Q3 Earnings Call: 33M MAUs and WoW doing better than ever

[TwoMana]

No it isnt. But Blizzard will not put resources to build expensive retail for minority of players. When classic have far larger playerbase. You cant justifi spendings on game when its 15y old version overshadow it.

What are you on about? They just announced a new expac?

[Zyky]

Now which one of us is spinning the narrative? Also, while you're at it, point out where exactly did I say "retai is perfect and healthy" or actually where I said anything about retail at all?

Then think again about the Olympics level mental gymnastics session going on inside your head.

I'm not spinning any narrative, Blizzard clearly credited Classic to the success of increased Subs that isn't spinning anything, that's taking the words straight from the infograph. As to where you said that the game is perfectly healthy, your first post said "looks like WoW isn't dying". So either you're a troll or you're actually just unable to read between the lines because clearly people were talking about retail dying months before Classic even released and are still currently talking about retail dying because the game is a barren wasteland with few people actually playing.

[LionSinMaikeru]

I'm not spinning any narrative, Blizzard clearly credited Classic to the success of increased Subs that isn't spinning anything, that's taking the words straight from the infograph. As to where you said that the game is perfectly healthy, your first post said "looks like WoW isn't dying". So either you're a troll or you're actually just unable to read between the lines because clearly people were talking about retail dying months before Classic even released and are still currently talking about retail dying because the game is a barren wasteland with few people actually playing.

There is no point in arguing with that person. They're akin to a kid sticking their fingers in their ears and going "lalalalala."

People like them continuously move the goalpost to avoid the truth about retail.

First it was classic realms aren't ever coming. Then it was, oh they're coming but it's a waste of resources they won't be popular. Then it was oh well they'll only be popular for a month. And now it's - oh they're popular for this quarter but we'll see what happens in 6 months to a year.

I can't wait for 6+ months when Classic realms are still doing well. I wonder what their excuse will be then. >.>

[korijenkins]

Idk why you would invest in ATVI when there are so many other stable companies out there that do important things like you know...advance science....

But realistically, I don't think the majority of players are close to retirement age and are cashing anything out. sooo.....I guess it'd be nice to know if the stock wasn't doing well so you could buy. hm.

Fuck just invest in the weed industry or the vaping industry when it's under so much scrutiny and you'll make a fuck-ton when the scrutiny goes away. Literally no reason to invest in things like Coke, Walmart, Activision who are already established. You have barely anything to gain and a lot to lose.

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Biggest quarterly sub spike in the frachise history. So WoW is definitely (still) not dying.

99.9% certain retail is in a fucking freefall right now and Classic gave them all of these subscribers.

No, actually I'm 100% certain.

[Nyel]

Biggest quarterly sub spike in the frachise history. So WoW is definitely (still) not dying.

WoW doing better than ever is a joke, it's this specific quarter that was boosted solely due to Classic.

Classic. Not retail. That's the most important part.

This was an expected outcome of the massive surge Classic brought to the sub numbers.

Q4/19 and Q1+2/20 will be very harsh for WoW as retail with BfA will continue to plummet and Classic hasn't the massive appeal anymore.

[Walross]

I don't think this is relevant information unless you work at a hedge or at blizzard receiving options.

Yeah, it's only relevant if they're not doing well.

[Lane]

If you don’t play retail why would you hope not? It shouldn’t affect you at all.

I actually play both and I’d love to see Blizz go back to a mid WoW style for the game. WotLK was the peak time for the game. And for very good reason.

There was nothing I saw about BfA that I liked, so I decided to skip it. Wrath was my favorite expansion, I'd be thrilled if they went back to something like that, but it was nothing like Classic (other than 1-60). I'm not interested in the de-evolution of the game. As it is, Blizzard has dragged their feet for years about various QoL improvements that some other MMOs have or have removed systems that players liked (heroic badges, rep tabards, reforging, etc.). I already think retail feels dated and not because it's a 15 year old game, but because so many things are needlessly inconvenient compared to other games in the genre. Retail needs to be moving forward, not backward. I read that they're planning on outdoor content being challenging at max level in Shadowlands because supposedly that's what people loved about Classic even though that's been complained about for two expansions straight.

