Predicting an huge increment of subs in Legion and further! {legendary wow is back}

[Deleted]

Now, starting from the fact that we have never been so much excited about an expansion after wotlk (2008), here's the reasons behind my prediction:

Since Cataclysm WoW suffered from dislikes and various delusions, mainly related to lore and the "non-legendary" bosses. The Lich King was indeed our last famous boss. He had a long RTS story, like Illidan, and the lore behind it was really historic. He was, indeed, famous.
Every classic (vanilla, tbc, wotlk) bad guys were popular covered by an epic, old and deep lore, that made them unforgettable and forever signed into the story.
Then next came Deathwing, like what, who knows it? Who cares of it? The game is no more the same, I don't feel the same feelings. That's it, no RTS behind it, he's not a legend. After that, Pandas, that took WoW so far from Warcraft that you just couldn't feel to play into that universe. Garrosh was the big dude, but he was just a raging gorilla, that only trying to compare him with Arthas or Illidan would sound like an heresy. And after this mad orc came more mad orcs, turning the game into World of Orcs, also known as Warlords of Draenor. This expansion, the actual one, is possibly the one that have led players too far into delusion.

Here's why, after WoD, World of Warcraft will finally raise to the top once again:

Legion
- the returning of Illidan = many old players returning, new hyped kids too
- DH playable class = I shouldn't even say this is the Legion's core feature, generating lot of subs
- basically tbc 2.0 = wow's golden time is back
- classes revamp = this might turn out to be a disaster, but previews show excited players
- the legion is back = after almost 10 years, we are going to seriously challenge the Burning Legion once again (truly loved warcraft main theme)

What's after Legion? The main options are two: Azshara or LK 2.0
I dare to say that it would be repetitive having wotlk 2.0 following tbc 2.0. So I'm pretty confident that Azshara will be next, and Bolvar will have to wait. Also because you have to consider that Legion will show lot of naga stuff with new models and a proper raid about it. Finally, there is no better time to make Azshara right after our adventures into the broken isles.

Azshara (2018)
- long awaited, if truly next, subs will certainly remain
- there we are, if you were missing to feel a legendary final boss, here we damn are
- first female final boss. Not gonna lie: this is something to consider
- logically new playable races. Panda was mainly hated and before that we had Goblin and Worgen in 2010 (8 years before).
- unpredictable content

LK 2.0 (2020?)
- wotlk voted for the best expansion in WoW
- maximum peak of wow's golden time
- predicting maximum level of hype
- incalculable amount of exciteness

TL;DR: Legion - Azshara - LK2.0 = increasing subs till at least 2020

[Manhands]

...and we'll never know if you're right.

But I'm rooting for you (and WoW). I'm rooting for you.

[Conscious]

Sorry, but Blizzard stated (at the end of Mists I believe) that they don't expect World of Warcraft to ever post a positive net gain of subscribers ever again.

That doesn't however mean they're not going to keep making expansions, or even content patches in lieu of those.

[Zantos]

It really depends on the content. Legion will get some back. It depends on if it can keep them.

[Grym]

Didn't people predicted the same thing with WoD...???

[Jonnusthegreat]

Honestly I doubt it at this point. The core playerbase of WoW is getting older and getting bored. Draenor was supposed to be the best lore of all time, but cuts made it a wreck of an expansion. The game is so complex and overwhelming to new players that it doesn't gain new hold over them. I'm so pessimistic but I think WoW is done for on a serious note within 5 years. It will still be going on longer than that, but there will be bigger and better games by then.

[Flatspriest]

By the way. The Warcraft main theme is NOT Burning Legion. It is, however, Horde vs. Alliance. Which is not a major theme part of Legion since, once again, the two are working together to get rid of the Legion.

[SoulSoBreezy]

Some players and I look at the game past the themes and lore, and as a collection of systems design. That said, I'm excited about what's to come:
- New approach to "dailies"
- New approach to PvP rewards
- Player progression through CMs
- Changes in itemization (due to artifacts removing weapon drops for the expansion)

[Deleted]

And why is that kind of OP better than the doomsayers that also just speculate?

