What if WoW keeps up this longer release cycle?

[GreenJesus]

I think the question to ask is whether they will cut the last patch or not so they can keep the 2 year expansion cycle that they have been pretty consistent about. If this patch lasts 8 months, 9.1 patch lasts 7 months, 9.2 lasts 7 months, then there is only 2 months left for 9.3 to hit the magic 24 month expansion duration. Blizzard seriously fucked up here cause they are basically required by shareholders to have a box release on 2 year cycle and yet players will be pissed off if they don't get 9.3.

[Big Thanks]

My theory from a huge ass long time ago was:

"Blizzard only needs to sell the retail price of a new expansion + 1 month game time to the die hard fan community to make millions and call it a day"

Some numbers:

Imagining WoW only has 2 500 000 players buying the expasion (is WAY MORE i know), box + 1 month = 137 500 000 dollars
Back in Vanilla creating the game + upkeep costs of 2 YEARS was 131 Million.

There
Profits of millions on day 1...

You think WoW can die? No f-ing way, since Blizzard in a single day can cover all the costs of making an expansion + upkeep costs for 2 years...and even profit by millions.

[Lighthope]

As long as you keep giving excuses about your abusive spouse, that spouse will continue to abuse you.

That is why I divorced WoW. Didn't just unsubscribe. Deleted account. Never coming back.

I think the question to ask is whether they will cut the last patch or not so they can keep the 2 year expansion cycle that they have been pretty consistent about.

But what if they decide that they can get away with a two year-six month expansion cycle?

That would save them literally millions of dollars in a couple expansions' time.

And if they playerbase is willing to put up with it, why not?

What if they are so hardcore, so addicted that they will put up with two major patches, two minor patches, and a three year expansion cycle? Now think how much money that will save Blizzard!

[GreenJesus]

That is why I divorced WoW. Didn't just unsubscribe. Deleted account. Never coming back.



But what if they decide that they can get away with a two year-six month expansion cycle?

That would save them literally millions of dollars in a couple expansions' time.

And if they playerbase is willing to put up with it, why not?

What if they are so hardcore, so addicted that they will put up with two major patches, two minor patches, and a three year expansion cycle? Now think how much money that will save Blizzard!

Why would they want a longer expansion cycle? That would mean that future income would decrease since expansion launch resets the dying subs trend back up to 10 million.

[dewd]

if that in turn would mean actual good patches id take longer cycles but 9.1 looks as useless as anything they put out since 8.0

[Cosmic Janitor]

[...] and yet players will be pissed off if they don't get 9.3.

Yeah, I'm not so sure about that. Some will surely be pissed, because some will always be pissed. But currently SL is not that of a hot topic, I'm sure there are plenty of people that wouldn't mind it not being dragged out longer than absolutely neccessary.

- - - Updated - - -

Why would they want a longer expansion cycle? That would mean that future income would decrease since expansion launch resets the dying subs trend back up to 10 million.

Forget the sub spike, the "box" sales alone are a major part of their calculation.

[Luxeley]

The bottom line, the droughts hurt Blizzard more than it hurts the players. Players take advantage of these droughts and play other games. Sometimes the other game is within the Blizzard, sometimes it's not. The more these droughts occur, the more players will drift elsewhere. Keep in mind there is a big difference between coming back to WOW for a new xpac and coming back for a new patch, the former commands a greater audience. Going forward in the next 3-5 1 new MMO from Amazon will release and 2 former Wow killers (with very good mmos) Gw2 and FF14 will be coming out with new xpacs, not to mention the heavily awaited Ashes of Creation probably sometime is early 2022.

[Lighthope]

Why would they want a longer expansion cycle? That would mean that future income would decrease since expansion launch resets the dying subs trend back up to 10 million.

WoW hasn't seen 10 million subs in I don't know how long.

Yeah, a new expac bring in subs. But for how long? Shadowlands brought in a lot of people, but they disappeared faster than ever before.

Can Blizz make enough money from an expac release before too many players abandon them?

How much does an expac cost to make?

if that in turn would mean actual good patches id take longer cycles but 9.1 looks as useless as anything they put out since 8.0

There is no evidence that a long patch means a higher quality patch.

[Big Thanks]

How much does an expac cost to make?

Vanilla WoW development cost was 63 Million (sources 1 and 2)
World of Warcraft "upkeep cost" from launch, 2004 to 2008 was 200 Million (source).
That $200m figure apparently includes payroll for the entire staff, hardware support, and customer service.

i think thats all we know

[Lodreh]

Same as now... sub and play when there is something I want to do in game... unsub otherwise.

[qwerty123456]

I stay subbed but it would be nice if they had a side team making side content so there was a reason to log in

[Nnyco]

They certainly are when it comes to x.0 patches, guess who's the smart!@# here.

If we nitpick that way, then sure. Might aswell add another selfie patch if thats all it takes to make players like you happy.