[Flutterguy]

It specifically says reach has increased for both Classic AND retail. It means with the influx of subs into WoW for Classic, it's bled over into increased retail activity. Not just subs.

[Beet]

Now that's some weird ass logic. Just because he doesn't play retail, that doesn't mean he should automatically wish that it would be more like classic. Lmfao.

It isn’t weird ass logic if you actually read what was said! Of course I wouldn’t expect him to want retail to be like classic. Because that would be as weird as what he actually said since ya know he doesn’t play retail. lmfao indeed.

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There was nothing I saw about BfA that I liked, so I decided to skip it. Wrath was my favorite expansion, I'd be thrilled if they went back to something like that, but it was nothing like Classic (other than 1-60). I'm not interested in the de-evolution of the game. As it is, Blizzard has dragged their feet for years about various QoL improvements that some other MMOs have or have removed systems that players liked (heroic badges, rep tabards, reforging, etc.). I already think retail feels dated and not because it's a 15 year old game, but because so many things are needlessly inconvenient compared to other games in the genre. Retail needs to be moving forward, not backward. I read that they're planning on outdoor content being challenging at max level in Shadowlands because supposedly that's what people loved about Classic even though that's been complained about for two expansions straight.

WotLK was far closer to classic than it is to the last few expansions. The “modern” MMOs doing things differently don’t matter. They’re not popular. Just look at the hype how it went lower and lower for every single MMO. I remember when there was insane hype for them after WoW. But over time people gave up on the genre because WoW was what most people liked. Not just MMOs in particular. And blizzard keeps evolving and each time they do they get less players. They need to go back to their roots. Love it or hate it the WoW or 2004-2010 was peak WoW.

I don’t know why you find the idea of outdoor content being challenging at max level a bad idea though. That sounds awesome to me. It shouldn’t be that the only difficult content in WoW is mythic raiding.

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It specifically says reach has increased for both Classic AND retail. It means with the influx of subs into WoW for Classic, it's bled over into increased retail activity. Not just subs.

lol do you really think tons of people resigned for classic and decided to play BFA instead? It isn’t like BFA or the last five expac were secrets. If these people wanted to play it they could have.

[sam86]

Sub gains due to classic means more people jumping back and forth from classic to retail. This is EXTEREMELY good for players AND blizzard since this shows that people actually want to support good gameplay instead of cash shop mounts and similar bs.

u do know that most ppl who subbed for classic don't even have BFA in first place to access it right?

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It specifically says reach has increased for both Classic AND retail. It means with the influx of subs into WoW for Classic, it's bled over into increased retail activity. Not just subs.

again, most ppl who subbed for classic can't even play BFA in first place, and from the shown sub numbers for classic, that's far more than entire BFA sold units
Not sure how much, but at least over 50% of classic players can't play retail

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Love it or hate it the WoW or 2004-2010 was peak WoW.

don't forget that while TBC had advantage of ~ 4 million chineese player (or 6? can't recall sorry), wrath - which had more subs than TBC - had none, china banned wrath and didn't allow its release until almost 2 month pre-cata, u can still see that now with how wrath look on china servers, no skeletons, most mobs have skins, DK is called unhappy knight, etc
Wrath brought 12 million of US/EU players only, hence why specially in wrath everyone knew at least 1 guy who played wow

[Kumorii]

why is everyone so fanatic of the version they enjoy? What in the absolute fuck

[Jaewalk]

Ok boomer. Let's see you sub to Classic only.

rekt /10char

[Lane]

WotLK was far closer to classic than it is to the last few expansions. The “modern” MMOs doing things differently don’t matter. They’re not popular. Just look at the hype how it went lower and lower for every single MMO. I remember when there was insane hype for them after WoW. But over time people gave up on the genre because WoW was what most people liked. Not just MMOs in particular. And blizzard keeps evolving and each time they do they get less players. They need to go back to their roots. Love it or hate it the WoW or 2004-2010 was peak WoW.

I don’t know why you find the idea of outdoor content being challenging at max level a bad idea though. That sounds awesome to me. It shouldn’t be that the only difficult content in WoW is mythic raiding.

