Originally Posted by
Tharkkun
Let's just say subs are down to 5 million. That's approximately 900 million in subscription revenue a year. Expansions don't cost more than a couple hundred million to produce. If they sell 5 million copies over it's lifetime they've recouped the entire cost of development. So it's pure profit. Micro transactions are just the icing on the cash cow of a cake they already have.
WoW could survive on 1 million subscribers and easily continue making enough cash to comfortably produce expansions. Most MMO's never had more than a million after the first year. EQ peaked at 500k and it has 20 expansions now. Other MMO's are also producing content with sub 1 million users in a F2P market.
98% of the players doesn't participate in Mythic raiding. So guess what? The core player base doesn't give a damn. They are happy with tons of content to participate in. Hell even PVP is more fun now that things are templated and you don't get stomped.
Player retention after 13 years is unheard of. Every month that goes by they are breaking new ground because *NO* product has maintained a subscriber base this large for this period of time. Truth? The game should've died 8 years ago but it's an anomaly. Saying what should be important doesn't make sense because we're long past that point in time. Either embrace the game or don't play. No one is going to quit a game they are happy playing because someone named Iceman said they should on a forum.