WoW Stable at 10.2 Million Subscribers

[MFDangerDOOM]

There have been so many fanboy posts since I last checked... eheeheheh awesome. You guys still don't understand rofl. I see you guys talkin about "haters," speculating what they would think the haters are going to say is gonna be the "WoW Killer." But as we all know, nothing will kill this game unless blizzard successfully does it themselfs, which is totally a possibility. When people like myself say that wow is dying, we mean that the spark of imagination and fascination that was once inspired by this game is now nothing but an island full of panadas. I understand that some people like that, and good for you (really good for you!), but that aint my cup of tea. I think using the term "haters" is incorrect as well, I'm sure that each of us labeled as a "hater" truly loves this game deep down, and hell some of us might even be back, when theres content we want to do. So, stop being douchebags pls, don't you have anything better to do than think you're better then us?

[vicarious ink]

All I know is that the sound of my stocks just went up another 3%.

[mikencarly]

Exactly. I don't know why people are thinking that this is a victory. Of course, this information is never meant for us but for their investors but it does give us some clue on what is going on with the game. And these wow fanboys all keep screaming "haha wow haters come at us now" or "haha swtor lost 400k subs" and I just find it so sad... There is nothing happy about this.

I know these are business decisions Blizzard chose to do but this is just silly.

Cross-Realm Zones i would says its a victory.

[gruffi]

punch in face to all doom sayers!

[Volitar]

Annual pass was a stroke of brilliance from Blizzard.

Lol at people still being stupid.

[Kickbuttmario]

Cross-Realm Zones i would says its a victory.

Guild Wars 2 has a better system and was implemented or announced before blizzards. I think it was called guest server or guest transfer. Where the player can visit other players servers to play with their friends or w/e but still be in-tact on their home server, which is their original.

[mikencarly]

Guild Wars 2 has a better system and was implemented or announced before blizzards. I think it was called guest server or guest transfer. Where the player can visit other players servers to play with their friends or w/e but still be in-tact on their home server, which is their original.

Doesnt matter really mmos that want to keep there subs need to advance blizzard is smart for the move imho besides smart mmos copy great ideas alot of mmos copy each other all the time they just call it something else ext.

[k1037]

Rises, drops - all numbers from Blizzard are meaningless without a breakdown of the subs by region, long-term versus short-term subs, etc. I mean, they've been padding those numbers with Chinese players for years, and all they have to do to be considered a subscriber for that month is log on for one hour (they pay by the hour - there is actually no such thing as a subscriber in China). That's it. Pay for one hour of game time (mere pennies) in China and you are a "subscriber." So what does it matter if the numbers go up or down or stay steady? At least 5 million of those aren't even subscribers at all. It's a pointless discussion.

[Alvito]

You do know next month is June?

Wow really!?!? The last 2 pre expansion events came after the arena tournaments so its safe to say that is the model they like to stick with. So June 6 + a month of the event = not next month. They also haven't started testing some of the zones, bgs and dungeons/raids. Talent trees aren't completely finished for some classes. So this seems highly unlikely. Let's not forget that they would advertise the shit out of the release far before hand not just 5 or 6 weeks out. Turns out stores that sell product that sale millions of copies world wide like to let ppl know they will have it and when they will have it.

---------- Post added 2012-05-11 at 03:20 AM ----------

DIablo 3 will have a supporting role for WOW in the long run. Both games go hand in hand instead of competing with each other.

Not really some ppl don't have the time or desire to play 2 games so they cancel accounts as they move to something new. SC2 took a few ppl I know for WoW that never returned, I expect D3 to do the same. Sure they aren't the same game but for the ppl with families and jobs and 1 to 2 hours of spare time a day if you are really lucky a quicker no need to wait for others game like SC2 then and D3 now is much more ideal.

[Crashdummy]

Guild Wars 2 has a better system and was implemented or announced before blizzards. I think it was called guest server or guest transfer. Where the player can visit other players servers to play with their friends or w/e but still be in-tact on their home server, which is their original.

You must be joking, right?

Guild Wars 2 system sucks. And dont get this wrong, the game is very good, but the instancing system is the worst crap i have ever seen. When you are grouped with friends that are not in your same "instance" so you cant SEE them that system is a crap.

Yeah, i know, there are many shortcuts to gater in the same instance (getting into the capital and then going out to the world again, logging in and out untill the system decides to put you and your friends in the same "instance", using checkpoints even when they cost money to try to get into the same "instance") but those are all shortcuts that players must undertake because the system just sucks.

About the guest feature, it isnt available to test in the Beta's so i wouldnt know if its a good one or not.

[ro9ue]

Yea we get it, if you like this news you're a fanboy, if you hate it you're a hater.

Here's the facts. WoW was released in 2004 and still has 10x the subscriber base of any MMO to date. Try to dispute that.

[darqhur]

Yea we get it, if you like this news you're a fanboy, if you hate it you're a hater.

Here's the facts. WoW was released in 2004 and still has 10x the subscriber base of any MMO to date. Try to dispute that.

Somedays I wish I could rep people up. This is pretty much the bottom line. There are many mmo's but wow has been king and indisputably remains so.