I'm not going to argue that with you other than to say FFXIV and ESO seem to be doing well for themselves. Blizzard hasn't evolved productively since maybe MoP*. There was a time in early WoW where if another MMO did it Blizzard would adopt it and make it better. I can't remember the last time they did that. Instead we get things like mission tables and AP grinds.

*Edit: I take that back, I did love class halls in Legion. Wish they would've kept those instead of returning to the lame faction conflict.

One of WoW's problems, as I see it, is not getting players to activities faster so that they're engaged in gameplay, there's far too much time spent AFK traveling. This was somewhat addressed with instanced group content, first with meeting stones, then LFD and LFR, but not really anything else. I'm a huge advocate for waypoints, something most other MMOs have but Blizzard has seemed adamantly against until Legion where they were used sparingly in two zones. I don't know if there are any in BfA. WoW's also one of the only MMOs I've played that doesn't have dynamic events and to this day I don't know why. It would make the world relevant and provide content to players who don't like dungeons & raids.

As for challenging outdoors, it didn't sound like content, it just sounded like all the mobs you've been fighting while leveling will become indefinitely difficult at max level since you won't be able to outgear it. This not only defeats the feeling of progression, which is all that's left at end game, but just makes doing things like WQs tedious. Now, if they want to create purposefully challenging outdoor content with rewards then sure, I'm all for more world and especially solo/non-instanced group activities.

[TwoMana]

Classic. Not retail. That's the most important part.

Psst. They're both "World of Warcraft"

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I'm not spinning any narrative, Blizzard clearly credited Classic to the success of increased Subs that isn't spinning anything, that's taking the words straight from the infograph. As to where you said that the game is perfectly healthy, your first post said "looks like WoW isn't dying". So either you're a troll or you're actually just unable to read between the lines because clearly people were talking about retail dying months before Classic even released and are still currently talking about retail dying because the game is a barren wasteland with few people actually playing.

I don't have to "read between the lines". It's fucking obvious that the boost is due to Classic. I've never claimed anything else. But both Classic and Retail are "World of Warcraft" - Blizzard hasn't separated them. They're both under Ion's directorship. They have the same damn sub. It's delivered from the same infrastructure and it uses features iterated from retail (layering). Downsizing of Retail would effect Classic - and vice versa.

But luckily (and as I said); World of Warcraft isn't dying.

You're so fanatic about Classic, so afraid to be associated with retail, you'd rather see the entire franchise fail? That's just... well.. so fucking stupid.

[Zyky]

You're so fanatic about Classic, so afraid to be associated with retail, you'd rather see the entire franchise fail? That's just... well.. so fucking stupid.

It has nothing to do with my like of Classic or my like of retail, I play both very actively. The reality is, retail is dying, there is nothing else to be said. Now you're trying to go back on dozens of posts by you claiming that retail is doing fantastic and isn't dying. So now you just look like a troll and a tool.

[Flutterguy]

It has nothing to do with my like of Classic or my like of retail, I play both very actively. The reality is, retail is dying, there is nothing else to be said. Now you're trying to go back on dozens of posts by you claiming that retail is doing fantastic and isn't dying. So now you just look like a troll and a tool.

Retail's been dying for 15 years.

[melodramocracy]

Or you know, the average working class American who holds ATVI stock....

Aside from the average not owning stock.

[TwoMana]

It has nothing to do with my like of Classic or my like of retail, I play both very actively. The reality is, retail is dying, there is nothing else to be said. Now you're trying to go back on dozens of posts by you claiming that retail is doing fantastic and isn't dying. So now you just look like a troll and a tool.

I’m not going back on anything. I’ve said “World of Warcraft” is both Classic and Retail. That’s a fact. You’re spinning stories about metrics that don’t exist and “reading between the lines’.

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Aside from the average not owning stock.

Doesn’t average American have some kind of 401k pension plan as long as they work? Or can your companies screw you on that as well?

[Zyky]

I’m not going back on anything. I’ve said “World of Warcraft” is both Classic and Retail. That’s a fact. You’re spinning stories about metrics that don’t exist and “reading between the lines’.

The metrics do exist lol. You're just acting 5 year old covering his ears saying "I can't hear you".

[TwoMana]

The metrics do exist lol. You're just acting 5 year old covering his ears saying "I can't hear you".

Ok. Great. Can you point out the page with these metrics in the Q3 report?