[Mad_Murdock]

Not to be a naysayer But WoW's prime has past. WoD continued the bleeding of subs even after starting off with a huge gain. WoD was TBC 2.0 and failed. I think WoW will be down to 4 million before Legion launches and I'll say it will pick up 2 million and then lose those 2 after 6-8 months and the bleed will continue.

I don't fault Blizzard, I just don't think they will ever recapture the original magic WoW even if they released Vanilla servers. Game is too old and dated looking to compete with all the free to play games. I also think the Subscription model is done for and least for this generation

[SoulSoBreezy]

And why is that kind of OP better than the doomsayers that also just speculate?

I'd like to think that positive thinking is healthy =), even if the OP is embellishing a bit (a lot).

[jackofwind]

Then next came Deathwing, like what, who knows it? Who cares of it? The game is no more the same, I don't feel the same feelings. That's it, no RTS behind it, he's not a legend.

Deathwing played a role in Warcraft 2. Just because you never played any Warcraft games before jumping on the WC3 bandwagon doesn't mean he wasn't already a well established character. It seems like you really don't know anything about Warcraft other than what you played in WC3.

The main theme of Warcraft has nothing to do with the Burning Legion. Nothing at all. The main theme of Warcraft is Orcs vs. Humans.

All I'm reading here is that you don't want WoW's story to revolve around any characters but those found in WC3. Guess what - many people were thoroughly excited about seeing the orc heroes from Warcraft 2 appear in WoD. That's not to say they treated them well or delivered a great expansion, but they got a lot of people excited.

Illidan is overrated. He's the Sephiroth of the Warcraft universe - self-proclaimed edgy and misunderstood, just like the masses of fedora-toting fanboys he inspires.

[Airlick]

Theme doesn't make an x-pac. Illidan had a terrible role in TBC, acting as nothing but a threatening - and not particularly scary - voice coming from a green fog. Lich King wasn't presented much better than Illidan in-game until the actual boss fight. What made those x-pacs good was the content, not the theme. TBC and WotLK had the best raids ever and the best PvP balance ever. There's also the factor that the game wasn't as old and the majority of players has not yet plowed through older content back then, and so they could find tons of things to do in vanilla/TBC zones respectively.

I'm sure MoP wouldn't have lost as many subs as it had if the drought between SoO and WoD launch, combined with lack of interesting solo and small group content, wasn't as long as it was.

[TheFuse]

Didn't people predicted the same thing with WoD...???

Yes, they thought it'd be Vanilla 2.0. But they forgot Vanilla sucked.

[Snes]

We'll never know how well WoW is doing since they aren't going to release sub numbers anymore (supposedly, although I'm sure they'll yell from the mountain tops if they get back up to 10 million)

[christehchris]

they said this for cata and wod. funnily enough the only one that has been good since wotlk was mop and nobody hyped that up

[Pull My Finger]

There's a principal, fundamental misconception here: the assumption that "subs" are this static thing that just needs to be stimulated the right way. The idea that somewhere out there, there are these 12+ millions of "old" WoW players that unanimously loved TBC and WotLK, but equally unanimously hated everything that came after that, and that they've been sitting tight for the last 6 years of something, just waiting for that one expansion that brings back WoW to it's "former glory" so they can all start playing again.

I can tell you that's completely wrong.

[Deleted]

We'll never know how well WoW is doing since they aren't going to release sub numbers anymore

The new philosophy is "we're still doing well with less subs if we sell more mounts".

Relevant soundtrack

[Kathranis]

Well, they're never going to report on subscription numbers again so we probably won't have any solid metrics to judge by...

However, it's natural that subscriber numbers will rebound when the expansion launches. Mists and Warlords both rebounded to 10 million players at launch. I wouldn't be surprised if they approach that level again with Legion.

The question is whether or not they can maintain player engagement. Mists did a pretty good job keeping people subscribed and invested in new content, but Warlords completely failed to do that, and rapidly shed subscribers as a result.

They acknowleged that failing to support Warlords with robust patch content was a mistake and have said that they have plans to release a more continuous stream of content for Legion than with any previous expansion... If they can deliver on that commitment, then I think the game will remain healthy.

[Brewhan]

everyone was saying WoD was TBC 2.0 omg hype train such fun times omg 10 million subs wow is alive again bois! Look how that turned out.