WoW Down to 10.3M Subscribers, PTR Build 14966, Class Balance Q&A, TCG Art

i have heard not know if true but does'nt China have some laws that says you can not show images of Pandas being harmed at all real or fake such as in movies and video game's. i think it will be hard if this law is true for Blizz to release this game in china.

This is the end. I always knew it.


It all started back in 1940 during WWII, when they meant that big raids aren't that use- and successful. Then they shifted away from core European content and released "Mists of Germania" which did not solve the problem, only focused on new ones. Wrath of the Russian did not only kill a lot of farmers. but also destroyed the illusion of being "skilled" and "imba" as everybody could be imba now, especially those casual farmers. When they started the Burning Blockade in Berlin a lot of people quit their accounts and tried to play something different, like Duck 'n' Cover Online. The core gamer thought that their time had come and tried to convince others to take part at big raid like it was during Vanilla WorldWar. It did not happen. Since then nothing has happened anymore, no war, no real big raid, only small ones.
Some of the guys who quit their accounts said that it all started with the lack of 40 or 50k man raids, but nobody really knows. They say that they all focused to support casual farmers but others say this was needed to make it more interesting as the mass does not like core war-ring.

I don't know what will happen in future if more and more people quit. Perhaps they will all focus back on old times with the wars and so on. It was already announced a big new release, perhaps WWIII, who knows. Some use the annual financial crisis to bind people more to one "Europe", to shift away from great wars, but others say it only focuses problems.

We'll see what will happen. Stay tuned.

Ama

Poor Blizzard, releasing a decline in subscription numbers knowing full well haters will ignore all the context they provide and focus on the numbers.

Originally Posted by Gorewolf

Most of the subscriptions were lost in China.... so Blizz got stricter on gold sellers? Also 10.3 million people = 10,300,000 x $14.95= $153,985,000 PER MONTH. Thats $461,955,000 a quarter. $1,847,820,000 a year (although people on long term subscriptions probably lowers this number, other types of subs as well etc this is just a rough guestimate)(although now that the American dollar is worth less than the Aussie dollar i do find myself suddenly being charged in Aus$ rather than American...so they get more out of us) I swear if i see one more person bleatng this wow is dying nonsense /pimp hand

Blizzard doesn't make anywhere near that number per month. They bring in about 400 million a quarter as total revenue and only 70-80 million of that is profit.

Everyone seems to be forgetting that these are numbers from Q3, which ended 6 weeks ago before MoP was officially announced. The numbers are worse now because of continued subscription loss worldwide and the people who have quit over the MoP announcement, haven't even been included in these totals.

These total losses are almost entirely from loss of subscriptions in China because of Cataclysm's launch there in July(the first month of Q3) which were not included in the previous subscription losses.

It is ok that WoW losing subscribers. This game already 7 years old and to keep such big community is amazing. People are leaving to new games, but no worries, WoW have several more years to live, also new Blizzard games await us soon - there will be place where to go

10,3 M so we found down a secret of Anual Pass

Originally Posted by Cygne

They'll be rolling in even more dough next year with the D3 release + possible MoP release, so the subscription loss doesn't scare me.

Don't forget the possibility of the Sc2 xpac which by all rights should be released before Mop.

I still don't see what all the panic is about. Yeah, Blizzard lost approximately 14% of their subscriber base in the last year or so. You have to realize though that in this day and age, when you consider the bar that WoW set for MMORPGs, they were bound to hit a wall where they either can't continue to hold the attention of old players, or can't come up with enough new ideas to lure in new players. There is a point where you peak with your target market. Combine that with the uprising of other MMORPGs injecting themselves into the market, having been able to study WoW's successes(and failures) and hopefully learn from it all, and you have the ability to draw people away from WoW.

That being said, when you consider that WoW still has 10.3M subscribers, that's nothing to sneeze at either. Think about it. If everyone paid the lowest payment method, which I BELIEVE equates out to an average of about $13 per month, that means that Blizzard is bringing in about $14,000,000 A MONTH.......that's well over $1.5 BILLION dollars a year....in JUST subscriptions....that doesn't include anything purchases from their store, and mobile client downloads, and paid premiums services. Yeah, $265,000,000 less a year hurts, but it is by no means killing them. Especially when you consider how long a lot of their hardware has been in service without major upgrades having to be done. Their servers are pretty self sufficient for an extended amount of time, only needing to be upgraded here and there, and even then, they don't necessarily have to replace the entire server, but more likely one or two pieces of internal hardware.

