February 7: Blizzard Conference Call

[But I Hate You All]

SC2 HOS in March might also put a dent in sub numbers for Q1

[Crashdummy]

Yep the total year's revenue was more than 1.6 billion dollars for 2012: a NEW record also, the quarter earnings for on line games were higher, so it seems the western part made up for the too Chinese expansion in China...

With 500k more subs, it would be higher. That's undisputable.

[ro9ue]

9.6 mil. Not as bad as I thought. My guess was 8 mil.

Still think a 500k loss is bad for the major holiday quarter + a new expansion.

[Leonard McCoy]

A lot of people felt like they just ran their 7 dungeons on Tuesday, then logged off until their Saturday raid.

And for some that was the PERFECT style of game play. Actually it's feels even more restrictive now because well it's one a day as opposed to any 7 when I like. Apparently for ALOT of people that 7 whenever was to much of a wall to overcome. Go figure. In any event that isn't a problem with valor, that's a problem with the accumulation of valor. I'm all for them giving dailies valor and giving it to all aspects of the game. I'm not for them putting gear behind the rep. Or the SLOW rate of acquisition.

[docterfreeze]

I posted this in the news thread but it was ignored

Subtract the botters, gold farmers, and multiboxing accounts from that 9.6 million... then you get the REAL number.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

SC2 HOS in March might also put a dent in sub numbers for Q1

Not so sure about that since SC2 is an RTS while WoW is an MMORPG, but it may have a huge impact in Korea.

[JhanZ]

Losing 400,000 subscribers in 3 months amounts to more than a million lost over the year. That's 2 million in a typical expansion cycle. People think this is nothing? This is horrible, Blizzard must be sweating profusely and probably upping production Titan more than regularly.

Do you get it? Cataclysm lost many subs because it had no content, that's logical and natural. Would happen in any game. Blizzard went "Alright, we have to up the content and give the player base something to do like before, and there should be no sub loss." <--- a logical conclusion.

Guess what happened? They gave us plenty of content. And yet they are experiencing the same or more rapid losses than Cataclysm. I have to laugh extremely hard at people saying this is nothing. You look at the number and don't put any thought into it at all. Because you're in denial. Because you absolutely refuse to look at it from an objective standpoint.

Good job!

[BenBos]

Victory !!

Yep in an MMORPG industry where everything turned to free to play it is damned good.

1.6 BILLION dollars revenue for just ONE year ...

BTW: TBC had 8 million players...back in 2008.

[PrairieChicken]

SC2 HOS in March might also put a dent in sub numbers for Q1

I don't think SC2 will do much to influence the sub numbers; the audience who play it are vastly different.

Most people would just do campaigns and return

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

I posted this in the news thread but it was ignored

Subtract the botters, gold farmers, and multiboxing accounts from that 9.6 million... then you get the REAL number.

So that's what, 1 million? 2 million?

Contrary to the conspiracy theory floated by haters of Blizzard, "illegitimate" accounts do not make up the majority of accounts.

[But I Hate You All]

Not so sure about that since SC2 is an RTS while WoW is an MMORPG, but it may have a huge impact in Korea.

D3 caused a lost for them its not a mmorpg

[Mawnix]

Losing 400,000 subscribers in 3 months amounts to more than a million lost over the year. That's 2 million in a typical expansion cycle. People think this is nothing? This is horrible, Blizzard must be sweating profusely and probably upping production Titan more than regularly.

Do you get it? Cataclysm lost many subs because it had no content, that's logical and natural. Would happen in any game. Blizzard went "Alright, we have to up the content and give the player base something to do like before, and there should be no sub loss." <--- a logical conclusion.

Guess what happened? They gave us plenty of content. And yet they are experiencing the same or more rapid losses than Cataclysm. I have to laugh extremely hard at people saying this is nothing. You look at the number and don't put any thought into it at all. Because you're in denial. Because you absolutely refuse to look at it from an objective standpoint.

Good job!

Why do you want the game to fail so much? That's the only vibe I'm getting from you vehemently defending Mist's apparent "failure".

[ihyln]

That's not hemorrhaging subs. That's a slight loss.

400k loss during the same quarter as an expansion? That's more than a slight loss. I'd imagine the numbers will be worse in May.

Fire Ghostcrawler and get someone competent in there.

[PrairieChicken]

Not so sure about that since SC2 is an RTS while WoW is an MMORPG, but it may have a huge impact in Korea.

SC2 is extremely unpopular in Korea(I know this because I am Korean and I live there), and Korean WoW is pretty much dead so it won't have much influence.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Losing 400,000 subscribers in 3 months amounts to more than a million lost over the year. That's 2 million in a typical expansion cycle. People think this is nothing? This is horrible, Blizzard must be sweating profusely and probably upping production Titan more than regularly.

Do you get it? Cataclysm lost many subs because it had no content, that's logical and natural. Would happen in any game. Blizzard went "Alright, we have to up the content and give the player base something to do like before, and there should be no sub loss." <--- a logical conclusion.

Guess what happened? They gave us plenty of content. And yet they are experiencing the same or more rapid losses than Cataclysm. I have to laugh extremely hard at people saying this is nothing. You look at the number and don't put any thought into it at all. Because you're in denial. Because you absolutely refuse to look at it from an objective standpoint.

Good job!

The bigger problem here is it shows a continuing trend.

We're going on a year and a half not without a gaining quarter for the game, and now we've gone through one full expansion and into another without a gain.

That is officially a trend toward losing subscribers. It's not a blip anymore, many players simply do not want to play WoW anymore for whatever reason.

[Crashdummy]

Cata had huge losses because they ignored their biggest clientele: Casuals.
Then they catered to them and had zero losses.
Then they had no content for 9 months and had a big loss.

You always have to compare this to other relevant things.
WoW numbers from two years ago aren't relevant!

I agree with your analisys so far. Now why MoP had over 400k losses?

IMO, daily system, huge grinds, CRZ, PVP and random players quitting for personal reasons which always happen.

How are the numbers from the last expansion of this very same game are irrelevant watching the numbers from this expansion launch?

[Grimtide]

9.6 million people still playing and running those dailies. They must be doing something right.

This is what gets me every time there is a thread like this. MoP hasn't sold 9.6 million copies. Yet people base the rise or fall of 9-10 million subs on MoP content.

400k people is roughly 10% the number of people who bought MoP.

[Fagatronics]

I love these threads! Seeing the fanboys and the haters riled up is just good fun!

Considering there's still more than a year left of MoP and Blizz is already working on the next expansion, there's probably still at least ~3 more year of WoW regardless of 2012's final quarter.

But I'm pulling this thread way off topic. Continue the argumenting please

[Arbs]

Why do you want the game to fail so much? That's the only vibe I'm getting from you vehemently defending Mist's apparent "failure".

Destil, just avoid him.

[docterfreeze]

So that's what, 1 million? 2 million?

Contrary to the conspiracy theory floated by haters of Blizzard, "illegitimate" accounts do not make up the majority of accounts.

I'm not saying those types of accounts are the majority, they do, however, account for a good chunk of the playerbase.