What does Blizzard need to do to hold subscribers throughout this expansion?

[mosely]

Subscriber churn is a big problem for MMO games. WoW recently had a nice resurgence of subscribers thanks to the release of the MoP expansion. Since people who came back for MoP are already leaving, the total subscriber base is likely to have peaked again, until next expansion release. If you were in Blizzard's shoes, what changes would you implement to slow population decay? Do you foresee more subscription-padding measures like Annual Pass and Free Lvl 80 & Free Realm Transfer Scroll of Resurrection? Or do you see Blizzard focusing on releasing quality content that will keep players interested in the game?

I think that the staggered release of this current raid tier is an excellent way to keep players logging in. However, I have my doubts that the Brawler's Guild is going to tide people over through the holiday season. And daily quests may have looked good on paper, but I think they've pushed a fair number of people away from the game.

How do you see this expansion playing out?

[Chickat]

Decent content at a fast rate. Look at how Rift releases patches. Blizzard needs to mirror Rift in content speed, and I could see a slow gain in subs. Could even have 12m again if they do it.

[Evil Inside]

Decent content at a fast rate. Look at how Rift releases patches. Blizzard needs to mirror Rift in content speed, and I could see a slow gain in subs. Could even have 12m again if they do it.

Blizzard take their time because they like to provide quality content, they do endless testing internally and on the PTR every patch that is released to make sure that its as bug-free as possible.

[Jtbrig7390]

Blizzard take their time because they like to provide quality content, they do endless testing internally and on the PTR every patch that is released to make sure that its as bug-free as possible.

Rift's Content updates are AAA quality from what i have seen and many others have posted. so to say they take there time because of quality is bs.

"Personal Opinion" I think blizzard barely dose any internal testing and that leave it up to PTR to work out all the bugs. if they did they would have seen how broken the first boss was in the new raid...

[Linzo]

Decent content at a fast rate. Look at how Rift releases patches. Blizzard needs to mirror Rift in content speed, and I could see a slow gain in subs. Could even have 12m again if they do it.

Then how come Rift has such a tiny player base?

[Synstir]

Blizzard take their time because they like to provide quality content, they do endless testing internally and on the PTR every patch that is released to make sure that its as bug-free as possible.

You listen too much to what Blizzard is saying about their slow releases.
That is their basic answer but it doesn't have to be true.

WOW is their major product. I know they have more but wow is their main product. it is already 7/8 years old, so they are doing what they are doing for quite some time now.
I understand patches (content) needs to be tested but using that as reason for being this slow? That doesn't cut it.

Also, be aware that developmenttime doesn't start after a patch is released, concerning new patches. Blizzard stated after release of MoP that 5.1 and 5.2 where already being developed.

Any company, in any area, works with targetdates. They plan stuff according to that date. Also, Blizzard knows how long (roughly) it takes from A to Z for a new patch.
They can plan it.
It is their main product and not some side-thing.

---------- Post added 2012-11-09 at 07:38 AM ----------

Then how come Rift has such a tiny player base?

You know very well that that has nothing to do rate of content-release alone.
So why do you ask this?

[hyperio]

nothing new if they can put content in at least at the same speed as previous expansions people will stay, its wow, people don't leave wow and if they do is usually only till the next expansion anyway.

[Jtbrig7390]

Then how come Rift has such a tiny player base?

Please provide prof that rift has a tiny player base last reported "about half a year after rift came out* they had 2million subs and was the 2nd biggest sub mmo.

Nothing has been reported since so do you got some company insight we don't know about to prove your claim.

Before it is said that they hide there numbers because there small Tron is not a public owned company so they do not need to post there subbs and all like blizzard dose

Also lets not forget the raid they are putting out right before there xpac release and then another new raid 2 months after its release that they reported.

also when the xpac comes out if i remember reading it right there is 2 raids with it a 10 and 25man if i remember right. "could be wrong i do know there is at lease 1 raid coming out with the xpac"

Edit: Also i think it is really cool that a official mod from tron posts in the rift subforum on this site to update people.

[dokilar]

keep to their word and get their content patches out quicker.

i think this expansion will show us whether the people they lost throughout Cata was due to them not liking the games direction (be it too hard, too easy, not enough to do etc etc.) or if its just showing its age and people are ready for something different

[MoanaLisa]

Then how come Rift has such a tiny player base?

That's something of a mystery to me too although player investment in their characters does something to explain why people don't just switch. That's a more powerful thing than some people realize. By the time you're ready to abandon your main after X number of years, you may well be ready to abandon a lot more than that.