Anyways, I guess I look at it this way. When SW:TOR comes out and Diablo 3 hits the shelves, that is when I would like to see the number of subscribers and how big a tumble it takes. On top of that, you have to bide your time and see if MoP has any impact whatsoever on the number of subscribers. I have spoken to many people, and their intentions are all over the map. Some intend to play SW and WoW, some plan to quit WoW altogether and go play SW, some people plan to ignore SW and continue to play WoW. It is all preference. I play WoW because I like the fantasy setting. SW:TOR doesn't appeal to me whatsoever, because I just don't like the idea of a MMORPG in space. Some people share this view with me, and some people are intrigued by the concept. Neither of these views are wrong, nor should the be perceived as such. I say play what you like, to hell with what everyone else thinks.

One last comment, responding to the guy who thinks that if enough subscribers are lost, Blizzard will start to take it seriously and start putting out better quality content. That's just a big pile of poo, imo. In order for Blizzard to maintain their workforce, they have to maintain a customer base. If you think for one minute that they aren't taking a 14% hit in that base seriously, you are sadly mistaken. If you can't afford to keep the people on staff to create better content, then you can't create better content. The fact of the matter is that after 7 years, it is challenging to come up with 100% new content without the risk of changing the dynamics of the game so much so that the game stops being attractive to the people that have been around a long time. You want to change it enough so that you can attract new players without pissing your loyal customers off, because they have the most time invested in the game already, and those are the people that are most likely to stick around and keep food on the tables of Blizzard's employees. Who is most likely the most important, the guy with a dozen max level toons scattered throughout the world who has been playing since launch, or this new guy that thinks the Pokemon feature of MoP is "totally rad, dude!" Think about it.

Originally Posted by PandarianLeakage

I wonder how much further this titanic will sink until it hits rock bottom

I think you misunderstand the scope.
The next-successful MMORPG would be Dark Age of Camelot, and that kept ~400k subscribers at it's high, and stayed at >100k for a little under 4 years.
Compare that to WoW, and while the numbers are concerning, they got a long long long way to drop until they'd no longer be #1. I doubt they're worried, especially with D3 and HotS coming out and them working on a next-gen MMO in the background.

So if I buy either Heart of the Swarm or D3, they'll start harassing me to come back to WoW for realz, then? What a reason not to buy them. I don't see the annual pass as being all that big of an implement. I'm sure a lot of people are lured by that "free shite" by Blizzard, but the majority of its appeal is probably to people who already planned on paying the 12 months. Not saying it won't save face, even a little. The bitter sulkers of my ilk just see it as a cheap marketing technique to claw down subscribers.

I feel as though I'm obliged to say that the best generations of WoW players are leaving. Yes. The vanilla-loving, "whining elite" that were originally charmed by the dynamic feel of the game. Now, WoW is a model of how I except D3 to be. Linear as shit and unbelievably forgiving.

1.7 million subscribers lost in the last 3 quarters.Holy crap what is going on ? Is it the age of the game or people waiting for TOR and GW2 ?

Originally Posted by Kaeleena

Blizzard doesn't make anywhere near that number per month. They bring in about 400 million a quarter as total revenue and only 70-80 million of that is profit.

Everyone seems to be forgetting that these are numbers from Q3, which ended 6 weeks ago before MoP was officially announced. The numbers are worse now because of continued subscription loss worldwide and the people who have quit over the MoP announcement, haven't even been included in these totals.

These total losses are almost entirely from loss of subscriptions in China because of Cataclysm's launch there in July(the first month of Q3) which were not included in the previous subscription losses.

Sorry, but math is math. 10.3 Million subscribers times, oh, let's say $14/month on average, since some pay monthly, and some pay semi-annually, that still equals about $144,000,000 income per month from subscriptions. Yes, that is about $432,000,000 per quarter of revenue, but that is ONLY from game subscriptions. That does not include any premium services, such as faction changes, name changes, race changes, server transfers, or mobile armory subscriptions. Don't forget merchandise from the Blizzard store as well.

The bottom line is, yeah, losing subscribers means less money coming in, but you can't tell me that the $2 Billion dollars they are grossing is not paying the bills, paying the employees, and still isn't leaving them with huge profit margins. Even if your calculations were right, which I am firmly disagreeing with you and saying they are not, you are saying that they are "ONLY" netting between $280 and $320 MILLION dollars a year as a PROFIT. You realize a profit is ALL of your revenue minus ALL of your expenses. I wish I could net a quarter billion dollars a year after losing 14% of my customer base. While I am sure that Blizzard is taking the hit in subscribers seriously, I highly doubt they are anywhere near panic mode.

what a wonder... 1.7 mio pvp quit the game.. fucking fix pvp plx

This is an old game and most of the players subscribed in the beginning of it's high period of subscribers which was what like 2-4 years ago? So it's bound to happen if those players get bored or gained a lack of interest as well. Just like when i played Half Life mods back in early 2000, the game still has servers up and some players but people got bored of them and ventured to bigger and better games, it happens.

