Great observation. No more silly financial Quarter threads and ... subscription posts

[Lime]

Meh, we'll get a bunch of "It sure is convenient how they don't report subscription numbers anymore, amirite?"-posts instead

I think it's genius. They stopped reporting it while their MMO was deemed as the most popular subscription MMO.

What this means is that if WoW ever drops low enough and another MMO becomes more popular, most people would likely not know. It'd allow them to maintain the illusion that they're still the king even if their actual numbers say otherwise. If WoW drops to 3m and lets say, purely as an example, FF14 jumped to 4m, many WoW players would still think that WoW has more because they last reported it at 5m, so they don't have any other number to go off of.

Having your fans state "This is the most popular MMO" is still great publicity.

Now, I'm not saying this is the reason they did it, but it's definitely a plus for them.

[mhdoe]

Who cares is the game still there? yes, Do I still enjoy it? yes, then that is all I need to know could care less about sub numbers and if the game ever goes away well then its been a great 11 years thank you Blizzard.

[melodramocracy]

I think it's genius. They stopped reporting it while their MMO was deemed as the most popular subscription MMO.

What this means is that if WoW ever drops low enough and another MMO becomes more popular, most people would likely not know. It'd allow them to maintain the illusion that they're still the king even if their actual numbers say otherwise. If WoW drops to 3m and lets say, purely as an example, FF14 jumped to 4m, many WoW players would still think that WoW has more because they last reported it at 5m, so they don't have any other number to go off of.

Having your fans state "This is the most popular MMO" is still great publicity.

Now, I'm not saying this is the reason they did it, but it's definitely a plus for them.

I'd say it's just the opposite. If another MMO posts numbers, and Blizzard doesn't, the assumption is going to be that they're not in that number 1 slot right now.

In the grand scheme, it's really never mattered what the numbers were vs. other games anyhow, unless one buys into the idea that popularity is directly equivalent to quality.

[shoc]

The problem is that Subscribers are no longer an accurate metric of how well the game is doing financially. From a $$$ standpoint, WoW is earning 85% of what it was when subscribers were 60% higher. The only thing Subscriber metrics stand to serve in this case is to make negative WoW news every 3 months when gaming journalism comes out of the wordwork to talk about how WoW is dying. Which, from a shareholder perspective, is understandably something you could live without.

[Pann]

The problem is that Subscribers are no longer an accurate metric of how well the game is doing financially. From a $$$ standpoint, WoW is earning 85% of what it was when subscribers were 60% higher. The only thing Subscriber metrics stand to serve in this case is to make negative WoW news every 3 months when gaming journalism comes out of the wordwork to talk about how WoW is dying. Which, from a shareholder perspective, is understandably something you could live without.

That is simply not true, in 2009 WoW generated $1248million and $1230million in 2010 compared to $867milion in 2014.

[Lime]

I'd say it's just the opposite. If another MMO posts numbers, and Blizzard doesn't, the assumption is going to be that they're not in that number 1 slot right now.

Yeah, fair enough. I guess it could be looked at in different ways.

In the grand scheme, it's really never mattered what the numbers were vs. other games anyhow, unless one buys into the idea that popularity is directly equivalent to quality.

Unfortunately, I see so many people think that. So many arguments boil down to - "If WoW isn't great, why does it have the most subs?".

[satimy]

Blizzards a lot like the U.S. government now that the statistics will be bad, they just stop using them. See what you want to see

[Alienshroom]

MoP was supported with lots of content after release but never really had a lot of sub changes. WoD was virtually unsupported, lost a lot of subs, but still brought in a vast amount of income for the resources involved. Odds are Legion will have 1 big content patch at best.

[lolbubble]

Why report abysmal numbers when you can backtrack and say "we wont be reporting sub numbers anymore...because reasons"

Blizzard knows their numbers are down, and so does everyone else. Garbage quality --> garbage numbers

[xanzul]

It'll just be blizzard trying to desperately insist that they're doing well despite dropping 50% of their subs this expansion alone.

I'm expecting a downward spiral until the pre patch anyway, blizzard hiding it doesn't make the failure of WoD any less true.

Blizzard has announced multiple quarters of significant subscriber loss since Cata to the tune of around 7 million. If they didn't hide that information back then why would they now?

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Game will survive just fine. Theres enough fan boys and people who just pay their sub every month (and now theres whales as well).

