View Poll Results: Will World of Warcraft subscribers go under 10 million this quarter or stay above?

Voters
395. This poll is closed
  • It will stay above 10 million.

    245 62.03%
  • It will go under 10 million.

    150 37.97%
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  1. #41
    Quote Originally Posted by Sepharoth View Post
    If you only finish your AP on the 11th, then you didn't get it on the second day it was available. Mine has expired 2 weeks ago already.

    And of course the subs wouldn't drop under 10 million on Q3, given they had announced those numbers for the 25th September.. Q3 ends on 30th September, and they don't care if people unsubbed ever since to count for that report.
    Wrong i got it on the second day however i didnt subscribe WoW on that day, i already had a subscription which re-upped on the 11th of every third month. So i couldnt unsub on the 11th of Oct because i was still within my AP contract, i had to wait until the AP ran out and then cancel my sub which ends on Nov-11th.

  2. #42
    Spam Assassin! MoanaLisa's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by MikeyD View Post
    Well, it was amusing to see them dance around MoP figures. There's such enthusiasm over Skylanders and Call of Duty yet Warcraft had a ho-hum presentation.

    If there's one thing Blizzard loves to do, its tooting their own horn when there's something to brag about. No new elaboration on the sales numbers or the subscriber base is a sign that things are heading south.

    Obviously a bad sign for those who think WoW is the king of MMOs. This tired, played-again-and-again formula has grown stale and the numbers are starting to show. (Or in this case, the lack of numbers)
    These things are media events any more and are reported as if they are. We're coming up on Xmas. News from World of Warcraft and Blizzard generally is done for this quarter. So you promote what's coming up. People here tend to forget that Activision exists. Since we're talking about financials, if you have a candidate for an MMO that pulls in more money than WoW in NA/Europe, please inform us. If not, just accept that for now, it certainly IS king of MMO's and is likely to remain so for a good while longer.
    "...money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it."

  3. #43
    The Insane Glorious Leader's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kevyne-Shandris View Post
    Why would the East like an Western idea of the East game?

    They have all the East produced games known at their fingertips as it is.

    It's like Papa John's serving take out sushi.

    Does not compute.
    Well the theme of the expansion should certainly draw many of them in. I was also lead to believe that the chinese markets enjoyed grind bullshit with little value or gain. Hey I hope they don't like it, maybe we get some change round here.
    The hammer comes down:
    Quote Originally Posted by Osmeric View Post
    Normal should be reduced in difficulty. Heroic should be reduced in difficulty.
    And the tiny fraction for whom heroic raids are currently well tuned? Too bad,so sad! With the arterial bleed of subs the fastest it's ever been, the vanity development that gives you guys your own content is no longer supportable.

  4. #44
    Mike Morhaime

    MoP:
    Nothing new. 2,7million for first week. 10m player base

    Something 'interesting' planned for holidays (no details)


    D3:
    Nothing. no word on pvp. beta stuff

    SC2:
    HoS 2013 launch


    Pipeline:

    No news on nextgen MMO. Confirmed Blizzcon 2013

    ************


    Investor questions:


    next-gen hardware: wont divulge next-gen hardware development for unannounced MMO and how they will affect existing acti-blizz products

    next-gen console: wont talk how Wii U and new consoles will change game market for existing Acti-Blizz products

    share buyback: no change in strategy

    infinity ward settlement: wont comment on financial details

    CoD elite programs: made free to give better product overall, grow game/help gamers.

    MoP China: pleased with reception, peaked at over 1 million concurrent user (for MOP)

    Mobile device games/programs: nothing divulge, no actual game close to release

    Skylander: Acti says it wont be guitar hero. should be sustained business with new products coming. bullish

    2013: Kotick says upcoming hardware change (console next gen coming out in 2013) will affect pricing strategy for existing product (xbox, ps3)


    Blizz All-Stars: internal testing underway, gameplay dev. Nothing official


    D3 expac: Mike M says D3 expac in works but no timeline (quality first)


    COD Online (china): No testing schedule

  5. #45
    Read between the lines - they did not announce subscriber numbers, only that they'd stayed above 10m, that's a very vague statement and not in line with their predictions which suggested they expected players to return following the expansion which clearly hasn't happened or they would have announced a more defined number. Further to this as someone's pointed out the annual pass accounts are starting to come off now and my bet is that a significant number of those will not continue to play WoW (again I concur significant number is hideously vague). This investor call said more with what it DIDN'T say than it said with what it did.

