I have to agree with clash2death. WoW is what 12yrs old (i think). It's still ontop of the #1 spot where it has been since its launch, has never come close to losing that position either. Even now i think it still holds double the ammount of subscribers to its nearest rival (whichever that is).
I myself also stopped playing, i think i have played 2mths in the past year or so. Everything does come to an end eventually, its fact. It will still be around 10yrs from now, but i think most servers would be gone and the EU/US would have merged together (like all the others have done).
10 1/2. But no-one is saying that 5.6M is a bad number, just that it is surprising they lost so many players so suddenly.
That either means that players have very suddenly lost interest in Wow or that the last expansion stunk.
And it is not good for us MMOers no matter what people think about Wow. Already are few willing to fund a MMO and this makes it even harder.
I have no doubt that the numbers will go up 25% or so again when the next expansion hits but that is a while before and it is likely that they will have lost even more players by that time.
That next expansion really needs to be awesome, if it fails Wow will be F2P, Activision wont have any other choice then.
Also its worse then it seems. Walking around servers where 1/2 the population is gone... well thats something that impacts people even with cross server play. Heck trying to sell something on the AH to get the gold you need to do things can make you cry. This is not small news.
Tanaan jungle is the most boring shit ever. Pvp has never been more of a joke with every team in the arena qualifiers having the same two classes. Lets not even talk about Ashran. The game is beyond stale even without considering it's age.
No specific mention of how they have accounted for tokens - subscriber definition stays the same etc. however there are some additional details in the SEC filing:
Revenue from all WoW sources: $157M.
Deferred revenue: minus $64M
$157M equates to 3.48M @ $15 which compares to 6M @ $15 last quarter. The 2.52M drop being bigger than the headline 1.5M drop - suggesting that more "high value" subscribers have been lost. This despite a token subscriber being - essentially - $20.
However:
The deferred revenue figure is negative - usually this value is positive. If people take out a 3 month sub running June to august say then Blizzard would book the June "$15" with the $30 for July and August being deferred to the next quarter. The negative value could be the result of claiming all token revenue this quarter and deferring the service until next quarter - basically Blizzard "owe" $64M of subscription. $64M is about 4.2M months or 1.4M quarterly subscribers @ ;$15. It might not be of course - maybe it is an annual royalty payment.
However if it is due to tokens then 1.4M people were able to purchase tokens extending into at least Q3; the number in Q2 could have been higher of course and - since the deferred number is usually positive - maybe higher still.
Blizzard did reassure investors that they had released WoW's largest ever conmtent patch and that this has stemmed the loss of subscriptions.
Seriously? They don't believe that a lot of people stayed subscribed for the patch and - following its reception. As Suzie Ford has - and I agree - take a bigger fall come the Q3 number.
Let’s face it, the expansion has been terrible and fundamentally changes how the game is played, player housing was a great idea but the way in which garrisons were implemented is game breaking.
I actually tried the token way out... I quit again because they nerfed gold gains so I couldnt even stack the gold like i had been. Though to be fair, I was only playing a few hours here and there - dont miss it, was more of a time waster if I could continue with the tokens.
Originally posted by Thebeasttt Tanaan jungle is the most boring shit ever. Pvp has never been more of a joke with every team in the arena qualifiers having the same two classes. Lets not even talk about Ashran. The game is beyond stale even without considering it's age.
Personally I find garrisons were by far the most damaging feature of WoD. Having to log into those stupid ugly huts and their facebook game everyday is such a downer.
to be honest, warlords of draenor was just the same old same old with an extra phone game added. gets annoying grinding for 100s of hours then everything becomes obsolete completely next expeansion. got old fast.
