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

Originally Posted by sgtslappy

I bet they were referencing MoP and 4.3. The business year? Last until the middle of last year or something.

The fiscal year and calendar year may not be the same thing, depending on how their internal system work. For many companies, it's different:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_year

The more subs WoW loses the better. When Blizzard get scared, the quality of WoW will improve. I wait with baited breath!

<crosses his fingers for a Titan-announcement next blizzcon..>

one may hope

you notice how they bring up more reasons for dropped subscribers the larger the amount is

Originally Posted by ashblond

Not even surprised that most of the subscriptions were lost in China.WoW is really in a bad shape in China.

Isn't Cataclysm not yet released there ? I think they're still in the postICC-preCata gap, if that's the case subscription lost can be considered pretty "normal".

Edit : Some say they got cataclysm in July, so well, my mistake. Then I guess it's more or less the same thing that we got here a few months after cataclysm's release.

"The decreased profit came from all of the games in development and no launches occurring." investors will say: release Diablo III now! hehe Anyway, subs loss is simply due to the fact, that Cata wasn't for China players. They liked Wrath content, that's all. MoP is the answer and I am now asking myself: is blizzard making wow for China or for the rest of the world? Because tastes in both cases are very, very different. We like different things than they.

Originally Posted by Dundebuns

The more subs WoW loses the better. When Blizzard get scared, the quality of WoW will improve. I wait with baited breath!

I don't think so. They'll just find different ways of making money (more microtransactions/premium features) to offset the losses.

Originally Posted by chaud

Large image

I'm one of those who quit. I didn't quit because it was lame, because of LOLPANDAS, it was too hard or etc. I quit because it has become such a fucking chore on the high end to find 24 people who aren't fuckwits. Seriously, it's like everyone forgot how to raid in WotLK. On top of all of that it's such a bitch keeping this game running. Every other week it seems lag pops up for the MT or for the MT healer or something. Because of this game I've learned more about my computer and how to fuck with it than in any classroom. I'm tired of the stress this game brings. I couldn't get back into raider in my old guild (leader said he didn't want me back into raiding though I was consistently outperforming raiders on their alts in the alt group week in and week out) nor find a guild that raided like 6 hours a week, progressed and got shit down. I'm also a Rogue, who while we do good dps, aren't real helpful to the group, so having 1 is usually enough for a 25man. I also no longer have any IRL friends playing this game, seeing as they all just got too busy to play seriously. I think I'll just stop here because you get the fucking point.

/end rant. After reading all of that and likely being able to add more, it makes me wonder why I didn't quit sooner.

Now that I feel better, the reason I quoted you was because I just wanted to add that the reason RS went up with so many accounts is because of the MASSIVE amount of botters/RWT'ers that came back once they rereleased Free Trade and the Old Wild. They just released a huge anti botting measure and the game went from 225k people consistently on at this time to around 70k. Once that Chart updates to include last month and this month, you should see a huge dropoff for RS too.

Despite WoW being 100x more fun than RS it's 1000x more of a pain in the ass at the high end (and costs a lot more) so as of right now I play Runescape, mainly because it's something to do.

On lost numbers, very frankly, we're at a global financial crisis, they have to drop the price. Here in EU we give almost 16 dollars. That's what most people pay to have a full communication service like 24/7 internet.

Correct me if I'm wrong but those 2 releases, are they not talking about WoW specifically? 4.3 Q1 and MoP Q2/Q3? But aisde, 800k sub loss, not surprising, Cata is just not as good ad TBC/Wotlk. MoP looks fantastic though (The fact that there is a race of panda people doesn't count, no one complains about our resident Cow-people or human goats.) and hopefully it'll bring more subs in. Out of curiosity I'd like to see how many people they got in with the new free trial (The level 20 capped jobby).

I think that the loss of Chinese subscribers is a bit more than "they didn't like Pandaren".

China has a very fascinating mass-bubble economy going on right now. The demographic of persons who play WoW in China are possibly those of a sub-middle class who are being literally sacrificed for the rising GDP of the country, and likely are unable to afford playing an MMO anymore.What I'm saying is that, yes, WoW lost subscribers but they didn't lose them to any other oncomming or pre-existing MMO.

This is why the note was made in the earnings call: wealthy investors already understand the volatile global markets going on, and this is a subtle warning for those who are understanding China's economic climate behind the hype of China becoming THE economic superpower to invest in.

Originally Posted by greyghost

I think that the loss of Chinese subscribers is a bit more than "they didn't like Pandaren".

