is MoP destined to destroy all MMO records? 20mil+ subs?

[Kryos]

I'd say its nothing for PvE Nerds(!), not that the whole Game has no PvE Content.

If the dungeons are hard and long enough it's enough content. I remember vanilla Scholomance and only the best players able to clear it in quest mode (5 players) before Molten Core was fixed and on farm. Same to heroic Shattered Halls in Burning Crusade before the raidgear and nerfs made it easy. Size of the group does not matter if the challenge is big enough and developers do not chicken out and nerf it to the ground after a few weeks.

[Deleted]

What MMO records? WoW is already holding all of them.
Pandaclysm is cute and shit, but it won't bring WoW even back to its WotLK numbers. WoW is old.

[Luciferstwin]

you know China will be playing.. every billion household will probably have a sub to be a Panda

Im not too sure about that. Pandas are sacred in china. A game that depicts them getting beat up/killed more then likely wont even make it to release in china. Hell, I remember when blizz had to pretty much remake WotLK for china because Skulls are not permitted in video games.

[Diaxx]

Burning Crusade: Great game, great developers, fun times, a ton of subs

Ever since then the game has been going downhill.

The game doesn't need Pokemon, it needs Burning Crusade 2.

[Deleted]

There's an official statement by Nintendo, that Black & White sales in 2011, topped everything in the past history of Pokemon.

That is a misconception. All the articles u see about Black & White wrecking sales and being the best ever is only talking about the release aka first and second week records, which eventually led to a great year. They had the best release sales of them all that's true, there are reasons for that but that's a dif topic. If u check overall sales, the 1 gen had the greater overall sales, with something like 30+ million and an extra 12+ Million from enhanced. If u check the 2, 3 and 4 gen u can see that even after these years of acumulative sales, they can't reach the 1 gen sales, that's cause that was back then when it was new. Even if u wait another 2 years to add sales to Black & White, it will not surpass 1 gen in overall sales, most likely.

[Vesker]

I'm actually really looking forward to playing MoP. I think Cata was a failure because so many resources were spent on revamping the old world and those at max level were left an experience that felt somewhat cut down but now the 85+ content is the focal point again. Putting aside that the new continent looks fantastic, the idea of a "vacation expansion" with no big baddie to chase after appeals to me, I actually like the idea of panda people and I'm interested in where the general WoW story is going, Blizzard have always reliably provided adequate entertainment for the money I give them which is more than I can say for a lot of other gaming companies these days.

Shut up and take my subscription, Blizz.

[fizzbob]

i don't think the sub number will change much until late mop when it drops again.

[Deleted]

If they keep the payment model like it is...subs continue to drop.
Even MoP release wont change that.

If they change it however to F2P, the subs gonna explode.
All the Pokemon loving Kids & Girls gonna jump on the WoW train.

I gonna put my Cash into a more serious MMO, which is aimed at Adults.
The not even Teenage Content in WoW makes me sick to my stomach, and i played a lot in 7 Years.

[Deleted]

Yes, blizzard will get some subs back, and yes they will lose some subs again.

I dont know enough about MoP yet, to really give my opinion about anything yet.

The beta is still very early beta. So, i havent spend that many hours on it yet.

Looking forward to play MoP tho.
It aint because of Pokemon tho. Which i only see as a good idea, what else should we use those damn stalkers too?; )

[Wynnyelle]

Why would people pay 15$ for Pokemon when, if they are fans, they very likely have all of the Pokemon games that they would want to play?

[xanzul]

The hype mop currently has in Asia is quite big, my Asian friends are saying that everyone is quite excited for it, and cannot wait to play it.

Pet battles, Asian lore, Pandas, these 3 are a recipe for unseen success by any Western video game in China.

If you look at the asian gaming market, it could easily double the current subbed players quantity, the question is though, how long will they stay?

You realize this is a load of crap right? Most popular mmos in Asian markets have a Western influence for a reason. Why on earth would Asians want to play a game based on aspects of their culture?

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 08:35 AM ----------

I'm sorry, but when the primary goal and selling point of WoW becomes pet battles, this game is done for.

Well good thing it isn't. It is an optional thing for players to do that in no way affects actual character progression.

