1.3 million sub drop

[Deleted]

Wow this thread is moving fast, alright one more opinion...

I think elder scrolls: online will deal the killing blow to WoW.

It might be, but the verdict so far isn't positive.

[Seranthor]

wonder how much money they lost from the 1.3 million.

guess you missed the part where they made money for the quarter...

[Deleted]

I see subscriber drops as a good thing as it means Blizzard will have to do more to keep subscribers = we get more content.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

we wont even seen the hit from Age of Wushu coming out in Asia till Q2.

Not exactly, hype has a big affect on games. I think Age of Wushu is a big reason for Q1 but will continue into Q2. That damn Asian MMO.

[ShimmerSwirl]

Bobby Kotick just said on the conf call that he fully expects the number of subs continue to decline and be lower at year end results. Now this could be a small number drop so it doesn't mean much but it is the first time i've ever heard him say that openly....which makes me wonder if they have internal numbers showing a trend that we dont see. he also said they will keep pushing efforts to get players back.

(just so were clear, im not saying wow is dead...wow will still be alive in 5years. that said, the number of sub will dictate what level of effort goes into future content and infrastructure investments - as expected from a healthy business standpoint)

Seems pretty clear they are OK with turning WoW into a casual lobby game with a focus on pet battles and scenarios. They are probably getting Titan closer to done, and they don't want the two competing with each other. They must think Titan will be more profitable than WoW.

[Darsithis]

At the first 2 months of Dragon Soul, the DPS queue was 9mins during peak time, 15 time during the rest of the day, the difference is like 300% increase because there arent as many people playing, simple fact.

No. The reason the queue is much higher is because DS was 2 wings, 4 bosses and the only LFR available. Now we have..what? 2 MV, 2 HoF, 1 Terrace, and 4 wings of ToT. The playerbase is more spread out as a result. The sub numbers is very likely not why the DPS queues have increased so much over time.

[Wow]

And what evidence do you have that its GC's fault? I submit that if you cant prove incontrovertibly that its his fault then it isn't, and that you are full of shit.

I doubt anyone has any but numbers have started to fall after he was on the team. And thats probably where that comes from.

[Osmeric]

Morhaime just said next content update (i.e, 5.3) will be "later this month".

[steveyboy]

I see subscriber drops as a good thing as it means Blizzard will have to do more to keep subscribers = we get more content.

They gave us more content than ever before and all they got was subscriber losses.

I said this months ago on the EU wow forums, they need to merge realm, I know no end of people who have quit because there realm died.

[Sturmbringe]

Bobby Kotick just said on the conf call that he fully expects the number of subs continue to decline and be lower at year end results. Now this could be a small number drop so it doesn't mean much but it is the first time i've ever heard him say that openly....which makes me wonder if they have internal numbers showing a trend that we dont see. he also said they will keep pushing efforts to get players back.

(just so were clear, im not saying wow is dead...wow will still be alive in 5years. that said, the number of sub will dictate what level of effort goes into future content and infrastructure investments - as expected from a healthy business standpoint)

Well, if Bobby Kotick wants my money back, they'd better start thinking of introducing Vanilla or TBC servers. That's the ONLY way they will ever see my money back, as I would pay for a Blizzard Vanilla or TBC server, however, I will NOT pay to play a Panda or Pokemon. I wouldn't even play Panda-Pokemon for free tbh.

If Bobby Kotick doesn't want to run Vanilla or TBC servers that's cool as well, I will just continue to play SWTOR (F2P) until the next big MMO comes out.

[Cows For Life]

The drop was larger than I expected, but it's not especially surprising. It's hard to recover from a loss like that of Cataclysm, and as people leave the issue can snowball as some realms end up barren and people have friends leave.

Having a former home on one of the servers that got caught in one of these downward spirals during WotLK, I can't help but think "I told you so". Many players said Blizzard should have intervened on servers where there were bad things happening with the population but that went unheeded.

[Deleted]

Mark my words, their numbers will rise again.

[Seranthor]

even when they drop the price, not everyone is able or willing to have a visa etc...

Blizzard never commented on questions regarding low pop economy, sure CRZ has fixed ZONE population etc

Because it was an investor call, about earnings...it wasn't aimed at addressing your concerns or gripes.

[pickley]

Wow this thread is moving fast, alright one more opinion...

I think elder scrolls: online will deal the killing blow to WoW.

Just like SWTOR, Rift, Aion, Guild Wars 2?

[Deleted]

The free to play market is just too big right now, Blizzard needs to somehow introduce it into their game.

IMO make 1-85 completely free to play, and after MoP is a year old reduce the price of it in half. And when the next expansion is released make it free.

I'd like to see the reaction in the boardroom when someone walks in to suggest that they should stop accepting the fee the 8+ million customers they still have are happily throwing their way every month!

What they need to introduce is a removal tool for the concept of daily quests!

[Arkamedis]

Maybe they will learn to stop artificially extending content through double gating and slow valor point accumulation. WoTLK model was better for everyone.

I think if they went back to the WOTLK, people would come back. I mean thats when wow had its most subs, with people actively subbing because everyone could do everything with everyone. Wotlk was one of the best expansions only for that reason.

[phenix]

Why do Chinese/Korean players pay a different type of sub?

Because they play at LAN cafes a lot and Blizz adapted to what the competition uses as payment model. As well as what the avg. Chinese person can afford.

[Stuffs]

WoW's numbers will stabilize at some point as well. There are a certain number of people that have been playing this game for years and are so heavily invested in this game that they will likely play as long as the game exists. I guess the people that are leaving the game are the ones who find it easier, well, to leave or to take a break. There will also always be new players and old players who return.

Maybe, we still have yet to see that point though, so it is still worth paying attention too.
Regarding the hardcore, old school players, those are the ones that seem to be quitting the most that I know. Cold turkey and all that.

The friends without as much invested, are the ones that boomerang back. At least, in my experience.

[blackblade]

Eve is actually quite popular...

This is normal for WoW. Expansion comes out, people come back in mass... they hit max level, do the dungeons/raids and then get bored. Big new fancy patch, they may come back for a bit, or not until the next expansion.

I for one have been unsubbed a few months, just nothing for me to do but PvP. LFR is not fun for me, as it's just a glorified Heroic. PvP just gets old after a while, and dailies are just not what I want to pay my subscription fee to do.

Not to mention there are a TON of other, Free MMO's out there. Sure they're not as good, but they're different. That's pretty much what I am doing. Eventually, i"ll probably resub. I personally hope I don't lol, but I probably will.

My server is pretty dead now, I had to end up moving to Tich. Almost too many people there -_-

Tich was probably a bad choice lol. I don't know if it's like "AMG QUEUES ON PATCH DAY" bad, but it's a pretty crazy busy server.

[Deleted]

Incoming WOW IS DYING. It isn't. Also most likely due to the Dailies qq


We'll get them all back. Things change.

Sorry but If a 1.3 million subscriber drop isn't a game dieing, I don't know what is. I'd be very worried if I was in blizzard's shoes because thats ALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT of money.