WoW made 213 million dollars in 2013 from microtransactions!

[jbombard]

Question: Why the hell would WoW turn free to play and lose the money that comes from 7 million players paying the sub fee on top of the extra earnings from the extra services? Who in their right minds would turn down such money? Only morons would turn such a successful game F2P. Besides, WoW would lose more players if they turned F2P. The earnings blizz have right now are the sub fees and whatever other income they have ON TOP OF EXTRA EARNINGS. Why in hell would anyone reduce those incomes to ONLY EXTRA EARNINGS??????????????????
Also, the sub fee is to keep the trash players out of the game (well at least most of them, we can't get rid of ALL the scum).

This... mostly.
"the sub fee is to keep the trash players out of the game" - not sure this is working or ever worked. I have a hard time imagining community being worse in WoW, out of all the games I have played WoWs community is pretty bottom of the barrel. Don't get me wrong it was fantastic in vanilla and BC and even wrath, but since cata... it fell off a cliff.

[Regalbeast]

213m really isn't that much to a large corporation TBH. Also, do a little calculation for me and tell me if you think they should go F2P...

Take 8 million, multiple that number by 15...and then by 12. What do you get? Yeah, a freaking huge number. So no, they shouldn't go F2P

[meroko]

People still play MapleStory? LOL

[Belize]

Isn't that how much money Nintendo made too...

[Arewn]

Yup... and that's not including the monthly 52mil~ they get from the west's subscription fee (3.5mil~ western subs times 15dollars sub fee, just an approximation using basic math), or the money they get from box sales/expansion.
And then people wonder why there's complaints about blizzard being money grubbing and taking advantage of the consumer through cash shop items.

And to the people not bright enough to figure it out:
The reason people are suggesting free to play is because by getting rid of the sub fee they could potentially increase their player base by getting rid of a barrier to entry. That influx of players would then be potential micro-transaction customers. Plus those previously paying a sub would be highly likely to invest more in micro-transaction or continue an optional sub of some sort.
On top of being more consumer friendly, it stand to reason that they could potentially increase profits. There are of course risks as well, and whether they actually would see a profit increase is something even Blizzard doesn't know for sure though.

[Belize]

213m really isn't that much to a large corporation TBH. Also, do a little calculation for me and tell me if you think they should go F2P...

Take 8 million, multiple that number by 15...and then by 12. What do you get? Yeah, a freaking huge number. So no, they shouldn't go F2P

Basic math tell me just over a billion. Wait... Wat. One sec, that doesn't look right...

15 * 8 = 120. So, 120 million$ * 12 = 1440 million. 1.4 billion!? jesus fuck.

[roahn the warlock]

world of warcraft #7 in a free to play list, pfftahahahahahahaha.

[Stormspellz]

DAMN. League of Legends makes $624 million per year? That's crazy.

making and sales numbers are two different things.

[ComputerNerd]

In line with inflation the cost of many services or products based on a regular payment has increased.
The WoW subscription is an exception to that rule.
If you do not buy any store items, or any account services then rather than whining you should be thanking those people who kept your subscription cost the same for about 8 years now.

[Stormspellz]

I just wish Blizz would put even half as much thought and effort in the game as they currently do on mounts, pets and other vanity services. We might have even been spared of the whole MoP theme.

what an ignorant statement and eastern themes fit just as well as norse or gasp* spaceships

[roahn the warlock]

You know what would be better than having 7 million and micro transactions, putting all that effort back into the game and having 10 million again

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In line with inflation the cost of many services or products based on a regular payment has increased.
The WoW subscription is an exception to that rule.
If you do not buy any store items, or any account services then rather than whining you should be thanking those people who kept your subscription cost the same for about 8 years now.

You speak of inflation like.... a person who has no idea how inflation works. We went through this funny thing called a recession, this is when prices go down. Lots of people haven't been getting big raises in a while.

In fact, as the dev team didn't get bigger with every new million player, net profits only went up with the increasing number of players. You know once wow only had 100,000 subs, and only charged 15 an month.

On top of that, I recal only spending 20 dollars on tbc and wrath

[Klingers]

"Clearly struggling"? Before posting such laughable garbage, did you realize that they report their profits in quarterly reports? When those start dwindling, I'll be worried.

