February 7: Blizzard Conference Call

[UnifiedDivide]

But you will tear a rift into the space time continuum and annihilate us all.. .you can't play and like 2 MMOs at once.. it's against the law of nature!

I.... *cue dramatic music*... am willing to take the risk!

[Valsh]

It took the release of an entire expansion pack to prop subs up to 10+M, anyone who thought the numbers would be higher or roughly the same since then is delusional. There's not currently much incentive to stay subbed until 5.2 and even then I'm not sure how many people are interested in playing.

[Zeek Daniels]

WoW subs went up during the quarter that GW2 launched.

Because they were selling an expansion, Also pre-patch updates which always gets ppl to come back and do class changes b4 and expansion. Also D3 annual pass was still in effect, i would know cuz mine was still running. I canceled my sub after my AP ran out. But that occured after the last Q ended, which means alot of ppl that would have unsubbed b4 MoP didnt because they wanted to keep D3, and that is reflected in the current Q report. Blizz basically had 1.2 mil subs in the bag no matter what, now im sure most of that number are still playing WoW, everyone i know that got the AP and was playing D3 with is still playing WoW. But there are a number of players that quit WoW once D3 came out and just love the dungeon crawl aspect of d3 and will play it for years to come like they did with d2. Prolly a small number but a number nonetheless, then theres the ppl that had the pass like me but went to play another game.

[MoanaLisa]

yeah that and the Chinese don't want Chinese food in their games apparently. it is like watching a Flemish farmer in a US movie: it doesn't really work well.

I said this pre-MOP when people were theorizing that the setting was specifically chosen to prop up the Chinese market: 1) lead times being what they are the setting and theme was probably picked sometime during late Wrath. That's a bit early to be worried about the Chinese market. I'm not sure I would sign up for an MMO strictly because it was set in the USA. I sort of doubt that most people would do that either so there's some sort of odd thinking going on in that respect. People sign up and stay for the game, not the aesthetic necessarily.

@Granyala: No, not really. Just a nod that we'll do all of this again in 3 months. Regular as NPR fundraisers to be honest (and just about as often).

@Lemmiwink: And I think Blizzard is fine with the idea that people take breaks. I'm certain they would like for them to stay for the financial gain but if a month or two off here and there extends your time in the game by several expansions, it's still a win for them. I don't see a lot of people talking about that but I think it's true.

[SamR]

Because they were selling an expansion, Also pre-patch updates which always gets ppl to come back and do class changes b4 and expansion. Also D3 annual pass was still in effect, i would know cuz mine was still running. I canceled my sub after my AP ran out. But that occured after the last Q ended, which means alot of ppl that would have unsubbed b4 MoP didnt because they wanted to keep D3, and that is reflected in the current Q report. Blizz basically had 1.2 mil subs in the bag no matter what, now im sure most of that number are still playing WoW, everyone i know that got the AP and was playing D3 with is still playing WoW. But there are a number of players that quit WoW once D3 came out and just love the dungeon crawl aspect of d3 and will play it for years to come like they did with d2. Prolly a small number but a number nonetheless, then theres the ppl that had the pass like me but went to play another game.

You made a claim that GW2 took subs from WoW.

I pointed out that WoW subs went up that quarter.

So now you're arguing that GW2 would have totally had a visible impact on WoW subs if only a lot of things were different back then.

Usually when you make a claim, you need to provide evidence. Making rationalizations about what might have been when someone points out why your claim is contradicted by actual facts and figures isn't very strong evidence.

[ScottsdaleHokie]

You made a claim that GW2 took subs from WoW.

I pointed out that WoW subs went up that quarter.

So now you're arguing that GW2 would have totally had a visible impact on WoW subs if only a lot of things were different back then.

Usually when you make a claim, you need to provide evidence. Making rationalizations about what might have been when someone points out why your claim is contradicted by actual facts and figures isn't very strong evidence.

You do realize that just because WoWs subs went up that quarter, it doesn't mean GW2 didn't take subs from WoW, right?

[A Challenger!]

I.... *cue dramatic music*... am willing to take the risk!

Godspeed, brave soldier.

[Cle]

Mechanically wow is old as hell. All that "you need to target something to hit" is one of the major things where wow is completely outdated.

[Granyala]

You do realize that just because WoWs subs went up that quarter, doesn't mean GW2 didn't take subs from WoW, right?

It proves however that the release of a PvP oriented game didn't have a big impact on WoW. It did in fact have none.
If TESO will have an Impact about as large as GW2, then theres nothing to worry about.

