1.3 million sub drop

[Zdrasti]

It seems to me like Blizzard systematically PRESERVED older content, despite enormous changes in the game.

Entirely false, especially when you look at the example I provided.

[HeedmySpeed]

Entirely false, especially when you look at the example I provided.

They have tried to preserve older content but did a poor job like you said. Transmog is the only thing keeping them relavent.
The big deal everyone is talking today is "character progression" so they are irrelavent in that sense.

[HardCoder]

They have tried to preserve older content but did a poor job like you said. Transmog is the only thing keeping them relavent.
The big deal everyone is talking today is "character progression" so they are irrelavent in that sense.

How could they have done a better job with the old content? It was based upon stats and gear and play styles that are not only obsolete but have been made obsolete by changes that have since become obsolete which have in turn become obsolete. Resistances, defense rating, armor pen, spell pen, ... really, I don't know how Blizzard could do a BETTER job preserving the content.

I really wish people could have their Vanilla servers and clients exactly how they were. They'd be there about six hours before realizing that, hey, even with all the "bad" changes we have 1000x as many good ones. They'd be there all alone of course because most people have no interest in the bare-bones game that Vanilla was.

[Zdrasti]

How could they have done a better job with the old content? It was based upon stats and gear and play styles that are not only obsolete but have been made obsolete by changes that have since become obsolete which have in turn become obsolete. Resistances, defense rating, armor pen, spell pen, ... really, I don't know how Blizzard could do a BETTER job preserving the content.

I really wish people could have their Vanilla servers and clients exactly how they were. They'd be there about six hours before realizing that, hey, even with all the "bad" changes we have 1000x as many good ones. They'd be there all alone of course because most people have no interest in the bare-bones game that Vanilla was.

Again I point you to the example of guild wars 1. It managed its old content better.

Part of why they were able to do that more successfully than WoW is they didn't suffer from level or gear inflation. That was a design decision. Designing a game properly is difficult and it's easy to criticize in hindsight. But given that hindsight, it would be silly not to acknowledge areas for improvement.

Moving forward, WoW can make changes to not trivialize content or at least try to keep more than just 1 tier as relevant (as they did in TBC and Vanilla).

[Deleted]

Most of the losses since Cata have been from China. Who cares about how many people in china play, to be realistic?

If 60% losses came from China and 40% from EU/NA they can still say "most losses came from China", it just sounds better.
Plus, this quarter they specifically said "But there were "some" losses in the West too", if they said it then it had to be significant.

[HardCoder]

Again I point you to the example of guild wars 1. It managed its old content better.

Part of why they were able to do that more successfully than WoW is they didn't suffer from level or gear inflation. That was a design decision. Designing a game properly is difficult and it's easy to criticize in hindsight. But given that hindsight, it would be silly not to acknowledge areas for improvement.

Moving forward, WoW can make changes to not trivialize content or at least try to keep more than just 1 tier as relevant (as they did in TBC and Vanilla).

There have been multiple fundamental changes in the game system. Among those changes was bring the classes into balance to the point where all of them and all their specs were viable for PvE.

How do you retain the feel of something when, initially, the feel was a product of the game being broken?

The old content is still thoroughly relevant. If you want an old mount or an old enchant or an old piece of gear, you can go back and farm it, alone or with friends. But it's old content.

My TRS-80 Model 100 still works but I prefer to carry an Android phone around instead.

[Conscious]

Most of the losses since Cata have been from China. Who cares about how many people in china play, to be realistic?

For all we know it could've been 51% from China, and 49% from US/EU.

Plus, their money goes towards the game as well, revenue lost is revenue lost.

[McNeil]

We can only hope Blizzard will wake up and look at all those mistakes MoP has. Nothing wakes them up more then a good old large sub drop

[Conscious]

We can only hope Blizzard will wake up and look at all those mistakes MoP has. Nothing wakes them up more then a good old large sub drop

We thought this as Cataclysm came to a close.

So I think we need to reign in our expectations this time around.

[ro9ue]

I really think the only major flaw with this expansion was dailies. Plus the queue time for LFR is absurd, probably something they didn't foresee since in Cata there were only two LFRs to queue for where theres what, eight now?

[HardCoder]

We can only hope Blizzard will wake up and look at all those mistakes MoP has. Nothing wakes them up more then a good old large sub drop

How many subscriptions the game has isn't what Blizzard is concerned about. Blizzard is more concerned with whether the game is on track to do its part to continue corporate revenue and profit growth. It might well be that internally Blizzard plans for the game to become a decreasing source of revenue, starting last year. Every well-run company that has a product with a finite lifespan has that exact type of plan.

Don't assume that "down 1.3 million subscriptions" is bad news. The plan might have been for down 1.5 million. Or 2 million.

Blizzard is not driven solely by WoW, and WoW is not Blizzard's ultimate goal.

[Pann]

How many subscriptions the game has isn't what Blizzard is concerned about. Blizzard is more concerned with whether the game is on track to do its part to continue corporate revenue and profit growth. It might well be that internally Blizzard plans for the game to become a decreasing source of revenue, starting last year. Every well-run company that has a product with a finite lifespan has that exact type of plan.

Don't assume that "down 1.3 million subscriptions" is bad news. The plan might have been for down 1.5 million. Or 2 million.