[Soon-TM]

The bottom line, the droughts hurt Blizzard more than it hurts the players. Players take advantage of these droughts and play other games. Sometimes the other game is within the Blizzard, sometimes it's not. The more these droughts occur, the more players will drift elsewhere. Keep in mind there is a big difference between coming back to WOW for a new xpac and coming back for a new patch, the former commands a greater audience. Going forward in the next 3-5 1 new MMO from Amazon will release and 2 former Wow killers (with very good mmos) Gw2 and FF14 will be coming out with new xpacs, not to mention the heavily awaited Ashes of Creation probably sometime is early 2022.

Be careful when talking about droughts, lest you want the usual suspects swarming you with inane statements such as "do you have KSM, mythic CN and Glad?". There are quite a few of those specimens lurking around.

If we nitpick that way, then sure. Might aswell add another selfie patch if thats all it takes to make players like you happy.

Way to strawman my dude(tte), but... you do you

[Nnyco]

Way to strawman my dude(tte), but... you do you

Irony at its finest.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

WoW hasn't seen 10 million subs in I don't know how long.

Yeah, a new expac bring in subs. But for how long? Shadowlands brought in a lot of people, but they disappeared faster than ever before.

Can Blizz make enough money from an expac release before too many players abandon them?

How much does an expac cost to make?



There is no evidence that a long patch means a higher quality patch.

they reported back at legions launch that they hit a new all time sun high so over 12m and then with bfa they said it was on pace with legion and with shadowlands it was ahead of even that.

[Lighthope]

they reported back at legions launch that they hit a new all time sun high so over 12m

I had to look that up. Maybe I was wrong.

Here is an article which talks about that. I will quote the relevant parts, and provide a link to the whole thing.

In the Pixel interview, World of Warcraft game designer Tom Chilton supposedly revealed for the first time that Legion has boosted subscriptions to 10.1 million. Here’s the quote, as translated by NeoGAF user Lashman:

"Currently, [our subscriber number] is around 10.1 million. You know, it’s difficult to say what the future will bring. We have an internal competitor, Overwatch, but it’s possible it’ll get even higher than 12 million.

The article goes on.

Great news, right? Except apparently it’s not a legitimate number.

Polygon reached out to Blizzard directly this afternoon to confirm the number, and the publisher revealed that it "was a misquote or some kind of misunderstanding on the part of the journalist."

So, reports of 12 million subscribes are greatly exaggerated. (With apologies to Mark Twain.)

Here is the full article: https://www.polygon.com/2016/10/4/13...ers-10-million

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I had to look that up. Maybe I was wrong.

Here is an article which talks about that. I will quote the relevant parts, and provide a link to the whole thing.



The article goes on.



So, reports of 12 million subscribes are greatly exaggerated. (With apologies to Mark Twain.)

Here is the full article: https://www.polygon.com/2016/10/4/13...ers-10-million

That's from Oct so likely ether after numbers started dropping as they tend to do or they just didn't want to confirm a set number. here's a link from about a week after Legions launch.

https://www.gamereactor.eu/legion-br...ers-for-years/

We knew this expansion was going to be something for the books, but reception has just blown us away. The early reviews are coming in, they're really positive. Fan reception has been phenomenal.

"Concurrency - we've had to check and triple check our numbers, because it's the highest they've been in recent memory. Several years, for sure."

while they don't give a actual number other then highest in recent memory With shadowlands being at the highest number in a Decade that would safely make that recent memory include cata's 12m.

In the months leading up to the expansion’s release and the time since launch, the game reached and has sustained its highest number of players on monthly or longer-term subscriptions compared to the same period ahead of and following any WoW expansion in the past decade, in both the West and the East.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...me-of-All-Time

[schwank05]

I'd still play and love the game. The content will come and honestly, I'd like to see how many people actually have finished all the covenant campaigns, downed every raid boss, and mastered every dungeon. There is so much content, I think some people just get burned out or their guild died.

I agree with this, but I have been a raid logger since BC. I hate leveling or questing in general so I get a character or 3 maxed and raid ready and just raid logged for the longest time then Legion Killed that for me and I have not really been able to get back into the game since then. That and my Guild died mid MOP so I had no real reason to want to play much after that in general.

[bmjclark]

At this point, I'm not even resubbing for 9.1 because I've started playing other games in the downtime. My sub lasted about 2 weeks for the tbc prepatch and expired a couple of days after tbc launch which was enough to remember how incredibly unfun and unengaging leveling was in classic. Might resub for 9.2 or something but for now I'm honestly happy to just watch patch cinematics on youtube while playing other games that actually add content regularly

[Xkiller9000]

If this became the norm, I wont be raiding the way ive been for a decade. Im nto doing the same early xpac raid for this long again. Ill play a new patch, do the raid a couple times and unsub