10.3 million subscribers

[Deleted]

What makes you assume it will be 1/3 of the content? Even if it drops to 1mil subs I guarantee will be seeing expansions rolled out on a yearly basis just like every other MMO out there that has 10% of that population. You can speculate all you want but as long as it continues to turn a profit Blizz will develop content to keep their fans satisfied.

LOL wut? You really think that if Blizz loses 93% of their revenue (from 12mil to 1 mil) they will be able to keep the same dev capacity? I guarantee YOU we will not see any expansions at all after Blizz only have 7% of their income left, and long before that, quality and frequency would drop considerably.

If you think 100 bucks can get you as much candy as 1200 bucks, you must be delusional.

[mvaliz]

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but this is only subscribers right? What about those that just buy game time cards? Is this included in subscriber counts? Does anyone know if this has gone up or down?

I think they're talking about accounts... not just "subscribers."

This was a business call to stockholders... not just a casual statistic release. They would've used the Time Card statistics if a) they matered and b) they weren't factored into the numbers to try to soften the blow to the investors.

[TheWerebison]

Thats funny how u look at it, but really once fully grown everyone is on a slow decline, in a sense dying from teh moment u hit full grown, i think ti very much depends on how u wana look at it but u are dying once fully grown its just very slow

Technically, if you WANT to look at it that way, you're dying as soon as you're born. We could just as easily say that about WoW. I don't consider myself dying, though. I see myself as alive, and have no reason to believe that within a year or two, I will be dead. It could happen. But it's unlikely.

[Xeraxis]

LOL wut? You really think that if Blizz loses 93% of their revenue (from 12mil to 1 mil) they will be able to keep the same dev capacity? I guarantee YOU we will not see any expansions at all after Blizz only have 7% of their income left, and long before that, quality and frequency would drop considerably.

If you think 100 bucks can get you as much candy as 1200 bucks, you must be delusional.

Remind me at what point I stated that the dev teams size would not change?

[mvaliz]

I expected this kind of response from someone who is new to MMO's. I'd suggest you look into previous MMO's like EQ and UO which released expansions with close to if not more of the content currently offered at the start of WoW expansions with much smaller dev teams and much smaller profit margins. I'd even suggest you look at EQ's latest expansion offering which offers quite a bit of content at EQ's current player base is less than 1% of WoW's current population.

I expected this kind of response from somebody who is new to forum reading and don't read all the posts. :P

I would like to direct you up to the top where I commented about how Blizzard has a TON of overhead they have to deal with. The staffs of EQ2, hell - even Trion and Guild Wars 2, don't have a TENTH of overhead the kind that Blizzard has.

EDIT: Secondly - this is even MORE depressing as what you're saying is that EQ2 can pump out MORE CONTENT than Blizzards current World of Warcraft staff which is probably WAY more than EQ2 has... This doesn't bother you in the slightest!?

[baller1308]

They should combine servers. There are a lot of low pop servers that are no fun

[Deleted]

I expected this kind of response from someone who is new to MMO's. I'd suggest you look into previous MMO's like EQ and UO which released expansions with close to if not more of the content currently offered at the start of WoW expansions with much smaller dev teams and much smaller profit margins.

it offers content for a game with a puny fraction of the expectations of quality, balance, and range as the WoW population do. Do you think the staff that Blizz has is there out of some kind of social responsibility or charity? They are there because they provide an edge to Blizzard as a company. Less people will inevitably mean less content.

It is funny how people keep whining about Blizz just being greedy bastards thinking of profit, and then the next moment say that half the staff is just useless, essentially getting free pay for doing nothing of value.

[Merendel]

and because Cataclysm content was "consumed too quickly."

How could they not see that comming with releasing only 7 bosses.... Cata itself launched with plenty of content they've just had a bad case of dragon ass in releasing patch content. This is nowhere near the end of wow but they claim to be speeding up the devolpment cycle, now they just need to do it instead of just claiming it.

[mvaliz]

Remind me at what point I stated that the dev teams size would not change?