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 08:37 AM ----------

Guild wars 2, just thought i'd leave that in here

Swtor
Rift
Aion
Lotro
Warhammer
Vanguard

Just thought I would leave those here (notice how many of those are free to play now).

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 08:38 AM ----------

What year does the OP think this is? 1998!?

Dude, Pokemon's right now being introduced to Mighty Morphin Power Rangers at the retirement home. It's WAY past its prime...

Here's a brief list of current things that are more popular than Pokemon currently

Star Wars (the franchise - not just one of the games)
Elder Scrolls
Mass Effect
One Piece, the Anime
Naruto, the Anime
Twilight
Family Guy
My Little Pony
Game of Thrones
Harry Potter

Pokemon had its time in the sun. While people fondly remember it - just like Mario, Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy - it's no longer a system seller.

OP - I'm all for optimism. But you're displaying isn't optimism, it's insanity. :P

This shows how incredibly ignorant you are. Clearly you have never ever worked retail when a new Pokemon game comes out.

[arphir]

20M subs? lol, I don't think so. The inside word is that Blizzard is now running at a loss and even more layoffs are planned. This dog has had its day.

[Kryos]

You realize this is a load of crap right? Most popular mmos in Asian markets have a Western influence for a reason. Why on earth would Asians want to play a game based on aspects of their culture?

Why on earth would western people want to play games that deal with aspects of their western culture - like fantasy games with knights, action games in well knows western citys or wargames like Battlefield or Call of Duty in the same conflict zones western armies are right now. Mmmmh... because they can make a better connection to them and relate to them?

[Deleted]

It depends how strongly they market that Pokemon aspect, a lot of people aren't even going to know about it if they just have a side feature named "pet battles".

[Exodus1811]

ask yourselves.. what's bigger than Pokemon?

To a 90s kid in the 90s nothing, but now just about everything. I just got trolled didn't I, gahh

[Anjerith]

I think you miss the point that Pokemon players enjoy their portability. Your also missing the fact that Pokemon's battle systems, and world are far more dedicated to the idea of Pet Battles than WoW could EVER make their system out to be.


I am not saying one sucks over the other. I am saying that Pokemon makes its money from Pet Battling, WoW does not.

[xanzul]

people forget that keeps going to more and more countrys as it does wow could grow alot more and dont forget china this exp will be a hit there plus blizz is targeting and market class that in all could push wow to 15mil easy but if they dont do it right they will lose millions

Seriously just stop. Blizzard isn't marketing this expansion to ANYONE but Wow players. These comments are getting borderline racist.

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 08:44 AM ----------

Most people that went to ToR already came back or just quit MMOs.

The Secret World is already DOA after the pricing structure got released (you can spend up to $250 extra money to get a heads up over other players and you have to spend $10 per character slot above the default of 3).

Yet all I ever hear is bullshit about how evil Blizzard is. It is absurd.

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 08:50 AM ----------

Not a snowballs chance in hell. MoP will sell worse then any of the previous expansions. You mark my words. Now WoW has proper competition.

Who? This is a serious question. Not one single new mmo that has been released in the past year or anything coming out this year is going to innovate anything. It is more of the same old tired hotkey mmos. I love how people demonize Blizzard for not innovating anything but the problem is no other company is either. Until that changes the market for mmos is going to continue to stagnate and no game is going to get groundbreaking amounts of subscriptions no matter who holy grail gimmicks it has.

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 08:57 AM ----------

The sole purpose of this expansion is to maintain the cash cow, Asian subscribers: Pandaren race, pokemon battles, chinese art, etc.. MoP will bring a raise of those subscriptions but gradually it will lose subscribers in the rest of the world. On the other hand I think that GW2 will hurt the subscriber base outside of Asia due to its fan base, art direction, real dynamic events and no monthly subscriptions (there are few arguments to justify $15 a month, very very few).

If you think carefully WoW ran out of original ideas long, long time ago and today can only resort to incorporate successful elements of other games and movies to mantain the illusion of new content (not to mention the best of Blizzard programmers and art people left WoW years ago to focus exclusively on Titan).

WoW was a great game.

How exactly is an entirely new continent and new lore running out of ideas?

