What's your predictions for the Q1 Call?

[Osmeric]

Considering they gave me a 7 day pass recently... I'm assuming that they're trying to boost player counts for a short period until q1 is over.

Q1 ended a month ago.

[stumpy]

Whatever the report says, half the forum will be rushing to disavow it.

[Seranthor]

Whatever the report says, half the forum will be rushing to disavow it.

actually, there are some that will look at it as a business reporting to their stockholders, and they aren't going to give a damn if subs go up or down. I know this, because I'm one of them. I'm interested in how much money they've made on my investment.

[Osmeric]

By the way: if you want to listen to the earnings call

Activision (NASDAQ:ATVI) will report its fiscal Q1:13 (ending March) results after market close on Wednesday, May 8, and hold a call at 1:30pm PT (800-316-8317, passcode: 9157412, or at http://ir.activisionblizzard.com/events.cfm).

[But I Hate You All]

Maybe MMO champion should make an "Armchair Stockbrokers and Doomsayers" forum so that these threads could be kept in one place, preferably out of sight.

That was not needed

[Shadee]

Probably a huge sub loss, like 1 - 2 million. They will probably announce some new feature for the next xpac in a desperate attempt to regain subs.

[Malcor]

As I said in the previous thread - either subs stayed the same or went down. If they went up - Blizz would've already put out a press release saying so as they did 1 week after Q3 ended.

As I said in the previous thread - either 200-400k loss tops. I'm not playing so I can't comment as to why that might be (odd for me to be even hazarding an informed opinion, I know :P) but basically, from the outside, I don't see anything that would be pulling people away from WoW like Diablo 3 did with the 1 mil lost last time - and there REALLY wasn't a major radical shift in gameplay design since Panda launch that I know of... but then again the CRZ garbage is still in on PVE realms (which is why I'm not playing and many MANY have voiced as well) and I've read the problems with gating behind dallies still being some kinda issue...

Only 100?! You're letting us off too easy!

OT: Going to say a loss, anywhere between 200k - 400k, mainly due to the abrupt turn around they're having in design philosophy, similar to mid Cataclysm.

Ah Conscious and Mvallas

Good to see you two come out of your little troll bridges to cast predictions of doom and gloom like you do with every Quarterly release thread.

[Osmeric]

Ah Conscious and Mvallas

Good to see you two come out of your little troll bridges to cast predictions of doom and gloom like you do with every Quarterly release thread.

200-400K loss is doom and gloom?!

[Malcor]

200-400K loss is doom and gloom?!

not only are they so alike they predicted the exact same number. If you fight them on it they bring up how "BLIZZARD IS INCOMPETENT YOU FOOLS, LOOK AT CATACLYSM"

So yeah

[iggie]

I loved the icc 5 mans in wotlk, and I hate they gave up on that. While MoP has so many good things, it does bring a grindy feel and the asian theme is stale. At least in China, we see it as a joke. Expect a big sub loss in Asia, as usual.

[Glorious Leader]

I loved the icc 5 mans in wotlk, and I hate they gave up on that. While MoP has so many good things, it does bring a grindy feel and the asian theme is stale. At least in China, we see it as a joke. Expect a big sub loss in Asia, as usual.

That's interesting. The part about seeing it as a joke in china. Why exactly do you think that is? Is it cause it's very much westernized? like eating at chinese buffet and thinking your getting the real deal?

[iggie]

That's interesting. The part about seeing it as a joke in china. Why exactly do you think that is? Is it cause it's very much westernized? like eating at chinese buffet and thinking your getting the real deal?

Music is corny, and I don't see any of the zones as reflecting China, for example. I use an English client on CN realms and the names of characters/zones I see are quite silly. Guo lai ruins? That means "come here" in Chinese. I'm sure there's more specific reasons, and I can ask my guild on our next raid.

Also the majority of Chinese subs (if you can even call them that, pay as you go) play from internet cafes. As they grow up and leave college their play time is pretty much gone. Chinese graduates have a damn hard time finding work. So you may see WoW's poor job at drawing new subs in Asia as a factor in overall sub loss.

[mvaliz]

Ah Conscious and Mvallas

Good to see you two come out of your little troll bridges to cast predictions of doom and gloom like you do with every Quarterly release thread.

...first off, you're not supposed to call people "trolls" - it's agains the TOS here.

Second of all, my post above was rather positive I thought. 200-400k is actually rather respectable at this stage. Cataclysm was having 800k and 1.1 million drops in their quarterly reports.

Despite me NOT having played MoP - I'm suspecting that the good gameplay and variety of things to do in MoP is what's STOPPING a mass exodus like Cataclysm, and the only ones we're seeing departing are the disgruntled Hardcore crowd and MAYBE the CRZ haters (But I'll admit most of those have probably already left by this point...)

EDIT: Third - I did predict last quarter's sub-loss quite accurately, which was the same ballpark fig. Just want to point that out. :P

[Glorious Leader]

Music is corny, and I don't see any of the zones as reflecting China, for example. I use an English client on CN realms and the names of characters/zones I see are quite silly. Guo lai ruins? That means "come here" in Chinese. I'm sure there's more specific reasons, and I can ask my guild on our next raid.

