WoW stabilizes over 10M subscribers, down 100k in Q4 2011

Originally Posted by Sephiracle

Have you talked to 'most' people? They might have known they would've subscribed anyways, but did they know there wouldn't be any new content past DS? Did they truly know 4.3 was the last of the expansion? I have a feeling they didn't considering that information was brought out less than a month ago.

Even if you don't think it makes any sense it's a very wise business move. Blizzard already knew the following things when they announced the annual pass:
1. 4.3 was the last major content patch for WoW
2. SWTOR, GW2, and Tera will likely be released during the gap between 4.3 and MoP's release
3. Subscriptions are already going downhill, they need something additional to entice people to stick around, which:
a. The annual pass allows them to still 'count' in their subscription, even though they may not play again during the year pass, especially if the MoP beta doesn't even occur during the period.
b. Provide incentives to stay, i.e. D3 and a MoP beta slot(which I believe most people have different impressions of what access this means).

If you think everyone or even a good chunk of the people that are looking negatively on this annual pass business are blizzard haters, maybe you need to take a step back from your fanboyism.

I can't remember where, but I'm almost certain that it was said that 4.3 would be the last major patch of Cataclysm was definitely not said less then a moth ago (4.3.2 is supposed to be the last patch of Cataclysm, I think you got them confused), I knew that when I got the annual pass. And if they had no idea what they were getting into when they bought the annual pass, then I the only thing I can honestly say that they should really actually READ something before signing it.

Almost everyone I know who got the pass is enjoying WoW, except for this one idiot player who didn't read the stuff before subscribing to it, but maybe that will teach him to actually READ something before making a year long commitment.

And I will say the majority who complain about the pass are blizzard haters, but there are some who are not haters and don't like it, that is their opinion and I respect that.

Originally Posted by Callax

I can't remember where, but I'm almost certain that it was said that 4.3 would be the last major patch of Cataclysm was definitely not said less then a moth ago (4.3.2 is supposed to be the last patch of Cataclysm, I think you got them confused), I knew that when I got the annual pass. And if they had no idea what they were getting into when they bought the annual pass, then I the only thing I can honestly say that they should really actually READ something before signing it.

Almost everyone I know who got the pass is enjoying WoW, except for this one idiot player who didn't read the stuff before subscribing to it, but maybe that will teach him to actually READ something before making a year long commitment.

And I will say the majority who complain about the pass are blizzard haters, but there are some who are not haters and don't like it, that is their opinion and I respect that.

I did note that 4.3 was the last major content patch for cataclysm. That information was confirmed in early January by Dave Kosak. The annual pass/D3/beta thing was september or october? I think it's good people are enjoying their annual pass. I just hope they realize when that year is up they didn't really do anything during that time period that they couldn't do with just a few months of a subscription and unsubbing until MoP.

Originally Posted by Sephiracle

I did note that 4.3 was the last major content patch for cataclysm. That information was confirmed in early January by Dave Kosak. The annual pass/D3/beta thing was september or october? I think it's good people are enjoying their annual pass. I just hope they realize when that year is up they didn't really do anything during that time period that they couldn't do with just a few months of a subscription and unsubbing until MoP.

It was stated much before this that Deathwing would be the final boss of this expansion and I believe that 4.3 would be the last major patch. I'd dig through MMOchampion and find it just I'm lazy.

And they better not give us a year of DS, no freaking way I'm doing another ICC and run this for a year. It's a good raid, but no fucking way I can do this for a year.

lets see how blizz recovers

Originally Posted by Callax

It was stated much before this that Deathwing would be the final boss of this expansion and I believe that 4.3 would be the last major patch. I'd dig through MMOchampion and find it just I'm lazy.

And they better not give us a year of DS, no freaking way I'm doing another ICC and run this for a year. It's a good raid, but no fucking way I can do this for a year.

Which is unfortunately, for you, is what you're probably going to get. Unless MoP is released earlier than their typical launch times, MoP won't be out til Nov. And I'm not sure what you expected to be honest if you knew Deathwing would be the final boss of the expansion. Did you expect a summer or late spring launch of MoP?

Originally Posted by Sephiracle

Which is unfortunately, for you, is what you're probably going to get. Unless MoP is released earlier than their typical launch times, MoP won't be out til Nov. And I'm not sure what you expected to be honest if you knew Deathwing would be the final boss of the expansion. Did you expect a summer or late spring launch of MoP?

Blizzard makes stupid decisions sometimes (IE: Releasing 4.1 with two dungeons), there is no way in hell they are dumb enough to release MoP in a year. Even if they do, I'll probably just not raid for awhile and do some arenas/pvp or maybe some Diablo, I still got some friends in my guild I hang out with anyways :P

I'm expecting a late summerish launch for MoP, it appears farther in development and there is no way they will make the mistake (like they did with ICC) of giving us a raid for a year.

Originally Posted by Callax

Blizzard makes stupid decisions sometimes (IE: Releasing 4.1 with two dungeons), there is no way in hell they are dumb enough to release MoP in a year. Even if they do, I'll probably just not raid for awhile and do some arenas/pvp or maybe some Diablo, I still got some friends in my guild I hang out with anyways :P

I'm expecting a late summerish launch for MoP, it appears farther in development and there is no way they will make the mistake (like they did with ICC) of giving us a raid for a year.

