1st Quarter 2013 Results Conference Call on May 8th at 1:30 pm pst

[Noorri]

I think there are ALOT of people like that Darsithis.

I expect a slight loss, but nothing to major. 200k-300k or so.

[Osmeric]

Didn't somebody link numbers that were reported / filed officially already. According to those there was another slight loss.

Apart from that, this thread will just go the same way as all other threads on quarterly reports have gone....

No numbers from Q1 come out before the quarterly earnings call.

[mvaliz]

As I predicted last time - I'm 100% certain numbers definitely didn't go up 1st quarter either. If they did, Blizz would've announced their sub numbers RIGHT AWAY like they did 1 week after Pandaria came out and the quarter ended and they got the small boost up to, i believe, 10.6 mil or whatever it was.

Having said that, it only means that subs have stayed the same or have gone down. I would suspect they went down simply another 300-500k as it did last quarter. There's been nothing major released during this time to give it a Diablo-style mass exodus like the 1 mill lost quarter did last time - so there's no reason to expect any massive leaps off the ship this go around either.

[Zephre]

They'll probably lose subs. I'd be surprised if it's 1m+ I'm guessing it'll be a few hundred k, lets say 300-400k. I can see them continuing to lose subs for as long as they fail to address issues such as low population not everyone is willing to spent £100 to move all of your characters to a different server and while CRZ is nice (debatable) ultimately it's just an illusion.

[spectrefax]

Haha, right? I actually expect sub numbers to stay level or go up since 5.2 launched in March. Anyone who re-subbed or stayed subbed through March 31st will be counted.

I don't know. I've never seen so many people quit in such a short period as I have on my server. Just tons and tons of long time players/guilds just dropping left and right. I can only imagine how it is on lower pop servers. There seems to be sooooo many more "my realm is dead!" posts than one would expect this early into a solid xpac. I think people are just sick of the game and the direction WoW is going with the queuecraft style of gameplay.

I'll be really surprised if they don't post a 1mil+ sub loss. Even if they do post a slight loss, I'd hazard to guess it's buffered by the korean market or any overseas promotions they may be doing. I suspect the NA market has seen some massive sub losses. Unfortunately, I really don't think it will be long before the NA sub numbers are below 1 million.

[Metta World Peace]

Didn't they release 5.2 shortly after March?

I would imagine these sub numbers will go up because people would renew for the new patch. I'm no a white knight of Blizzard but, Honestly I'd be surprised if they post a big loss in numbers, let alone a small drop. If people say 5.2 was all that, it'll pull people in just to play around the new content.

There wasn't any big MMO releases or holidays either. They'll probably pin it on Starcraft 2 despite the game being a different genre. They pretty much said the same thing about Diablo 3 release

[Deleted]

150-250k loss mainly in china and mainly due to banwaves from bots as always.

[OmegaManHester]

With all the MoP Rage on forums regarding - Huge drop in raiding pop, Burst, CC, Bots, Lack of LFR gear, Dailies, Rep Req. to buy valor gear and a long Alt grind to 90
I thought a few million would be unsubbed by now.

Guess we'll play wait n see til May

[Mawnix]

With all the MoP Rage on forums regarding - Huge drop in raiding pop, Burst, CC, Bots, Lack of LFR gear, Dailies, Rep Req. to buy valor gear and a long Alt grind to 90
I thought a few million would be unsubbed by now.

Guess we'll play wait n see til May

REALLY now.

Because I see a giant increase of positive posts, specifically around 5.2.

To each his own.

And the fact you think a few million would be unsubbed proves that's your opinion simply because you don't like what the game currently is.

Le sigh.

[mvaliz]

No numbers from Q1 come out before the quarterly earnings call.

That's actually not completely true. Blizz has been MORE than happy to put out press releases 1 week after a quarter ends when they have a subscription gain (see post-MoP Pandaria launch when the subs went up and Blizz announced it literally 1 week after Q3 ended).

Usually when numbers are down or don't move though, they tend to keep silent until the Quarterly report.

[Honeyprime]

I think subscriptions will stay the same or maybe drop a tiny bit. Not because of any of the content, balancing issues or anything else. I'm one of those who think it's simply because the game is getting older.

I don't always agree with things that Blizzard does, but I haven't quit because of any of them. But I have played for so long that it's gotten a bit boring and other things/interests in my life are taking more of my attention. I imagine it's the same for many others.

[Pancaspe]

The week before happened to be when they sent out the 7 day free trial to come back...hmmm..../tinfoilhat

There is a word for that...MARKETING

[Osmeric]

The week before happened to be when they sent out the 7 day free trial to come back...hmmm..../tinfoilhat

Free trials do not count in the "active accounts" number.

[bohapjut]

No one said they are. A subscriber is just someone who has paid up to a certain point. I've gone a month or more without logging in but never breaking my subscription...thus I'd still be counted.

why keep your sub up when you're not playing?

[Skroe]

I think a big question is how many active individual players there are anymore and how many of the accounts in US and EU are second, third, fourth accounts. I know I have three additional accounts besides my main, two of which I pay for monthly alongside my main. Why were they created in the first place? RAF mounts and SoR. I found uses for them after that.

Hardcore botters, not a lot of people know, can operate thirty accounts at a time. The initial investment recouped in gold sale.

I'd be honestly surprised if there were more than a solid one million active players (maybe 1.5m) in NA. Real, legitimate people who log on to actually play.

Just adding up the number of people who have killed ONE boss in Throne from all the servers put together, is way below that.

[melodramocracy]

I can't wait to use these numbers to justify my opinion of the game!!

*rubs hands together*
*cackles*

[Nerraw]

If numbers go down: "WoW is dying abandon ship!!!11one!"

If numbers stay the same or go up: "Zomg, Blizzard is padding the numbers!"

[SL1200]

Gc's recent tweets about raid difficulty and regret about not including additional 5 mans lead me to believe that they are currently losing subs. I suspect that subs will go down again.

[papaz]

Subs will go down. WoW has changed too much and it's not the same game at all that was launched years and years ago.

Catering to everyone like Blizzard has done is not a good idea at all and I expect yet again we will see a sub drop, rightfully so. World of queue craft which the game has become has runied the social experience.

It's time to release Titan information and let WoW go.

[Detheavn]

you couldn't go straight from kara into BT or sunwell... or even SSC..

Actually, you could. All you needed was a guild who actually knew what they were doing and they could basically boost 5 - 7 people per run.