OK. Switch off the nerdrage. It's clearly getting in the way of your sarcasm detector.

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A baby takes nine months to gestate, no matter how much you pay her and/or how many other women assist. More money doesn't translate to faster content.

Bad comparison. This isn't biology. A better analogy would be a building project.

The Chinese recently built a 30-story skyscraper in 15 days thanks to proper planning, efficient construction and hiring enough qualified people to get the job done.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57...-just-15-days/

[Sharuko]

The number definitely counts the revenue they get from Asia. Asia doesn't pay monthly subscriptions they pay for the game by hour, and that is what the majority of that revenue figure includes. There is no way WoW makes 200 million from revenue from micro-transactions in the West.

[TheSerialSniper]

Top 10 Online Games, Based on Free-to-Play Earnings - Worldwide
Rank Title Publisher 2013 Revenue (mil $)
1 (CrossFire) Tencent/SmileGate $957
2 (League of Legends) Tencent/Riot Games $624
3 (Dungeon Fighter Online) Nexon $426
4 (World of Tanks) Wargaming.net $372
5 (MapleStory) Nexon $326
6 (Lineage I) Tencent/SmileGate $257
7 (World of Warcraft) Activision Blizzard $213**
8 (Star Wars: The Old Republic) Electronic Arts $139**
9 (Team Fortress 2) Valve $139
10 (Counter-Strike Online) Valve/Nexon $121

** - Not counting their subscription fees.

So according to Gamespot, WoW made 213 million dollars from microtransactions alone in 2013. That's from services like realm transfer and pets/mounts.
linky --http://www.gamespot.com/articles/league-of-legends-revenues-for-2013-total-624-million/1100-6417224/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=t.co

I never thought these numbers could be so huge.
Is it finally time for WoW to go ftp? -sorry if this is already posted.

Well if wow makes about 6.5mx15 a month that would be 1,170,000,000 a year for their subscriptions putting how much they make in microtransactions at about 15% of their income. Seems appropriate.

[Sharuko]

Well if wow makes about 6.5x15 a month that would be 1,170,000,000 a year for their subscriptions putting how much they make in microtransactions at about 15% of their income. Seems appropriate.

WoW made as much at $1.4 billion back in WotLK, now they make about $800 - 900 million a year, which is a lot. And Asia has historically made up about 10-15% of WoW's revenue, so that 200 million figure makes sense when you count the revenue they get from China/Asia.

[notorious98]

Because i think they could make more money by going ftp, and instead of 7 mill active accounts we would have 20+ mill.

But then the issue becomes how many people actually wind up spending money in the cash shop? Not only that, but how much of the game do you offer for free? Do you go with Rift's model or something more along the lines of LotRO? If you'll notice, neither is on that list. Or you can go with TOR's model which is limit everything in existence and then sell gambling packs for the slim chance of some sweet items. I don't think they'd make MORE money. I think they'd wind up making less.

[Kaleredar]

You know what would be better than having 7 million and micro transactions, putting all that effort back into the game and having 10 million again

yes, because a large number of people that have quit have done so because their models weren't shiny enough.


Oh, if only if only they kept on putting in new mounts and armor and pets in every patch that could be obtained in game...

Oh wait! They do!

Guess that's not enough to hold everyone over.

[Mihalik]

Because i think they could make more money by going ftp, and instead of 7 mill active accounts we would have 20+ mill.

Blizzards accounting department disagrees with you, and I think they know a thing or two about this stuff.

[Mawnix]

yes, because a large number of people that have quit have done so because their models weren't shiny enough.


Oh, if only if only they kept on putting in new mounts and armor and pets in every patch that could be obtained in game...

Oh wait! They do!

Guess that's not enough to hold everyone over.

No matter what they do, it'll never be good enough for the vocal, unhappy portion of this community.

Oh well~

Inb4 I get flak for saying this.

[Morgaith]

Because i think they could make more money by going ftp, and instead of 7 mill active accounts we would have 20+ mill.

They would for a short period, then the game would suffer a big quality loss and the number of players would go from bleeding to hemmoraging.