World of Warcraft Slips Further

[Sewer Rat]

Honestly, I know that it is not a huge dent in WoW subscriptions, but honestly, I kind of hope this trend continues, for 2 reasons:
A. It would be good for MMO developers to try to mix it up rather than say "let's be like WoW" and with WoW gone, there would actually be some chance of success with such a venture.
and B. I hate Blizzards newest policies... Yes I know it's a shallow reason, but seriously, fuck always online drm, fuck Battle.net 2.0 and fuck Corpsegrinder or whoever the fuck that 'metal' 'singer' was who spoke out at Blizzcon.

 

[MirkoP]

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.

Pretty much this.On a side note,it's worth bringing up that Blizzard was aware that WoW won't have an eternal lifespan,so they reassigned most of the big names that were involved in the original/TBC edition on another MMO project which (according to Blizzards statement ~8 months old) is already set in motion.

Now don't get me wrong,I'll admit I'm an ex-WoW player,but don't confuse my respect for Blizzard in a business sense to fanboism.But those guys at Blizz ain't random twats,like it or not,they know their shit...well,most of the time anyway.By the time WoW gets seriously crippled (which still doesn't seem likely in the near future) they'll have another MMO to rock the world with.And considering they could probably launch a space shuttle with all the cash they made,I wouldn't be surprised if it does.Again...

 

[Loop Stricken]

People on WoW forums frequently say they're quitting the game as soon as Diablo 3 comes out...

So maybe Blizzard should come out with some sort of deal where if you pay your WoW subscription for like, a year, you get Diablo 3 for free or something.

Thats what happens when you charge $30 a month and charge more for anything worth getting in the game.

Good job it's not $30 a month then.

I mean after Deathwing, what's next?

Sargeras, the ultimate warcraft baddie, and potentially other titans.
Sargeras dwarfs Deathwing, being among those that created the aspects in the first place.
Then there's the Old Gods.
The ones we've fought so far have been recently awakened and still partially sealed, being mere shadows of their true selves.
And there's the current alliance and horde dipshit leaders that might create some new factions or somesuch.
etc.

Besides, Deathwing was always a pawn of the old gods to begin with.

And there's also the possibility of renewing interfaction war. Things have just been so damn peachy between the allies and the hordies lately.
Sylvanas looks like she's at the end of her rope and would be fun as a part of a new threat.

1) Renewing faction hostilities is what the new expansion is all about.
2) Nothing stopping Blizzard from, shock horror, making up new shit.

 

[Fearzone]

Basic math: equilibrium population of WoW is where new subscriptions equal cancellations. 

Each expansion makes it worse for new players. More costly to buy and more time it takes to get to end game.

Bring vanilla WoW back and you have a chance of cultivating a new generation of WoW crackheads.  Vanilla WoW was a special game. Subsequent expansions have just gotten sillier and the only thing I would miss without any expansion is Netherstorm battleground and music from Terokkar forest.  Flying mounts are good but not necessary. If you must, keep the stupid pets and mount for real money store.   

 

[Asehujiko]

There will be more losses, especially when the servers are full of panda characters. They look so out of place.

Just like the Worgen. And the death knights. And the Draenei.

My point on why this is good news: It might make some people shut up.

When Rift was released, I was happy to go there, just because I was through with WoW after playing it for nearly six years. But through the rift beta and its release up to the first content patch, the forums were always the same.

"WAH WAH WAH, I want a dungeon finder, WoW had one!"
"QQ i want cross server BGs, WoW had them!"
"WAAAAH, I want [random WoW feature], it was SO COOL ANY MMO NEEDS IT!"

If WoW finally breaks down other mmos might be save from all this crying for stuff WoW had.

So your entire reason for wanting WoW gone is so that the list of "stuff mmo X could easily have but doesn't" become shorter?

 

[RaikuFA]

People on WoW forums frequently say they're quitting the game as soon as Diablo 3 comes out...