    (it's also safe to say that a number of the account subscribers right now are also in clear violation of the automated play policies, which is probably why thus far despite the problem being seemingly endemic they haven't done anything about it in terms of banning orders - which I'd consider to be falsely inflating the numbers a touch)
    Last edited by koodledrum; 2012-11-07 at 10:24 PM.
    Koodledrum - Balnazzar EU - 85 Priest - Retired.

  6. #46
    Titan Arbs's Avatar
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    Ya anyone expecting a decline this quater is nuts, We wont know anything until next quarter annoucement in February. But by than any impact to subs that happens now could change dramatically by the end of December. An could again change when February comes around.
    I don't always hunt things, But when I do, It's because they're things & I'm a Bear.


  7. #47
    I kind of feel that all the dailies may drive away playerbase, I can't actually say if sub counts will rise or fall.

  8. #48
    Quote Originally Posted by Kevyne-Shandris View Post
    Let alone released MoP to fall under one of the worst quarters (subscription wise) for WoW.
    They had to. They released it the last week of Q3, and if they hadn't this thread would likely be talking about another big sub loss instead of a gain. The real test will be the current quarter, to see if people actually stick around for MoP after the initial frenzy.

    Blizzard's strategy:

    Q3 2012:
    Release MoP the last week of the quarter to get a spike in subs for the quarterly report

    Q4 2012 (current): use gated content to string players along into December, keeping the xpac fresh for the Q4 Report

    Q1 2013: Release patch 5.1 just as players are getting tired of LFR grinding and hope 5.1 content will string them through the rest of the quarter
    Last edited by ShimmerSwirl; 2012-11-07 at 10:31 PM.

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  9. #49
    I am Murloc! Kevyne-Shandris's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by phenix View Post
    infinity ward settlement: wont comment on financial details
    Well, if game companies keep getting sued for tens to hundreds of millions of dollars, the investors would like to know if their money is going down the litigation drain.

    That was one particular nasty lawsuit, and it shows no matter how high you are in a corporation...you're expendable.
    From the #1 Cata review on Amazon.com: "Blizzard's greatest misstep was blaming players instead of admitting their mistakes.
    They've convinced half of the population that the other half are unskilled whiners, causing a permanent rift in the community."


  10. #50
    So.

    Not under 10 million.

    The 39 of your who voted saying it'd be under...

    Hi.
    Quote Originally Posted by Princess Kenny View Post
    Avocado is a tropical fruit , south seas expansion confirmed.

  11. #51
    Quote Originally Posted by Destil View Post
    So.

    Not under 10 million.

    The 39 of your who voted saying it'd be under...

    Hi.
    The poll is talking about the current quarter not the last one. Everyone already knew this quarter would be 10 mil because they announced that in early October after Q3 had already ended.

    *~To change one's life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.~*

  12. #52
    Prediction for next earnings call: Threads full of "But that's just because of christmas and 5.1! Just wait for the next quarter!"

  13. #53
    I am Murloc! Kevyne-Shandris's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by reckoner04 View Post
    Prediction for next earnings call: Threads full of "But that's just because of christmas and 5.1! Just wait for the next quarter!"
    That comes from the shell games played. Just look above also on the investor questions and how he bypasses answering so many. And these are the investors, not some screamer on the forums.

    See enough of those games and rah rahs (let alone hype) you get really cynical of taking these reports at face value.
    From the #1 Cata review on Amazon.com: "Blizzard's greatest misstep was blaming players instead of admitting their mistakes.
    They've convinced half of the population that the other half are unskilled whiners, causing a permanent rift in the community."


  14. #54
    Well, strictly based on anecdotal evidence from my guild's activity, we've had even more members resubscribe since launch, and no one has quit or gone otherwise inactive.

