Will Blizzard release sub numbers of Classic eventually?

[Rampant Rabbit]

I think they have to, and /played will have to be the statistic I guess.

[Big Thanks]

@Togabito are you related to that one guy who really loves PVP and classic, and has that animated elf avatar he drew himself? You remind me a lot of him.

I cannot deny or confirm this

[The Stormbringer]

I think they have to, and /played will have to be the statistic I guess.

Why would they 'have to'? Who can force Blizzard to do so?

[Rampant Rabbit]

Why would they 'have to'? Who can force Blizzard to do so?

I don't know. By law?

[The Stormbringer]

I don't know. By law?

What kind of law forces game companies to detail the subscription numbers of alternate versions of their games...? You high, bro?

[Big Thanks]

I dont imagine they will give out sub numbers, but they I do imagine them giving out things like MAU, ARPMAU and the like to show that Classic is, or isn't, attracting players and making money.

They will need to be really carefull with the MAU's numbers...
They will never release Retails numbers thats for sure.

But they can even stop now all of a sudden giving MAUS numbers all together.
They didnt tell us the MAUS in 2015
So they can keep it hidden again i would be pretty sad.

They've been giving the MAUS every year for 3 years straight. FINGERS CROSSED

[Byleth]

I don't think they like to release sub numbers anymore, because the media likes picking up on it, and it's bad press for the game when the sub numbers suffer a huge dip.

Pretty much this, I'd say the chances of sub number info on classic are none to none.

They may give us general info though, like "more people playing classic than vanilla or somesuch.

[Rampant Rabbit]

What kind of law forces game companies to detail the subscription numbers of alternate versions of their games...? You high, bro?

You seem to be assuming I know which law would force a game company to do that, while I'm making very clear that I don't. I'm making a wild guess.

Also, yes, I'm high at this moment.

[chrisnumbers]

There really is no demand for it. Never has been. They used to do it only for the spectacle of it.

[Big Thanks]

There really is no demand for it. Never has been. They used to do it only for the spectacle of it.

Are you trying to say...this is a passion project? I believe it

Because the only way for this to "make money" for Blizzard is if it increases de MAU's or gives subscriptors that were not subscribed previously (if it wasnt for Classic they wouldnt be subscribed)

Otherwise it makes ZERO money for Blizzard. (because its the same shared sub)

[chrisnumbers]

Are you trying to say...this is a passion project? I believe it

Because the only way for this to "make money" for Blizzard is if it increases de MAU's or gives subscriptors that were not subscribed previously (if it wasnt for Classic they wouldnt be subscribed)

Otherwise it makes ZERO money for Blizzard. (because its the same shared sub)

No I'm saying there is no demand for Blizzard to announce sub counts.

[owbu]

They release MAU numbers to make themselves and their future plans look good to investors, so that depends on what future plans they have.

If classic is a huge success and they plan to start a classic content update team, I could see them putting a sentence like "classic MAUs keep growing on record levels" or something into their report. If they don't have future plans for classic and just want to keep it running the way it is, they will probably just lump them in with retail wow to make wow look as sucessful as possible.

[Big Thanks]

No I'm saying there is no demand for Blizzard to announce sub counts.

Sorry...bad english is showing.

[Laqweeta]

No they won't. 12 million subs in WotLK had people only fighting wether it means the game is at its greatest or if flies like shit. What would it achieve if they said 1 million play Classic, but don't release "current x-pac" numbers.

It will mean as little, as saying how BfA sold more copies than any other x-pac on release.

Also, how COULD they release sub numbers, since "current x-pac" and Classic run on one and the same sub. So they could release MAU separately for Classic or "current x-pac"

Either way...i DON'T think Blizzard will do it - this is my theory

I really wish people would stop bringing this up. BfA also had the option to be bought with IN-GAME gold. Even with that option, it only beat out WoD by 100K.

[Kuruption]

Someone might need an intervention.

[Trumpcat]

Multi billion business doesn't work on "told you so" urges.

They may give an indication, such as saying Legion had Cataclysm level of activity, that will give an idea, but no player count disclosure.

They care about bottom line revenue and many modern WoW players spend more than a sub, so player number doesn't give them the confidence they want to invoke in investors.

[Big Thanks]

Someone might need an intervention.

Cmon man...you dont have to take a jab at my lack of real life.
Its just a meaningless theory...
Is it kinda dumb? Yes, yes it is.

But i believe some kind of metric will be given to us...because this topic has been discussed since the dawn of ages.
I bet even Blizzard themselves is "curious" to see the results of this project.

[MoanaLisa]

I have hypothesis (not a theory) about why Classic was green lit. At one point the cost of paying community management personel (forum admins) to handle the same "feedback" (which boiled down to "when are you going to make vanilla server? its like very easy) and give back the same answer (its NOT very easy and probably never); crossed the actual cost of making Classic.

So, the day that the yearly cost of answering the question: When you making classic server? became greater than actually making a classic server, they green lit the project.

In a sense I guess. They haven't made it a secret. Internally they were never really against the idea of doing it. They didn't see a way to do it cost effectively but they kept thinking about it. Then one day someone had a bright idea about how the technical aspects--running the game on their current infrastructure--could be done. And so they changed their minds. Perhaps the closing down and subsequent brouhaha about Nostralius concentrated their collective minds on it but they've been very clear that they solved most of the roadblocks to doing it and managing it so they said OK. This is not some complicated secret. This is how software projects work. Some sit on the shelves for a while until some new technology or a bright idea comes along to make it feasible.

Go and read this and for once consider, even for a moment, that what Brack says is true.

https://www.pcgamer.com/this-is-how-...a-wow-servers/

As a longtime World of Warcraft player, even I don’t know whether Classic servers will be a success. My guess is once the initial wave of tourists dies down, there will only be a small core group of people left. "That’s OK," Brack assures me. "I don’t think that’s wrong. There will be a core group of people who are really excited, and that’s the game for them and that’s the thing they want to play.

"I think there will be a lot of tourists," he adds. "But it doesn’t matter what I think because once we’re committed to doing this at a Blizzard level, which we are, whatever happens is going to happen. If millions of people show up and play for years, that’s awesome. And if just tens of people show up and play for years, we’re fine either way. What’s important to us is that we have this Classic experience people can enjoy, that people do have the opportunity to go back to. This is an important game in videogame history and there’s not a way to go back and experience that today. This is also about preserving something that we think is really important.

So try and give this bullshit about subscriptions and secret agendas a rest. Sometimes it's just what people say it is.

I bet even Blizzard themselves is "curious" to see the results of this project.

They may be. That doesn't mean they have any reason to tell you.

[PaladinBash]

I doubt it. They'll put it up as 'WoW players' or not at all. Either way I don't care. There's going to be a huge burst of interest at launch, a dedicated few who like old shit for whatever reason, an occasional boost every downturn in live content and then long periods of the same old people. That's it. You all know that's all there'll be.

[garicasha]

Option 3...they'll leak.