The point where you said "the content would remain the same".

You seriously think that a reduction of staff would KEEP the content at the SAME LEVEL?

Hell, World of Warcraft ALREADY is having problems keeping the content at the same level with each expansion right NOW! You expect MORE content if the staff shrunk by 90% and the subs down to 1 million?

Can it be done? Sure... will it be done BY THIS PARTICULAR STAFF? 90% chance says "no".

[Xeraxis]

I expected this kind of response from somebody who is new to forum reading and don't read all the posts. :P

I would like to direct you up to the top where I commented about how Blizzard has a TON of overhead they have to deal with. The staffs of EQ2, hell - even Trion and Guild Wars 2, don't have a TENTH of overhead the kind that Blizzard has.

Yeah I believe that's where I stated that all that would be scaled back. I'd love to know what 6 projects WoW is currently funding? Why they couldn't stop Blizzcon if the profit from marketing during it was out weighed by the cost to put it on? Why other Activision projects that WoW is currently funneling money into couldn't be canceled to free up money? Overhead can be scaled back is that so hard to understand? Blizz is a company that has been around for some time they will do what it takes to stay in the black.

[Deleted]

They should combine servers. There are a lot of low pop servers that are no fun

yeah, that or make more free migrations. some servers have 90% horde and 10% ally where as another has 90% ally, they should rather merge or offer free migration on realms like that. playing my paladin is no fun, its impossible to find any other alliance, the auction house is mostly empty and what is on there is overly expensive, its like 300-400g for gems still, where as my hunters server is full on horde, orgrimmar is packed and the ah is so cheap because so many people posting on it.

[Saintphoenix]

Technically, if you WANT to look at it that way, you're dying as soon as you're born. We could just as easily say that about WoW. I don't consider myself dying, though. I see myself as alive, and have no reason to believe that within a year or two, I will be dead. It could happen. But it's unlikely.

See not really, coz our cells havnt really begun to degrade till we reach our full grown state, till then we are still developing

[Deleted]

Remind me at what point I stated that the dev teams size would not change?

I took for granted you are an intelligent person who understands that firing devs means less development get done. And you seemed to say that you expected Blizz would churn out content at the same speed and magnitude as before. Ergo you must have assumed that dev team size did not change.

[stigz]

I think a lot of you fan-boys are underestimating how devastating the announcement of MoP was to most WoW players. So many people didn't like it. I personally don't care either way. I'm just bringing in some logic here.

The first week after Blizzcon trade chat, party chat, leveling guild chats etc. etc. were filled with frustrated conversations pertaining to MoP. Remember most WoW players don't browse, much less post on this forum, so their opinions aren't really seen here. And the few (even though it certainly didn't seem like a few) that did browse/post here really got on your nerves when they complained. Granted, most were bad/immature players probably. But unfortunately, that's the general population of WoW atm. And they're all subscribed to the same game you are.

Even on the brink of exciting new content it doesn't matter to them. Why should they continue playing and paying for a game that eventually is going to not be fun for them anymore. They might as well move on to other games.

[Autofollow]

1.7 Million people quit WoW leaving 10.3 Million people. So that means since all of the hardcore players claim the only people leaving are the ones that can't hack it... There are 10.3 Million hardcore players in Warcraft. Congrats guys!

[mvaliz]

How could they not see that comming with releasing only 7 bosses.... Cata itself launched with plenty of content they've just had a bad case of dragon ass in releasing patch content. This is nowhere near the end of wow but they claim to be speeding up the devolpment cycle, now they just need to do it instead of just claiming it.

Yeah... Blizzard is kinda shooting themselves in the foot by following that whole "they're consuming things too quickly" BS. They need to add more QUALITY game. It's like the difference between watching an epic 3 hour movie by James Cameron, and one that's made by some indie hack director. One doesn't FEEL like you've been sitting there for 3 hours because there's a lot of substance to it. The other one makes you want to gouge your eyeballs out...

