Earnings Call - WoW Classic: Biggest Quarterly Increase in Subs in History

[Kyphael]

New classes are fun but what are we really missing at this point after having twelve of them? Demon hunters are cool but warlocks were pretty unhappy losing ome of their kit to that class. I can't see how they could add another one that wouldn't take away from an existing class in the same way.

Call me an optimist, but i really believe that streamlining the leveling experience, significantly increasing the character customization available, and adding DK to all races including allied races will be more useful and more fun than a new class at this point. If you've never played a rogue before and now its 50% easier to get one to max level well...it's new to you, right?

To ride this wave of optimism a little further, if they finish out BfA with some new choices like night elf worgen, lightforged undead, night elf undead, or Sethrak then I think that'd go a long way towards making up for no new class.

If we end up with new allied race choices, sure, I love me some new races, but they haven't really said anything and in the past mentioned AR's would be more of a BfA feature, so on that front we have to take a wait and see approach if we're actually getting something for not having a new class. I wasn't particularly against pruning, and I do think you could squeeze Necromancer out of Unholy but that's obviously not happening anymore and I've made peace with it. The only classes not playable that would be distinct anyway would be Bard and Tinker, neither of which fit thematically right now, and one Blizzard has said they have no desire to implement.

[Very Tired]

Blizzard finally realizing they can make millions just by doing nothing but releasing a game they already made over a decade ago. Could have made millions more if they didn't drag their feet pretending they knew what players really wanted.

[GreenJesus]

Agreed. I understand what MAU stands for..but "Reach"?

"Reach is the number of people you touch with your marketing message or the number of people that are exposed to your message." - So basically useless... It doesn't equal results. It just means they ramped up their advertising. And "deep engagement" means what? 1 million are playing? Why can't blizzard put numbers on the screen if they are so "deep".

[Dekkers]

What was that... no one wants Classic I thought?

dummies.

[Relapses]

You're funny

Am I? The typical angry WoW Classic purist you see posting here about how retail fucked their mother and refuses to pay child support are not representative of the majority of players.

[jellmoo]

Classic wasn't mentioned because it isn't important. That's not a hot take, it's reality. It achieved its goal of retaining existing players and likely attracted a number of returning players who will end up playing retail once they grow tired of Classic. Players expect OSRS levels of backpedalling from Blizzard but that was never its intended purpose. Classic+ definitely isn't happening and if TBC and WotLK is a possibility they're still waiting for populations to stabilize before announcing it. (BlizzCon 2020 would be the natural timeframe for such an announcement.)

Except the earnings call clearly demonstrates that this isn't true. Saying that the driving force in their largest subscriber increase ever "doesn't matter" is silly. Clearly it matters. While yes, how it stabilizes and what kind of ongoing numbers they can maintain is an important metric to monitor, having a discussion about what kind of future your hottest (re)introduced property has, especially while the company has some less than stellar PR should have been a high priority item.

[lllBlackSunlll]

I miss SCII.
It might still be the best RTS out there.
With Reforged coming out I think this is Blizzard seeing if the RTS genre can be resurrected (I think not).

Sad to see the once champion of esports now arguably less profitable than HotS.

[Dystemper]

It took a 15 year old version of the game to Save WOW . Thats fucking sad and Blizzard should be embarrassed. Butthey are not because they are now chasing that Chinese Mobile game money...except China just put restrictive new laws on anyone under 18 playing online games . Not too long before China starts to phase out video games all together

[GreenJesus]

I miss SCII.
It might still be the best RTS out there.
With Reforged coming out I think this is Blizzard seeing if the RTS genre can be resurrected (I think not).

Sad to see the once champion of esports now arguably less profitable than HotS.

Not a good sign when they don't even bother to mention it when it comes out in less than 2 months.

[Bhanzai]

What does that even mean? It's a bunch of mumbo jumbo.

Has to do with advertising usually.

[Forgottenone]

During BFA? People were either on Retail, Hearthstone, Overwatch, or Diablo for me. Mainly Retail.

After Classic? My friends list was easily 80% Classic, 15% Retail, Rest the other games.

I played until level 60, killed Ony the same day I hit 60, and went back to Retail. Love Classic but I already played/lived it and want to see what comes after Phase 6(BC? Classic+? Other?)

[Relapses]

Except the earnings call clearly demonstrates that this isn't true. Saying that the driving force in their largest subscriber increase ever "doesn't matter" is silly. Clearly it matters. While yes, how it stabilizes and what kind of ongoing numbers they can maintain is an important metric to monitor, having a discussion about what kind of future your hottest (re)introduced property has, especially while the company has some less than stellar PR should have been a high priority item.

Sorry, I suppose I should have been clearer: It doesn't matter in the way you think it matters. And for what it's worth, they did exactly what you're saying they didn't. They told us further Legacy is an option and Classic+ will never, ever happen. We'll likely hear more about Classic as it rolls through phases but for now this earnings call simply confirms what everybody already knew.

[keldarepewpew]

you think you do but CONTINUEING TO GROW BOYS

[GreenJesus]

Has to do with advertising usually.

Well yeah. But its deceptive because reach means nothing if people are "exposed to the brand" but decide not to engage with it. It could just mean blizzard tripled their marketing budget so people saw more ads, but still ignored it for all we know.

[Enthralled]

Agreed. I understand what MAU stands for..but "Reach"?

It's a verb made into a noun that basically means the same thing, except in a marketing context.
IOW, they think their marketing has continued to "reach" the right audiences for both games.

[Kyphael]

Meh...but isn't this the standard reply to news like this? "Yeah, it is fine now...but it is gonna be real bad soon, because reasons"?

Serious question. I mean...people always claim a new class / race will really haul in the peeps...and then it turns out the new class / race is really low in representation all across the board.

Except BE - and that was ages ago.

Demon Hunter seemed pretty popular.

[GreenJesus]

Has to do with advertising usually.

Well yeah. But its deceptive because reach means nothing if people are "exposed to the brand" but decide not to engage with it. It could just mean blizzard tripled their marketing budget so people saw more ads, but still ignored it for all we know. They are really digging deep in the barrel if they have to use "reach" as a bullet point.

[glowpipe]

you think you do but CONTINUEING TO GROW BOYS

no it doesn't.. Servers are already starting to become barren wastelands. If it had kept growing, Why was there said like 2 lines about it on blizzcon and nothing more ?

[keldarepewpew]

no it doesn't.. Servers are already starting to become barren wastelands.

The earnings call Qand A says otherwise. im sure you are privy to activions blizzards internal numbers.

[Relapses]

I don't even know who posts here and what. I barely read mmoc nowadays. I do know myself and why I resubscribed just for classic and I know many other people who did and why very few of us are actually interested in retail wow. There's a bloody reason why I haven't played it for years, don't you think? If I were interested in playing retail wow I would've played it without classic.

It's included with the same subscription for a reason. Your moral repulsion or retail is anecdotal at best. "Everybody in my Discord channel, RETAIL IZ 4 NOOBZ, agrees that retail sucks," is hardly useful conjecture.

- - - Updated - - -

Well yeah. But its deceptive because reach means nothing if people are "exposed to the brand" but decide not to engage with it. It could just mean blizzard tripled their marketing budget so people saw more ads, but still ignored it for all we know. They are really digging deep in the barrel if they have to use "reach" as a bullet point.

And players like you are really reaching (heh) to spin a positive statement in a way that it aligns with the typical anti-Blizzard cynicism you see around here.