[Drakhar]

GW2 isn't going to compete with WoW, it's going for a completely different audience. Star Wars: ToR tried to compete with WoW and got utterly demolished.

This, which is a good thing. Although it's not so much a different audience as it is a wider audience, and the audience it shares with WoW will be able to play both at once, so... great success! ArenaNet is a hell of a lot brighter than EAoware.

IMO after seeing everything in this xpac as it stands now in early beta, they will surpass their previous peak in subs. Will that number be 20M? lolno not even close. If it reaches 14M even I'll be impressed. But it will certainly be successful.

[xanzul]

Im not too sure about that. Pandas are sacred in china. A game that depicts them getting beat up/killed more then likely wont even make it to release in china. Hell, I remember when blizz had to pretty much remake WotLK for china because Skulls are not permitted in video games.

Please stop spreading this tired old rumor. Many Asian games feature pandas as playable characters. The ONLY issue China ever had with Pandaren was the fact they featured Japanese armor. No other reason. None. As for the trouble China gave Blizzard over Wrath that was mostly to give them shit for doing business with countries China doesn't approve of. China is notorious for the hoops they put businesses based in capitalist countries through.

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 09:04 AM ----------

That is a misconception. All the articles u see about Black & White wrecking sales and being the best ever is only talking about the release aka first and second week records, which eventually led to a great year. They had the best release sales of them all that's true, there are reasons for that but that's a dif topic. If u check overall sales, the 1 gen had the greater overall sales, with something like 30+ million and an extra 12+ Million from enhanced. If u check the 2, 3 and 4 gen u can see that even after these years of acumulative sales, they can't reach the 1 gen sales, that's cause that was back then when it was new. Even if u wait another 2 years to add sales to Black & White, it will not surpass 1 gen in overall sales, most likely.

Why you are fighting this so hard? Why are you so invested in proving that Pokemon isn't extremely popular with children and adults alike? I really don't get this mentality.

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 09:05 AM ----------

If they keep the payment model like it is...subs continue to drop.
Even MoP release wont change that.

If they change it however to F2P, the subs gonna explode.
All the Pokemon loving Kids & Girls gonna jump on the WoW train.

I gonna put my Cash into a more serious MMO, which is aimed at Adults.
The not even Teenage Content in WoW makes me sick to my stomach, and i played a lot in 7 Years.

Why on earth would Blizzard ever have Wow go free to play? You do realize Everquest is only just now going free to play after 12 years right? And they had substantially fewer subscriptions at its peak.

---------- Post added 2012-04-13 at 09:07 AM ----------

Why on earth would western people want to play games that deal with aspects of their western culture - like fantasy games with knights, action games in well knows western citys or wargames like Battlefield or Call of Duty in the same conflict zones western armies are right now. Mmmmh... because they can make a better connection to them and relate to them?

I doubt a majority of the people playing Cod and other fps games are in the military and it has nothing to do with relating to anything. Are you seriously saying people can relate to being a knight? Really? Jesus christ.

[Devíne]

I don't understand why you wrote out your paragraph like that O.o ..and no wow will never break 10 mil subs again especially not with cutesy gimmicks .

Blizzard quoted that subs were stabilized at 10.3 million at the last quarter of 2011 so to say that Blizzard will never break 10 million seems you have no concept on the actual released figures so I suggest you comment on facts other than your factitious thoughts.

AS for the time un-till the next expansion I think its likely that subs may drop a little because of old content along with the summer arriving but I'm in agreement that MoP will smash MMO records and mabe not to the level of what the OP is suggesting but they will go up SIGNIFICANTLY due to pandas, china and Pokamon.

And for those older "seasoned" players (of which I'm one) who think the game is going down the wrong path and its too easy let me tell you this. You are in a minority, play and enjoy the game for what it is and enjoy the ride as it isn't half bad if you think about all the good changes that they have introduced.

At first I hated the thought of MoP and thought I'd stop playing and after I stopped thinking like a dinosaur I realised that I was just thinking like an old person would still think Donny Osmond or Bay City Rollers were still cool and no music could be better; open your eyes and enjoy what you see as its still the best MMO about by a mile and it's only getting better.