World of Warcraft Slips Further

[Andy Chalk]

World of Warcraft Slips Further

World of Warcraft shed another 800,000 subscribers over the past quarter.

The third quarter was a good one for Activision, which saw a big jump in profits driven in large part by a 57 percent increase in digital sales. But it wasn't such a good time for World of Warcraft [http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Battle-Chest-Mac/dp/B000H96C9M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320855209&sr=8-2], which dropped another 800,000 subscribers, slipping from 11.1 million players at the beginning of July to 10.3 million at the end of September.

The biggest losses are in China, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said in an investor's call, although the game is still "one of the most popular online games in China and remains by far the most popular subscription-based MMO in the world."

He also touched on an update expected in the near future which will add new content and raids to the game. "It's really not intended to go out and drive new user acquisition, that's a whole other strategy," he said. "But it does drive engagement with the game, and so that will impact the churn if we do it successfully, and will eventually drive winback, as players tell each other about the content they're enjoying."

Blizzard announced a new World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/mists-of-pandaria/], in October. No release date has been set, but it will no doubt provide a significant bounce to WoW numbers when it hits.

Source: GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-11-09-warcraft-subscriptions-fall-by-800-000]


Permalink

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Subscriptions had gotten so high they weren't likely to go up any further. Blame it on your least favourite content patch or your favourite new MMO you haven't played yet all you like, the reality is that the numbers were inevitably going to go down at some point.

WoW seems to be on a completely different measure to any other game, where "failure" means "very very slightly less wildly successful" and "success" isn't marked on the scale.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

So, in other words: Blizzard have gone down from making a fuckton of money to a shitload.

 

[LavaLampBamboo]

Well, I guess that's it for WoW. Time to start packing it all away =P

MMOs only really appeal to a certain market, and I think with so many others going F2P, you are bound to lose a few. That plus the release of SW:TOR. A few of my friends have cancelled their subscriptions already.

Still, it might inspire Blizzard to mix things up a bit =D

 

[Loop Stricken]

So yeah, don't panic. I don't think the Chinese market pulls in all that much money for Blizzard, or so I've heard it said.

 

[emenar]

Im one of the ones who quit ^^ and i have totally been making better use of my time. Game is just gettin dry, same things being put back in each patch just different ways of workin it. Though i must say, the pandas are the thing that pushed me over the edge on my choice to quit. Hm the feeling of being 1/800,000 people compared to 1/11,100,000 is quite similar though.

They lost 7.3% of their players recently, thats a fair number. Only like £7.2 million in subscription though.... im sure they really dont mind /cough

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

Subscriptions had gotten so high they weren't likely to go up any further. Blame it on your least favourite content patch or your favourite new MMO you haven't played yet all you like, the reality is that the numbers were inevitably going to go down at some point.

WoW seems to be on a completely different measure to any other game, where "failure" means "very very slightly less wildly successful" and "success" isn't marked on the scale.

a drop of 800,000 subscribers out of 12 million is not a small number and definitely is raising alarms inside Activision.

Personally, I'm going to wait until the Q4 figures to come out due to the announcement of the new expansion. I imagine that subscribers do wane during the summer months due to the nice weather and traveling, as well.

Does anyone have the November 2010 stats on subscribers?

 

[crunchpodx]

World of Warcraft Slips Further

World of Warcraft shed another 800,000 subscribers over the past quarter.

The third quarter was a good one for Activision, which saw a big jump in profits driven in large part by a 57 percent increase in digital sales. But it wasn't such a good time for World of Warcraft [http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Battle-Chest-Mac/dp/B000H96C9M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1320855209&sr=8-2], which dropped another 800,000 subscribers, slipping from 11.1 million players at the beginning of July to 10.3 million at the end of September.

The biggest losses are in China, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said in an investor's call, although the game is still "one of the most popular online games in China and remains by far the most popular subscription-based MMO in the world."

He also touched on an update expected in the near future which will add new content and raids to the game. "It's really not intended to go out and drive new user acquisition, that's a whole other strategy," he said. "But it does drive engagement with the game, and so that will impact the churn if we do it successfully, and will eventually drive winback, as players tell each other about the content they're enjoying."

Blizzard announced a new World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria [http://us.battle.net/wow/en/game/mists-of-pandaria/], in October. No release date has been set, but it will no doubt provide a significant bounce to WoW numbers when it hits.

Source: GamesIndustry [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2011-11-09-warcraft-subscriptions-fall-by-800-000]


Permalink

800k subscribers lost, mostly from china hmmmm, I wonder if this is due to the Guardian Cub ruining their gold selling

 

[crunchpodx]

Good news is good. Wonder where they will go now that WoW no longer fits them. Hope they can rush it out the day ToR launches just to fuck with EA.

