WoW Loses 1.1 Million Subscribers, Down to 9.1 Million

Originally Posted by Nefastus

I doubt they will regain most of those subscribers back. Pandamon xpac theme doesnt help much either. Also the ammount of F2P games nowadays make it hard for P2P games I supose. Too many coming out.

I have a feeling that is MoP does not bring back up the subscriber number, around the time they hit 5 million they will likely develop into a F2P model with emphasis on selling more pets, mounts, heirlooms, battle pets, transmog gear, etc... on the Blizzard Store. They are going to milk the P2P as long as possible though, so it won't happen unless Blizzard realizes the old model is no longer working.

A F2P WoW would be pretty insane though with the amount of players it could possibly gather.

i joined LFR on my alt and got a full 24 group wid me after waiting 10 min , if this stays like this then im happy WoW will always be fun for me cos im limited on time most of the time , i feel the pressure of not having enough time

I want to say that one reason TBC had gained more subs during its end days probably is that WOTLK expansion had featured the major lore figure, the Lich King as the final boss. Any warcraft fan would be excited to get a chance to fight against Arthas given how WC3:TFT had ended and eager to see how the end would be. At least that's reason I re-subbed 2 months before WOTLK came out and had blast during that zombie event (oh good old times...). But I hated TBC expansion as a whole. I remember the horrible experience about early TBC. It took months to get enough ppl Karazan attuned, at the moment we hit curator 5 of those left. Then I jumped to another guild, killed Gruul, started poking the lurker, guild MT burned out and decided to go afk, the guild fell apart. I took 18months break since then.

Although I agree that the whole cataclysm expansion is indeed very lack of end game contents, Fireland with 7 bosses, DS with 8 bosses. No war of acient raid, no abyssmaw raid, blizzard had failed to deliver a lot of stuff they had promised so such big dip of sub is what they get in the end. Hope they will pick up the pace in panda.

Originally Posted by Televators

Rose colored glasses with the whole TBC thing. At the time, people bitched and complained that TBC was fail and years later, it's remembered far differently. Don't fool yourself, the same loud mouths will always complain.

I never said it was perfect. I still remember my and guildmates frustration when we were all the time in Kara when hardcore raiders ran trough BT, TK and SSC. It wasn't good feeling and 10/25 modes for every raid was perfect move from Blizz. But for sure Cataclysm ruined alm every aspect of game for me. List is long and ofc it's only my personal opinion. I hope MoP will give me hope and fun again.

I'm really impress that a 7 years old game have still that much players... Maybe people saying that Wow is dead/dying should look at the numbers of all others MMO... Even if I'm not playing as much as before, I'm still enjoying it!

So much worry in this thread from people who wasted hundreds of hours on pointless achievements

Oh, look at all those worried fanboys! Almost 3 million lost in a year and a half? And here comes GW2 and the annual passes ending. Gotta grab my popcorn.

As somebody who used to raid, and now no longer wants to, I can tell you the exact problem with WoW: It's audience has aged with it and now has other commitments in life; and, although we still love games, we no longer love the idea of committing to a game. I mean, it's a great game, but it's not for me anymore.

I mean, the gamers aren't going elsewhere, (every MMO seems to be dropping in subscribers), they just, increasingly, no longer feel like committing so much time and effort into a single game.

Plus right now we are out of content. As fun as heroic DS was, kill me if I'm going to run it again. The game needs more open world content (and not just end game content.)

It used to be fun for months, even years, because it used to take months, even years to explore the whole place. Cata had some of the funnest content, but it only lasted for a couple of weeks at a time, so quarterly updates just won't cut it.

If I'm going to stay subscribed I want to see something new every time I log on, whether I log on once, or one hundred times during a particular patch.

EDIT: I mean, "BC WAs better omg the game is too ez now" people are still subscribed. They aren't the ones unsubing by the millions.

Originally Posted by lizard22

I never said it was perfect. I still remember my and guildmates frustration when we were all the time in Kara when hardcore raiders ran trough BT, TK and SSC. It wasn't good feeling and 10/25 modes for every raid was perfect move from Blizz. But for sure Cataclysm ruined alm every aspect of game for me. List is long and ofc it's only myy personal opinion. I hope MoP will give me hope and fun again.