They should do a progression server but I doubt it would work all that well considering how many changes have happened since then that would have to keep in which would make the content pretty trivial anyway.
really tired of people bringing up pointless shit like this about wow every year. game is 10+ years old what do you expect?
its still towering over all the other games as its a beast we will never see happen again. instead of looking for its downfall that prob wont happen until they shut it down, Celebrate that you are witnessing video gaming history. No media product has been this successful for this long. I mean you have a few like harry potter, Pokemon etc.. but this is an mmo. AN MMO. Its become part of pop culture it's so iconic. Again an MMO. This prob wont happen again. Think about it
We have the Creators, fans, community and staff to thank for that. I dont even play wow anymore but i used to play constantly before wotlk came out and i must say i have yet to have a mmo game give me the "wow feeling" of being part of something that has turned into something much larger than just a niche game. There are always going to be Earnings and Losses its called running a billion dollar company. It takes nothing away from what it really is. I dont see the point of every single year pointing out when wow has losses or gains for that manner. We have been around it long enough..played it long enough to know the cycle. Wow drops new content = subs go up. Wow patches new content = people get annoyed, some leave. Wow does final patch for new content = people complain more people leave. People leave Wow = let's report the earnings and subs numbers. Wow drops new content = subs go up... ETC
get over it.
Instead of trying to point out every single thing you can about it.. why not Celebrate it, because when it's gone, you same people will be saying "things arent like when WOW was here, they were constantly trying to innovate mmos blah blah blah"
Internet culture got excited but needs to calm down.
Edit: posted here cause 2 threads going on about this..
The point of the news is the drastic drop in subs in only 10 months since WoD's launch. We're talking half a million subscriptions lost in just 10 months. This is a much more dramatic decline that has been reflected in the past during the cycle you mention.
Question: Who made that chart? Did blizzard personally send you that or is that somebody's "estimate" of what they think is going on or is it factual?
We have to be factual when talking about numbers. Secondly like I said, why does it matter. It makes no sense to me at all to mention WOW's losses when they are still the king of western mmos. The loss didnt change anything and thats if its true. You guys are talking like you were in the boardroom meeting with blizz- activ. Yes we know people quit but we don't know the exact number and to top it off any other game would kill to have even a 5% of what wow had in the last 10 months. Again I just dont see how this is being reported every year like its new. This has been going on for 10 or more years.
Its a cycle like I said and tbh im sick of it. Find something else to discuss guys. Nobody cares that the old rich man lost a couple million dollars..even if its true he is a multibillionaire that created a product(s) that LOTS of people still use/need.
Celebrate his accomplishment not everytime he loses or gains money.. money is the smallest thing in the grand picture of his(wow) legacy.
"Beliefs don't change facts. Facts, if you're reasonable, should change your beliefs."
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
Also its worse then it seems. Walking around servers where 1/2 the population is gone... well thats something that impacts people even with cross server play. Heck trying to sell something on the AH to get the gold you need to do things can make you cry. This is not small news.
Don't worry a cross server AH will come lol.
That is like putting a band aid on a decapitation.
No, it is finally time to merge the servers or possibly go 100% mega server like GW2. there is no other choice unless they can scramble up 3 million or more new or returning players soon.
The thing is that when servers feel empty you loose even more players who consider the game dying and start playing something else. It isn't dying of course but if players start to think that way it is as bad.
Unless of course they go F2P, that tend to at least fill out the noob zones very well but I think Blizzard rather not do this.
really tired of people bringing up pointless shit like this about wow every year. game is 10+ years old what do you expect?
its still towering over all the other games as its a beast we will never see happen again. instead of looking for its downfall that prob wont happen until they shut it down, Celebrate that you are witnessing video gaming history. No media product has been this successful for this long. I mean you have a few like harry potter, Pokemon etc.. but this is an mmo. AN MMO. Its become part of pop culture it's so iconic. Again an MMO. This prob wont happen again. Think about it
We have the Creators, fans, community and staff to thank for that. I dont even play wow anymore but i used to play constantly before wotlk came out and i must say i have yet to have a mmo game give me the "wow feeling" of being part of something that has turned into something much larger than just a niche game. There are always going to be Earnings and Losses its called running a billion dollar company. It takes nothing away from what it really is. I dont see the point of every single year pointing out when wow has losses or gains for that manner. We have been around it long enough..played it long enough to know the cycle. Wow drops new content = subs go up. Wow patches new content = people get annoyed, some leave. Wow does final patch for new content = people complain more people leave. People leave Wow = let's report the earnings and subs numbers. Wow drops new content = subs go up... ETC
get over it.
