Earnings call August 4

[arandomuser]

only 5.6 mil gamez dead Kappa

[Deleted]

5.6 million players for a 2015 MMO is pretty good going. The only thing they might be a little concerned about is the steepness of the decline during WoD but 5.6 million is still very good for a sub based MMO. No one is close to that.

Ofc 5.6 is nice and hugely profitable for sub-based MMO, especially for one with an ever-expanding cash shop.

But you have to take into account that they mainly live off of "old success" at the moment - old friendships, old guilds, other things you won't want to leave behind. But it's really starting to fade.
The next expansion better be AWESOME.

[Noctifer616]

But, is Blizzard getting worried?

The revenue numbers are not out yet, and it all depends on that.

[vulena]

So it's only "paid a subscription fee" unless using gold counts, so token games don't enter into it if they're telling the truth.

You realize the tokens that players pay gold for are originally paid with actual cash, right?

[Deleted]

5.6 million players for a 2015 MMO is pretty good going. The only thing they might be a little concerned about is the steepness of the decline during WoD but 5.6 million is still very good for a sub based MMO. No one is close to that.

It's like, you find a painting in your attic that's been hidden away for years and someone offers you 1 million for it. That is mightily impressive, you find a painting and turn it into a million dollars. Only problem is, you subsequently find out it's a Picasso and worth 100 million dollars.

[Kryos]

I think they will be at about 5.5 million subs. If you follow the trendline and ignore the 3 million gain peak followed by the 3 million drop you see that WoW is bleeding at a pretty constant rate since 2011.

Seems the trendline is not all that wrong at all....

They are down to 5.6 million.

[goldfinger147]

Yeah with this few players Blizzard is only making 70-80 million a month. I can't believe they can afford to keep the game going.

[Madruga]

Holy s***!

This is way worse than my most pessimistic assumption, and my assumption was already way more pessimistic than my usual self!

1.5 million losses? Right after a major patch with a huge raid?? AND already including the WoW token in the total number???

Something is very very wrong with WoW and Blizzard will have to work VERY hard if they want to at the very least retain whoever is left!

[Arrowset]

The WoD beta forums were FILLED with posts saying that the class design changes were awful and making specific suggestions for improvement.

Celestalon and Co. ignored them all.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

[Lotus Victoria]

And blizz dare to say that WoD was a success.
Well, in sales, technically it is. But just look at this. Damn.

[Kallisto]

ROFL! I guess it wasnt just those 3ml subs that tried out WoD and left now is it? Maybe, just mmaaybbee, something is really wrong with this x-pac.

Yes but laughing at mass leaving isn't what is going to help. Long essays saying "here is what is bad and if you did y it would be better." would actually be a better way to turn things around.

[Mojo03]

I'd be gone to and many people I know would be as well if it wasn't for the token.

That's scary that that includes token subscribers, can only imagine where it would be without that... I imagined more were using tokens.

[Deleted]

Is there any confirmation on whether or not tokens are included in these numbers? I'm pretty sure they are not and thus there are more players playing the game than what is listed there.

Think about it for just one second. OF COURSE they are counted. Why would they want to present lower than real numbers? Tokens count just the same way a GTC does - namely, only when it's activated.

[1mmersi0n]

No flying killed wow. Serves them right. Get some new devs with fresh ideas in stead of the current bunch of turds.

[Lisa Frank Succubus]

Of course people are going to come in and say this is normal.

I'd love for this drop in numbers to motivate Blizz to do more with WoW but who am I kidding they will probably just add more stuff like boost your character to 100 and increase the next expansion's price to 70$. Hey..I mean, some snes video games were that expensive, like Chrono Trigger, and Phantasy Star IV was 100$! Totally fine with Blizzard raising the price more, its logical and makes sense from a business stand point(this is the standard response we're going to start seeing just like with people seriously defending this expansion's price increase).

To be honest this expansion deserved an even HIGHER sub drop........

It did. It sort of sucks that a lot of people are disappointed with WoD and this is BEFORE the long content drought each expansion has had since WOTLK (I don't remember how long it was for BC, feels like that was forever ago). Its going to sink down even lower with a year+ of Hellfire Citadel.

[Boreuz]

To be honest this expansion deserved an even HIGHER sub drop........

[Deleted]

The WoD beta forums were FILLED with posts saying that the class design changes were awful and making specific suggestions for improvement.

Celestalon and Co. ignored them all.

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

This so much. I remember everyone complained about garrisons and their response was along the lines of "once people get used to garrisons, they'll love it so much they wont want to get out of it".

[Pann]

I never thought the losses would that high.

[Soulwind]

The drop to 5.6 million subs seems about right, considering everything that has been going on/the last few expansion sub cycles. But, is Blizzard getting worried?

Why would they? They've spread their development across several games and are getting more money for the same effort. One game is suffering, but the others are paying for it and more. This is a success for them.

[xanzul]

Perhaps you dont understand what I meant by artificial. Purposefully trying to drive up sub numbers just prior to the end of a quarter doesnt give an accurate representation of overall sub numbers. It is just shining up a piece of shit to make it look pretty just prior to selling it. And if they were to announce the x-pac at Blizzcon, like they have done in the past for every other x-pac, it wouldnt have an influence on this next quarter. And very few people thought Gamescom "was a sure thing", most of the posts I read in the threads were more shocked they were releasing it that early.

So what exactly should Blizzard be doing for Wow if releasing content patches and giving players a reason to subscribe is somehow a "gimmick"? And many people were saying the expansion announcement would be at Gamescom but people like you continually trolled those threads into oblivion with the usual "wow is for blizzcon" bullshit.