No one is saying Cataclysm had no issues. Even supporters like me consider Cataclysm to be the weakest of the expansions by far. The issue comes from what we considered the weak points. Here is how I saw the expansion failing in a short little list.

1) It was not too easy, the issue is it started out too hard. When you cultivate a certain style of play, it's much easier to reduce the difficulty then to increase it. By increasing it they created a brick wall for those that got used to the type of play in WOTLK, which caused many to just give up rather quickly.

2) Guild Levels are too punishing, and the rewards are too good. Why join a new guild if it's level 5 when you can find an established level 25? It's impossible to level a small friendship guild.

3) Quests are way to linear. The design of having multiple quest hubs with lots of quests you could do in conjunction, was replaced with the railroad. You no longer feel like an adventurer running into a new world and more a private in the army that got thrown into a war you don't really want to fight. Enemies were consolidated, mostly having ties with either the enemy faction or the Twilight's Hammer, removing a lot of the unique feel of the zones.

4) Faction defamation. The Alliance were treated very poorly this expansion with a lot of dropped story threads and pretty forgettable characters, Horde characterization was heavily altered to create conflict and drive the Horde back to a darker edge. I loved Thrall's Horde, but I can't even stomach playing in Garrosh's Horde. The grey and conflicted internal struggles that made the Horde interesting have been set aside for baby stomping. Sadly, MoP may not fix this till 5.3 rolls out.

5) Low content. This expansion did have very little content compared to the last, but that is understandable considering what they attempted with the old world revamp. MoP for the most part feels much more content rich then Cataclysm, and the zones feel consistence rather then a random sampling of zones scattered around.

How anyone can pay 15 bucks a month on this game in its current stage is beyond me.. and if its fun, then all i can do is lol at you.

Wow you people are lying to yourselves about wow not dying... at this time in wrath wow had broke the 12 million threshold before cata then cata came along and shattered that sending us back into the dark ages of bc

Originally Posted by manswtor

and guess what, I got a 30min queue to Outland Eu server, yeah......... I'm not worried considering the queue will be 7 hours long just like in cata and before.

Yes, because your one server with a queue makes up for the 60 dead EU servers. Good one!!! SWTOR anyone?

I know personally when my AP runs out I will be unsubbing. Not because "lol wowsux" but because of changes in life and prioritizing what's important to me. I'm not 18 anymore and able to raid 4 nights a week for 4 hours, and to me the only thing to do in WoW is raid. And why raid if you aren't the server best? I never understood the battle of games. Why can't someone enjoy both Rift and WoW? Or GW2 (it's not sub based anyways) and WoW? You should WANT WoWs competition to be successful that way Blizzard can't rest on their laurels.

Ouch... 1.1 Million subs lost in 1 quarter, and that's before GW2 is released, SWTOR goes free to play, and the Annual Pass runs out, all of which will undoubtedly cause the numbers to drop further. I wouldn't be surprised if WoW was free to play by the next expansion, especially if MoP is as underwhelming as it appears to be.

Originally Posted by Grocalis

No one is saying Cataclysm had no issues. Even supporters like me consider Cataclysm to be the weakest of the expansions by far. The issue comes from what we considered the weak points. Here is how I saw the expansion failing in a short little list.

1) It was not too easy, the issue is it started out too hard. When you cultivate a certain style of play, it's much easier to reduce the difficulty then to increase it. By increasing it they created a brick wall for those that got used to the type of play in WOTLK, which caused many to just give up rather quickly.

2) Guild Levels are too punishing, and the rewards are too good. Why join a new guild if it's level 5 when you can find an established level 25? It's impossible to level a small friendship guild.

3) Quests are way to linear. The design of having multiple quest hubs with lots of quests you could do in conjunction, was replaced with the railroad. You no longer feel like an adventurer running into a new world and more a private in the army that got thrown into a war you don't really want to fight. Enemies were consolidated, mostly having ties with either the enemy faction or the Twilight's Hammer, removing a lot of the unique feel of the zones.

4) Faction defamation. The Alliance were treated very poorly this expansion with a lot of dropped story threads and pretty forgettable characters, Horde characterization was heavily altered to create conflict and drive the Horde back to a darker edge. I loved Thrall's Horde, but I can't even stomach playing in Garrosh's Horde. The grey and conflicted internal struggles that made the Horde interesting have been set aside for baby stomping. Sadly, MoP may not fix this till 5.3 rolls out.