Instead of trying to point out every single thing you can about it.. why not Celebrate it, because when it's gone, you same people will be saying "things arent like when WOW was here, they were constantly trying to innovate mmos blah blah blah"
Internet culture got excited but needs to calm down.
Edit: posted here cause 2 threads going on about this..
The point of the news is the drastic drop in subs in only 10 months since WoD's launch. We're talking half a million subscriptions lost in just 10 months. This is a much more dramatic decline that has been reflected in the past during the cycle you mention.
Question: Who made that chart? Did blizzard personally send you that or is that somebody's "estimate" of what they think is going on or is it factual?
We have to be factual when talking about numbers. Secondly like I said, why does it matter. It makes no sense to me at all to mention WOW's losses when they are still the king of western mmos. The loss didnt change anything and thats if its true. You guys are talking like you were in the boardroom meeting with blizz- activ. Yes we know people quit but we don't know the exact number and to top it off any other game would kill to have even a 5% of what wow had in the last 10 months. Again I just dont see how this is being reported every year like its new. This has been going on for 10 or more years.
Its a cycle like I said and tbh im sick of it. Find something else to discuss guys. Nobody cares that the old rich man lost a couple million dollars..even if its true he is a multibillionaire that created a product(s) that LOTS of people still use/need.
Celebrate his accomplishment not everytime he loses or gains money.. money is the smallest thing in the grand picture of his(wow) legacy.
This is big news, whether you like it or not. It will be talked about... a lot.
Tag me what you want. I dont even play wow anymore..so im not trying to defend shit about their xpacs or none of that. I have no opinion their latest xpacs. It is what it is.
what Im saying is it dosent matter if -I- or anybody else wants to quit, WoW is still going to be here and they will always have a dedicated couple million of people playing at any moment. Its just the nature of the beast they created. They are going to lose lots and gain lots its a cycle. Its going to be this way until they shut it off. No need to report every year when they have losses. Its not like you havent seen it before with this game in particular.
"Beliefs don't change facts. Facts, if you're reasonable, should change your beliefs."
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
I stopped playing because crafting got incredibly nerfed in WoD.
Also, all the classes got nerfed too. So many abilities lost, my favorite classes are a mere shell of what they used to be. Only class to survive the nerf bat is the Shaman and even then, they lost a lot of their personality.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
I wonder how many subs were saved by the token system.
Anyway, they'd better have something major planned for the next expansion and it hopefully isn't based on Azshara, Trolls or anything else on Azeroth. Go big or go home.
Also, prior to the sub count deadline I got spammed like mad by Blizzard offering 10-day invites "come back to the game".
(VALID invites, no phishing attempts)
Ignored most, after the deadline I had to activate they sent a new one, but since they stopped counting subs for their shareholders I haven't gotten any invites anymore.
So it is very likely that they used those players that went for a 7/10-day trial back invite also to boost numbers.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Originally posted by hallucigenocide @klash2def: it's only natural that people take notice when this happens as it does not only affect blizzard but the genre as a whole.
Yeah, and if any other game gained or lost 44% of the playerbase in 10 months it would be rather large news as well.
Since Wow is the largest more might care but there are plenty of threads about Wildstar losing subs as well to mention one game. And TORs up and downs really have loads of threads during the years since release.
They have lost more subs since the last expansion than most other MMORPGs can muster during open beta. They (just WoW) still make more money per quarter than other entire studios have made in their lifetimes.
Don't worry, WoW isn't going away any time soon.
