Confirmation, Classic wow has "MILLIONS" of players.

[kattarina]

Does it really matter? If you're enjoying classic, thats great! If there is really that many people playing it, then it will last for a long time. Enjoy it!

I don't get the Retail vs Classic thing. I dont even get the Game X vs Game Y thing. But here: the money fills the same pockets anyway...

[khazmodan]

Does it really matter? If you're enjoying classic, thats great! If there is really that many people playing it, then it will last for a long time. Enjoy it!

I don't get the Retail vs Classic thing. The money fills the same pockets anyway...

Unfortunately I think the finance people that run Acti/Blizz is going to push for what gives them the most money for the least money spent and if retail does not turn around there numbers then they will start winding down development or just halting it at some point. We do need both to succeed for the long run but I truly fear for retail's future...

[kattarina]

Classic isn’t going anywhere after all

And why would it? The game's already been made. The updates are ready. I doubt it requires alot to maintain. Its just makes money and costs little to maintain. Even if only a handfull of active servers remain in a year or two, I think it will still be really proffitable for Blizzard. And in the end, thats the ONLY thing that will kill it.

[Charge me Doctor]

The goal of those panel speeches is to please everyone and be as vague as possible, so people will believe that what's being said is the confirmation of their beliefs.
So yeah, working as intended

[Inukashi]

Can't wait for the earning calls. Only 5 days left.

[kattarina]

Unfortunately I think the finance people that run Acti/Blizz is going to push for what gives them the most money for the least money spent and if retail does not turn around there numbers then they will start winding down development or just halting it at some point. We do need both to succeed for the long run but I truly fear for retail's future...

I honestly haven't noticed any decline in the amount of people playing Retail. I know these forums love to spell the doom of wow but I think its fine, even at one of the percieved lowest points. I think WoW is still insanely profitable ( and retail, blizzard can double dip with the store). As long as the game makes money, it will keep going. Even at the lowest estimates in sub count, its still massively popular. It just prints money.

[Kyrian Warrior]

It was mentioned twice already, Classic wow brought back millions of subs to World of Warcraft.
My assumption is 3.5m subs.

/doubt

/10char

[khazmodan]

I honestly haven't noticed any decline in the amount of people playing Retail. I know these forums love to spell the doom of wow but I think its fine, even at one of the percieved lowest points. I think WoW is still insanely profitable ( and retail, blizzard can double dip with the store). As long as the game makes money, it will keep going. Even at the lowest estimates in sub count, its still massively popular. It just prints money.

The CRZ is meant to keep it looking that way but on my old server its a ghost town even with CRZ. Don't get me wrong, if retail fails we all lose our characters that have who knows how many mounts/toys/pets and I don't want that at all but it could happen. I would say that if the sales numbers continue going down then Acti/Blizz will first put Mike Ybarra in charge (since it looks he has been hired for J. Allen Bracks position anyway). Then there will be a cleaning house of corporate undesirables left over from the Morhaime era and some people will be shifted from the failing game to something with more perceived profitability. This will continue a downward spiral of talent loss, and team morale/chemistry that will be almost impossible to recover from.

[kattarina]

The CRZ is meant to keep it looking that way but on my old server its a ghost town even with CRZ. Don't get me wrong, if retail fails we all lose our characters that have who knows how many mounts/toys/pets and I don't want that at all but it could happen. I would say that if the sales numbers continue going down then Acti/Blizz will first put Mike Ybarra in charge (since it looks he has been hired for J. Allen Bracks position anyway). Then there will be a cleaning house of corporate undesirables left over from the Morhaime era and some people will be shifted from the failing game to something with more perceived profitability. This will continue a downward spiral of talent loss, and team morale/chemistry that will be almost impossible to recover from.