I.... *cue dramatic music*... am willing to take the risk!

You're such a daredevil... but you forgot the sunglasses. ._.

Regular as NPR fundraisers to be honest (and just about as often).

*giggles*
But sadly, not even half as productive.

[Lemmiwink]

Look people, lots of people actually plays WoW on and off. I was subbed during launch of MoP but I'm not at the moment. I will likely sub again during MoP. It's an old game with lots of on and off players. I wouldn't read too much into those numbers. I'm betting most of them could easily be on-off'ers.

[ScottsdaleHokie]

It proves however that the release of a PvP oriented game didn't have a big impact on WoW. It did in fact have none.
If TESO will have an Impact about as large as GW2, then theres nothing to worry about.



You're such a daredevil... but you forgot the sunglasses. ._.



*giggles*
But sadly, not even half as productive.

GW2 is PvP oriented? Fooled me.

[SamR]

You do realize that just because WoWs subs went up that quarter, it doesn't mean GW2 didn't take subs from WoW, right?

Of course. But I'm just taking away the low hanging fruit.

Still waiting for any type of evidence that GW2 impacted WoW subs in any significant way.

[RoKPaNda]

What? I think you're the first person I've heard saying such a thing...

The Korean MMO of choice isn't WoW. I can't think of what it's called at the moment, but it's something most people stateside won't have heard of I think. They have buses with advertisements for it over there. StarCraft 2 in Korea isn't unpopular, it's just not nearly as popular as StarCraft 1 was. The big game in Korea right now though appears to be League of Legends.

[Baar]

If WoW loses 2 million players in one Quarter its going to die. It only has about 4+ mil players playing in NA/EU. Losing 2 mil would be devastating. I expect subs to go back up a tad next Q but not the full 400k If it does decline again it will be a small decline or it will stay steady. 5.2 is getting released soon so some will come for that. The next big hit WoW is gonna take is when TESO gets released.

You are THAT guy aren't you. Every new mmo that comes out is the next wow killer isn't it?

[Lemmiwink]

You are THAT guy aren't you. Every new mmo that comes out is the next wow killer isn't it?

Yep, plenty of them going around. If we look at it historically, how many games actually killed WoW? How many games made a dent in WoW's sub numbers? Doesn't take a genious to know that hyping up games to be WoW-killers is not beneficial to the games, it's even damaging. It creates an expectation of something better than WoW, while most likely a new game wouldn't even be on par with WoW. Not to mention all the time people have invested in their WoW-characters.

I wish people would stop hyping things up so much, it only creates massive amounts of rage once the games are actually released and people discover that it isn't what it was hyped up to be. Good example would be SWTOR.....

[User007]

WoW subs will remain at the same level. What will be really surprising and I'm most eager to know is how much money they managed to milk... I mean "earn" from D3's RMAH.

[UnifiedDivide]

You're such a daredevil... but you forgot the sunglasses. ._.

Sadly, they were sucked up into a massive time vortex above me that threatens my very existence because of what I said about playing WoW AND GW2.... oh God, it just got bigger! (inb4 "that's what she said"...)

The Korean MMO of choice isn't WoW. I can't think of what it's called at the moment, but it's something most people stateside won't have heard of I think. They have buses with advertisements for it over there. StarCraft 2 in Korea isn't unpopular, it's just not nearly as popular as StarCraft 1 was. The big game in Korea right now though appears to be League of Legends.

Isn't MapleStory the biggest MMO in Korea?

[Alewen]

Well lets see... in a span of September to December, new expansion launch, holiday season, especially around christmas... and they lost 400,000 subscriptions. I don't think they ever lost subscriptions around christmas before. So I do consider that a rather sizable loss. And hopefully now, Blizzard will actually start shifting their direction. Maybe start actually stop trying to silence people on cross realm zones issues and actually listen and respond in a more respectful tone. Heck, not even Cataclysm lost that many subs in this short a time.

So now, the ball is in Blizzard's court. Will they simply plow on ahead, not addressing the issues their player base is having issues with, and/or silencing their player base? Or will they realize us players who did cancel around that time, were serious about our issues with flawed systems and try to be more open to our suggestions or more open to our feedback? For me, it is now a wait and see. I have no desire to see the game die. But the course Blizzard is on, is suicide and needs to be shifted. Numbers don't lie, and losing that many subs around christmas, isn't a good thing.

[mosely]

9.6 million future unsubscribers.

[Cle]

Wow could lose millions of subs and still be living well