I don't know what you mean by using Cata as a reference point. I'm not. I'm talking about my personal experience with subs in Mists. If you mean with regards to raiding, that's because Cataclysm was the first expansion my guild really had "guild raids" both because the guild group support was not implemented in prior expansions and also because I raid with a raiding alliance of other small guilds. It's the only thing I have to compare it to, and in that comparison, we are doing 2.5x the activity we had then.
I don't have any doubt that some people have cancelled their subscriptions, I was just musing on the huge contrast that my personal experience has been to the personal experience of others.
One more day.
I believe it will be a small decline in subs. Nothing substantial.
Time to post what we think the results will be tomorrow, and see who's right.
I say a 500k loss
I cannot believe people are still dense enough in this thread to think Blizzard would LIE About their statistics.
It's Illegal to lie about your quarterly numbers, Yes, ILLEGAL.
Illegal, Punishable by LAW, People can go to JAIL
What does it matter? Tomorrow will come, Blizz will say they lost maybe 100k at best and we get an incoming slew of "WOW IS DYING LOLOLOLOLOL" and
"WOW IS DEAD GO PLAY GW2 LOLOLOLOL" Threads.
Last edited by Elysara; 2013-02-06 at 07:23 PM.
I predict sub numbers to be at pre MoP level, just north from 9 mil.
This should be interesting.
250k gain is my prediction.
---------- Post added 2013-02-06 at 03:22 PM ----------
No....make that a 400k gain.
Small loss of maybe 2 or 3% of subscriptions; next quarter will be more interesting to see if the game's current direction is widely accepted - or not.
Whatever is said will be picked apart until all context is lost, elaborate conspiracy theorys have formed, and a short memorial service for "the death of wow" will be performed.
I am kind of hoping they do not release any sub numbers to spite all the haters. I could be wrong all they need to do is post actual financial information and what their direction to continue being profitable. I am sure they can leave out Sub numbers. Wouldn't it be funny if tomorrow came and went and we still have no idea what the sub count is. :P
Sadly that wont happen, Unless MMO-Champion decides to not post them than we all know that will start the conspiracy saying Blizzard is scare blah blah, So its better off just post them & get through the shit storm or have that day were it just a normal day and nothing as changed.
Its one of the reasons I got over the sub numbers thing as it doesn't the game for me. People just get to worked up over nothing.
I don't always hunt things, But when I do, It's because they're things & I'm a Bear.
Has every single conference call, even the ones before people started paying attention had sub info? I'm not too sure about that. They clearly stated huge losses before when they increased revenues during the same time. Yet that did nothing. Walls did not crumble and stockholders did not leave in exodus.
I believe they will release the active account numbers, since Vivendi will want to know them, and Vivendi cannot be told without also telling the other shareholders. The easiest way to release them in a neutral manner is during the quarterly earnings event.
"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on." -- Ghostcrawler
"Do you want a game with no casuals so about 500 players?"
We are talking about an Activision Blizzard conference call here and Activision Blizzard is a newish construct. For Vivendi, WoW was one IP within that strange american videogames division, making nice profits but not exactly the core of the company. For Activision Blizzard however, the importance of WoW cannot possibly be overstated.