[Daedelus]

Sigh, was really hoping to see some sub drops, the annual pass makes the numbers completely slanted, but it's still unfortunate. WoW is great and all but it's choking the MMORPG market by retaining such a huge majority of the player base and leaving little to no room for anything new or innovative to get green lit, or live long enough to surpass it. I'm not one of the wow hating flammers who want to see it die, and its great that an MMORPG got so huge and expanded the market the way it did, but now I'd like to see this 7 year old game share the spot light and go down to a more modest number of subscribers. Even 6 million subs/active players, which is still more then any other major MMORPG, would be great. Not saying it's WoW or Blizzards "fault" really (though Blizzard is certainly pleased : P), it's just the way people and the market work :/

A lot of people are desperate for a new MMO to play but one after one they come along and fail either for being wow clones or just being shit. No-one is forcing anyone to play wow, but if you want an MMO, there's not much else out there.

[Aqua]

Hey my prediction was right for once.

[Theendgamelv3]

It's easy as pie. It just means the majority of the playerbase is actually pretty terrible, and given the old age of the game the skill gap between the best players and the majority is pretty immense. This was even acknowledged in a blue post even, sometimes around Firelands.

Random analogy: The majority of the population having trouble writing correct sentences (myself included) or using proper ponctuation, proper syntax, etc, doesn't mean it's hard, it just means people are terrible at it (for a variety of reasons, be it unwillingness to do so, lack of practice, whatever).

And actually, around 20% (18.XX%) of the raiding playerbase (Normal Morchok) is currently 6/8H.

The one thing that bugs me is when people who are at the top say "this is easy". It is easy for you and your guild. You shouldn't compare yourself to your average player cause you're not the average WoW player. Your analogy doesn't fit as writing a proper sentence doesn't take some kind of skill. All you do is remember some rules and bam, you can write a proper sentence. The only skill required is remembering the rules of grammar. "I am a guy." "This is a pen." etc, those 2 quotes are correct proper sentences. Hell, majority of what you wrote, proper sentences. To me, it is like if some professional athlete at the top of their sport saying their sport is easy and that everyone just sucks.

In WoW, you need to know when and where you have to use your abilities, how to use them correctly in whatever situation you need, etc. You also need to adapt to situations should things screw up. Depending on the situation, the ability to play under stress. Most importantly, you need to learn how to work with a team. This is stuff you already know, but take for granted and you might say "those things don't take that much skill". That is the thing, for YOU it doesn't take that much skill. For others, it doesn't come as easy. For me, if this game was truly easy, my dad (who doesn't play any kind of video games) should be able to pick it up a proper heroic raiding toon and be able to do decent dps and without really dying on heroics within a day, WITHOUT using outside resources or sites, basically no research, just straight into the game. I am not saying this game is very hard, cause it isn't hard for me from the content I have experienced. I just don't believe someone who is in one of the top raiders such as yourself should say how easy the heroic raiding content is and everyone else sucks. It could just be, you are really that good and it just seems easy.

[Kirbylock]

how much of those 10.2 million accounts are in North America and Europe alone? and, how much of those are unique accounts, not counting ones belonging to multi-boxers? because that's all that matters.

the bulk of the people playing are in China/Korea, who don't even pay as much as other countries do (they pay only by the hour which turns out to be A LOT cheaper per month than it is for NA/EU).

10 million subs sounds great and all, but its nothing really when you consider that more than half of that is from China/Korea, and a lot of people multi-box, thus having more than one account.

Blizzard really isn't swimming in the money as much as people assume they are. and WoW doesn't really have THAT much players playing anymore as much as people believe (at least, on the NA/EU realms).

Also, an MMO doesn't need millions of subs to be successful. there is still many MMOs going strong with 500K and under subs. you also have to know that a lot of other MMOs aren't released worldwide either, just within North America and Europe.

WoW is by no means in "bad condition", but its not getting any better either nor is it in its prime anymore.

[Northern Goblin]

WoW isn't going to die, but Cata dropped 2 mil subs that it's still yet to recover, even through various ploys that have been released around the end of quarter.

I feel justified still when I say WoW is a great game, but Cata is a terrible expansion. Hopefully MoP will address the issues, but I doubt with the current wave of gaming attitude towards instant gratification and getting rewarded for the time you spent not the effort you put in I personally doubt it. WoW will continue, but without most of the older players who will look for something to remind them of the older days.

That said, I hope MoP gives people reasons to not sit around in the cities non stop once everyone's 90. Cata was terrible for that.

[TheOne]

You have to hand it to Blizzard. They fully understand their player base. They know what enticements will work on people. Their marketing strategies are almost perfect. Instant gratification is the name of the game. They learned that towards the end of BC and all through WotLK. Cataclysm, at release, was actually a step away from that. They actually started to try to force people to earn rewards. To go out and discover the world. Remember having to actually discover the entrances to each dungeon before you could queue for it? That requirement disappeared almost instantly. They quickly realized their mistake when they lost a massive amount of subs. They knew exactly what to do plug the hole, though. Exactly what they learned from previous expansions. Throw stuff at people, and they will come. I, for one, commend Blizzard on their brilliance. Not many companies can pull customers they way they do.

[Deleted]

Here's the facts. WoW was released in 2004 and still has 10x the subscriber base of any MMO to date. Try to dispute that.

No one disputes that wow is the biggest subscription based mmo on the market. What people dispute is that biggest doesn't mean best.

[mikencarly]

Cmon people chill.