How long will WoW last?

[Dystemper]

More expansions every 2ish years... And Classic that will bring back old timers. I dont see a big decline before a next good 7-10 years. After that, it will still stay alive for a while running on few servers as a f2p model. EQ is still running after 18 years so I dont see Wow going for less than that! The only thing that can stop Wow is Blizzard. If they make something bigger in the Warcraft world. People are nostalgic and love the warcraft universe. They will keep playing and come back for their lifetime. As soon Wow 2.0 will be there for a few years... People will ask for Wow 1.0 as they do today for classic!

EQ is run by people who have a passion for the game and dont have to answer to shareholders and a board of directors. at somepoint WOW will become to expensive to maintain with out sinking a shit ton of money into it for massive upgrades .

[Lochton]

I think WoW's days will end the day an actual competitor is able to take the throne, none has been yet. Some even killed themselves instead.

[volescue]

I tried wow for the first time and leveled to 10 way back, after that i never played it again, i had no money. But in the beginning of 2016 i leveled my first Orc Shaman to level 30, but i quit again because i had no friends playing with. So my friends started to play in legion, and i did too. And i fell in love with the game i have been playing for 1 year now.

I just want to ask this because i love this game, i don't play any other games because wow became my main game now.
Will wow last for atleast a few more years, like 3+?? I know it's an old mmorpg, 13 years old. But i don't want it to end in like 1 year, and they close down all servers. So, how long do you think wow will last? 2+ years, 3 years, maybe 5?

Well considering people were asking this same question in 2010, and probably before too I would say you can look forward to a good many years.

With BFA coming out, you can at the very least, look forward to 3 more years.

[Lightforged]

WoW will be around for years and years.

The devs said Legion is only slightly more successful than WoD.

And WoD was BAAAAAAAD!!

The problem is WoD. It spiked subs and then the expac failed to deliver. A lot of people go burned on that Expac. It will take multiple good expansions to undue the folly that was WoD.

[volescue]

This. If wow would get back to glory days and manage 10M subs, it would officially be the most successful game ever. Game which almost hit the rock bottom with bad expansion and then creeped it way back up.

The only problem I see is the game engine. How long can they keep up with gfx upgrades until the game graphics turn too old for new playerbase.

One of the bonuses of WoW is the art style. Unlike games that aim for super realistic graphics, the art style holds up even after all these years. The only real things that look outdated are old low res textures on items and gear.

[Deleted]

Then we get another Simpsons situation. The original devs will eventually move on

The original devs have already moved on from WoW, long time ago already. Most of them don't work at Blizzard anymore. Others are working on different games.

[Queen of Hamsters]

I was told when I started that "the game wouldn't last 2 years".

It's been 9 years since then and Legion has sort of revitalized the game, which was much needed after the expansion before Legion.

BfA has reached a record amount of people with its cinematic, compared to other expansions.



9.2 million in one month.

[Paulosio]

Well it's pretty safe to say there's guaranteed to be at least another 2 or 3 xpacs... probably more.

[Schmilblick]

They will need to update their graphics engine, otherwise, younger people wont really be interested in it.

[Paulosio]

The devs said Legion is only slightly more successful than WoD.

And WoD was BAAAAAAAD!!

Every previous expansion has been less successful than the previous though... except Legion. It's natural drop off that any old game will have.

And that comment about Legion only being slightly more successful than WOD is pretty meaningless without context... Are they talking sales of the xpac in the 1st month? Sales by time of release ? Subs at a certain point ? Or what ? Because people wouldn't have known WOD was bad at 1st so it still would have sold well regardless... Subs were relatively good at the start of WOD before a big drop off after a few months. WOD didn't maintain its subs cos there wasn't a lot of content.

- - - Updated - - -

They will need to update their graphics engine, otherwise, younger people wont really be interested in it.

It's been updated all the way through the life of the game but it's still going to have the same graphical style... That's just what WOW looks like. It's never going to look like Crysis or something.

[Teri]

I expect at least 2 expansions after BfA, and by then we might even have TBC/Wotlk "classic" realms too.