I like WoW. I'm going to play it as long as it's fun to me. I don't mind what other people are playing or how many people are actually playing WoW. Come on guys -- these are just numbers...

I find it funny that after 1.7 million subscribers lost in the last calendar year you still have fan boys blaming it on MOP or whatever... those number are from the previous quater BEFORE MOP was even announced... get real people.. facts are fact and if you loose 1.7 million people in a calendar year... there is a problem! and a big one... I am not saying WOW is dying... god knows no fanboy wants to hear that... but WOW is dying... you could and did make excuse after excuse for the 900k over the last 9 months... god knows I have read every excuse in the book... add to it another 800k for the past 3 months and your still gonna make excuses?

Get real and face facts... there is no other game out that could be used as an excuse for WOW's failure over the last year... So 1.7 million over the last calendar year with no real comp... Aion and Rift are both a joke IMO... Star wars coming out will take another mill... diablo will take another mill... your looking at 2 mill+ over the next year just because WoW sucks cock... Deal with the reality fanboys... numbers dont lie even if you try and make it because China doesn't like Cata... pfftt... w/e we all know and see the truth... My server went from 17 progression raid guilds on 25 man to 1... there were 11 progression raid guilds on 10... there is 2 now.... Facts are facts bitches... deal with the death knell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by ScorchHellfire

Are they saying MoP won't be next year or are they saying HotS won't be next year? Because it seemed pretty likely that both would be coming out in 2012 before...

No, they're going to drop MoP on us Dec 31 ;-)

I have wasted 30 minutes of my life to listen to that webcast too:

WoW Lost 800k Subscribers, down to 10.3M Activision Blizzard latest earning call revealed that World of Warcraft lost another 800,000 subscribers last quarter, following the loss of 300k subscribers announced last quarter and 600k loss from the quarter before that. This brings us to 1.7 million subscribers lost in the last 3 quarters. ... Most of the subscriptions were lost in China.

Those were more or less Morhaime's words ... he didn't really said what "MOST" means: 790k, 600k, 400k or what ?! He didn't explained the numbers at all I might say. He said again that there is not enough end game content and that Cata is hard.

He said they have Mists of Pandaria in the making that will bring back players ... that the panda theme will appeal for casuals. For the hardcore they will focus on the conflict between Alliance and Horde. He seemed to make a big deal out of the "Annual Pass" for making players stick with the game and not quit in even more numbers once Diablo 3 is out. They have more for WoW:

He have other agressive marketing plans for the coming months for World of Warcraft but we are not ready to share details yet

They bid on Brazil to get more subs back to WoW, similar like China I guess.

On the Q&A: They don't provide forecast on subscriber numbers of WoW. Morhaime putting hope on Mists of Pandaria, which is a deja-vu to me, same thing he said about Cataclysm and the world rehash. They "plan to be very aggresive for the end of the year": 4.3 in december against SWTOR release ? They hope they will win back players "on the normal increase in december", but again, they will be against SWTOR.

The "atleast two releases" means: new full games, Diablo 3 and another one.
Overall these conference calls are too optimistic in my view, the numbers say "profit" but a declining in profit margins and Morhaime seemed to dodge the WoW decline subs numbers subject.

Originally Posted by matheney2k

Is the bullet saying "There will be at least two major releases next year." talking specifically about WoW only, since everything else in that post was WoW-related? Besides MoP what else could there be? Maybe a huge content patch?

Maybe they ment WoW Dota.

Why does anyone not playing wow even come here? Just seems allot of you piss and moan complainers who have already unsubbed need to just leave. You quit wow then come on wow forums and bitch about wow...
Let me guess your 40 years old and still drive around your old highschool parking lot with your music blaring?

Comments that have these keywords should just have there entire account auto banned
"I unsubbed because..."
"When I quit wow..."
"Was better back in vanilla.../BC/Wotlk"
"It just doesnt feel like the same game anymore"


This is not suprising, this is the pre expansion blues. Happens almost every time and all the doomsday end of the world wow Harold Campings come out of the woodwork holding there Picket Signs "OH NOEZ DA ENDZ IS NIEGHZ TOLD U SO!11!" With a game of this magnitude you should expect more volatile changes.