"Legion pre-purchases are tracking in-line with the previous expansion."

[Pickynerd]

A lot have returned, I have been in queue several times on both my ally and horde server, there are a lot on medium server that were low, and most of the mediums went to high, or full.

Never know how long the boom will last, but there are a lot of new players as well as returning players.

[SirCowdog]

The community is too damn stupid to handle constructive discussion on the numbers.
The haters always find "proof" in those numbers for their gripes, even though their gripes are never something that was changed in isolation, being the only change over that period of time.
Plus there is a difference between a sale of a buy-to-play game and a subscription, as one is simply a one-off and the other has been proven to be cyclical, as much as some want to deny it.

I've noticed. But I keep trying anyway. Every now and then people male sense.

[Krille]

I'll totally admit ignorance on whether China uses a different system. Are you saying that in China, they won't need to buy the box to play Legion? And they haven't had to buy the boxes to play previous expacs such as WoD?

China WoW is a completely different beast, but i'm sure they buy the game, but probably not for the full amount. Otherwise Blizzard wouldn't release cinematics/commercials in chinese, which they have done.

[Fenixdown]

How is that logical? Just because people stopped playing WoD doesnt mean they didn't buy the game. So if the amount that bought Legion is roughly the same as WoD we should see about the same amount of people at launch.

Well, yeah, it does. You're thinking everybody up and bought Warlords all at once in the first couple of weeks. That was most definitely not the case. Their subscription numbers were not identical to their expansion sales, more like 40-60% of them.

So, if they're going in with a lower total number of subscribers initially, and selling only an identical number of boxes, you're still looking at nothing remotely close to 10 million subscribers. 7-8 tops.

[MoanaLisa]

I'll totally admit ignorance on whether China uses a different system. Are you saying that in China, they won't need to buy the box to play Legion? And they haven't had to buy the boxes to play previous expacs such as WoD?

China is apparently moving to subscriptions. So that's a change from the pay-by-the-hour business that they were doing. I don't know if that means they have to buy the box or not; probably yes but I honestly don't know. And no, most WoW play in China has been in places sort of like Internet Cafes using game cards where the game is licensed by the vendor of the place, not the player. I have no idea how you would sort out whether someone had licensed Legion or not if China goes to subscriptions although I suppose it could be done through some sort of card. If anyone there wants to chime in on this I'd like to hear about the changes.

Apparently internet game room players are crazy about Overwatch so maybe that's behind the change.

[Berengil]

I should certainly hope so it's tracking in line.

You would literally have to sht in a box and write LEGION on the outside for it to be worse than WoD.

[xenogear3]

Three flaws.

Most people live pay check to pay check.
Especially, Blizzard illegally charges people while the product is not released. "pre-purchase"?
WoW players are on welfare. No extra money.

Sub is more important than the expansion price.
If people sub a month, then quit.
That is no good. The sub is $180 a year. The game is only $50.

China, the most important market, doesn't have to buy the expansion.

[corebit]

China WoW is a completely different beast, but i'm sure they buy the game, but probably not for the full amount. Otherwise Blizzard wouldn't release cinematics/commercials in chinese, which they have done.

Nope, Asia does not buy the WoW client/expansions. Those are free to download. They only need pay the monthly sub money. China in particular only had until now charge-per-minute option but they have recently announced a sub model.

[MoanaLisa]

Especially, Blizzard illegally charges people while the product is not released. "pre-purchase"?

A note to point out that no one is forced to pre-purchase to play the game. This is a choice that customers can make. Hence it is not illegal.

[ComputerNerd]

They are different in the fact that they defend a shit product further encouraging blizz to put out the same crap quality when it comes to wow.
Also different in the way they always deny statistics and facts in general.

Calling someone a fanboy requires them to be overly positive on all their views, but you have repeatedly shown yourself to be using that term to describe anyone disagreeing with you.
You aren't providing the slightest bit of evidence that you checked all the views of even one person, let alone multiple.
So don't start using the "facts" argument when you keep contradicting yourself.
You pull that word out because you can't come up with a good argument, instead proving our points.
That people like you are too biased, or too damn stupid to handle the information properly.
Hence why we don't have it now.

Accusing someone of being a Fanboy is just an argument used by ignorant people.

[melodramocracy]

How is that logical? Just because people stopped playing WoD doesnt mean they didn't buy the game. So if the amount that bought Legion is roughly the same as WoD we should see about the same amount of people at launch.

No, because that would assume that the number of current subs is = the number of subs at the end of MoP.

[Deleted]

8-10 million people hoping it will be good, if not.. the player base decline pretty fast

[Kagthul]

Even if this is not just a marketing crap. (Why would they say they have low presales when they can say otherwise and why would you believe them when they have all the reasons to lie, they lied before AND they can't be hold accountable).
The 2 mil rabid fanboys that preorder every expansion =/= the sub numbers.

... this is an investor call, not publicity.

They have to tell the investors the truth. Period.

If they get caught lying, they can be both criminally and civily charged and (even if they aren't, but they would be, as the investors get to make the call wether to press charges or not) will definitely lose their jobs, all their stocks, and any bonuses.. and can potentially be hit (depending on their contracts) for every penny theyve ever made.

[Deleted]

No, MISTS HAD 7.7 MILLION, that's a +2.3 increase to 10 million. WoD ended with 2.5 million. So if it's inline with WoD, it will also be +2.3, which results in a WHOPPING 4.8 MILLION.

[Banquetto]

I doubt that is true, Wow used to bring in well over a billion dollars a year, even if its half that i doubt any other blizzard game comes close. Wow is still Blizzards main cash cow I think.

"Overwatch has life-to-date revenue of about half a billion dollars."

And that's in, what, three months?

Overwatch could well be Blizzard's #1 earner this year.

[Vineri]

Casuals that only stick around for 3-4 weeks causing login and server stability issues again, great.

(They should give permanent subscribers login and connection priority).

You must be joking? Casuals are what keeps this shell of an Action / Adventure game afloat. Blizzard nerfed RPG aspects already. Give a break to fans of RPG's.

WoW is no longer an RPG. Everything is cookie-cutter determined. Very little thought goes into character development nowadays.

[Relapses]

ITT: Armchair analysts using intentionally vague information to support weak arguments about the state of WoW.

[Vineri]

ITT: Armchair analysts using intentionally vague information to support weak arguments about the state of WoW.

You are in that category, aren't you, good sir / madam?

The item that could pull this game together would be Legacy, It's what people are interested in.

[Relapses]

The item that could pull this game together would be Legacy, It's what people are interested in.

Wha...? Legacy has absolutely nothing to do with this topic. The fact that you have the audacity to bring it up here is positively mind-boggling.

[Uurdz]

WoW is but a fraction of Blizzards revenue, most of it comes from Hearthstone. It's probably profitable but not by a large margin. So even if WoW would have 1000 subs Blizzard wouldn't go bankrupt.

Factually incorrect. Go read the financials.

- - - Updated - - -

I doubt that is true, Wow used to bring in well over a billion dollars a year, even if its half that i doubt any other blizzard game comes close. Wow is still Blizzards main cash cow I think.

Also factually incorrect. Go check the financials.