Will WoW Ever See 13 Million Subs Again?

[Niwes]

You call it a minor increase, I call it a massive increase that actually saved those games.

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WoW would instantly become the most insane F2P game available..

hmm .. ok. let me rethink this...
mhhhhhhhh.... no.

[CptEgo]

hmm .. ok. let me rethink this...
mhhhhhhhh.... no.

Please tell me, what game do you think exists right now that offers more content than World of Warcraft?

[slime]

Why do you feel the need to nation bash unprovoked in a wow subscriber thread?

Come now, you should know how that works... it's his inferiority complex screaming.

[MyndZero]

Yes, it would. F2P WoW would see a massive increase in players, just like we've seen with other MMO's.

Show me these millions of players in F2P MMORPG's then. SWTOR doesn't have a million players, Wildstar is dead, Rift is dead, I can't even remember any other F2P MMORPG's, Oh I guess GW2 kinda.

Buy or Subscription based games though, ESO, FFXIV, BDO, all have hundreds of thousands of players with ESO probably a bit over the million mark, point is these games that require an upfront payment or continual payment have a lot more players than those F2P games.

SWTOR probably has a decent chunk in all honesty, but I'd argue the majority of their playerbase just subscribes because their f2p systems are really, really bad. As far as GW2 goes, you need to pay for the latest expansion, and even if we added SWTOR + GW2's playerbase together FFXIV or ESO is probably bigger than both those by themselves.

Point is, people THINK F2P results in more players but it really doesn't. The numbers for games that require a purchase vs free to play numbers when it comes down to sticking with the game and the "bottom line" supports purchase based games.

[Deleted]

Show me these millions of players in F2P MMORPG's then. SWTOR doesn't have a million players, Wildstar is dead, Rift is dead, I can't even remember any other F2P MMORPG's, Oh I guess GW2 kinda.

Buy or Subscription based games though, ESO, FFXIV, BDO, all have hundreds of thousands of players with ESO probably a bit over the million mark, point is these games that require an upfront payment or continual payment have a lot more players than those F2P games.

SWTOR probably has a decent chunk in all honesty, but I'd argue the majority of their playerbase just subscribes because their f2p systems are really, really bad. As far as GW2 goes, you need to pay for the latest expansion, and even if we added SWTOR + GW2's playerbase together FFXIV or ESO is probably bigger than both those by themselves.

Point is, people THINK F2P results in more players but it really doesn't. The numbers for games that require a purchase vs free to play numbers when it comes down to sticking with the game and the "bottom line" supports purchase based games.

How do you know this?

[CptEgo]

Wildstar is dead, Rift is dead, I can't even remember any other F2P MMORPG's, Oh I guess GW2 kinda.

No they aren't. Because they went F2P. You could easily log in to any of those games right now and do group content.

[Ruts]

Simple question, will WoW ever see 13 million subs again like it had in WoTLK?

Is there anything that Blizzard could do to get 13 million subs again?

In 2035 wow will have 14,6 million subs according to my calculations.

[Eleccybubb]

No they aren't. Because they went F2P. You could easily log in to any of those games right now and do group content.

Uhm I would advise checking the player numbers. F2P doesn't suddenly mean an active game or a high population. Rift has proven that when it changed the model initially and started focusing on cash grabbing over quality content and people especially raiders have started leaving due to lack of content. Why would WoW change when it's still the most successful sub MMO after 13 years and still brings in a decent profit on a yearly basis? Hell it would remain a sub game even if it had just under 1 million players since there are games with less subs doing fine on the model.

Again it's not about the model. It's about how the model is handled. Rift handled it poorly and paid the price. Wildstar handled it fairly and has also paid the price in revenue. For a skeleton crew for Wildstar the content is good but people just keep leaving. That whole free 50 boost event for Primal Matrix died down literally the first weekend after it.

If you are willing to ignore that F2P doesn't always mean success or players then I see no point in continuing with you. There are loads of F2P mmos with barely any players left which I listed for you.

[JoshuaNLG]

Yes. If they brought back the vanilla style in-game community it would probably go way past 20 million subs.

No it wouldn't, take off your nostalgia goggles, if WoW went back to a vanilla style the game would die.

[Eleccybubb]

No it wouldn't, take off your nostalgia goggles, if WoW went back to a vanilla style the game would die.

This. The whole reason the game is still going today is because of the features they added. Feel free to back to Vanilla style of 40 man raiding, resistance gating, ammo and whatnot and see how long it lasts.

If they want to do Vanilla servers sure but keep moving the game forwards not backwards in terms of current development.

[CptEgo]

There are loads of F2P mmos with barely any players left which I listed for you.

My point was, that those games wouldn't exist anymore if it wasn't for F2P. So yes, it does mean an increase in players. Because the number of players would have been 0.

[Eleccybubb]

My point was, that those games wouldn't exist anymore if it wasn't for F2P. So yes, it does mean an increase in players. Because the number of players would be 0 otherwise.

Naturally but a minor increase is still not what the devs would want. F2P is still taking it's toll on Wildstar for example because they seem unable to retain new players. Which is more down to Carbine of course. Rift just decided to go down the milking route and it paid for it. Barely anyone is touching the recent expansion because there is nothing for raiders to do progression wise.

Also a few are in maintenance mode. Everquest certainly looks to be heading that way and LOTRO already entered it. Eventually Wildstar will go into maintenance mode unless they pull off something big to keep players enticed and bring in and keep new players.

[CptEgo]

Also a few are in maintenance mode. Everquest certainly looks to be heading that way and LOTRO already entered it. Eventually Wildstar will go into maintenance mode unless they pull off something big to keep players enticed and bring in and keep new players.

We agree on that one, it has become very clear in the last few years that WoW is really the only MMO that has the quality and content to survive.

[Eleccybubb]

We agree on that one, it has become very clear in the last few years that WoW is really the only MMO that has the quality and content to survive.

Well FF14 kinda proved it too. And that had to go through a whole relaunch and mess of a game. Same with ESO initially. What it shows us is that brand name matters. WoW has the Blizzard/Warcraft brand, ESO has the series and Bethesda brand and FF14 has the Square Enix/Final Fantasy brand backing each one of them. Problem with Wildstar is it had no brand name. It was very overhyped and people though because Ex-Blizzard devs were working on it that it would be amazing and be like the MMOs of old. Which it really wasn't.

[MyndZero]

No they aren't. Because they went F2P. You could easily log in to any of those games right now and do group content.

Okay then tell me what MMORPG that started as F2P had a lot of players, and is still around? None? is that what I hear?

[Eleccybubb]

Okay then tell me what MMORPG that started as F2P had a lot of players, and is still around? None? is that what I hear?

Runescape?

[Deleted]

We agree on that one, it has become very clear in the last few years that WoW is really the only MMO that has the quality and content to survive.

have you played FFXIV at all?

[Demithio]

Never again. The once highly addictive "drug" now gives many people a migraine. Current WoW is far too limited in its design and subsequent player following to ever see 13 million subs (or 'round about) again. There's no real burning desire to play the game on a large and sustained scale like back in the old days.

[Xandrigity]

No way, wow will never go back to its "salad days". Besides blizzard has more things on its plate now.

[CptEgo]

have you played FFXIV at all?

People say it's a good game, but it's probably not going to last 12 years.