PvP "Blog" is here.

[Vook]

Anemic sales of Mists of Pandaria suggest that people can and will boycot products they don't likee.

>Game apparently sold bad
>Subs went up by a million or so

Huh?

[Deleted]

I just wonder how much it actually matters in the long run. Blizz has previously pulled announced features from games and they've also canceled an announced game. Arguably you could say it hasn't hurt them up to this point.

This brings up a bigger question. Do people in this day and age have what it takes to actually boycott a company they have issues with? I remember before my grandfather died he had a blacklist of companies and places that he refused to trade with. Close to the end he had very few places he would do business with in his own town. When he said he wouldn't deal with a company anymore it was serious and he went through with it. These days it just seems like people don't have the willpower to do this, even when there are more options than ever for almost everything. My gut tells me that when Blizzard announces Titan people who have felt they were done wrong in the past will flock out to buy pre-orders. In a sense it feels like Blizzard, and other companies as well, can do almost anything and not have to fear consumer backlash. A good browbeating doesn't mean anything when customers are still willing to fork over cash for future products.

Back OT: PvP was never a big draw for me with game, but it really sucks for the people who were looking forward to it. It also continues a trend of Blizzard removing announced features. How can anyone trust them to deliver on what they say anymore?

No, they don't really have what it takes anymore. Even if the people who felt wronged don't buy games from Blizzard anymore, the gaming industry is growing, so they'd be replaced by the simple fact that a big company can advertise good enough. This is why for example EA is going still good finance wise.

On the last question though. Because people are naive or stupid. Or both.

[Deleted]

oh you naive folks thinking diablo will actually ever have pvp

[Lysah]

No, they don't really have what it takes anymore. Even if the people who felt wronged don't buy games from Blizzard anymore, the gaming industry is growing, so they'd be replaced by the simple fact that a big company can advertise good enough. This is why for example EA is going still good finance wise.

Well, a lot of people are willing to buy CoD:15 even if it's nearly the exact same as the first 14. My brother admits he will buy any CoD they release because "it's gotta be better than the last one." When you can repackage the best selling game of all time and get even MORE people to buy it the next year you really don't have much to worry about.

[Redblade]

This brings up a bigger question. Do people in this day and age have what it takes to actually boycott a company they have issues with? I remember before my grandfather died he had a blacklist of companies and places that he refused to trade with. Close to the end he had very few places he would do business with in his own town. When he said he wouldn't deal with a company anymore it was serious and he went through with it. These days it just seems like people don't have the willpower to do this, even when there are more options than ever for almost everything. My gut tells me that when Blizzard announces Titan people who have felt they were done wrong in the past will flock out to buy pre-orders. In a sense it feels like Blizzard, and other companies as well, can do almost anything and not have to fear consumer backlash. A good browbeating doesn't mean anything when customers are still willing to fork over cash for future products.

On a company level I'd say the damages are low but for a individual title it can be big, people find alternatives and don't look back, so for D3 it's bad when the player ends up being that disappointed but for the next big Blizzard title it won't make much difference.

[Leonard McCoy]

>Game apparently sold bad
>Subs went up by a million or so

Huh?

Sub numbers are not expansion sales. The first week of mists sales were extremely poor, their were threads all over this forum about it. It is as far as I'm aware the first time an expansion has failed to outsell it's predecessor which does indeed suggest that Blizzard is not immune from the effects of a poor showing (cataclysm), The subs going over a million is more likely the result of chinese resubs and a a handful of players buying the expansion back in and is not expected to hold according to several analysts.

[Mamut]

The subs going over a million is more likely the result of chinese resubs and a a handful of players buying the expansion back in and is not expected to hold according to several analysts.

And chinese players dont count because?

[Leonard McCoy]

And chinese players dont count because?

for the purposes of expansion sales they don't. They get them for free as far as I'm aware.

[dokilar]

call me a debbie downer but i cant even imagine that it would be all that fun in the first place. i love pvp, its basically all i ever did in WoW and every other mmo ive played to date. the pve side of the game has never interested me as much as the pvp does. that being said there is nothing remotely interesting about d3 pvp. personal opinion of course, but it seems far too much reliant on ones ability to farm gold, or buying items with real money. essentially making it a buy 2 win type of game. again just my own .02

[Deleted]

The subs going over a million is more likely the result of chinese resubs and a a handful of players buying the expansion back in and is not expected to hold according to several analysts.

I always chuckle when analysts are thrown in the mix.

Anyway considering that blizz are working on a MOBA game/ have a team dealing with WOW pvp and balancing and another working on SC2 balance one would think they could devise a pvp system for D3 if they really put their heads together, but no...

[Whitepepper]

Titan will be f2p and that's about the only way people will flock to it. Anemic sales of Mists of Pandaria suggest that people can and will boycot products they don't likee.

Millions of copies sold is "anemic sales" now? What's your definition of anemic and boycott?

[Leonard McCoy]

Millions of copies sold is "anemic sales" now? What's your definition of anemic and boycott?