Same goes for WoW. They need to have better QUALITY of game that takes some time, but is enjoyable ALL THE TIME that doesn't feel like a monotonous grind. Not just speed up crap...

I LOVED the 20 minute Wrath EZ dungeons... sure, it was "sped up" but the key was I wasn't "done" with those dungeons after I beat them - I KEPT PLAYING THEM because they were FUN! And I NEVER wasted my time running them because I could use the badges for fun stuff like mounts, heirlooms, gems to sell on the AH and BoE epics to sell...

Nobody's playing Firelands because they're having fun. They're just doing it to get their gear...

[Xeraxis]

The point where you said "the content would remain the same".

You seriously think that a reduction of staff would KEEP the content at the SAME LEVEL?

Hell, World of Warcraft ALREADY is having problems keeping the content at the same level with each expansion right NOW! You expect MORE content if the staff shrunk by 90% and the subs down to 1 million?

Can it be done? Sure... will it be done BY THIS PARTICULAR STAFF? 90% chance says "no".

As subscribers drop servers will be merged. As a result less CM's are needed for the forums. Less operating costs due to fewer servers. Less players submitting tickets so fewer GMs needed. It takes just a moment to realize that costs can be cut elsewhere to continue to release expansions in a timely manner with content on par to what is being offered by the competition.

[Usagi Senshi]

So either make a decent suggestion (all I've seen is self-serving QQ - "make the game the way I like"), play another game or play WoW until you find something better. Really, there's no point in this kind of thread. Blizzard will not hear you. WoW is a product, you either like it and pay for it or not. You have to be very naive to believe forum banter will change the design direction.

I don't have to make a suggestion as I was merely pointing out the flaw in your supposed logic concerning 1.7 million people suddenly getting bored with the game and leaving based on that in itself.

I wasn't pandering to Blizzard either so I really don't know where you pulled that golden nugget of observational insight on my behalf out of.

[TheWerebison]

I think a lot of you fan-boys are underestimating how devastating the announcement of MoP was to most WoW players. So many people didn't like it. I personally don't care either way. I'm just bringing in some logic here.

The first week after Blizzcon trade chat, party chat, leveling guild chats etc. etc. were filled with frustrated conversations pertaining to MoP. Remember most WoW players don't browse, much less post on this forum, so their opinions aren't really seen here. And the few (even though it certainly didn't seem like a few) that did browse/post here really got on your nerves when they complained. Granted, most were bad/immature players probably. But unfortunately, that's the general population of WoW atm. And they're all subscribed to the same game you are.

Even on the brink of exciting new content it doesn't matter to them. Why should they continue playing and paying for a game that eventually is going to not be fun for them anymore. They might as well move on to other games.

Except what you're saying is not logical. The announcement wasn't devastating to most WoW players. You are hearing from the vocal minority. People are far more likely to speak up when they dislike something than if they like something. I've seen poll after poll after poll showing that for the people who voted, the overwhelming majority of them are still playing, and are excited for the new content. You can't listen to one loud cow mooing constantly and say, "Well, hell, the whole herd is in an uproar."

[Jacob6875]

If the game loses half it's subscriptions, what do you think Blizzard will have to do? Most likely cut their costs in half. Cutting their costs in half will mean half as many devs working on new content. or taking twice as long getting it out. Either way, the remaining players lose out big time. So yes, it concerns everyone.

Well first of all by the time that happens we will all most likely be playing titan anyway. Second MMO's like Rift produce content faster than WoW currently is.......... and they have less than a million subs.

So if the makers of Rift produce plenty of content why couldn't blizzard do it with as in your example 5x the amount of subs that Rift has.

Taking the approach that we should all quit now because some point 3 years in the future blizzard might slow down content for a 10+year old game is just a silly argument. Also even if they fell to 5 million that is still twice as many subs as the current "2nd best mmo" Still hardly a failure.

Finally if subs go down by half they will be able to save money on bandwith / server maitence / new hardware / game masters / customer service employees etc etc. So it is not like if subs drop by half there total overall revenue drops in half.