China has a very fascinating mass-bubble economy going on right now. The demographic of persons who play WoW in China are possibly those of a sub-middle class who are being literally sacrificed for the rising GDP of the country, and likely are unable to afford playing an MMO anymore.What I'm saying is that, yes, WoW lost subscribers but they didn't lose them to any other oncomming or pre-existing MMO.

This is why the note was made in the earnings call: wealthy investors already understand the volatile global markets going on, and this is a subtle warning for those who are understanding China's economic climate behind the hype of China becoming THE economic superpower to invest in.

Logic has no place here!

I wonder how many Annual Passes they've secured, and whether or not it was mentioned in the call.

LULZZZ I remember during the LAST announcement that most people thought the exodus would slow. So in the last 3 quarters, they've lost hundreds of thousands of players. So if the pattern continues, the next quarter could be 1.3 million or more losses. WOW. That's a lot of money gone.

Despite their belief that the holidays bring more players - perhaps in previous years but they weren't bleeding like this in past holiday years. Nor did they have a STORM of games to compete with, now there's games like Rift that some people switched to for whatever reason, Star Wars coming, and even Battlefield/MW3 will entertain some and draw time away from the gamers.

Then all the negative backlash over the Blizzcon announcements. Pandas...Pokemon...say what you will, maybe you love them...but there's apparently just as many people who don't.

Right now is what I consider the "perfect storm" which Blizzard I hope really tries to fight off. Wow won't be dying but ouch, this isn't just bleeding now.

Originally Posted by Roose

cheers!

Are there really that many investors on this site? Why do people care so much unless it affects their money?

I have stock in blizzard, activision, and EA. As long as some other Tech stocks. The news is more about fiscal trending for investors and it does directly affect the games we play. Shareholders dont make money that BOTTOM LINE gets bolder and bolder, meaning that they will do what it needs to do to cut costs. This will cause delays in production as a whole, and their ability to launch more modern games, or lets say give wow the polish that it needs.

Yeah, this earnings report is before they announced MoP, they're real-time numbers are even worse I'm sure, granted there is some love for MoP out there, but there is almost an equal amount of hate and people that subsequently cancelled because of it.

The upcoming releases of SWTOR and GW2 are going to play hell on WoW's subscription numbers as well.

I don't think they are going to be able to claim a rise in subscriptions in one of these investor calls until MoP releases, but it's doubtful even then. Although the hate for WotLK is strong, it will be remembered as WoW's golden age at some point in the future I'm sure.

Originally Posted by fateswarm

On lost numbers, very frankly, we're at a global financial crisis, they have to drop the price. Here in EU we give almost 16 dollars. That's what most people pay to have a full communication service like 24/7 internet.

really? cause my internet is 49.99 USD a month and that is internet alone.

Originally Posted by Chudah

The fiscal year and calendar year may not be the same thing, depending on how their internal system work. For many companies, it's different:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiscal_year

Fiscal year, that's the term I was looking for.

It looks like their Fiscal Year is from January 1 to December 31 if I found the correct source.

Anyway, I wonder if they're referring exclusively to WoW or all of there franchises because I count three major releases. MoP, HoTS and Diablo 3. wtb more information.

Originally Posted by fateswarm

On lost numbers, very frankly, we're at a global financial crisis, they have to drop the price. Here in EU we give almost 16 dollars. That's what most people pay to have a full communication service like 24/7 internet.

16 dollars is is quite cheap compared to how much some people play this game and the stability of the servers.

Originally Posted by Kivimetsan

oh noes wow is dying better go play star wars...

ok, will do

Gee more people quit huh, what a shock. Well guess what, people will continue to quit and Blizz will lose even more money. I foresee only 1 solution to remedy this, fire Tom Chilton!...then delete Arena...lol.

Originally Posted by matheney2k

THIS! So much this! I'm betting MoP and this other "major release next year" will be awesome since Blizz's back is against the wall at this point. I know everybody is saying "lol @ only 800k subs they still have 10mil+ oh noes!". Yea they still have over 10mil active subs, but when it comes to business standpoint, and investors, etc, once you taste the top they will never want to lose it, especially in this economy that we have. 1/10 (roughly) loss of subs will put pressure on blizzard from the people who write their checks to 'fix' it. Make no mistake about it they are worried, and it's time for Blizz to step it up, which they will I'm sure

Nobody will ever dare to tell Blizzard what they have to do. Well atleast to the Point when it comes to making more Money with a "finished" Game.. Char Transfers Faction Change etc hi@Activision.