"If MMORPG players were around when God said, "Let their be light" they'd have called the light gay, and plunged the universe back into darkness by squatting their nutsacks over it." -Luke McKinney, The 7 Biggest Dick Moves in the History of Online Gaming
"In the end, SWG may have been more potential and promise than fulfilled expectation. But I'd rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity." -Raph Koster
The point of the news is the drastic drop in subs in only 10 months since WoD's launch. We're talking half a million subscriptions lost in just 10 months. This is a much more dramatic decline that has been reflected in the past during the cycle you mention.
Question: Who made that chart? Did blizzard personally send you that or is that somebody's "estimate" of what they think is going on or is it factual?
The points on the chart are simply the numbers given out by Activision Blizzard at their quarterly earnings calls. Entirely factual; no estimates needed.
Originally posted by NoxiousBass Hum, no wonder Blizzard is going to announce the next expansion so early. Panic mode?
Haven't they traditionally announced a new expac a year or more before it releases? Haven't they also said for a long time that they would like to have releases on a yearly basis? I can understand you are so happy about this news.
Happy? And why is that? I just don´t remember an Xpac (WoD) having such a short cycle and announcing another expansion when it´s less than a year in. If the subs didn't´t drop so drastically in a short period of time, I doubt that Blizz would even bother to announce a new expansion at gamescon (think that´s the name of the event).
And, just for the record, I really love WoW, and I just hope that Blizzard invests its time and money properly with this franchise.
really tired of people bringing up pointless shit like this about wow every year. game is 10+ years old what do you expect?
its still towering over all the other games as its a beast we will never see happen again. instead of looking for its downfall that prob wont happen until they shut it down, Celebrate that you are witnessing video gaming history. No media product has been this successful for this long. I mean you have a few like harry potter, Pokemon etc.. but this is an mmo. AN MMO. Its become part of pop culture it's so iconic. Again an MMO. This prob wont happen again. Think about it
We have the Creators, fans, community and staff to thank for that. I dont even play wow anymore but i used to play constantly before wotlk came out and i must say i have yet to have a mmo game give me the "wow feeling" of being part of something that has turned into something much larger than just a niche game. There are always going to be Earnings and Losses its called running a billion dollar company. It takes nothing away from what it really is. I dont see the point of every single year pointing out when wow has losses or gains for that manner. We have been around it long enough..played it long enough to know the cycle. Wow drops new content = subs go up. Wow patches new content = people get annoyed, some leave. Wow does final patch for new content = people complain more people leave. People leave Wow = let's report the earnings and subs numbers. Wow drops new content = subs go up... ETC
get over it.
Instead of trying to point out every single thing you can about it.. why not Celebrate it, because when it's gone, you same people will be saying "things arent like when WOW was here, they were constantly trying to innovate mmos blah blah blah"
Internet culture got excited but needs to calm down.
Edit: posted here cause 2 threads going on about this..
The point of the news is the drastic drop in subs in only 10 months since WoD's launch. We're talking half a million subscriptions lost in just 10 months. This is a much more dramatic decline that has been reflected in the past during the cycle you mention.
Question: Who made that chart? Did blizzard personally send you that or is that somebody's "estimate" of what they think is going on or is it factual?
We have to be factual when talking about numbers. Secondly like I said, why does it matter. It makes no sense to me at all to mention WOW's losses when they are still the king of western mmos. The loss didnt change anything and thats if its true. You guys are talking like you were in the boardroom meeting with blizz- activ. Yes we know people quit but we don't know the exact number and to top it off any other game would kill to have even a 5% of what wow had in the last 10 months. Again I just dont see how this is being reported every year like its new. This has been going on for 10 or more years.
Its a cycle like I said and tbh im sick of it. Find something else to discuss guys. Nobody cares that the old rich man lost a couple million dollars..even if its true he is a multibillionaire that created a product(s) that LOTS of people still use/need.
Celebrate his accomplishment not everytime he loses or gains money.. money is the smallest thing in the grand picture of his(wow) legacy.