5) Low content. This expansion did have very little content compared to the last, but that is understandable considering what they attempted with the old world revamp. MoP for the most part feels much more content rich then Cataclysm, and the zones feel consistence rather then a random sampling of zones scattered around.

1: Imagine going from AOEable Heroics that were done in 30mins for years, then out of nowhere, you're having to CC every trash pull for 90minutes of 1 Heroic. Shit wasn't fun at all. So I agree with your statement there, Heroics were completely overtuned.

2: Guild Ranks should have never had a cap to begin with. I wouldn't mind grinding quests mindlessly to power level the guild.

3: I LOOOVE linear questing. I fucking hate having to go from one side of a zone to the complete opposite then back again, just for quests. Having them right in front of my face while continuing a seemingly never ending path made leveling by far the most enjoyable.

4: I love the Supremacy of Garrosh, he's mein Furor.

5: The old world revamp I thought was complete bullshit, I wanted more and more top level content. Not some new shit for my alts. I still feel like I paid for an expansion that was directed to bring in new players, fucking over the vets.

Originally Posted by Redriot

I know personally when my AP runs out I will be unsubbing. Not because "lol wowsux" but because of changes in life and prioritizing what's important to me. I'm not 18 anymore and able to raid 4 nights a week for 4 hours, and to me the only thing to do in WoW is raid. And why raid if you aren't the server best? I never understood the battle of games. Why can't someone enjoy both Rift and WoW? Or GW2 (it's not sub based anyways) and WoW? You should WANT WoWs competition to be successful that way Blizzard can't rest on their laurels.

Pretty much in the same boat here.

EDIT: I'd stay subscribed if there was something NEW to do every time I logged on. But there's not; and there won't be.

No worries here. I play when I have time and it is always my first choice. This game is the best. It has everything I ever have wanted from a game.

Originally Posted by shadowflay

How anyone can pay 15 bucks a month on this game in its current stage is beyond me.. and if its fun, then all i can do is lol at you.

I see nothing wrong with the current state of the game so I pay the monthly fee to have some fun. Different people, different tastes. Do not assume that because you think that it's not fun that everyone thinks that. And 'lol-ing' at people that do find it fun does not make you 'better' than them.

1.1 million is a lot, especially for one quarter but will that stop me from enjoying/playing the game? Not really. I will keep playing (and paying) as long as I am enjoying myself. In my opinion people put way too much thought and energy in what other people are doing in this game. Do what you want to do in this game and play as long as you want to play. Don't enjoy it anymore? Then stop playing and find something that you do enjoy!

Originally Posted by McNeil

Just gonna say this... I'm bored anyway...

''WoW still has way more subs than any other mmorpg game!''

Yes, thank TBC and WotLk for that. Cata only made the subs decline once it got launched, and to be honest I see MoP doing either the same or worse aswell. Just because WoW still has quite a lot of subs (despite the HUGE drop in only 1.5 year), doesn't mean its going to last for longas it could easily lose another 3 million subs in another year and forth. Keep in mind that the minority of the subs actually pay 15 bucks monthly.

''WoW is not dying!''

This is actually untrue. I'm not saying that WoW is ''dead'', but you could call it ''dying''. Lets say I got 12 million liter blood in my body, and I'm losing more and more blood and it eventually reaches 9.1 million liter blood, than I'm growing weaker and weaker. Eventually if my blood reaches like 500.000 liter, I die, and it could work with WoW aswell. So yes, If I'm losing blood than I am dying, just as WoW is losing subs its dying aswell.

Subs = WoW's blood, think about it

someones been playing too much dayz

Originally Posted by LordRayken

Diablo 3 kept people occupied at MOST, about two weeks. Some people who have never played a single Diablo game before, maybe a month.

I find it hilarious they pin 1.1 million losses on a subscription-less Hack n Slash game that flopped.

Yeah, I played Diablo through once and 1/2 way through the next level. Once I had seen the story, I kinda got bored. Probably why I prefered the TBC wow model of many raids (more content), one difficulty - I prefered that.