What if Classic players surpasses s BfA live player base?

[Seranthor]

Serious question, will Classic subs surpass current BfA subs or active player base?

And if so, and it's not just a month then they all leave Classic, but if they stay and keep a strong player base, even more players than BfA, what does Blizzard do? Does that change plans for the future of WoW?

I think Blizzard thought Classic would be a fun side project, something of a thank you to fans, but then expecting it to fade off after a month or two after release, and then just have a small niche player base. But what if Classic is a huge successes and pulls in players in numbers we haven't see in years, and destroys the amount of players in Bfa? Does Blizzard reevaluate what they plan to do in the future for the MMO?

wont happen, because there are no 'classic subs and no BFA subs'... they are the same thing...

[Barzotti]

It did peak at one million viewers from a chart I've seen. Has that ever happened before in WoW expanison releases?

No. Classic launch has been a considerable success, no one can deny that. But it's currently at 227k and you don't judge the success of a game only by the launch. Time will tell.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

Probably did already.

[grandgato]

I don't see how anything bad can come out of Classic being a huge success. If nothing else, it shows the MMORPG market isn't ready to die just yet.

[mvaliz]

wont happen, because there are no 'classic subs and no BFA subs'... they are the same thing...

Ummmm... you do know that you can subscribe to Classic and not Retail, right?

I mean, it's only 3 more extra dollars if you sub to Retail - so most prolly don't bother with it, but it is true. :P

[Strawberry]

Hopefully people switching to classic won't delay the modern expansion releases.
I'm not interested in playing a 2005 game in 2019.
But I'm pretty sure classic won't surprass modern WoW.

[KaPe]

Ummmm... you do know that you can subscribe to Classic and not Retail, right?

I mean, it's only 3 more extra dollars if you sub to Retail - so most prolly don't bother with it, but it is true. :P

When did that happen? There's WoW subscription, no "Classic" or "Retail".

[Paperfox]

I'm hoping that Classic is successful enough in the long term so that we can have BC or Wrath servers.

[The Butt Witch]

I don't see how anything bad can come out of Classic being a huge success. If nothing else, it shows the MMORPG market isn't ready to die just yet.

It's dying because of stupid design choices. If Blizzard left in the vanilla systems, and only added content and graphic improvements, the game would still have 10 mil subs. But no, they had to "improve" the game with systems no one asked for, and ruined it eventually.

[SoulSoBreezy]

Regardless of where the concurrent players are, it's still money in Blizzard's pocket. But unless Blizzard has plans to add actual content to Classic (which I doubt they would because the players would riot over balancing classes first), the userbase will stagnate until we're left with a handful of the truly dedicated and a lot of visitors dropping by. I don't see this being a realistic scenario until they stop making expansions, and that'd have to come first.

And that's fine. Blizzard has said they'd support Classic even if it whittled down to just a few thousand players.

[XDurionX]

It's dying because of stupid design choices. If Blizzard left in the vanilla systems, and only added content and graphic improvements, the game would still have 10 mil subs. But no, they had to "improve" the game with systems no one asked for, and ruined it eventually.

In a delusional thread, this is one of the most delusional posts. Thanks for the laugh mate.

[KaPe]

It's dying because of stupid design choices. If Blizzard left in the vanilla systems, and only added content and graphic improvements, the game would still have 10 mil subs. But no, they had to "improve" the game with systems no one asked for, and ruined it eventually.

Look around and notice the actual gaming trends in the last two decades. WoW was a huge success, but since then, we had the rise of MOBAs and, more recently, battle royales. That's not even mentioning the huge growth of mobile gaming. MMORPGs demand a lot of free time and have gained a huge competition from entirely different genres, which are far more accessible.

[The Butt Witch]

In a delusional thread, this is one of the most delusional posts. Thanks for the laugh mate.

Thank you for the well thought out response. It must have been difficult for you to make all these arguments, and I'm totally convinced.

[Redroniksre]

Look around and notice the actual gaming trends in the last two decades. WoW was a huge success, but since then, we had the rise of MOBAs and, more recently, battle royales. That's not even mentioning the huge growth of mobile gaming. MMORPGs demand a lot of free time and have gained a huge competition from entirely different genres, which are far more accessible.

Exactly something a lot of people dont seem to understand. Back when WoW released, outside of MMOs most games were one and dones, with the exception of multiplayer. They didnt try to grab more time out of you, they just let you go at your own pace.

Now games are all trying to keep players entertained, with constant updates and the F2P model. WoW is no longer competing with other MMOs alone, it competes with almost every game out there.

If Blizzard doesnt stick to or innovate on industry trends, then other games will beat them out.

[XDurionX]

Thank you for the well thought out response. It must have been difficult for you to make all these arguments, and I'm totally convinced.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens%27s_razor

/bow

[The Butt Witch]

Exactly something a lot of people dont seem to understand. Back when WoW released, outside of MMOs most games were one and dones, with the exception of multiplayer. They didnt try to grab more time out of you, they just let you go at your own pace.

Now games are all trying to keep players entertained, with constant updates and the F2P model. WoW is no longer competing with other MMOs alone, it competes with almost every game out there.

If Blizzard doesnt stick to or innovate on industry trends, then other games will beat them out.

Other MMO games are like a fart. They launch, stink up the air for a while, and rhen they go away because they're trash and people need a few weeks to a couple of months to reach that conclusion.

Blizzard doesn't have to try and compete with trash, yet it does anyway, and it's hurting the game.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Other MMO games are like a fart. They launch, stink up the air for a while, and rhen they go away because they're trash and people need a few weeks to a couple of months to reach that conclusion.

Blizzard doesn't have to try and compete with trash, yet it does anyway, and it's hurting the game.

Your insights into the industry are deep for sure..

/s

[PedroloGeo]

If after 2 months Classic > BfA they will close BfA and leave only classic. They have already developed the game, so they don’t need devs, just a mantainance team. And if Bli$$ard can squish a single dollar they go for it.

[Azerate]

Apples and oranges..
Two different audiences.
There's always going to be people who want to play new content that comes with the live game
and there's always going to be people who want to play older games that are considered the best era for them.
Sure there's tbc enthuasiasts and wotlk ones who would abandon classic and live if such servers would be up from Blizzard
or if Blizzard releases a brand new ip or even a new mmorpg, some would go there and some stay in wow.

The question is how significant the playerbase who wants to play the old game long term is. While I always argue that OSRS is not a good direct comparison to wow, because of how different their situations are, I think in this case what happened is somewhat telling.

RS2 and RS3 are massive games, ones that may have thousands of hours of gameplay, way more than WoW. When OSRS was initially launched, once the original nostalgia wore off, the game was pretty much dying. And that's despite there being years of gameplay literally. It was only after they decided to start adding new content when the game actually started gaining popularity and attracting new players.

Out of those interested in classic wow, most will probably get 60, do a couple instances, and leave. Some will go on to clear raids, and then leave. Barely anyone will remain to keep clearing those classic raids every week to speedrun them and min max their gear and whatnot.

So in a way it's not that there are two different audiences, or maybe there are, but the audience that will stick with classic no matter what long term is probably miniscule.

[KaPe]

Sounds like a great idea if you want to ruin a profitable company.

Some people truly believe there's like 100k people left playing BFA. Which, of course, doesn't conflict at all with the notion that Mythic raiders make up for 2% of playerbase, while simultaneously having >1500 guilds at 4/8M or better. The math works perfectly, since 30000 (at least) is *obviously* less than 2000.

As such, it's only natural to conclude that retail is losing money and should be killed off asap.