This is big news, whether you like it or not. It will be talked about... a lot.
Good talk about all you want, its a free country. Its still redundant at this point to talk about this same shit every year and if you are going to talk it.. use actual facts, numbers and information.. which you prob dont have if you arent part of the staff that actually attends the meetings. People are making up numbers off of assumptions about what they heard. Again. Internet culture..so nature of the beast I guess.
"Beliefs don't change facts. Facts, if you're reasonable, should change your beliefs."
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
Also, prior to the sub count deadline I got spammed like mad by Blizzard offering 10-day invites "come back to the game".
(VALID invites, no phishing attempts)
Ignored most, after the deadline I had to activate they sent a new one, but since they stopped counting subs for their shareholders I haven't gotten any invites anymore.
So it is very likely that they used those players that went for a 7/10-day trial back invite also to boost numbers.
It is possible but would be cheating, someone on trial is hardly subscribing to a game. Hopefully were they just doing it with the intent that some players would resub after the trial. Without proof it is just a conspiracy theory.
Also, prior to the sub count deadline I got spammed like mad by Blizzard offering 10-day invites "come back to the game".
(VALID invites, no phishing attempts)
Ignored most, after the deadline I had to activate they sent a new one, but since they stopped counting subs for their shareholders I haven't gotten any invites anymore.
So it is very likely that they used those players that went for a 7/10-day trial back invite also to boost numbers.
The definition of a subscriber hasn't changed; free trials are excluded; the 5.6M number is as good or bad as it is.
Good talk about all you want, its a free country. Its still redundant at this point to talk about this same shit every year and if you are going to talk it.. use actual facts, numbers and information.. which you prob dont have if you arent part of the staff that actually attends the meetings. People are making up numbers off of assumptions about what they heard. Again. Internet culture..so nature of the beast I guess.
Good talk about all you want, its a free country. Its still redundant at this point to talk about this same shit every year and if you are going to talk it.. use actual facts, numbers and information.. which you prob dont have if you arent part of the staff that actually attends the meetings. People are making up numbers off of assumptions about what they heard. Again. Internet culture..so nature of the beast I guess.
Blizzard Entertainment had the largest online player community in its history, with Q2 MAUsB up 50% year-over-year. ThoughWorld of Warcraft® ended the quarter at 5.6 million subscribersC, Blizzard revenues are up year-over-year based on strong performance across the expanding Blizzard portfolio. On June 23, 2015, Blizzard Entertainment released, Fury of Hellfire, one of the largest non-expansion content updates to date for World of Warcraft.Thisnew content helped stabilize the subscriber number towards the end of the quarter. World of Warcraft remains the No. 1 subscription?based MMORPG in the world.
Comments
Don't worry a cross server AH will come lol.
Tokens:
No specific mention of how they have accounted for tokens - subscriber definition stays the same etc. however there are some additional details in the SEC filing:
Let’s face it, the expansion has been terrible and fundamentally changes how the game is played, player housing was a great idea but the way in which garrisons were implemented is game breaking.
Personally I find garrisons were by far the most damaging feature of WoD. Having to log into those stupid ugly huts and their facebook game everyday is such a downer.
Question: Who made that chart? Did blizzard personally send you that or is that somebody's "estimate" of what they think is going on or is it factual?
We have to be factual when talking about numbers. Secondly like I said, why does it matter. It makes no sense to me at all to mention WOW's losses when they are still the king of western mmos. The loss didnt change anything and thats if its true. You guys are talking like you were in the boardroom meeting with blizz- activ. Yes we know people quit but we don't know the exact number and to top it off any other game would kill to have even a 5% of what wow had in the last 10 months. Again I just dont see how this is being reported every year like its new. This has been going on for 10 or more years.
Its a cycle like I said and tbh im sick of it. Find something else to discuss guys. Nobody cares that the old rich man lost a couple million dollars..even if its true he is a multibillionaire that created a product(s) that LOTS of people still use/need.