Blizzard, unless they've really rethought how they do things and reorganized to a great degree, will always be slower simply because they're bigger and being bigger brings along more things to do. Every official thing they do even down to press releases has to be translated into something like 13 languages for starts. So being really quick and agile is a problem for them. They have bureaucracy. You can plan content releases well out in advance and simply saying when they began to design MoP all those months and years ago, "We need to have X number of patches and we never want more than 3-4 months to go by without releasing something" can go a long way toward fixing things like that because then they can bake that into the design. If they can do this though, they'll be OK.

But it's hard.

Trion has done well in a market that's no longer expanding much. It's a little bit sad for them but they came too late to the party to really make a big dent in it. They deserve all the props they get. But the idea that just making a better game and everyone will switch over to it isn't going to carry any weight. Apple makes good products too and you haven't seen them making any significant dents in desktops. So they've created new markets by thinking ahead. That's why game designers these days need to figure out or imagine what people will want to be playing a few years from now. That's what Blizzard is trying to figure out with Titan, I'm sure. And that's why it won't be WoW2 or anything like that.

[Linzo]

Please provide prof that rift has a tiny player base last reported "about half a year after rift came out* they had 2million subs and was the 2nd biggest sub mmo.

Nothing has been reported since so do you got some company insight we don't know about to prove your claim.

Before it is said that they hide there numbers because there small Tron is not a public owned company so they do not need to post there subbs and all like blizzard dose.

Also lets not forget the raid they are putting out right before there xpac release and then another new raid 2 months after its release that they reported.

70-80% of their servers where closed?

they never reported 2m subs, they reported 2 million sales a few months after release.

activity tracking websites show Rift below junky games like Runescape or Metin 2.

[Deleted]

Make daily quests optional instead of gates.

[Otimus]

Then how come Rift has such a tiny player base?

Because it's an MMO in 2012 and it isn't called World of Warcraft?

[Zeglo]

I think blizzard barely dose any internal testing and that leave it up to PTR to work out all the bugs

I disagree and believe Blizzard does a lot of internal testing. The PTR has few bugs IMO. Any good software company does a lot of internal testing.

I also agree that fast, good content will keep subscribers. So far, so good. Blizzard is definitely releasing content faster this expansion. I think it's all about that sense of "adventure" and a goal to achieve. At the end of Cataclysm, there were no goals except for slight gear upgrades, and achievement hunting only lasted so long. MoP renewed the goal system with lots of good gear, leveling, and everything else an expansion offers. So basically Blizzard needs to release content to renew that insatiable sense to keep playing and achieving.

[dokilar]

70-80% of their servers where closed?

they never reported 2m subs, they reported 2 million sales a few months after release.

activity tracking websites show Rift below junky games like Runescape or Metin 2.

not trying to start a fight or nitpick, but if you sell 2 million copies of a game and it comes with a 1 month sub then technically speaking you at one point had 2 million subs.

also, activity tracking websites are probably not a good way to convey how successful a game is or isnt. just my opinion however

[Jtbrig7390]

70-80% of their servers where closed?

they never reported 2m subs, they reported 2 million sales a few months after release.

activity tracking websites show Rift below junky games like Runescape or Metin 2.

Ok tell me how come they can put out AAA content and a way faster rate then blizzard.

It even makes blizzard look worse if its true that rifts sub base is smaller then runscape yet they can put out AAA content even things people have been asking for in WOW "Player house's"

also tracking websites have been know to be wrong a lot.

[CrusaderNerò87]

Blizzard keeps saying they got control and can see how many people clear raid content in both normal and heroic mode. They say they can see the demograpic of the playerbase has cleared content.

I believe Blizzard is holding on content patches(atleast they did before) according to this. Or atleast its part of it.

Maybe if the playerbase of wow rocked hard and a major part cleared content in normal atleast, content patches would come sooner?

PS. not flaming people who are "bad". Im just asking if wows playerbase cleared content faster in normal/heroic, maybe patches would come out sooner..

[Jtbrig7390]

I disagree and believe Blizzard does a lot of internal testing. The PTR has few bugs IMO. Any good software company does a lot of internal testing.

I also agree that fast, good content will keep subscribers. So far, so good. Blizzard is definitely releasing content faster this expansion.

They are releasing content faster because they gated the hell out of it.

Look at the start of cata 3 raids was given look at the start of MOP 3 raids is slowy coming out. its the same thing and what blizzard dose after t14 will show if they are pushing content out faster or not.

[TheWerebison]

I think blizzard barely dose any internal testing and that leave it up to PTR to work out all the bugs

The hell? You made a new account to quote someone else word for word?

On topic: I would agree, keep up with the content, keep it coming in a near-constant flow. Even still, there are SO many things to do, and I haven't done everything yet, there's still so much raiding for me to do, I've barely touched the pet battles, as well. I don't think I'm going to find myself out of options for quite a while, still enjoying LFR and earning rep, working on my toons and their professions.

[Cybran]

They need to fire Ghostcrawler and 90% of their shoddy CMs.