World of Warcraft Subscriptions up to 10 million.

[Thimagryn]

That's a children's movie.

Talking martial artist pandas are not as ubiquitous as vampires, knights and wizards etc.

Let me know when they add talking pandas to Game of Thrones.

Hyperbole doesn't help your argument. WoW is playable by young children. Game of Thrones is not popular solely because of its fantasy themes, it's popularized by its excessive violence and nudity. The Dragons do help though, I'll admit.

[spinner981]

I have a question, and maybe I am missing something here, but... How is there 10 million subbed players, but only 3.3 million copies of WoD sold? Is 2/3 of the playerbase not playing WoD?

[Deleted]

Hyperbole doesn't help your argument. WoW is playable by young children. Game of Thrones is not popular solely because of its fantasy themes, it's popularized by its excessive violence and nudity. The Dragons do help though, I'll admit.

Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are both incredibly popular as well. Maybe you don't realise how popular medieval fantasy is?

I have a question, and maybe I am missing something here, but... How is there 10 million subbed players, but only 3.3 million copies of WoD sold? Is 2/3 of the playerbase not playing WoD?

That was probably at the time of writing. Not everyone has bought a copy yet but are still subbed.

[Thimagryn]

I have a question, and maybe I am missing something here, but... How is there 10 million subbed players, but only 3.3 million copies of WoD sold? Is 2/3 of the playerbase not playing WoD?

Expansion sales are limited to the EU/US. China and many Asian countries use a different pricing model, and the expansions are folded into their accounts at launch. If you factor in that the majority of global subs are from China/Asia, the 3m sales is about right.

Just as a side note, in early October, prices for WoW time were raised 45% in China
http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/10...fees-in-china/

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Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are both incredibly popular as well. Maybe you don't realise how popular medieval fantasy is?

You're saying because LOTR and the Hobbit are popular, Kung Fu Panda can't be. When was the last time you heard someone say they refused to watch Kung Fu Panda because it wasn't medieval fantasy?

[Mormolyce]

I feel that it is, if not racist at least ridiculously culturally myopic to assume that MoP was a cynical attempt to pander (geddit?) to Asian audiences.

Was Wrath a cynical attempt to pander to Scandinavian audiences?

[Deleted]

You're saying because LOTR and the Hobbit are popular, Kung Fu Panda can't be. When was the last time you heard someone say they refused to watch Kung Fu Panda because it wasn't medieval fantasy?

Talking martial artist pandas are not as popular as medieval fantasy. Some things are tried and true.

[spinner981]

Talking pandas are not as popular as medieval fantasy. Some things are tried and true.

Just because something isn't as popular as something else doesn't mean they aren't popular at all. Not every move is the original star wars trilogy, but that doesn't mean that people stopped making movies after Return of the Jedi. Kung fu panda (at least the first one) did fairly well.

Also, blizz can't just repeat the same exact formula over and over. Ulduar was one of the best raids of all time, but that doesn't mean they just keep making raids similar to Ulduar.

[Deleted]

Just because something isn't as popular as something else doesn't mean they aren't popular at all. Not every move is the original star wars trilogy, but that doesn't mean that people stopped making movies after Return of the Jedi. Kung fu panda (at least the first one) did fairly well.

Also, blizz can't just repeat the same exact formula over and over. Ulduar was one of the best raids of all time, but that doesn't mean they just keep making raids similar to Ulduar.

That's like saying that Blizzard should delete all the playable races and make new ones every expansion. No matter how popular they are. I think we'd both agree that that would be incredibly stupid.

[Thimagryn]

Talking martial artist pandas are not as popular as medieval fantasy. Some things are tried and true.

Sure, I'll give you that. But Mists of Pandaria didn't change WoW's theme. It added to it, and the game is just as much medieval fantasy as it was before. WoW has steampunk and sci fi elements in it just the same. TBC introduced space goats from another planet. It would be just as ridiculous to marginalize science fiction as the major reason for TBC's popularity.

[Banquetto]

I'm still waiting for someone to point out that Vanilla, TBC and WoTLK lost more subs than both Cata and MoP... that'll be fun.

Not sure what you mean by that statement, can you expand?

[Queen of Hamsters]

Get rid of the pandas and the money will come.

Still, I'm very impressed and surprised by how much an increase it was.

http://blizzard.gamespress.com/WORLD...RLORDS-OF-DRAE

Such logic assuming it's all because of "pandas".

People really need to stop thinking that their reasoning is shared by everyone else because it's SO flawless...

I wish I was still in MoP considering the time spent so far in WoD.

[Deleted]

I think it won't fall down lower that in MoP. WoD seems to be much much better

[BenBos]

I wasn't saying they were going to nosedive, I was simply saying that it is too early to tell how it will turn out. Pretty much every expack post Wrath has seen subs start to decline around 3 months in, maybe WoD, will be different who knows. But I do think there will be a decline, the key point is whether or not it will be a subtle decline or a steep one. It should be interesting either way. I am actually hoping it continues to do well, as I would like to see them actually turn WoW into a decent MMORPG again(currently it feels like neither an MMO or an RPG, it feels more like multiplayer fantasy action) and they can't do that if the game fails.

It is good to know that WOW subs .... never declined ... before the first sub based AAA MMORPG's ... transformed to free to play.

The first ones to do that were D&D On line and Lord of the Rings On line. That last one turned FREE to play on Sep 2010.

The avalanche of free to play transformations of old sub based AAA MMORPG's influenced the market between 2011-2013.

The last big ones that went free to play were SWTOR and Rift....in the first half of 2013.

And .... oddly enough ... since then WOW subs became stable again. Hovering around the 7.5 million subs for several quarters despite the so called "no content" or "unpopular" Panda theme... VERY curious indeed...

Now that that awful period of transformation of AAA MMORPG's going free to play is over, it is quite clear Blizzard has it a lot easier to recruit again.

Free to play is the last step to exit in MMORPG's and curiously while WOW recruitment was hurt by them, the "last man standing" now takes it all back.

---- Watching the industry ----

It is not a question IF WOW will go back to 12 million subscriptions, it is just a question of WHEN it will happen.

Best chances are in the first half of 2016 when both the movie will be launched and the next expansion following a few weeks later.

[carlos5577]

Well, I'm a WoW player that started playing during the end of TBC til the beginning of cata (I don't know how but cata managed to "take away the needle" somehow). I hated cata with a passion being already pandered by TBC and Wrath (good lore, great quests, good dungeons and raids). I tried to play WoW during MOP and it still found it awful, I will come back after college quarter ends to see if this expansion is worth the good things I'm hearing about it. The only thing I'm worried about is the things after level 100 because I keep hearing how questing and lore is quite good this time around.

Do you guys think WoW will keep retention on subscription this time around?

[lel]

too bad they were all put through that launch

[Skath]

Sure it is, considering there was an orc talking about killing children, and the idea of Theramore citizens being impaled on poles in Orgrimmar by an arrow doesn't sound very pleasant.

You know what's worse than cute cuddly teddybears? Cute cuddly teddybears sharing the same stage with the Holocaust because some developer is self-conscious about how fuzzy and cuddly everything is.

[Forscent]

Good for Blizz, they have too many people who whine and complain about too much. They really did a good job with this expac and they deserve it.