WoW Down to 10.3M Subscribers, PTR Build 14966, Class Balance Q&A, TCG Art

Only 10.2 million left!? OH NO. WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!!!

so... i was off by 500,000. I figured the loss would be 300k... not 800k.

My WoW account is frozen too atm, because I'm busy with other things, but I plan to re-open my subscription soon.

If those subscription losses continue through the next quarter, despite 4.3, the annual pass deal and MoP's announcement, then that would spell out a serious problem for Blizzard. Of course, Blizzard already has a problem here - at any time that you're losing subs instead of gaining them, that's bad, and 1.7 million in such a time is terrible - but if they can't fix it with those big elements in the mix, it wouldn't be too outlandish to suggest that WoW might be on an irreversable decline. After all, an expansion is the single biggest thing that they can do to try and rake in subscribers.

hopefully they will start improving this game , by graphics.. old char models :Si mean ears vs helm plate, those ears are just insanely sharp cuz i can see them throug the helm

And they will gain even more when MoP is launched. No biggie.

most of the losses were in China... probably because of the change to Loot, were if you need on a BoE item it become soul bound no great loss there.

Achievement Earned Going Down?

The game will continue to lose subs as long as the game designers are not paying attention to the user's main gripes with the game.

They won't get any new subscribers because the game has gotten way too expensive for a newbie.

$30 for Classic + 1st X-pac
WOTLK x-pac is still $39 WTF!? Nobody plays that content, it is literally 10 levels of quick grind that people blow past to get to Cataclysm content.

A game that cost $30 + $39 + $39 = $108 for about 6 weeks of gameplay for the average noob to hit 85, not counting the game time sub you need to pay $15/month a pop.

This is the most expensive MMO game.

They need to push out a $60 package that gives you 1 month of wow and all of the x-pac in one bundle.

Originally Posted by Sindern

And they will gain even more when MoP is launched. No biggie.

It's worth noting that it's also possible to lose subscribers on a subscription. While it may entice players back, it can also isolate some players. It may well be the "enough is enough" point for some, especially is money is a concern. While Blizzard's prior expansions have had a positive effect on subscriptions overall, I don't think that they've been launched on such a significant decline before.

What's also worth considering is that TOR is launching at the worst possible time for Blizzard. People may well decide to buy that instead of upgrading to the expansion.

"There will be at least two major releases next year."

MoP and what? Another Blizzard game or are we still talking about wow?


"Most of the subscriptions were lost in China."

I doubt it was just China that unsubscribed. Losing 10% of the player base is huge. Think about it. That's 10% less people to group with making queues increase.


"There is normally an increase in subscriptions around December."

And there's also an increase in people that sign up for gyms in January. It doesn't mean YOUR subscriptions will increase. New games are dropping in December. Star Wars TOR to name one big contender.


"The decreased profit came from all of the games in development and no launches occurring."

A bad expansion in Cataclysm with little content didn't help either. All in all, these four statements do very little to help the situation and only shows Blizzard is on the defensive.

Why would bots be on Chinese servers when the gold buyers are on European/US servers?Chinese servers most likely have way less bots/farmers than US/EU.

Im in EU but play on EU & US server also. A friend in Asia plays on EU servers with me.

After Diablo 3's Annual Pass wears off, I think WoW is going to crash. Not immediately or as drastic as people will expect, but a definite huge loss of subscribers and all sorts of problems because of it. Mists of Pandaria better be badass, what they've shown of it so far does not thrill me.A new race, which is hit or miss in terms of "I want to play this race". And no new antagonist. Sure the concept of horde vs. alliance will be interesting in both playstyle and story, but for the casual gamer browsing games on the shelf of wal-mart, it's going to look like the same old game.Mists of Pandaria is not the expansion they should be adding when in a loss of subscribers trend.

Well I know why the most recent sub loss came in, Everyone has this "OMFG Blizz y r u copy Kung Fu Panda WoW is fer babiez nao I'mma cancelling my sub now kthxbai" attitude. So many people that don't understand that Pandaren were in WarCraft before Kung Fu Panda ever came out! Yes it was a joke then but technically PANDAREN WERE THERE FIRST. However, a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that the chinese people respect pandas like gods and would never consider them being violent ever. Its like putting Jesus in WoW as a playable character... anyway, a lot of people are also burned out and are going to other games... WoW will likely not have enough subs for Blizz to do another Xpac after MoP... They will probably end up doing a raid against Sargeras at the end of MoP the same way they tossed Sunwell on at the end of BC and call it the end of the warcraft storyline.

Originally Posted by Gorthalis

What's also worth considering is that TOR is launching at the worst possible time for Blizzard. People may well decide to buy that instead of upgrading to the expansion.

This, so much this. They've lost 1.7 mil BEFORE SWTOR release, I fully expect another 1 mil loss with the release of SWTOR and GW2.

Blizz is feeling the loss, and quite frankly it looks good on them, arrogance isn't atractive.

Also, as far as the 2 releases next year, I'm thinking Blizz is going to do D3 the end of this year, then SC2 HotS first half of next year followed by MoP end of next year.

In response to an earlier post, wow hardly has "20X more than any other MMO". There are some MMO's that do have 2 and 3 million subscribers. I think this is more than end of the xpac bleed though. I'd say we're gonna get down to 8 million before the bleed is over and before Mists hits. Then we'll be lucky to jump up to 10 million subscribers before the bleed off continues. Wow IS in decline. No matter how much people stomp their feet and say it isnt so, the numbers show different. Its a 7 year old game. 7 year old graphics. 7 year old ideas. This isnt a bad thing and it doesnt mean you'll try to log on tomorrow, next week or next year even and find there is no more wow. It DOES mean that people need to face that this game is losing subscribers and will continue to. Its natural. I'd say Blizzard would have to pull a miracle off to completely reverse the declines and grow the numbers beyond what we hit with Wrath.

They won't get any new subscribers because the game has gotten way too expensive for a newbie.

$30 for Classic + 1st X-pac
WOTLK x-pac is still $39 WTF!? Nobody plays that content, it is literally 10 levels of quick grind that people blow past to get to Cataclysm content.

A game that cost $30 + $39 + $39 = $108 for about 6 weeks of gameplay for the average noob to hit 85, not counting the game time sub you need to pay $15/month a pop.

This is the most expensive MMO game.

They need to push out a $60 package that gives you 1 month of wow and all of the x-pac in one bundle.

This. This. 1000 times this.

I couldn't even think of bringing a friend into WoW at this point. I haven't brought a friend into WoW since WotLK and that was as a birthday gift and, it was a fairly pricey gift too. I did at least get a mount reward out of it, but still...oofa.

So yeah, no growth because the fucking morons in charge see "oh no, we can't combine cost centers, tho are separate products" or some bean-counter bullshit instead of realizing that VANILLA CONTENT DOESNT EVEN EXIST SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU EVEN SELLING?

They should sell Cata, period, and fold everything else into it. Cata was the rebirth anyway, it's the 1-60 and 80-85 so then just fold the middle sections in and sell that. When MoP comes out, OK then that's a new expansion pack just like TBC was to original WoW.

Seriously. With the game free to play to level 20, I just twink with friends who don't already have WoW. Nobody's going to be buying it that I know, period.

Originally Posted by ScorchHellfire

Are they saying MoP won't be next year or are they saying HotS won't be next year? Because it seemed pretty likely that both would be coming out in 2012 before...

"at least" implies there are more than 2.

If most of the subscribers were lost in China, does that mean Blizzard are just doing a good job at shutting down all those gold farmer accounts :P?