. (It has been almost 10 months since Dragon Soul)
Or in other words, WoW still has 8 million more subs than any other game. The expansion will come along and bump them back up again. Even if the new/returning subs don't last a long time and *gasp* WoW does slip back to 8 million it's still phenomenal for an EIGHT YEAR OLD GAME! That can't be emphasized enough....the game is 8 freaking years old!
Everyone talks about EQ as the gold standard of MMOs and even it only stayed on top for 5 years and of course never had anywhere near the playerbase of WoW.
WoW is definitly on the decline, but the numbers they are still generating off a game that is 8 years old is nothing short of remarkable.
I think WoW will live for a long time though I still expect the subscriptions to decline steadily in the coming months and years.
Wonder at what level the subscriptions will stabilize...
If you want to hire Machete to kill the bad guys, you better make damn sure the bad guy isnt you!
Not doubting but got a source?
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Nine million is still impressive. Some companies would cut off their right arm for 9 million subs. The game is just getting older but hopefully whatever Blizzard's new mmo is will boost the fanbase up a lot.
Grim Dawn, the next great action rpg!
http://www.grimdawn.com/
not all of the annual passes have ended yet... just wait more to drop out even with the new expansion coming. Mine doesn't end until november. (yes i spent on that because i really thought i'd be playing but you know that feeling you get when you just can't bare to login...yeah that's me now with that title.)
ever since i played beta and saw that they REALLY weren't improving the hunter class, it was all just fluff, yeah that's when it died for me.
sokay tho, GW2 is right around the corner for me.
WoW is mainly big because Blizzard took a niche market (which was still niche when EQ was king) and brought it to the big show. It brough alot of people in and developed a big social community which have devoted tons of time to the game which makes it hard for them to quit because of friendships they have created,ect. Nothing has come along with any form of quality gameplay that is different then WoW. Now, most new MMOs are trying to be different and that is what is going to ultimately make it so WoW will continue to lose subs. The main reason I feel like WoW won't get back as many subs as you think is because of GW2. The thing is, GW2 is so different that it will be hard for people to go back after they have played it and enjoy the new form of gameplay. This will provide a huge challenge for Blizzard. I think at this point the big game to look out for will be Titan. But I feel like by the time lets say, 2014, rolls around that WoW subs will have dropped below 5 million.
I think they will recover those numbers, but it will be short lived. People will come back for a month or two but get bored of more of the same rehashed ezmode content. Though they have said MoP will herald a return to .. I cant remember what they said .. point is im not holding my breath.
I still have a sub btw =p to me there just insnt an alternative and it's cheaper to just play wow than it is to buy a new piece of crap wow-clone every few months.
LFD tools are great for cramming people into content, but quality > quantity.
I am, usually on the sandbox .. more "hardcore" side of things, but I also do just want to have fun. So lighten up already
You may very well be right, and you know what, I bet you that Blizzard will be THRILLED if WoW still has 5 million active subscriptions by 2014, or 10 years into the game! It's funny how people try to make it like that is some bad thing?!?!
I have no facts to back it up, but I'd stake my life that if you had sat the Blizzard executives down in October of 2004 and told them, guess what guys, I have bad news....WoW will "ONLY" have 5 million subscribers by 2014, that they all would have told you to stop lying, that' s just silly and then once it really sank in they'd be doing cartwheels at the prospect of having 5 million paying customers after 10 years.
To put it another way, if you asked the execs right now of Arenanet if they'd be happy having 5 million people playing GW2 they'd say hell yeah!
Of course new shiney games are finally coming along to take subs away from WoW, but more than anything what is hurting WoW is just that it's old, plain and simple. What's pathetic is that it's taken other companies 8 years to finally start making a dent into WoW.
I can see them all coming back too, but I feel like by the time the first quarter of the new year rolls around (the report after the next one) they will be at less then 9million, with a much bigger drop in the following quarter. The problem is that once these games come out (more specifically GW2, but other games will probably have this model) that you don't have to pay 15$ a month for it will be hard to justify that sub. Blizzard won't be dropping the sub anytime soon, so alot of people will be asking themselves if it is worth it when other games with no sub offer more content more often. (WoW content patches are few and far between, there has been 3 since Cata launch....that is really really slow.)
Uh-oh, that's only about $130 million per month in subscription revenue. Whatsoever shall they do?! Quick, throw more sparkle ponies into the cash shop!
Joking aside, 9.1 million is still a number most CEOs would trade their left testicle for. That's probably more subs than every current subscription-based MMO would have if combined.
I'm really curious what your point is? Yes, we all know WoW is declining and SHOULD be declining after 8 years. It probably will continue to decline. It would defy all expectations for a game as huge as WoW to surge again for long periods after 8 years. Sure, a niche game like Eve can continue to grow slowly and steadily because it started out very small, relatively speaking, it's another thing for a huge game such as WoW to suddenly start growing at this point.
The thing is, Blizzard already knows this and that's why they are working on Titan.
I'd say most would do that for 5 million.
Sooooooooo...
Anyone wanna start off a list of why WoW is losing subs throughout Cataclysm's tenure, or should I do that?
Of course I could just do that in my WoW review, but eh...
Well hopefully World of Warcrafts success didn't give them a big head, and cause them to pull a Shilling.
Oh yeah totally. WoW clones just don't work if you want to have any kind of significant playerbase. The thing is, most games coming out are not WoW clones at this point and all it takes is for a couple of them to take subs from WoW for them to lose even more subs then they are going to naturally just lose for being old. Yes I know alot of people say the game is old and its obviously going to lose subs, it obviously is, but the thing is that every time WoW loses subs it is an opportunity for MMOs in general. So hopefully this continues so that better games can come out and grow the industry. Everything WoW related is dated at this point (graphics,gameplay,content) and this allows the industry an opportunity to move on when there is more opportunity for OTHER games to grow.
Why can't people just accept that after 8 years they are tired of the game and move on? That the fact that WoW is finally declining has nothing to do with it "sucking" now and everything to do with the fact that it's just old?
Why can't people accept that even if WoW made all the changes they personally want to see that would keep them playing that there are an equal number of people who would quit because they don't like those changes.
People, it's 8 years old, there is nothing they can do at this stage to keep it from declining. The fact is that even in it's "declining" state it's still going to be a market leader for a few more years.
I enjoyed my time in WoW. I played it for years, had fun and am now ready for something new. I am unsubbed at the moment and am not planning to buy the new Expansion. I've already pre-ordered GW2 and am eagerly anticipating it.
I'm not sure what me being a fanboy has to do with the truth of my comments. Yes, WoW is declining and will likely keep declining, but even in decline it's still going to be the top game, monetarily or subscription numbers wise.
I think aside from the new competition coming, Blizzard is going to start seeing a loss in numbers if they continue to provide lack luster products.
Aside from poor expansions and content updates, Diablo 3 is another reason I feel why people are removing subs from WoW. I know that the two are different games, however they are produced from the same company and I feel players have lost faith in Blizzard after they have shown to extend their poor quality products to other titles.
If they keep making it easier and easier and keep stripping out the roleplaying elements and dumbing down systems they will continue to lose millions. Look at ToR. I fear there is another game yet to come out this year that followed the same "We don't want to overwhelm you with choices" model.
If people don't want to play simple WoW clones why would they want to play simple WoW?
Those of you who left WoW due to boring easy dungeons and simplified talent trees and systems come on over to TSW.
Well, Blizzard HAS been on top of the MMO world for so long that they probably got complacent, figuring that they were effectively invincible.
Except they got REALLY complacent at the worst possible time, when WoW was finally showing its age.
But that's just what I think.