Activision Seeks Halt to World of Warcraft Subscriber Slide

[Andy Chalk]

Activision Seeks Halt to World of Warcraft Subscriber Slide

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says the company will step up the pace of World of Warcraft content releases to try to staunch the flow of departing subscribers.

You have no doubt heard by now that World of Warcraft shed a whopping 1.3 million users [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123855-World-of-Warcraft-Loses-1-3-Million-Subscribers-in-3-Months] between January and March of this year and while the 8.3 million subscribers remaining represents the sort of user base that most MMO makers would kill for, it's a huge loss for the King of Kings. And although Activision CEO Bobby Kotick claimed he's not worried about the slide, he's nonetheless determined to do something about it.

"It's important to note that the nature of online games has changed, and with the environment becoming far more competitive, especially with free-to-play games," Kotick said in a first-quarter earnings call to investors. "To address this, we're working to release new content more frequently to keep our players engaged longer and make it easier for lapsed players to come back into the game. We believe in the long-term value of this franchise and will continue to commit substantial resources to World of Warcraft."

Blizzard President and CEO Mike Morhaime echoed Kotick's remarks about the increasingly competitive MMO market and the ongoing need to "invest in additional updates and improvements to continue to evolve the game," but he also talked about the need to grease the wheels for lapsed subscribers who might be thinking about a comeback.

"More specifically, we're examining ways we can ease the transition back into the game for returning players," he said. "We've always seen players come and go from World of Warcraft. Smoothing out that transitional period is something we're studying, as we adjust our approach to player behavior and preferences."

Despite World of Warcraft's slide, don't feel the need to shed too many tears for Blizzard just yet. Thanks primarily to the launch of StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard brought in $330 million in revenue over the first three months of 2013, a 31 percent increase over the first quarter of 2012, while it's operating income leaped by 52 percent to $135 million.

Source: Seeking Alpha [http://seekingalpha.com/article/1416601-activision-blizzard-management-discusses-q1-2013-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=single]


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[Alfador_VII]

OK, this is not a new thing. Blizzard have said many times before that they want faster updates.

They're not so good at delivering on that though.

However now that Kotick is getting vocal about it too, things could get messy. This could go badly for WoW

 

[Sixcess]

we're working to release new content more frequently to keep our players engaged longer and make it easier for lapsed players to come back into the game.

They said exactly the same thing before MoP launched - when they'd left the playerbase on the last Cata patch for almost 12 full months with nothing except Panda Beta to fill the gap - so I'll believe it as much now as I did then.

Kotick is deluding himself (or more exactly, deluding his investors.) WoW will never ever return to its former glory days and now that the Panda honeymoon is over the numbers will continue decline - maybe with a few spikes when new content is released. At absolute best all they can do is slow the decline, they cannot stop it or reverse it.

And quite honestly, fuck Acti-Blizz. They've treated the WoW playerbase with utter contempt for years and narrowed the focus of the game to endgame and nothing but, so it's no wonder people aren't sticking around like they used to.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

I think WoW's popularity is over. Once you killed the freakin' dragon of death, everything else kind of seems lame compared to it, especially when right afterwards they released Mists of Pandaria, which would have been better before Wrath of the Lich King.

I can't see it gaining steam anymore.

 

[Headbiter]

Because if there's anything that business history has told us, it's that pumping out content faster and faster is the best thing you can do for long-term value. Because quantity beats quality every time, baby, every time!

 

[Yvl9921]

I think the domino effect is already too strong for them to stop it now. I'm one of the millions that quit in the last few months, and it wasn't because the game sucked or I was bored of its content, but because there was nobody LEFT. Everyone I ever knew and cared about in the game had quit, and more were quitting at a rapid pace, and I was getting tired of having to find a new guild every few months. I want to keep playing the game, badly, but there's just nothing there for me anymore. I'm not even playing another MMO (until TESO comes out).

 

[Scrythe]

OK, this is not a new thing. Blizzard have said many times before that they want faster updates.

They're not so good at delivering on that though.

However now that Kotick is getting vocal about it too, things could get messy. This could go badly for WoW

Why does this put an image of my head of Kotick cracking a whip in the air and screaming "MUSH!" at his employees?

 

[Bostur]

I would rather see sustainable content that last longer, but it's clearly not what Bliz-Acti wants.

The theoretical numbers still seems decent for WoW, but looking at actual in-game activity I've never seen WoW so dead before.

 

[synobal]

I'm a bit confused, they want to release new content faster, so I guess that means more expansions faster. That is great I guess but then players have to buy those expansions in order to come back and really enjoy the game. So how does that make easier for old players to come back?

Unless they are willing to abandon the paid expansion model and adopt a free expansion model like Eve Online or the other MMOs that give free content updates I don't really see this happening.