Maybe, but according to the roadmap from a couple years ago, they're 2 quarters behind at least from D3 and HotS, and I have a feeling that they're pushing to get those out a lot harder than MoP. Granted, different people are working on those, but those games have also been in production a lot longer than MoP and have no reason to really be delayed any further. MoP however isn't even in a F&F beta that I know of, although that might have happened recently too.

We're really just speculating times anyways.

Originally Posted by Sephiracle

Maybe, but according to the roadmap from a couple years ago, they're 2 quarters behind at least from D3 and HotS, and I have a feeling that they're pushing to get those out a lot harder than MoP. Granted, different people are working on those, but those games have also been in production a lot longer than MoP and have no reason to really be delayed any further. MoP however isn't even in a F&F beta that I know of, although that might have happened recently too.

We're really just speculating times anyways.

Meh, Diablo 3 is definitely getting released this year, and if they have to choose between MoP and HotS, I think they'll choose MoP (unfortunately, I've been wanting HotS forever). I'm thinking MoP will be sooner rather then late due to them not having to redesign all of Azeroth and just having to make five zones (and of course raids and dungeons, but I'm pretty sure the main thing with Cata's dev time was redesigning the entire Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor).

Originally Posted by Callax

Meh, Diablo 3 is definitely getting released this year, and if they have to choose between MoP and HotS, I think they'll choose MoP (unfortunately, I've been wanting HotS forever). I'm thinking MoP will be sooner rather then late due to them not having to redesign all of Azeroth and just having to make five zones (and of course raids and dungeons, but I'm pretty sure the main thing with Cata's dev time was redesigning the entire Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor).

I frankly have a really hard time seeing an expansion to SC2 that's been in production since SC2's launch not making it out this year is a bit crazy. It's just a RTS, it's really not that difficult to create an expansion for. I'm skeptical about the MoP release, but again, it's also very early in the development cycle to really figure out any dates, I'm just basing my opinion on trend.

Originally Posted by Sephiracle

I frankly have a really hard time seeing an expansion to SC2 that's been in production since SC2's launch not making it out this year is a bit crazy. It's just a RTS, it's really not that difficult to create an expansion for. I'm skeptical about the MoP release, but again, it's also very early in the development cycle to really figure out any dates, I'm just basing my opinion on trend.

Yeah, we can hope for all 3 games to be released. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that if Blizzard has to choose one over the other to be released, then it'll be MoP.

Originally Posted by Gilian

Let's forget the fact that when they started to make this game super casual/streamlined people quit playing.

People quit in Cataclysm when they made the game more difficult. When easiness hit in 4.3, the sub loss suddenly moderated.

But this doesn't stop the hardcore and hardcore wannabees for blaming "game is too easy" for the problems. Fortunately, Blizzard will ignore you now that they know better.

Originally Posted by Pellaeon

So blizzard lost 1.8 million bad players that didnt like the changes and couldnt handle them in cata? Good!

Cata is faceroll :<

It's interesting to think what that actually means for the company, 1.8 million x the subsciption is a lot of money, how are they managing that, was it all previously profit that they were investing into new ideas? Will they cut down on servers? Staff?

Originally Posted by Worer

Cata is faceroll :<

They haven't had a tough expansion since Burning Crusade really. The whole new system is all about casual gamers. As for the total subscribers that's still somewhat misleading. Accounts in asia for instance don't pay for monthly subscriptions. They pay for so many minutes. If they have 10minutes or so left on their card it counts as an active subscription. I wonder how many of those are being counted as their current active accounts?

Originally Posted by Worer

Cata is faceroll :<

I take it you have cleared everything in DS heroic then? If not, come back when you have. I really love people using the argument that cata was too easy and that's the reason so many left, because at cata's launch the heroics were designed to match in difficulty those of the burning crusade. Guess what people thought of this new finally added challenge, they hated it! Loads of people left and cried that it was too hard, there were those of course, like me, who loved this new challenge, but far far more who didn't. Blizzard tried making the game harder and people hated it and left, don't claim it's the other way around.

However, Blizzard has already stated that there will be a third difficulty of sorts in 5 mans in mists, normal mode, heroic mode and what I think was challenging mode. The challenging mode will be that of burning crusade heroic, and not mandatory but purely for those who still want a challenge. (Sorry got no link for this but it wasn't that long ago they said it so shouldn't be too hard to find, I'm sure they will mention it again this Monday.)

There are a LOT more casual gamers than hardcore gamers. A lot of people that I have encountered when playing wow (and even some friends sadly)have never been on a browser to research stuff about the game. I just got finished telling my friend who plays wow every day about Mists of Pandaria because he had no idea there was another expansion coming out.

The subs went down because the game got harder, it leveled out when they made it easier. Yes the hardcore gamers are going to complain, but Blizzard is going to cater to casuals because they make Blizzard money. Yes they throw hardcore players a bone once in a while but they aren't their main concern.

This is just my opinion and the way I see it..

Originally Posted by Chaozu

However, Blizzard has already stated that there will be a third difficulty of sorts in 5 mans in mists, normal mode, heroic mode and what I think was challenging mode.

Actually, they stated that the max level dungeons (5 mans) won't have a max level normal mode.

Well, good news.