I'm in a server that doesnt share realms with any other and its preety full. I'm guessing some are not so nice. This expansion has been preety week, alot of people are just waiting for the next patch or expansion to come back.
I honestly think WoW is really far from failling. I imagine the box price alone for the expac pays for its developement. The number of people coming back for expansion releases is usualy preety massive. I still think WoW makes obcene amounts of money. Even as the price of game development rises, I can't imagine it takes alot of resources to keep wow going. If Blizzard can develop a game like diablo, which is probably alot more resource intensive then WoW, and be profitable with the box price alone, can you imagine how much wow brings in just on monthly subscriptions. Add the tokens, paid services and store stuff ( I think blizzard admited most of the revenue no longer comes from subscriptions).
Only Blizzards knows, but if I think that if Wow was anywere near not being massively profitable, they would have shut it down. Like Jim Sterling says, game companies are not satisfied with making money, they need to make all the money. If its still going, its making them all the money

[erifwodahs]

What exactly did they release that was how "Azeroth as it stood before Cataclysm" aside from Classic than? Maybe a store mount of something.

Millions stood meant, that were millions, retail and classic players stood there. I don't know anyone, who did not try it out on the first week. I got to level 12 even!

[Speedlance]

Hype numbers, not real numbers. It will return to the same cycle as retail, up and down each content update. With lower and lower numbers.

[Kumorii]

People misinterpret words to fuel their fnaticism?
I'm shocked... Well not that shocked.

[Fkiolaris]

Look, I left WoW back in Legion when I saw what's in the BFA Beta, but due to various reasons I came back just for Classic. I am only playing Classic and I am thoroughly enjoying Classic, but even as such I really do have to ask what the point of threads like this is. I mean you could have just posted that Classic has been confirmed to have a healthy population (in the millions or whatever) and not be antagonistic with retailers. I am saying this as someone that has no lower opinion for any current MMO than retail WoW. Just let people be and enjoy their game and you do the same with Classic.

[Egomaniac]

In fairness it's reasonable to assume classic brought back more inactive players than it stole from retail.

Those are not the only options. There are people that play both.

[Sethus]

"Millions" is an easy non defined PR term to throw around. But in reality all subs combined in Classic+BFA had less subs than BFA on release.

[Sorshen]

Had.

So people fell for misleading PR speak. Neat.

It's a toffmcsoft thread, what do you expect, hard numbers and facts?

[Gratlim]

Yeah "had" millions.
Implementing battlegrounds would help get back some of those that left. But the damage is done and mostly due to poor server management upfront from Blizzard and tryhards following streamers that dictate how to play the game in the most efficient way. Pushing away i good chunk of the more casual playerbase who came back with Classic.

[buck008]

Yeah "had" millions.
Implementing battlegrounds would help get back some of those that left. But the damage is done and mostly due to poor server management upfront from Blizzard and tryhards following streamers that dictate how to play the game in the most efficient way. Pushing away i good chunk of the more casual playerbase who came back with Classic.

Also, Classic was not casual friendly anyway. I played for two hours and remembered why I loved all the improvements that came after so much. It’s a 15 year old game. It was always going to live solely on nostalgia and idle curiosity from the younger crowd. Neither of those lead to a long shelf life.

[caervek]

SO all we need to do to retail wow to make it successful:
1. Remove flying
2. Make levelling a painful and length process.
3. Remove almost all max level content
4. Completely imbalance classes.

You just described Warlords of Draenor :P

[ifrah]

Yeah "had" millions.
Implementing battlegrounds would help get back some of those that left. But the damage is done and mostly due to poor server management upfront from Blizzard and tryhards following streamers that dictate how to play the game in the most efficient way. Pushing away i good chunk of the more casual playerbase who came back with Classic.

Did anyone seriously think the initial rush would have been sustainable in any shape or size? Of the players quit from my guild, not a single one have said that there's been anything but just genericly getting bored / fed up with the game. My playing hours have collapsed to just a few per week due to the very same reasons. I still do enjoy the occasional playing, but it's nothing but a funny "mini-game" to play few times a week.

Server management wasn't arguably the greatest at the launch, but for a good reason as inflating an excessive amount of servers then turning into multiple ghost towns would have just further accelerated the exodus. Anything else, I don't really see the problem there.
Don't like streamers? Ignore them. Loathe them? Just google before rolling a toon where they play and choose another realm. Problem solved.

The most "damage" has been done due to just the game being not that much of excitement for months to come in the classic form.