Originally Posted by
aziras
To the people saying it is not to pad the Q3 numbers... look at a calendar. They picked 26th for a reason: It is friday. So you get to play for the week (my guess would be this opens up around the 19th) starting with a weekend to get you started, some weekdays to get your daily routine back in gear, and then the catch weekend: BAM! can't play in the weekend unless you subscribe!
TADA! any conversion generated from this campaign is nicely translated to Q3 subscription numbers.
They are not business idiots. They know pretty darn well that the sales forecast for WoD launch numbers are directly affected by the number of active subscribers. They also know that the opening sales numbers for WoD will determine it's launch profile, as a very high number will attract a lot of extra players, while a low number will likely lead to some negative press (and many "oh, then I don't bother" responses).