Do you think the annual pass will become a regular thing?

[Dhurn]

Clearly the annual pass has been a great business move for Blizzard so far, significantly lowering the amount of subs lost last quarter (relatively speaking), as well as assuring that many players with it will most likely purchase MoP. As we know, the deadline for signing up is May 1st, 14 days before D3 release, and then the deal will no longer be available.

That said, do you think they will carry on with doing more annual pass deals in the future? With lots of big titles coming up like SC2:HotS, and probably in a couple years, a D3 expansion, they could provide a lot of incentive to keep people playing WoW while getting expansions for their other Blizzard games for free. There's also no end in terms of what they can do for perks- HotS beta access and free full version upon release being one, unique portraits for SC2, banners and dyes for D3, etc. And of course who wouldn't want a Zergling mount?

Just a thought, I realize it's the "annual" pass not the "perennial" pass but I still think it might be a good move for them to offer new ones every year or two from a business standpoint. I feel like they're doing everything possible to hang on the WoW subs at this point, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they decide to keep dishing out the deals.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't be surprised if they employ it for other titles.

On a sidenote, you no longer need to have had an account active before Blizzcon when it was first announced anymore.
Anyone can sign up now and get Diablo/mount etc.

[Priestion]

Kind of off-topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread. If one cancels the annual pass after he/she has received Diablo 3, what happens?

[Eon Drache]

Getting people to sign up in hopes of getting another game free and into a beta is a good temporary move to get those people to see the new content, but if they aren't actually playing and are waiting, it is horrible for the game. Game gets its players from advertisement and friends. If you have no friends that play, you aren't likely to be here long. Blizzard should be making it so that those with the annual pass now will actually play MoP, or they may lose even more next year.

[Deleted]

Kind of off-topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread. If one cancels the annual pass after he/she has received Diablo 3, what happens?

You can't cancel it unless you default on the payment. The penalties for that are you lose the benefits from it and you won't be able to sign up for similar promotions in the future. So if you default on the payment after you've got Diablo 3, it'll be removed from your account and you won't be able to play from that account until you buy it it.

[Snarebusta]

I wouldn't be surprised to see it every 2 years approximately 1 year before the next expansion pack. I doubt they will offer it when there is actually a lot of content due over that year.

[beanman12345]

people still delusionally believe the annual pass stopped the sub loss? it's 1/10th of the game. 1 million of 10 million. and it's comprised of people who were NOT going to quit. Not sure why i'm trying here, can't fix stupid.

[warlocked]

I plan to resub with annual pass on April 30th. That way I minimize the time in cataclysm I wouldn't want.

[Bulbonic]

I believe that they are trying to push a Battle.net experience where instead of just one game you play all of Blizzard games. The annual pass keeps people locked in to their WoW account while playing the other Blizz games and acts like a buffer to gamers switching from game to game while increasing loyalty to Blizz games.

[Mandible]

They dont need to use an annual pass to "make" people use battlenet - just make sure people cant play their games without battlenet. Simple as that - and its what they do. It also protects to a degree against piracy since people need to registre the games to play them.

In regards to the annual pass and cancelling - have never seen that it would not be possible to sign up for anything similar just because you cancelled you wow account before the pass period was over. It just means you wont own Diablo 3, and you cant sign up for this annual pass again (from what I remember).

[MoanaLisa]

Kind of off-topic, but I didn't want to start a new thread. If one cancels the annual pass after he/she has received Diablo 3, what happens?

Kind of a guess but you have to be connected to the Internet to play D3. So if you drop the annual pass, I'm assuming that the key that goes with D3 will be deactivated. Someone will undoubtedly find a way around all of that but that's my take on it.

---------- Post added 2012-03-17 at 07:53 PM ----------

That said, do you think they will carry on with doing more annual pass deals in the future?

Yeah, I do. I can think of all sorts of things to put into an annual pass package to make it attractive. Free race change, free server transfer, free HotS, one free 80. Use your imagination for stuff that people are asking for and Blizzard could grant one or two of those things over the course of a year. And those might be things that would keep people around. Seems a slam dunk to me.

[bread is funny]

i think it should be. I love getting diablo 3 for free

[Conscious]

If it does become a regular thing, they'll obviously need to offer it with different incentives.

However, I'm curious as to just what those may turn out to be.

[Pancaspe]

The next Annual Pass will include the Titan Beta and the only way to get in that Beta will be the Annual Pass.

[Chickat]

I think they will do something like if you sub to both titan and wow u can play both for only 20 bucks a month instead of 30.

[Hey Zeus]

it will come up again.

[Halicia]

people still delusionally believe the annual pass stopped the sub loss? it's 1/10th of the game. 1 million of 10 million. and it's comprised of people who were NOT going to quit. Not sure why i'm trying here, can't fix stupid.

I had all but quit. The bargain price of the annual pass and Diablo 3 got me to stay. The raidfinder and crossrealms raids got me to play.

I'm sure Blizzard would have been more then happy to sell me a game for twice the price and NOT have me using their WoW servers or resources though.

[Deleted]

I wouldn't mind if it did, if it meant you have slightly lower subscription fees for doing it, after this promotion is over. £1-£2 less a month wouldn't be a bad deal for them to get a guaranteed one year subscriber.

[Aquamonkey]

IMO annual pass reeks of desperation. Take Star Trek Online for example. When it first launched as subscription based, there was an option to buy a lifetime subscription upfront for a few hundred dollars. This option told me that they knew the game was going to bomb and were trying recoup as much money as possible from the hype. What happened? STO turned out to be a turd and they eventually made it FTP.

While the annual pass is nowhere near the level of offering a lifetime subscription, it still shows how little faith they have in their product if they have to offer external incentives to keep people subscribed. In essence, they don't believe the game is good enough to hold onto subscribers by it's own merits.

[Deleted]

IMO annual pass reeks of desperation. Take Star Trek Online for example. When it first launched as subscription based, there was an option to buy a lifetime subscription upfront for a few hundred dollars. This option told me that they knew the game was going to bomb and were trying recoup as much money as possible from the hype. What happened? STO turned out to be a turd and they eventually made it FTP.

While the annual pass is nowhere near the level of offering a lifetime subscription, it still shows how little faith they have in their product if they have to offer external incentives to keep people subscribed. In essence, the game isn't good enough to hold on to subscribers by it's own merits.

I think the main issues with their current business that's led them to output things such as the annual pass and more cash-shop items, is the fact that they are not willing (or have limited themselves) to spending more time developing content that fills an entire expansion. They're aware that there will be a lull in the player base soon, as there will be no more raid content, and dangling D3 in people's faces for "free" was a good way to keep their money coming in during this lull. In some ways, it's a method they can use to keep players playing, without actually releasing any new content for them.

Don't think I'm bashing or anything like that, I'm using the annual pass myself. I was most likely going to stay subscribed, and, well, D3.