Also the majority of Chinese subs (if you can even call them that, pay as you go) play from internet cafes. As they grow up and leave college their play time is pretty much gone. Chinese graduates have a damn hard time finding work. So you may see WoW's poor job at drawing new subs in Asia as a factor in overall sub loss.

lol come here ruins! that's pretty good. I wonder if anybody knew over at blizzard. I have to imagine somebody told them at some point. Yea i'd be curious what the rest of your guild thinks about this. I figured the chinese market would eat this up but I guess it really is just westernized BS.

[mvaliz]

not only are they so alike they predicted the exact same number. If you fight them on it they bring up how "BLIZZARD IS INCOMPETENT YOU FOOLS, LOOK AT CATACLYSM"

So yeah

Ummm... no I don't. Did you not log into MMO-Champ within the last 2 years? :P

Care to find a post of mine in the past 3 months where I say "BLIZZARD IS INCOMPETENT YOU FOOLS!"? In fact, I've been VERY positive about MoP features - save for the CRZ on my PVE server, which is pissing me off as I REALLY want to play MoP, but refuse to do so as long as CRZ remains (or no alternative option is given) on my PVE sever.

[BenBos]

Ummm... no I don't. Did you not log into MMO-Champ within the last 2 years? :P

Care to find a post of mine in the past 3 months where I say "BLIZZARD IS INCOMPETENT YOU FOOLS!"? In fact, I've been VERY positive about MoP features - save for the CRZ on my PVE server, which is pissing me off as I REALLY want to play MoP, but refuse to do so as long as CRZ remains (or no alternative option is given) on my PVE sever.

Odd... You already stated you didn't play MoP, but the CRZ is pissing you off.

No experience is hearsay, as always with these wise guys.

Also the in game content is secundary to the state of the OVERALL industry when subscriptions are discussed.

Situation 2010: WoW 11.5 million subs in a world of 16 million subscription based mmo's...
Situation 2013: WoW 9 million subs in a world with 11 million subscription based mmo's...

So you are wrong by looking only to WoW subs: the complete SUBSCRIPTION BASED MMO's went down due to free to play on line games. Most subscription based games simply went free to play (mostly to survive).

And certainly one CRZ zone here and there doesn't mean much in the GREATER things of this industry.

And as stated before: this is about Q financial calls: those are not only related to some subs in WoW, but to the general health of the company and its sister company. Hearthstone is such an example of a future project, as is the launch of D3 on console couch play or Blizzard's all stars.

People who think that discussing Fin Quater results is only about 200k subs less or more are really still living in the years that passed: there is hardly a subscription based mmo industry left .... outside of WoW and EvE.

[Deleted]

Odd... You already stated you didn't play MoP, but the CRZ is pissing you off.

No experience is hearsay, as always with these wise guys.

Also the in game content is secundary to the state of the OVERALL industry when subscriptions are discussed.

Situation 2010: WoW 11.5 million subs in a world of 16 million subscription based mmo's...
Situation 2013: WoW 9 million subs in a world with 11 million subscription based mmo's...

So you are wrong by looking only to WoW subs: the complete SUBSCRIPTION BASED MMO's went down due to free to play on line games. Most subscription based games simply went free to play (mostly to survive).

And certainly one CRZ zone here and there doesn't mean much in the GREATER things of this industry.

And as stated before: this is about Q financial calls: those are not only related to some subs in WoW, but to the general health of the company and its sister company. Hearthstone is such an example of a future project, as is the launch of D3 on console couch play or Blizzard's all stars.

People who think that discussing Fin Quater results is only about 200k subs less or more are really still living in the years that passed: there is hardly a subscription based mmo industry left .... outside of WoW and EvE.

Just because he isn't playing WoW atm doesn't mean he hasn't got any experience of said issue. Jump to conclusions without reading properly , as always with these wise guys.

[iggie]

lol come here ruins! that's pretty good. I wonder if anybody knew over at blizzard. I have to imagine somebody told them at some point. Yea i'd be curious what the rest of your guild thinks about this. I figured the chinese market would eat this up but I guess it really is just westernized BS.

Well, before I moved to China I liked Chinese food. Then I realized it wasn't really Chinese food. I had some Chinese food on my last trip to Canada, and I threw up.

Even KFC here, it's completely a Chinese version of KFC. You can't get a chicken burger most KFC's anymore. Straight bucket of chicken? Nope!


MOP is most likely similar. Westernized "asian" theme, which has little to no impact on the asian market.

[Deleted]

lol come here ruins! that's pretty good. I wonder if anybody knew over at blizzard. I have to imagine somebody told them at some point. Yea i'd be curious what the rest of your guild thinks about this. I figured the chinese market would eat this up but I guess it really is just westernized BS.

Chinese female online gamer prefer cute and childish games. WoW and Diablo 3 where not all that popular with female Chinese player and they miss on millions of potential player. The panda theme might have been aimed at this group. It wasn't all the ineffective, they made new record with 1 million peak online when Mist released, but even if its cuter its just weird with nonsense pseudo Chinese names and geographically wrong architecture and art mixed into the pseudo Chinese theme, and WoW could still not make it over third place of Chinese time-based MMORPG (Chinese version of subscription) and lags behind FWJII Online and very childish style FWJ which peaked at 1.3 and 2.7 million online player last year.

You could see the result equivalent to oversized swords and bikini plate armour in western style fantasy MMO made in China. Like everything seems ok but then something completely ridiculous is turning you off again.

[Draenox]

A slight drop, but then again who really cares if you're having fun?