Relative to other expansions yes.

[Whitepepper]

Relative to other expansions yes.

First day sales were almost identical to Wrath. Were WoW sales anemic in 2008?

[Leonard McCoy]

First day sales were almost identical to Wrath. Were WoW sales anemic in 2008?

Excuse me overall sales haven't been as good and you can try and get around the fact that mists is the only expansion that hasn't sold better than it's predecessor but you can't really. It's a hard truth to admit I understand.

[Whitepepper]

Excuse me overall sales haven't been as good and you can try and get around the fact that mists is the only expansion that hasn't sold better than it's predecessor but you can't really. It's a hard truth to admit I understand.

So not selling better than the last expansion or breaking a sales record automatically makes sales anemic? The only figure I've seen for MoP sales is 2.7 million for the first day. I don't consider that to be weak sales. Whether it's more or less than the previous expansion is irrelevant. 2.7 million is an impressive figure.

Tying this back into the original topic, Blizzard will continue this feature pulling stuff across all their titles until people are willing to push back by not buying their products. Railing on them on the forums won't do any good when people won't stop throwing money at them.

[Redblade]

So not selling better than the last expansion or breaking a sales record automatically makes sales anemic? The only figure I've seen for MoP sales is 2.7 million for the first day. I don't consider that to be weak sales. Whether it's more or less than the previous expansion is irrelevant. 2.7 million is an impressive figure.

Tying this back into the original topic, Blizzard will continue this feature pulling stuff across all their titles until people are willing to push back by not buying their products. Railing on them on the forums won't do any good when people won't stop throwing money at them.

Wrath of the Lich King was released on November 13, 2008, selling 2.8 million copies within the first 24 hours of availability. This made it the fastest selling computer game of all time, beating the record set by the previous World of Warcraft expansion The Burning Crusade, which sold 2.4 million within its first 24 hours. It later lost its rank as number one after the third expansion set, World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which was released on December 7, 2010, and had sold over 3.3 million copies within its first 24 hours on the market.

We're not talking about a small deviation from the peek here.

[Leonard McCoy]

So not selling better than the last expansion or breaking a sales record automatically makes sales anemic? The only figure I've seen for MoP sales is 2.7 million for the first day. I don't consider that to be weak sales. Whether it's more or less than the previous expansion is irrelevant. 2.7 million is an impressive figure.

Tying this back into the original topic, Blizzard will continue this feature pulling stuff across all their titles until people are willing to push back by not buying their products. Railing on them on the forums won't do any good when people won't stop throwing money at them.

2.7 million the first WEEK for MoP. Get your facts together. It is absolutely relevant to compare between expansion. As much as you like to dismiss it. My suspicion is that diablo expansion sales and (as much as I enjoyed Sc2) HoTS sales will also not be that amazing. People are already begining to push back and not buy their products. The best is yet to come in terms of that though.

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company...tml?id=7473409

[Vook]

You also have to take WoW's popularity into consideration...most games struggle just to get 1 million copies sold...WoW sells over 2 million copies in just a week. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 2.7 million copies sold is in no way "anemic", just because it's less than the previous expansion. Yes, it's less than the previous expansion, but it's INSANELY more than the majority of games today. Very few games manage to sell millions of copies in the first week of release.

[Leonard McCoy]

You also have to take WoW's popularity into consideration...most games struggle just to get 1 million copies sold...WoW sells over 2 million copies in just a week. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 2.7 million copies sold is in no way "anemic", just because it's less than the previous expansion. Yes, it's less than the previous expansion, but it's INSANELY more than the majority of games today. Very few games manage to sell millions of copies in the first week of release.

It's must less than the previous expansions. MUCH MUCH less. 2.7 million in a week vs 2.8 million in a DAY. They maybe sold what 700k in a day for mists? You don't think that's aenemic for a wow release? Well the suits will I'll tell you that much. Yes I know Blizzard can't do anything wrong and their just much better than everybody else. Look I could name a bunch of games that sold millions in the first week as well, it's actually fairly common for AAA titles. Or whatever Blizzard is infallible, people will continue to buy their bullshit (like pvp blogs and fuck that loser) and nothing can be done about it. I don't get what people are arguing about? Do you honestly think that people will continue to buy Blizzards shit they shovel your way? Well I hope not. If people do well then their fucking suckers and their born every minute apparently.

[Vook]

2.7 million in a week vs 2.8 million in a DAY.

So we're comparing sale speed now? And ooh, the same amount in a day VS the same amount in a week. That's such a business-destroying difference. Did WOTLK continue to sell 2.8 million copies every single day after release? No? Didn't think so.

What does it matter if everyone buys it on release day, or everyone buys it slowly throughout a week? They're still selling the same amount of copies.

They maybe sold what 700k in a day for mists? You don't think that's aenemic for a wow release?

Again, 700k sales every single day for a week is amazing compared to most games.

blah blah blah rampant Blizzard hate and flaming

Yeesh, for someone who hates Blizzard so much, why are you even here? =/