WoW Down to 7.7 Million Subscribers, Activision Blizzard Purchases Vivendi's Shares

[wexorian]

Well eat this blizzard sadly this is your fault, Most ppl who unsubscribed are from low population realms, , PPl were asking Virtual realm kind system since start of cataclysm, also doing less and less content in every next patch, THey whine about Money and time hahah fail. I i'm unsubscribed atm and i'l be back with 5.4

[Shampro]

Good for Activision Blizzard for getting rid of that leech. It's a sinking ship sadly.

[buddah13]

half life 3 confirmed

[Harmzuay]

It looks like Vivendi truly is desperate for money, being forced to do this deal at a 10% discount on share prices.
Just be advised that with Acti-Blizz holding a current debt, we wont see any change in policy vis-à-vis Real Money Stores and the like.

1.5 billion in debt for a company with a 17 billion market cap is not a big deal. 17 billion dollar market cap and year over year profits, I don't see that they have much to worry about. They'll come out of this in much better shape overall.

[Tharkkun]

Maybe Blizzard will give sub numbers for each region to build consumer confidence that US/Europe is where their core market is.

[Arewn]

Honestly never heard of that, I hear people blaming activision more than anything, and I would too. Activision is probably right up there with EA for most greedy gaming company.

While I don't feel it's unfair to blame greedy publishers, the developers retain a part of the responsibility none the less. Blizzard Entertainment is a large and powerful company.
That being said, I meant this as a general statement, not just about Blizzard and Activision.

Edit: Also, to those who for some reason think otherwise, 600k subs lost is quiet a bit.

[moveth]

Inc uninformed people thinking they know what this means.

[Solzan Nemesis]

I am waiting on the thread that blames the cosmetic helms for this lol.

[KaylaKaotik]

I don't give the number of people playing the game much weight. If I enjoy the game, I'm going to play it regardless of 50 subs or 5 million. Couldn't care less.

This is exactly how I feel.

[Mormolyce]

Rogues can't shoot fireballs from their eyes, no wonder the subs dropped. GG blizzard

Wrong. I still have this in my Rogue's bank.

[leviathonlx]

While I don't feel it's unfair to blame greedy publishers, the developers retain a part of the responsibility none the less. Blizzard Entertainment is a large and powerful company.
That being said, I meant this as a general statement, not just about Blizzard and Activision.

Edit: Also, to those who for some reason think otherwise, 600k subs lost is quiet a bit.

Blizzard publishes their own games as well. They just always let another company be over them (though I'd imagine there's reasons for that as well that likely deal with money).

[08nolanni]

My biggest question is.
Did 600,000 people leave the mmo genre? I don't mind if wow loses subs. But if those people don't join other MMO's its bad news for the genre as a whole

Naturally some of those people will move to other mmo's. Just my 2cents.

[Antherios]

Longevity .. that is all

[Nelle]

The Sky is Falling!

[ghosteagle]

the sub losses are a combination of financial instability in the economy and over pricing by blizzard . with the amount of sub losses maybe they should rethink their over all sub fees vs the economy

[Hottage]

I would be more interested in knowing where the sub losses where. In previous reports it was large losses in the Asian market, but without such brutal impact on the NA and EU regions.

[Snes]

Blizzard haters will claim the game is dying. Blizzard apologists will claim the subs will go up after 5.4, just like they said for 5.2.

The cycle continues.

[Asphyxiate9]

I would be more interested in knowing where the sub losses where. In previous reports it was large losses in the Asian market, but without such brutal impact on the NA and EU regions.

The majority of my friends list hasn't been online for more than a month now so I'm assuming its that middle of expansion break people are having, but like most other times this happens only about half end up coming back

[Tenjen]

*scratches chin at Vivendi/blizz deal*

hmmm will need more time to think on this and research before talking about it

[maleficarium]

While technically correct, the post is omitting a lot. Activision Blizzard is buying back 429m shares for 5.83 billion. The aforementioned investment group is buying 172m shares for 2.34 billion.