"The game is profitable even with 1mil subs"

[Kraenen]

1 mill subs = 15Mill a month, you dont call that profitable? Lelz

profit means you're making more than you're spending

[Gimlix]

profit means you're making more than you're spending

I doubt WoW costs more then 15 Million a year. and thats only from subs. Box money, cash shop, promotions. alot of $$ to earn with 1M lol

[xfloydex]

It is profitable, and would still be at 1 mil subs. But since its not at 1mil anyway who gives a shit. Awful thread.

[Auxora]

I think some of the people with the 1M is or is not profitable are missing the larger point. WoW is Blizzard's (by far) #1 IP and brand. Some other ones are popular games for sure, but none are a household brand that nearly everyone in the US including non-gamers know what wow is.

With the brand value in mind, there is a point where sub loss damaging the wow brand is a much larger issue than whether or not 1M or 2M is still a somewhat profitable number. Blizzard's margins are still quite good, so from a sub number I'm sure it could go much lower based on those numbers in their quarterly reports. But Blizzard is already only 38% of Activision-Blizzard revenue now. if that gets to something like 80/20 Activision, and the wow brand is looking bad due to really low (like under 3M) subs then that is a big issue. The main point being the brand value of wow is probably more important than whether 1M or 2M can keep the servers going.

[Deleted]

I doubt WoW costs more then 15 Million a year. and thats only from subs. Box money, cash shop, promotions. alot of $$ to earn with 1M lol

I belive it actually cost more than that. Apart from the game development, WoW is a game that needs to be kept alive = Blizz needs to pay fees (ex. server fee), and those are big sums (and those fees are also included in the monthly price of sub - if you're ever wondered what are you paying for).

[ro9ue]

This argument is so flawed:

1. First of all, it's not profitable with 1 mil subs. It's profitable with 1 single sub if you spend nothing at all. So if you do absolutely nothing at all and you offer nothing, you can be profitable because 1 guy paid you.

2. There is a difference between being in decay and being on the rise. For example a game that went from 500,000 users to 1 mil and it's rising to become a 2mil is warmer environment than a 12mil->5mil.

3. We don't know if the game is profitable or not really. The Accounting of a complex company is ..complex. WoW in isolation might be profitable or it might be breaking-even if suddenly WoD was hated.

1mil subs is $15m per month. $180m per year. That's not even taking into consideration some of those subscribers will also purchase store stuff as well as some subs will be $20 because of the WoW Token.

But let's just underestimate it for now. $180m/yr. Do you think WoW costs $180m/yr to run? I highly, highly doubt that.

[Gimlix]

I belive it actually cost more than that. Apart from the game development, WoW is a game that needs to be kept alive = Blizz needs to pay fees (ex. server fee), and those are big sums (and those fees are also included in the monthly price of sub - if you're ever wondered what are you paying for).

Mate NO game cost 15Million a month -.-

[melodramocracy]

It's not a flawed argument at all. With lower subs would come a smaller customer service group, smaller / less expensive hardware requirements, etc, and the game would remain profitable.

They could drop below a million and still turn a profit.

[xenogear3]

Everyone unsub and find out.

My bet is NO.