Where they will go? I do believe Diablo 3 is coming out soonish.

 

[tautologico]

Subscriptions had gotten so high they weren't likely to go up any further. Blame it on your least favourite content patch or your favourite new MMO you haven't played yet all you like, the reality is that the numbers were inevitably going to go down at some point.

WoW seems to be on a completely different measure to any other game, where "failure" means "very very slightly less wildly successful" and "success" isn't marked on the scale.

Plus, it's hard to ignore burn out after so many years. I, for one, still think it's a good game but, no matter how much they implement new stuff on the game, I don't have any more will to play it anymore. I just don't.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Well, I guess that's it for WoW. Time to start packing it all away =P

MMOs only really appeal to a certain market, and I think with so many others going F2P, you are bound to lose a few. That plus the release of SW:TOR. A few of my friends have cancelled their subscriptions already.

Still, it might inspire Blizzard to mix things up a bit =D

Yeah, who knows what they might do next? Maybe it might have something to do with pandas.

Spoiler: OH WAIT.

Maybe that has something to do with it too? I mean after Deathwing, what's next?

 

[LavaLampBamboo]

Well, I guess that's it for WoW. Time to start packing it all away =P

MMOs only really appeal to a certain market, and I think with so many others going F2P, you are bound to lose a few. That plus the release of SW:TOR. A few of my friends have cancelled their subscriptions already.

Still, it might inspire Blizzard to mix things up a bit =D

Yeah, who knows what they might do next? Maybe it might have something to do with pandas.

Spoiler: OH WAIT.

Maybe that has something to do with it too? I mean after Deathwing, what's next?

If Pandas can't save World Of Warcraft, it's basically doomed.

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

Subscriptions had gotten so high they weren't likely to go up any further. Blame it on your least favourite content patch or your favourite new MMO you haven't played yet all you like, the reality is that the numbers were inevitably going to go down at some point.

WoW seems to be on a completely different measure to any other game, where "failure" means "very very slightly less wildly successful" and "success" isn't marked on the scale.

A fair point.

It's the "Sports Illustrated Cover Curse" of the gaming world.

For the uninitiated:

The Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx is an urban legend that states that individuals or teams who appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine will subsequently be jinxed

The explanation is of course that the players on the cover of Sports Illustrated are at the top of their game or they would not be on the cover in the first place.

When you're at the top the only way to go is down and this is perceived as the cover's curse.

 

[KeyMaster45]

The game is getting old and you can only reinvent the experience so many times before it becomes unbearably boring. Though from talking with guildmates who still play I hear the raiding hasn't been very good this expansion. Hell I quit from sheer burn out when Wrath came to an end, there just wasn't anything new or interesting to do with the arrival of Cataclysm.

I find it far less likely people are quitting because they're miffed about the addition of Panderans as a playable race. It's far more plausible that people are just getting tired of playing the same thing. It will be interesting to see if The Old Republic manages to take a permanent chunk out of WoW's subscription base simply because it's a different (and just as popular if not more) IP with different story and gameplay.

Also inb4 the angry people show up screaming as loud as they can that WoW is a shit game, blizzard is shit and a sellout, and the people who play WoW are imbeciles.

 

[Something Amyss]

Subscriptions had gotten so high they weren't likely to go up any further. Blame it on your least favourite content patch or your favourite new MMO you haven't played yet all you like, the reality is that the numbers were inevitably going to go down at some point.

WoW seems to be on a completely different measure to any other game, where "failure" means "very very slightly less wildly successful" and "success" isn't marked on the scale.

It's also the midst of a recession in the US, so I seriously have to wonder how many subs were lost simply due to lack of affordability. Or more, the desire to eat and live in a home.

But as for a different measure for success, I don't think it's WoW. the whole industry considers marginal to moderate success a "failure." that's why so many studios are being closed despite making money for their publishers.

Love it or hate it, this is the way corporations do business. they want to spend money on the huge successes with huge yields, and screw the rest. A lot of people are all defensive of "companies are SUPPOSED to make money," but the end result is gaming studios being shut down for "failures" that aren't actually failures.

Good news is good.

Rather missing how this is good news.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Good news is good.

Rather missing how this is good news.

Because bashing WoW and MMOs is kewl, and more articles like this means more opportunities to look kewl in front of the internet!

 

[Orks da best]

I shall miss wow, I made friends in that game, but it just got old, thats things its an old game, no game can be played forever, no game can.

As wow's stranglehold on the mmo market crumbles to dust, hopefully newer games together can fill up the void, like SWTOR and GW2.