 

[Catrixa]

...I feel like some of this is because of the finely-honed machine that is End Game, the be-all-end-all for WoW. If you put all your eggs in the "it only gets good at the end" basket, it will only be fun for people once they hit 90. They've even re-tuned their leveling content so that leveling is pretty much a formality at this point (2-3 shotting every monster, despite being in gear that's super low level, is actually not fun after about 5 minutes).

So, my theory:
1) Put all your eggs in end game content, make leveling either instant (if you have a 90, here's another 90, or something) or so trivial that it might as well be instant (1-85 in a week, or something), then churn out new content every week. You'll either be making terrible content, or need a team of physicists to invent time travel. I'd personally prefer the latter, since I'd like to go see feudal Japan some day.
2) Focus on leveling content (Burning Crusade is now so outdated it's laughable) and make leveling actually interesting. You don't need to rework every zone that wasn't touched in Cataclysm (BC. Just BC.), just the ones that are super dated. Also, add more types of things to do, that can be done at more levels than just 90. Maybe add a raid finder for all of those raids that happened between 60 and 80. Maybe add some kind of dynamic dungeon system that's randomly generated, so you're not just memorizing rooms->bosses (or watching videos of people beating them so you can memorize them). Hell, I'm pretty sure adding "battle pet gyms" and more trainers to fight would do it for me. None of this needs an entirely new continent with a fully realized story and lore rework. It's just more stuff to do that isn't necessarily grinding dailies. Seriously, if all there is to do is PVP, grind the same dungeons, or grind the same dailies, I can see why people get bored, especially since there's tons of content just sitting there, waiting to be used for something other than getting players to max level faster (or being a giant farm for transmogrified gear).

 

[synobal]

I would rather see sustainable content that last longer, but it's clearly not what Bliz-Acti wants.

The theoretical numbers still seems decent for WoW, but looking at actual in-game activity I've never seen WoW so dead before.

part of the reason WoW is so dead these days is the way the queue system works. You just sand in Orgrimmar or Stormwind and run dungeons. The only people out in the world are either collecting resources, running a quest or leveling up. There isn't a lot of reasons to venture outside the cities if you're running raids, or dungeons or anything like that.

Part of having an MMO that doesn't feel dead is having one that has players out in the world and by in large most people just stand in the city.

 

[Chessrook44]

I think WoW's popularity is over. Once you killed the freakin' dragon of death, everything else kind of seems lame compared to it, especially when right afterwards they released Mists of Pandaria, which would have been better before Wrath of the Lich King.

Oh I dunno. If they figure out a way to have you kill God (Or the equivalent) I think they'd go a bit higher. Or the Grand Creator or something.

Then again, didn't Pokemon already let you capture their equivalent of God and the Devil?

 

[R.Nevermore]

Faster new content may slow its decline, but not stop it. WoW was great in its time, and for a great many years after its time. It may still be great, but it's greatness is fading. Kotick is saying the standard PR stuff to keep investors interested but acti-blizzard isn't stupid. They know WoW's clock is ticking and that it can't last forever. They have that ace in the hole, the answer to WoWs decline.

Titan is going to replace WoW. Nobody is more equipped to kill and replace WoW than blizzard. One can argue that nothing will live up to WoW's former glory, but if an MMO is ever gonna come close, it'll be Titan.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

You really can't stop the slide, Activision. It's finally past its prime after all these years, and nowadays people are looking for another MMO that isn't WoW, or doesn't feel like just another cash-grab F2P MMO, or have just moved on with life. The only way to "keep" your subscribers is to make another completely new MMO...

 

[Ukomba]

WoW still has a huge profit margin. If they really want more players, lower the monthly subscription cost by 2/3rds. I'd consider picking it back up for that.

 

[Fappy]

They really need to make ALL of the expansions free. I guarantee their player pop would spike dramatically... at least for a little while.

 

[manastrudel]

The thing is that MoP is a really good expansion in my opinion. But I just got bored of the commitment and all of that...most of the players may be experimenting something similar. I do think that the q system is pretty good, the players that feel that content shouldn't be for everypne are a minority, they are not 1.3 million...just a few thousands and a game and a business can live without them (they can still complete heroic mode if they want a real challenge).

I think that is just part of the living thing that is WoW...the numbers will decrease because people will find some other things to do, they get tired and every game that stays alive for so long will get a bit repetitive...there just so many ways you can kill a dragon.

 

[Azaraxzealot]

Just go F2P already! Problems solved!

 

[Orekoya]

It doesn't matter if you keep bringing out more content faster when all you're providing is homogenized content. Ever since Wrath's release there has been a greater focus on leveling via questing, do dailies once capped, do dungeons to get gear for heroic to get gear for raid etc with pvp being put into its own segregated playground with minimal overlap. Given how power-creep has fed into these tasks, their monotony became more pronounced with each expansion. The most unique thing that has been included in wow since mop's launch was the treasure trove instance.