  15. #55
    i like how alot of ppl think 5.1 is going to keep players happy. All that patch does is add more daily quest-lines as well as scenarios that add to the story. If your looking for new raid content your not gonna get it. The brawlers guild will give you what? a few hours worth of content? Only the most hardcore achivement goer's are gonna attack that. For me 5.1 is just like 4.1 except we thought 4.1 would bring firelands. And i unsubbed in 4.1 because i had finished all the 4.0 content. 2 dungeons as well as quest stories dont keep me subbed and wont keep other raiders subbed who are done with 5.0. Blizzard would need to release 5.1 pretty soon to keep those raiders who are still not fully farming heroic raids, provided they dont have alts to gear.

  16. #56
    I don't get why so many people voted it will go under 10m... Its the first quarter after a new x-pac .. Obviously it will stay where it is for that quarter and possibly another 1 or 2 before its starts falling/crashing with how bad MOP is.

  17. #57
    Quote Originally Posted by koodledrum View Post
    Read between the lines - they did not announce subscriber numbers, only that they'd stayed above 10m, that's a very vague statement and not in line with their predictions which suggested they expected players to return following the expansion which clearly hasn't happened or they would have announced a more defined number. Further to this as someone's pointed out the annual pass accounts are starting to come off now and my bet is that a significant number of those will not continue to play WoW (again I concur significant number is hideously vague). This investor call said more with what it DIDN'T say than it said with what it did.

    (it's also safe to say that a number of the account subscribers right now are also in clear violation of the automated play policies, which is probably why thus far despite the problem being seemingly endemic they haven't done anything about it in terms of banning orders - which I'd consider to be falsely inflating the numbers a touch)
    If you look at the balance sheets, the subscription revenue is down roughly 25% from last year. This is true for both the year-to-date and quarterly time periods. The report mentions numerous times that they are seeing a lower WoW subscription revenue compared with the previous year. I think that a mass exodus throughout the final months of Cataclysm, followed by a mass resurgence of subscriptions at MoP launch would explain how subscriber numbers at the September 30 mark remained the same despite a huge decrease in subscription revenues.

    Note that the subscription revenue figure lumps WoW subscriptions with Call of Duty: Elite subscriptions, so the ~25% decrease in revenue doesn't nicely correlate to a ~25% decrease in the WoW subscriber base.
    Last edited by mosely; 2012-11-07 at 11:39 PM.

  18. #58
    It was always going to show a figure above 10mill, it was released literally 5 days before the "census" so everyone who bought the xpac was going to be included there.

    To be honest though WoW in its current state needs to die, not because of the game itself but because of the gaming scene in general. Games which are infinitely better aren't given the chance to succeed because players are too invested in this game with friends etc and expect any new game to have 8 years worth of stuff to do at end game.

    Note: this isn't an anti-WoW as a game post but an anti-WoW as an entity in the gaming community post, it's not the games fault but the players.

  19. #59
    Quote Originally Posted by Zeek Daniels View Post
    i like how alot of ppl think 5.1 is going to keep players happy. All that patch does is add more daily quest-lines as well as scenarios that add to the story. If your looking for new raid content your not gonna get it. The brawlers guild will give you what? a few hours worth of content? Only the most hardcore achivement goer's are gonna attack that. For me 5.1 is just like 4.1 except we thought 4.1 would bring firelands. And i unsubbed in 4.1 because i had finished all the 4.0 content. 2 dungeons as well as quest stories dont keep me subbed and wont keep other raiders subbed who are done with 5.0. Blizzard would need to release 5.1 pretty soon to keep those raiders who are still not fully farming heroic raids, provided they dont have alts to gear.
    You should be well worth remembering that Raiders are minor % of the active player base. I'm sure blizzard could survive without you.

    Coming from someone who no longer raids (don't really have interest / rather gym etc.) The content provided for the majority is massive.

    When you consume a un-healthy amount of content so quickly, your going to start to hate.

    Think of wow like candy,chocolate or sex. In moderation it's great, however some people have no self control and now their sick of it
    Last edited by 08nolanni; 2012-11-08 at 12:02 AM.

  20. #60
    Quote Originally Posted by muchtoohigh View Post
    The poll is talking about the current quarter not the last one. Everyone already knew this quarter would be 10 mil because they announced that in early October after Q3 had already ended.
    Always gotta be the negative nancy..
    Quote Originally Posted by Princess Kenny View Post
    Avocado is a tropical fruit , south seas expansion confirmed.

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