Blizzard: 'We don't expect World of Warcraft to grow again'

[Replica]

Doesn't really surprise me. World of Warcraft has been played by so many people that it's hard to get a reliable source of new players into the game. Add to that a toxic community that expects perfection out of people who have never played and you have a recipe for decline.

Toxic community and the strive to get better should be in different context here.
You have a choice to play poorly.

[The Kao]

OT: Of course they don't expect that. Who does? WoW has a normal product life cycle and it's reached the decline. All they can and will do now is try to slow the descent (and occasionally subs will bump up, due to expansions and stuff). I don't see the issue here.

Well the issue here is that the human mind fears the future when it can't see what it beholds. We would even go as far as believing in unrealistic hopes rather than staying unable to tell what comes.

Add to that a toxic community that expects perfection out of people who have never played and you have a recipe for decline.

More like, unrealistic expectations from players that are not up to the challenge and refuse to learn how to get there, while at the same time wanting others to carry them through out of some misguided feeling of entitlement. That's been quite toxic to the core community over the past decade, agreed.

[Orange Joe]

DA COMUNITY BE TOXICCC!!!11

Fucking stupid shit that is thrown around every fucking time.

Yet you prove his point........

[Independent voter]

“We really don’t know if it will grow again. It is possible, but I wouldn’t say it’s something that we expect."

-- Tom Chilton.

But the headline is much more exciting.

[Calzaeth]

How can they? The only thing that allowed WoW to grow to the ridiculous size it reached is, I believe, the fact that it covered all the "niches" in a time when MMORPGs in general were pretty damn scarce. But now we have PvP-focused, RP-focused, small-group-focused, furry-focused, WHATEVER-focused MMO's all over the damn place.

The 12m-mark was simply the result of a perfect storm of possibilities. Mind you, I still think of WoW as the best MMORPG on the market, but there are so many competitors tailored towards specific niches that you don't have to 'make do' with WoW anymore.

[Deleted]

Pretty sure WoW hasn't grown since the launch of Wotlk. A spike of subbers for 2 months at the launch of a new Xpack doesn't really count is growth.

[Deleted]

How can they? The only thing that allowed WoW to grow to the ridiculous size it reached is, I believe, the fact that it covered all the "niches" in a time when MMORPGs in general were pretty damn scarce. But now we have PvP-focused, RP-focused, small-group-focused, furry-focused, WHATEVER-focused MMO's all over the damn place.

The 12m-mark was simply the result of a perfect storm of possibilities. Mind you, I still think of WoW as the best MMORPG on the market, but there are so many competitors tailored towards specific niches that you don't have to 'make do' with WoW anymore.

It is the best MMORPG in regards of how polished it is, then again any MMORPG could be like that if they launched at that time instead of WoW. It's only normal for a game to be more polished and developed after many years.

[Saxtorph]

Toxic community and the strive to get better should be in different context here.
You have a choice to play poorly.

Some people don't really have a choice. I think you underestimate the amount of stupid in the world. Just because a person can get through buying and installing a product doesn't automatically imply that they have huge potential as gamers.

[Tyrgannus]

DA COMUNITY BE TOXICCC!!!11

Fucking stupid shit that is thrown around every fucking time.

/slowclap. Drips with irony.

[Icoblablubb]

Hi my name is Kappa 123 im an journalist i had an interview with tom chilton !

he said WoW is dead!! ofc i dont have any source but hey its true like the post from OP #truth

[rda]

Well, if Blizzard themselves don't believe in their ability to create a great game that would be enjoyed by more people than today, why should players?

[Gimlix]

WoW is doing great in fact the only reason it is on decline after not growing for 1 year < Is because Blizzard isnt going to give us new content for 15 months, no shit it doesnt grow then.

[Maxilian]

Every game has a life cycle, anybody who doesn't understand this is a fool.

It's why I laugh when you see Blizzdrones in quarterly threads saying they expect subs to go up to 10 million + in WoD

Yeah that's true, but that doesn't change that these "news" is bullshit also that doesn't mean that the game is going to die soon

[TheWindWalker]

Honestly, I still think Metzen thinks that going the "rawr Orcs grr Savage clang Warring Nations" thing is going to pull in people because, apparently?, the few million people we lost were too immature to handle an Asian theme.

[Deleted]

Actually have to agree with him there, adding more and more levels just makes it more unattractive for people to come back into the game.

[Bosen]

DA COMUNITY BE TOXICCC!!!11

Fucking stupid shit that is thrown around every fucking time.

Your response pretty much says it all.

[entitlement]

Warlords of Draenor and MoP can barely be called the same product, MoP and TBC is two entirely different products.

The product is World of Warcraft, each expansion being an extension of the original product - in an attempt to extend the life cycle which has been extremely successful. The monetization systems they've implemented have also been handled extremely well - pets, mounts, transmog gear, transfers, etc have been a goldmine; successfully supplementing the loss of subscription dollars and farming their existing clientele for further revenue.

Other MMO's cannot hold a candle to the success that WoW has found. I don't consider myself an expert, but I do have 13 years of construction and web project/product management experience so my insight may be a bit more lucid than the mob proclaiming that the end is nigh.

...& because everybody loves life cycle charts - A project management industry standard that applies to most, if not all products:



With Blizzard about to release their 5th expansion, I'd say that's pretty damn impressive.

[Deleted]

For the product life cycle model to apply, you must first determine what the "product" here is. Are we talking about WoW, the brand or are we talking about WoW - Cataclysm, WoW - MoP, The MMO genre etc.
...

Totally agree, and also wanna add. Say they lower sub fee to 2$ month, they will prob prove the life cycle based on subs wrong, but not the cycle based on profit.

And another thing is that alot of products reach a stable level after a huge rise and then a decline... i much rather have a stable 5m WoW players than this up and down rollercoaster. Alot easier to keep and maintain a reliable raiding crew with not as many coming and going.

[BenBos]

WOD: 8.5 million subscribers minimum.

Reason: nothing new in MMO land that is even worth a try except WOD. EOS and WildStar burned their bridges already - as usual.

I played Destiny and it is ... a shooter: young 16 year old ADHD males will love it. But that's not your WOW public.

D3 is played out, no trading means no play. HS is used on the loo, so I don't see any competition this fall.

It depends whether MMORPG's are really dead or not. But even then WOW stays the reference everyone who looks for MMO play will be interested in.

All the rest of the bunch is in the last straight line of free to play mechanics. After that it is the cemetery next to Warhammer and other Vanguard graves.

Those usual suspects coming in and shout "...but I know a Chinese MMO with 2 billion players...": good , play that then in Chinese....

[Deleted]

The product is World of Warcraft, each expansion being an extension of the original product - in an attempt to extend the life cycle which has been extremely successful. The monetization systems they've implemented have also been handled extremely well - pets, mounts, transmog gear, transfers, etc have been a goldmine; successfully supplementing the loss of subscription dollars and farming their existing clientele for further revenue.

Other MMO's cannot hold a candle to the success that WoW has found. I don't consider myself an expert, but I do have 13 years of construction and web project/product management experience so my insight may be a bit more lucid than the mob proclaiming that the end is nigh.

...& because everybody loves life cycle charts - A project management industry standard that applies to most, if not all products:



With Blizzard about to release their 5th expansion, I'd say that's pretty damn impressive.

It's not impressive in the slightest considering the success of the game was mostly based on luck and the start of MMORPG genre to become popular.