WoW Down to 10.3M Subscribers, PTR Build 14966, Class Balance Q&A, TCG Art

[Boubouille]

WoW Lost 800k Subscribers, down to 10.3M
Activision Blizzard latest earning call revealed that World of Warcraft lost another 800,000 subscribers last quarter, following the loss of 300k subscribers announced last quarter and 600k loss from the quarter before that. This brings us to 1.7 million subscribers lost in the last 3 quarters. Some things they made note of on the call:

• Most of the subscriptions were lost in China.
• There is normally an increase in subscriptions around December.
• The decreased profit came from all of the games in development and no launches occurring.
• There will be at least two major releases next year.

Patch 4.3 - PTR Build 14966
A new PTR build is being deployed on test realms!

Items

• All replica armors from the Darkmoon Faire now require level 60 to be equipped.

Death Knight (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

• Raise Ally now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.

Mage (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

• Item - Mage T13 4P Bonus (Arcane Power, Combustion, and Icy Veins) now reduces the cooldown of Icy Veins by 15 sec, up from 10 sec.

Paladin (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

• Redemption now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.

Tier 13

• Item - Paladin T13 Retribution 4P Bonus (Zealotry) now increases damage by 18%, up from 12%.

Priest (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

• Resurrection now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.

Shaman (Forums / Talent Calculator / Skills/Talents)

• Ancestral Spirit now has a 40 yards range, up from 30 yards.

Reminder: Class Design & Balance Q&A

To follow up on our first World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria developer Q&A on the CoverItLive platform, we’re gathering the entire class design team to field your questions on the past, present, and future of World of Warcraft classes. Anyone is welcome to join in the live Q&A this Wednesday, November 9, beginning at approximately 10:45 a.m. and concluding around noon PST.

You can read along via the CoverItLive client embedded below while the Q&A is live. To participate, you just use your Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, or OpenID credentials, or simply sign in as a guest. If you’re on the go while the event’s underway on Wednesday, be sure to check out the free mobile apps available on the Android Market and iTunes Store.

We’ll see you back here on Wednesday morning!

Brazilian Portuguese Language Availability

With the release of the next World of Warcraft content update, Hour of Twilight (patch 4.3), players on European realms will be able to play World of Warcraft in Brazilian Portuguese. On December 7 a realm dedicated to the Portuguese community will open with optional time-limited free character transfers from specific European English realms with high Portuguese populations. Please stay tuned to these forums for additional information.

Trading Card Game Art Gallery Update
The Trading Card game art gallery has been updated with ten new pieces.

[Roose]

cheers!

Are there really that many investors on this site? Why do people care so much unless it affects their money?

[Cygne]

They'll be rolling in even more dough next year with the D3 release + possible MoP release, so the subscription loss doesn't scare me.

[Xpace]

This is a WoW news site, and that news is WoW-related. Just sayin'.

[Trickster76]

Two major releases? Two expansions? Or just two major Blizzard titles?

[Cheebie]

Mmm Class design and balance Q&A, potential news on the Monk class, do want now!

[azrielen]

cheers!

Are there really that many investors on this site? Why do people care so much unless it affects their money?

People like to see if the game they love is doing well or not. /shrug

Not surprised by those subscriber numbers. I think the annual pass and the run up to Pandaria will actually bring a lot back. We've entered the pre-expansion doldrums as soon as it was announced. LOL

Two major releases = Heart of the Swarm and Mists of Pandaria, right? Oh wait there is D3 as well. So does that mean two NEW titles? O.o

[yamilonewolf]

Is it just me or are druids not getting a b-res or even normal res upgrade with that build? seems odd lol. (not a druid)

[Collected]

Will be two titles, Diablo 3 and Panda.I wish they'd announce Titan already. Come on guys.. give us something to get excited about.

[BatteredRose]

They'll be rolling in even more dough next year with the D3 release + possible MoP release, so the subscription loss doesn't scare me.

My thoughts exactly. Even without D3 + MoP it wouldn't scare me though.

[Kivimetsan]

oh noes wow is dying better go play star wars... jks

[Vehemence]

Heart of the swarm and Diablo 3.

[Deleted]

i bet my life wow isnt "dying" within atleast 4 years.

[Dasn]

oh boy, here we fuckin go on the forums

[Cairm]

Boom. 2 games....next year.....Still alot to wait for

[ashblond]

Not even surprised that most of the subscriptions were lost in China.WoW is really in a bad shape in China.

[Deleted]

epic buff is epic

1.7m is quite a lot! Wondering if it's going down as soon as ToR / GW2 releases.

[Dmitri]

800,000 bitching, whining, "vanilla was best"-elitists gone. I shed a tear.

[omidmash]

there goes the subs

[ScorchHellfire]

Are they saying MoP won't be next year or are they saying HotS won't be next year? Because it seemed pretty likely that both would be coming out in 2012 before...