WoW Down to 7.7 Million Subscribers, Activision Blizzard Purchases Vivendi's Shares

That's not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. Looks like it will probably even out eventually though I'm sure they're gonna get a really big bump as soon as 5.4 comes out. This is to be expected though since it's basically a month or so until next patch. I know I was getting a little bored until I decided to level some alts and start gearing some others.

Ugh now I have to hear about the sub decline for months.

Hey guys I have a pet hate in the game I'm going to blame the sub loss entirely on that and act as if that's justified.

Originally Posted by George

:O Is this really true? Do you have a source?

LOL is all I can say.

Rogues can't shoot fireballs from their eyes, no wonder the subs dropped. GG blizzard

Originally Posted by Scoots

Wow. Nice. Acti-Blizz is free now!

Now there is no excuse for whiners to say, "Its all vivendi's fault."

Honestly never heard of that, I hear people blaming activision more than anything, and I would too. Activision is probably right up there with EA for most greedy gaming company.

Well it is normal that Blizz looses subs, nowdays players have a lot of choices which game they want to play. This is not 2004 where there were like 4-5 serious MMOs on the market that WoW had to compete with. The time goes by and every quarter WoW will loose some of the subs, we have couple of big MMOs coming this and next year (Wildstar, TESO, ArchAge) and World of Darkness in 2015. Also ppl are getting used to new payment models, f2p and b2p and they refuse to pay monthly fee AND paying for expansions. I expect that at the end of 2014 WoW subs will lower to like 4-5 milion(firstly it will rise due to expansion if they release it next year, but then it will fall down hard like MoP), it still will be the biggest MMO on the market.

This is probably the one and only MMO that have been operating for over 8 years with subs counted in milions, event TITAN project will not get so much subs, just because the market is different now than in 2004. Blizzard did a fantastic job, maybe i hate recent expansion and i don't play WoW anymore, but the memories and nostaliga will never leave me.

not as big of a loss as i expected.

I'm still playing.

Theme song for this thread and WoW in general: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw5acgqIHQE

It looks like Vivendi truly is desperate for money, being forced to do this deal at a 10% discount on share prices.
Just be advised that with Acti-Blizz holding a current debt, we wont see any change in policy vis-à-vis Real Money Stores and the like.

I don't give the number of people playing the game much weight. If I enjoy the game, I'm going to play it regardless of 50 subs or 5 million. Couldn't care less. It's an old game, there's more competition for sub money and there's competition from Free-to-plays. It's not a surprise that numbers are going down and the days of 12 million are likely to return. Still just doesn't matter one bit.

If they keep loosing 600k per quarter soon nobody will be left. They better get their shit together and stop shitting on us players.

Originally Posted by Scoots

Wow. Nice. Acti-Blizz is free now!

Now there is no excuse for whiners to say, "Its all vivendi's fault."

ive never seen anyone on here blame anyone but activision......

600,000 sub loss? thats alot of subs and im sure more will leave wow too.
Im sure we will see many threads pop up from the same old idiots throwing numbers about, mentioning subs on other mmo's while pretending to be one of 'blizzards shareholding accountancy developer designer ceo's' coming up with excuses trying to justify the loss...this plagued forum seems to be full of em.

'Well the sub loss is because of <insert random bullshit here>, things will pick up <insert more random bullshit here>....WELL SWTOR AND RIFT ONLY HAVE XXXK SUBS bla bla bla, WOW IS KING WOW IS KING (http://www.sheep.com/sounds/baasheep1.wav)'

edit- well didnt take long, i see above posters with the 'well a month before patch' 'this is expected' crap lol fucking take off your blinkers seriously.

This is a huge win for Activision-Blizzard. Vivendi was trying to siphon profits from them to bankroll their losses elsewhere -- AND pay out dividends to Vivendi holders with Act-Bl money. It was pure BS.

Now that this dramabomb is over, they can get back to making good games without some corporate tool over their shoulders.

Well eat this blizzard sadly this is your fault, Most ppl who unsubscribed are from low population realms, , PPl were asking Virtual realm kind system since start of cataclysm, also doing less and less content in every next patch, THey whine about Money and time hahah fail. I i'm unsubscribed atm and i'l be back with 5.4

Good for Activision Blizzard for getting rid of that leech. It's a sinking ship sadly.

half life 3 confirmed

Originally Posted by Sarella

It looks like Vivendi truly is desperate for money, being forced to do this deal at a 10% discount on share prices.
Just be advised that with Acti-Blizz holding a current debt, we wont see any change in policy vis-à-vis Real Money Stores and the like.

1.5 billion in debt for a company with a 17 billion market cap is not a big deal. 17 billion dollar market cap and year over year profits, I don't see that they have much to worry about. They'll come out of this in much better shape overall.

Maybe Blizzard will give sub numbers for each region to build consumer confidence that US/Europe is where their core market is.

Originally Posted by docterfreeze

Honestly never heard of that, I hear people blaming activision more than anything, and I would too. Activision is probably right up there with EA for most greedy gaming company.

While I don't feel it's unfair to blame greedy publishers, the developers retain a part of the responsibility none the less. Blizzard Entertainment is a large and powerful company.
That being said, I meant this as a general statement, not just about Blizzard and Activision.

Edit: Also, to those who for some reason think otherwise, 600k subs lost is quiet a bit.

Inc uninformed people thinking they know what this means.