Blizzard is not driven solely by WoW, and WoW is not Blizzard's ultimate goal.

Honestly how do you think Blizzard achieves a growth in profit whilst their flagship product, a product that accounts for the vast majority of their income, continues to lose customers?

Losing over 10% of your customers is bad news there is no other way to spin it. The fact that "...subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns... was said in the earnings call seems to suggest that Blizzard are not too happy with it either.

Even D3 which sold in huge numbers does not come close to generating the same income as WOW.

[Deleted]

5.4 will be on the PTR soon and all the hardcore guilds are going to be testing new content. I can expect you that the fights will get buffed (will be harder) from their original implementation because of this.

[HardCoder]

Honestly how do you think Blizzard achieves a growth in profit whilst their flagship product, a product that accounts for the vast majority of their income, continues to lose customers?

Losing over 10% of your customers is bad news there is no other way to spin it. The fact that "...subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns... was said in the earnings call seems to suggest that Blizzard are not too happy with it either.

Even D3 which sold in huge numbers does not come close to generating the same income as WOW.

I was not aware that SC had no customers or that D3 was no longer generating revenue.

Meanwhile of course a drop in subscriptions "raises concerns" but those concerns aren't necessarily at Blizzard. This is one way of saying "We have noticed the drop in subscriptions, so you don't need to tell us about it. Meanwhile we are still printing money out here in Irving."

---------- Post added 2013-05-20 at 12:42 AM ----------

5.4 will be on the PTR soon and all the hardcore guilds are going to be testing new content. I can expect you that the fights will get buffed (will be harder) from their original implementation because of this.

What the hell are you saying? Because of "this"? "This" what?

[Pann]

I was not aware that SC had no customers or that D3 was no longer generating revenue.

Meanwhile of course a drop in subscriptions "raises concerns" but those concerns aren't necessarily at Blizzard. This is one way of saying "We have noticed the drop in subscriptions, so you don't need to tell us about it. Meanwhile we are still printing money out here in Irving."

That does not answer my question. Neither title generates much income outside of box sales and even with 12 million copies sold D3 still not make as much as WOW.

You think that Blizzard are not concerned that in 2012 they earnt $371 million less than 2011 despite MOP box sales being reported in the online subscription line and that trend looks set to continue?

[killidan]

I really think the only major flaw with this expansion was dailies. Plus the queue time for LFR is absurd, probably something they didn't foresee since in Cata there were only two LFRs to queue for where theres what, eight now?

Funny that some people see this and that as flaws and not see the biggest flaw of all: Big fat pandas, the childish, cuddly, dumb animals as a playable race with their own lush holiday island continent and an entire expansion left a huge scar in WoW, both in subscription numbers and in the game lore.

[mvaliz]

That does not answer my question. Neither title generates much income outside of box sales and even with 12 million copies sold D3 still not make as much as WOW.

You think that Blizzard are not concerned that in 2012 they earnt $371 million less than 2011 despite MOP box sales being reported in the online subscription line and that trend looks set to continue?

You see, that's the real trick. If you look at their history of SC and D3, those two were intended to be perpetual income-generating cash-cows.

SC2 was to have a real-$ map store where players could sell maps, but due to technical problems they couldn't implement it.

Diablo III has an RMAH - the problem, however, was they didn't anticipate Diablo III to be so reviled by the player base that 95% of its audience is now gone in a matter of a few months of release.

So, that was TWO potential future cash-cows Blizz wanted that fell through the tubes. I'm MORE than certain they were hoping, by this point, those would be stable enough to prop up any Subscription losses that WoW would incur in the future.

But they didn't... so now, every drop in subs is going to hurt Blizz nastily because they have all their eggs in one basket.

[cityguy193]

You see, that's the real trick. If you look at their history of SC and D3, those two were intended to be perpetual income-generating cash-cows.

SC2 was to have a real-$ map store where players could sell maps, but due to technical problems they couldn't implement it.

Diablo III has an RMAH - the problem, however, was they didn't anticipate Diablo III to be so reviled by the player base that 95% of its audience is now gone in a matter of a few months of release.

So, that was TWO potential future cash-cows Blizz wanted that fell through the tubes. I'm MORE than certain they were hoping, by this point, those would be stable enough to prop up any Subscription losses that WoW would incur in the future.

But they didn't... so now, every drop in subs is going to hurt Blizz nastily because they have all their eggs in one basket.

there is a silver lining. Now Blizzard knows that this expansion was terrible(people will argue with me on this, but this expansion lost the most players and that is a fact), and will try to rush out a better one.

[Osmeric]

There was a poster on these forums last year who got mysteriously permabanned. He had some statements about what internal expectations at Blizzard were on the performance of this expansion that have been pretty much on the mark so far. He also had a prediction what the next expansion would be.

I'm not going to repeat what he said (don't want that permaban!), just noting that I remember those predictions and am tracking them against what happens.

I don't think WoW is dead or dying, and the next expansion could be just stunning.

[Jtbrig7390]

there is a silver lining. Now Blizzard knows that this expansion was terrible(people will argue with me on this, but this expansion lost the most players and that is a fact), and will try to rush out a better one.

They did that once before and remember how it turned out.

Cata to MOP and now MOP to "Insert name here"