Celebrate his accomplishment not everytime he loses or gains money.. money is the smallest thing in the grand picture of his(wow) legacy.
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
That is like putting a band aid on a decapitation.
No, it is finally time to merge the servers or possibly go 100% mega server like GW2. there is no other choice unless they can scramble up 3 million or more new or returning players soon.
The thing is that when servers feel empty you loose even more players who consider the game dying and start playing something else. It isn't dying of course but if players start to think that way it is as bad.
Unless of course they go F2P, that tend to at least fill out the noob zones very well but I think Blizzard rather not do this.
This is big news, whether you like it or not. It will be talked about... a lot.
I had fun once, it was terrible.
Tag me what you want. I dont even play wow anymore..so im not trying to defend shit about their xpacs or none of that. I have no opinion their latest xpacs. It is what it is.
what Im saying is it dosent matter if -I- or anybody else wants to quit, WoW is still going to be here and they will always have a dedicated couple million of people playing at any moment. Its just the nature of the beast they created. They are going to lose lots and gain lots its a cycle. Its going to be this way until they shut it off. No need to report every year when they have losses. Its not like you havent seen it before with this game in particular.
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
I stopped playing because crafting got incredibly nerfed in WoD.
Also, all the classes got nerfed too. So many abilities lost, my favorite classes are a mere shell of what they used to be. Only class to survive the nerf bat is the Shaman and even then, they lost a lot of their personality.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
Also, prior to the sub count deadline I got spammed like mad by Blizzard offering 10-day invites "come back to the game".
(VALID invites, no phishing attempts)
Ignored most, after the deadline I had to activate they sent a new one, but since they stopped counting subs for their shareholders I haven't gotten any invites anymore.
So it is very likely that they used those players that went for a 7/10-day trial back invite also to boost numbers.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Yeah, and if any other game gained or lost 44% of the playerbase in 10 months it would be rather large news as well.
Since Wow is the largest more might care but there are plenty of threads about Wildstar losing subs as well to mention one game. And TORs up and downs really have loads of threads during the years since release.
They have lost more subs since the last expansion than most other MMORPGs can muster during open beta. They (just WoW) still make more money per quarter than other entire studios have made in their lifetimes.
Don't worry, WoW isn't going away any time soon.
"If MMORPG players were around when God said, "Let their be light" they'd have called the light gay, and plunged the universe back into darkness by squatting their nutsacks over it."
-Luke McKinney, The 7 Biggest Dick Moves in the History of Online Gaming
"In the end, SWG may have been more potential and promise than fulfilled expectation. But I'd rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
-Raph Koster
The points on the chart are simply the numbers given out by Activision Blizzard at their quarterly earnings calls. Entirely factual; no estimates needed.
Happy? And why is that? I just don´t remember an Xpac (WoD) having such a short cycle and announcing another expansion when it´s less than a year in. If the subs didn't´t drop so drastically in a short period of time, I doubt that Blizz would even bother to announce a new expansion at gamescon (think that´s the name of the event).
And, just for the record, I really love WoW, and I just hope that Blizzard invests its time and money properly with this franchise.
Good talk about all you want, its a free country. Its still redundant at this point to talk about this same shit every year and if you are going to talk it.. use actual facts, numbers and information.. which you prob dont have if you arent part of the staff that actually attends the meetings. People are making up numbers off of assumptions about what they heard. Again. Internet culture..so nature of the beast I guess.
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
It is possible but would be cheating, someone on trial is hardly subscribing to a game. Hopefully were they just doing it with the intent that some players would resub after the trial. Without proof it is just a conspiracy theory.
BTW: Love your avatar.
The definition of a subscriber hasn't changed; free trials are excluded; the 5.6M number is as good or bad as it is.
What fake numbers?
This is from the official pressrelease: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150804006820/en/Activision-Blizzard-Announces-Better-Than-Expected-Quarter-2015-Financial#.VcE1ddBgSPM