Originally Posted by
palladiamors
No actually, the existing players are still playing so they haven't lost those subs. They need to focus on what they did WRONG and work on fixing it, both to bring back former players and make existing ones happy. If Pandaria is any indication after Cata they won't do that though, they'll change things in an even more radical direction then wonder why they are bleeding like a stuck pig.
People bandying about "They still have 8.3 million players!" really need to stop acting like losing 1.3 million subs isn't a big deal. That is a MASSIVE number of people to stop playing a game in a four month time span, and outstrips all of Pandarias gains in a single quarter. That is terrible, and if that rate of loss continues for ANY length of time then the game'd be dead in under two years. It won't, mind you, you have a core of WoW players who'll play until the lights go out, but the losses from Cataclysm coupled with the losses and lack of overall gains from Pandaria are staggering. Yes, 8.3 still puts them comfortably on top of the pile, but that pile is currently sinking into a pool of lava.