So maybe Blizzard should come out with some sort of deal where if you pay your WoW subscription for like, a year, you get Diablo 3 for free or something.

Thats what happens when you charge $30 a month and charge more for anything worth getting in the game.

Good job it's not $30 a month then.

I mean after Deathwing, what's next?

Sargeras, the ultimate warcraft baddie, and potentially other titans.
Sargeras dwarfs Deathwing, being among those that created the aspects in the first place.
Then there's the Old Gods.
The ones we've fought so far have been recently awakened and still partially sealed, being mere shadows of their true selves.
And there's the current alliance and horde dipshit leaders that might create some new factions or somesuch.
etc.

Besides, Deathwing was always a pawn of the old gods to begin with.

And there's also the possibility of renewing interfaction war. Things have just been so damn peachy between the allies and the hordies lately.
Sylvanas looks like she's at the end of her rope and would be fun as a part of a new threat.

1) Renewing faction hostilities is what the new expansion is all about.
2) Nothing stopping Blizzard from, shock horror, making up new shit.

I heard it was. Though this was from when it started.

 

[ike42]

I can imagine it at the Activision offices:

Executive: "We need to find a way to stop all the subscription losses we're having in China."

Kotick: "They like pandas in China right? Give them that."

 

[Jimijab]

My sub run out last month and didn't renew my sub as I knew Skyrim will be released very soon, and I will play that soooo much Plus it got a bit boring and this new Panda expansion really seems very dire to me.

 

[Aeshi]

Hey look, people whining about how Blizzard deserves to die for being cool-to-bash/successful!

 

[RuralGamer]

MMOs don't remain profitable forever and I'm sure Activision has some form of WoW2 in the works... Still I'm sure they'll continue to rake in millions from WoW for a couple of more years.

 

[Lyri]

Yeah, I mean what other games will let you role play as a Panda, and there's only so many times you can replay the Kung-Fu Panda tie-ins.

Perfect World does, that's a CN based company.
So that's one other.

 

[Twilight_guy]

This just in, Blizzard loses a small portion of its player base, people begin planning for the death of WoW and end of Blizzard. Next episode, subscriptions go up and people whine about how everyone plays WoW and it will never die. See you for the next episode of long term memory loss gamers!

 

[vfaulkon]

Y'know, people on WoW forums threatening to quit their account would be more meaningful if they didn't do that every time they are down for maintenance for an extra half-hour, when their class' spell does 5% less damage, when the wind blows southeast as opposed to northeast, etc...

WoW's too big. It's not going to just die suddenly like a heart attack victim, because Actiblizz would have to do something truly, monumentally BAD to get millions of people to quit at once, and trust me, Pandas and optional pokemon battles ain't it.

 

[Woeps]

So they made a lot of money over the last decade.
Now they lose some players and still make a lot of money.

Yeah sucks to be them.

 

[Charli]

Patch 4.2 has been dragging on, I would unsubscribe for a month if I could be bothered to stop showing up for raids with the newbies too to be honest... Not that shocking.

WoW could slip 5 million people and still be heads above other MMO's amusingly.

This just in, Blizzard loses a small portion of its player base, people begin planning for the death of WoW and end of Blizzard. Next episode, subscriptions go up and people whine about how everyone plays WoW and it will never die. See you for the next episode of long term memory loss gamers!

Oh boy I love that show! /popcorn

 

[Sectan]

It's great news that WoW is losing subscribers. They'll have to work harder and throw some more innovation into the game to keep up with other MMOs and such. Lately I feel like Blizzard has been sitting on their hands just raking in money while they add a few things from older expansions into the game and call it New Content.

 

[Sectan]

Urgh. First double post, yay!

 

[Byere]

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.

From what I hear, it's moreso because they steal Blizzard's trademarked characters and use the money that would go to them to build theme parks...

 

[Sartan0]

I have been playing Rift lately. So far I am having fun with it.

I think WoW will steadily lose subs though the expansion might slow that down.