What's your predictions for the Q1 Call?

[Rorschachs]

They have and will continue to do so. The best thing this game has going at the moment is Pet Battles. Next thing you know LFR will consist of roller coaster rides around raid bosses with loot pinatas at the end.

I wasn't trying to say that wow needs to be changed drastically.. but agreed on the lfr. Its the worst idea ever.

edit : needed to add. Lfr makes everyone raiding normals/heroics rightfully feel like idiots.

[Deleted]

You have to look at the big picture and compare to other subscriber based games. If WoW loses 100k subs, but then the others also lose about 10% then its a trend in sub based gaming and not specifically WoW.

Blizzard probably aren't that phased over the losses because there's an across the board drop throughout sub based mmos and an increase in F2P mmos.

[Mawnix]

25 million subscribers.

Why not 25 billion?

[Seranthor]

If u bothered to read the threead then u would see some people have invested in shares and therefore r obviously interested. And also if u bothered reading this thread u would see that there is very little flaming or hostile bullcrap. Its a serious discussion which is nice to see for a change on Wow forums

As one of those investors in ATVI. it is my personal opinion that a modest increase or decrease will NOT affect the overall stock price as ATVI has numerous income streams, Wow being only ONE of them.

[McNeil]

I'd predict between 300k - 600k subs, even then I could be way off. There weren't any ''WoW killers'' release lately, and there won't be any for a long time. And patch 5.2 may have helped keeping the subs subbed. There'll also be plenty of people being bored of MoP by now.

What I would really like to know is how many of the current subs are actually bots.

[Conscious]

The low pop servers really need some love, because they are dying out.

If sub losses continue, they're not going to have a choice but to address these server population issues.

Inb4 "but crz!"

No, CRZ did nothing but make it 'appear' as if the game was populated, as well as speed up the decline and desertion of already low population servers.

[TJ]

200-300k loss I'd say, maybe more. I think it's undoubtedly a loss, though.

[stomination]

Oh joy the time of the year for this thread to come back.

[Conscious]

Oh joy the time of the year for this thread to come back.

Implying this doesn't happen year round?

[Pancaspe]

I honestly don't care what they have to say, mainly because anything related to any upcoming game will be at Blizzcon, and I don't care about the whole "subs" thing. The game IMO is fantastic and better than it has ever been, and anyone who wants to leave because they feel other wise, they can and will. Their opinion. Blizzard has tried very hard this expansion and with more people working on the game than ever before, I'm cool with the direction of the game and the next expansion coming up.

Best post I have seen on MMO Champion in quite awhile. Well said.

[Deleted]

it is my personal opinion that a modest increase or decrease will NOT affect the overall stock price as ATVI has numerous income streams, Wow being only ONE of them.

But the fact of the matter is that Wow pulls in the most revenue of the ATVI catalogue, and by a massive margin. Its a billion dollar product, no other game in the history of gaming has come even close to raking in the profits that Wow does. And now its very much a 'money for old rope' business model, because the game was made and installed years ago and now they can just sit back and enjoy the massive income from subs.

Dont be naive and think all of this income from subs is used to create more stuff for Wow cos it isnt. Sure, theres some investment which is basically pushing revenue back into the game but its a minimal percentage of total revenue. The vast majority of Wow revenue is used to fund Blizzards other projects and ofc paying the shareholders.

So u shouldnt rely on the other games doing so well cos basically Blizzard is funded by this game mainly.

Also dont forget that Vivendi has mentioned the possibility of selling off Acti-Blizzard last year, cos right now its one of the only parts of Vivendi making profit and they need the funds. This mightve changed by now but it was being considered...

With this all in mind the conference call is very significant from a business point of view right now, i agree with u on that

[tenzing21]

My prediction is that they'll announce some sort of restructuring, oweing to Wow's abyssmal sub figures (1.1/1.2 million subs ain't gonna cut it). They'll most likely have major news re Blizz All-Stars, and if things are wayyyy bad (honk honk), Titan details will come out.

[stomination]

Implying this doesn't happen year round?

Correct. Q1 just happens once. Q2 will be a different thread with the title having Q2 in it.

[RoKPaNda]

Predicting more losses in the Asian markets, West continues to remain stable.

oweing to Wow's abyssmal sub figures (1.1/1.2 million subs ain't gonna cut it)

And that figure just came out of left field.

[Conscious]

Predicting more losses in the Asian markets, West continues to remain stable..

Yeah Asia has been a real drag for them as of late, so I agree there. However It feels like EU is / has been suffering some pretty dramatic server population drops, so I would chalk up an easy 10% of total losses coming out of there.

Correct. Q1 just happens once. Q2 will be a different thread with the title having Q2 in it.

Touche.

[Deadite]

I can't see a huge loss. No more than 200k at most. They have made a good effort to get away from the hilariously slow rate of content release they are famous for. That may have saved them a good few subs.

[Ashardis]

Why not 25 billion?

Cos chicks don't play wow

[PrairieChicken]

Taiwanese realm also merged servers (about month ago)

[Konker]

I don't really care and I'm curious as to why others do?

I consume Blizz's product, thats the sum total of my relatioship with them. I don't follow Audi's results and obsess over their sales figures because I drive one.

If you are in the market for a car and/or are looking into Audis, it would be wise to look into sales and/or reviews before making a commitment. Many players who quit, including me, are looking into returning and this is good info. If subs are up, there is probably substance to positive reviews of the game lately. If subs are down, there is probably substance to critical reviews of the game lately. The reasons I and my guild quit are pretty specific, but if subs are up and correspond to good reviews it might be worth a second look.

[Conscious]

If you are in the market for a car and/or are looking into Audis, it would be wise to look into sales and/or reviews before making a commitment. Many players who quit, including me, are looking into returning and this is good info. If subs are up, there is probably substance to positive reviews of the game lately. If subs are down, there is probably substance to critical reviews of the game lately. The reasons I and my guild quit are pretty specific, but if subs are up and correspond to good reviews it might be worth a second look.

This.

Subscription hikes usually point to good content. No, it's not the sole reason that subscriptions fluctuate, however it is usually a great indicator of quality.

On the other side of that coin, negative trends usually point towards less than amiable reception of content. Again, not the sole perpetrator, but a great indicator.