Other then that, I do hope a new Blizzard MMO is in the works, something fresh, or a huge timeskip forward in WoW, new heroes/planets/enemies, with year 2020+ tech instead of 2000ish.

[grexly75]

Whenever Activision Blizzard decide it is no longer viable..

[Jtbrig7390]

EQ is run by people who have a passion for the game and dont have to answer to shareholders and a board of directors. at somepoint WOW will become to expensive to maintain with out sinking a shit ton of money into it for massive upgrades .

Ya you clearly don't know what type of people own EQ and all the other titles. If it isn't making enough profit they will shut it down in a heart beat. Just so happens it isn't hard to make money on a 18 year old MMO.

[Schattenlied]

likely until it gets to the point where it can't stay competitive in the market without a completely new engine... And then we'll get WoW 2.

[GreenJesus]

If the measuring stick is close all the servers I give it 10 years.

If the measuring stick is below 1 million subs, I give it 5 years tops.

If the measuring stick is goes free to play, I say 6 years.

I don't WoW dying off is due to any bad decision by Blizzard, I believe they actually made enough right decisions to keep it around (and healthy) longer than it would have been in other Developers hands.

I think the next big thing is just around the corner, whether it's VR or WoW 2.0 (with VR) and whatever it is, will be what pulls most all the MMO players to it like WoW did.

WoW in VR would be horrible. Try raiding or do pvp in first person.

[Planetdune]

Prolly another 20+ years..

[WowIsDead64]

I tried wow for the first time and leveled to 10 way back, after that i never played it again, i had no money. But in the beginning of 2016 i leveled my first Orc Shaman to level 30, but i quit again because i had no friends playing with. So my friends started to play in legion, and i did too. And i fell in love with the game i have been playing for 1 year now.

I just want to ask this because i love this game, i don't play any other games because wow became my main game now.
Will wow last for atleast a few more years, like 3+?? I know it's an old mmorpg, 13 years old. But i don't want it to end in like 1 year, and they close down all servers. So, how long do you think wow will last? 2+ years, 3 years, maybe 5?

Hard to say. Blizzard started to make game "as they see it" and therefore stopped any communication with their playerbase. This may have two reasons. 1) They want to make game as "successful", as it was back in Vanilla/TBC. 2) They've stopped caring about "success" of their game, as they have better sources of revenue now. As for me - #2 is more probable, as game slowly turns into "just another generic MMO", like GW2, we have plenty of - i.e. simple arcade time-killer grindfest, wrapped into some soap opera story. There is almost nothing left, that was making Wow distinguishable from other MMOs. So, Wow will last till Blizzard will decide to stop releasing xpack just for the sake of releasing xpacks.

[rda]

Will wow last for atleast a few more years, like 3+?? I know it's an old mmorpg, 13 years old. But i don't want it to end in like 1 year, and they close down all servers. So, how long do you think wow will last? 2+ years, 3 years, maybe 5?

I think WoW will last for a long time, it will just keep becoming smaller both in terms of people playing and new content added. It already shrunk to about a third it used to be and they are responding by cutting dev effort drastically, this will just continue for some time.

I wouldn't be afraid that WoW will go away in 3 years, that's too early. In 5-8 years, possibly.

[Siglius]

I think WoW will last for a long time, it will just keep becoming smaller both in terms of people playing and new content added. It already shrunk to about a third it used to be and they are responding by cutting dev effort drastically, this will just continue for some time.

I wouldn't be afraid that WoW will go away in 3 years, that's too early. In 5-8 years, possibly.

It what way are they "cutting dev effort drasticly"? Please think before you respond, no your ass doesn't function as a source for anything but shit.

Also, counterpoint: They vastly increased the people working in the dev team right before WoD, doesn't look like cutting effort to me.

[rda]

It what way are they "cutting dev effort drasticly"? Please think before you respond, no your ass doesn't function as a source for anything but shit.

I answered this in detail many times and I won't repeat it here, sorry.