The problem for longterm fans is that if sub declines won't get them to stop churning out substandard product, then if you'd like the glory days to come back, you have to face up to the uncomfortable truth that its just not going to happen. Its facebook games and mount cash shop bollocks from here on out, and not much else.

Calling people whales for buying a few value added services is beyond ignorant. Are the people who pay for PPV events in addition to their monthly cable tv payment whales too?

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Whats worse, never reporting something or only reporting something when it suits you and stopping when it doesn't?

Are we really going to pretend Blizzard hasn't been announcing significant subscriber loss for going on 5 years now?

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ITT, we pretend that sub numbers have no correlation with players outlook on the current state of the game.

Are you for real? You are usually one of the first people to scream bloody murder whenever subscriptions go up and claim subscription numbers don't mean anything.

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I think it's genius. They stopped reporting it while their MMO was deemed as the most popular subscription MMO.

What this means is that if WoW ever drops low enough and another MMO becomes more popular, most people would likely not know. It'd allow them to maintain the illusion that they're still the king even if their actual numbers say otherwise. If WoW drops to 3m and lets say, purely as an example, FF14 jumped to 4m, many WoW players would still think that WoW has more because they last reported it at 5m, so they don't have any other number to go off of.

Having your fans state "This is the most popular MMO" is still great publicity.

Now, I'm not saying this is the reason they did it, but it's definitely a plus for them.

So why didn't they stop announcing numbers after losing 5+ million players over the course of a few years? Why wait until now?

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Why report abysmal numbers when you can backtrack and say "we wont be reporting sub numbers anymore...because reasons"

Blizzard knows their numbers are down, and so does everyone else. Garbage quality --> garbage numbers

Their numbers were down in Cata and Mop yet they still reported them.

[TheFreeman]

MoP was supported with lots of content after release but never really had a lot of sub changes. WoD was virtually unsupported, lost a lot of subs, but still brought in a vast amount of income for the resources involved. Odds are Legion will have 1 big content patch at best.

This is the model moving forward.

I'd love to be proven wrong and eat crow, but if Blizzard can make it work with the less is more new expansion philosophy why would they do anything different? They've repeatedly said over and over that subscriptions (according to them) are no "real" indicator of the health of the game. We aren't in Kansas anymore Toto.

[Synstir]

In just a few days ATVI will present their financial Q report ... and not a word on this forum.

What a relief after a decade of brainless posts... ☺

Finally people understand these are FINANCIAL reports. Have fun playing along.

You made the first one, I believe :-)

[emilylorange]

I remain baffled at the sentiment that subscriber numbers don't affect me as a player.

All you have to do is spend time on what was a 'medium' pop server at the beginning of WoD as a recruitment officer.

Hell on earth, friends.

[BenBos]

That is simply not true, in 2009 WoW generated $1248million and $1230million in 2010 compared to $867milion in 2014.

But Blizzard made far more money overall.

Hence the discussion now is where it counts: the dollar signs..., not a subscription number as such.

Also with people buying subscriptions with "in game" gold, it would be ridiculous to compare even (and that's the only reason EVE hang on to their 400 k numbers for years).

[Rafoel]

WoW is dead gaem.

You called it.

[Deleted]

Why are they stupid? People want to see the state of the game, and see how many people are playing it so they can see if their criticisms and complaints are shared with the playerbase. Now I understand from a financial standpoint they are pretty much irrelevant as it's the actual income that matters, the WoW token, cash store counterbalance the loss of subscribers quite heavily. But from a player's perspective they are the number one metric of objectivity on how the game is doing as far as a player is concerned and pretty much solidify the fact that the complaints on this forum and the official forums is significantly more than the vocal minority, but over 50% (No doubt more now) of WoW's total subscribers.

[Pann]

But Blizzard made far more money overall.

Hence the discussion now is where it counts: the dollar signs..., not a subscription number as such.

Also with people buying subscriptions with "in game" gold, it would be ridiculous to compare even (and that's the only reason EVE hang on to their 400 k numbers for years).

Why have you replied to me with an unrelated point(s)?

[Molis]

You guys act like share holders give a crap what WoWs subs are at. They only care about the dollars.

[ro9ue]

In just a few days ATVI will present their financial Q report ... and not a word on this forum.

What a relief after a decade of brainless posts... ☺

Finally people understand these are FINANCIAL reports. Have fun playing along.

Way to ruin it then.

[Army Dreamer]

Damn, I'm gonna miss subs reports.