Argh.. here we go again.. We've had this before and the answer is still NO
You're probably right, but it's SO fun to speculate/editorialize.
Why would they go free to play when they can still sell million copies of an expansion? Yes they may think of going buy2play with optional subscription system but free to play is not something i see them going. Maybe they will up the game for unlimited free trial by making it up to 60, upping the amount of gold trial players can hold and removing restriction of joining guild and chatting and such, it would still look like free to play but at core it would still be subscription game.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
I wish it would go f2p, but I suspect they just don't want to be embarrassed by their poor numbers anymore.
Which is too bad. I was really hoping to see the numerical effect which the return of flying and the announcement of Legion would have. Yes, flying had already returned, but it took me a while to come back to the game after it came back anyway.
People insult WoW's sub # but its still higher then any mmo combined, most mmos with sub hope to gain even 1 mil subs let alone 5-6 mil.
@azarhal I agree 100%. As a current WoW subscriber, I can tell you that my once-high population server is a ghost town. I almost fell out of my chair at only 100k being lost when I would have put money on 1M+. I also further agree that the nebulous wording of the "metrics for success" is troublesome. If you look at the investor graphic created, Destiny's, Hearthstone's and Diablo's numbers are all touted, but not WoW opting instead to call it (and rightly so) "the world's most popular MMO" (or something like that. It's almost as if they don't want numbers coming out and showing that, while still arguably successful, it is a dying game that will continue to show negative growth between expansions in a continuously descending arc. I would "guesstimate" that WoW subs will go back to 7M with Legion and, as has always happened, sink below the pre-Legion sub numbers within 6 months and continuing downward until the next expansion and so on.
Agree with the number going down but as they have said "there are better metrics"; there is a cash shop in game and one outside game, they can just add all of the sales of cash shop, subscription sales, expansion/starter edition sale and then release a quarterly income statement to show upward revenue generation. In my opinion instead of subscription numbers a solid $$ value is a better way of showing the game is still making money and thus shareholders and players should have no worry about the game "dying".
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
If WOW 2 would ever happen, it would take Blizzard about 10 years to get the damn game done. Look at how long it took them to release the little content WoW has seen in recent years.
Means: if we would be seeing WoW2 in 5 years, it had to be in development for 5 years already. Before that, we'd more likely have a Guild Wars 3, Borderlands MMO, Skyrim Online or SWG2...and i would prefer any of them over another WoW from Blizzard.
The genre doesn't need another WoW, WoW2 or 2.5 -we've had enough of them in recent years and it almost killed the genre we love.
this game will probably never be free to play in my eyes. even 1mil subs are enough to make profit according to activision-blizzard numbers. besides F2P will attract even more bots/hacker. i say NO
If you're Blizzard, you have to look at it from a money stand point, and that alone. WoW will never go F2P (and it shouldn't) if F2P won't make more money than P2P. Right now at 5.5m it is still a cash cow and STILL one of the (if not the most) played MMOs on the market. I seem to always have to say that when these reports come out. Any developer would do anything for 5.5m players. I have no doubt that the game will either go F2P eventually, or be replaced by another Blizzard game, but until WoW drops enough subs to get to that point, there's not really any use talking about it.
F2P is definitely on their horizon. They've already reaped rewards from it in HS and HOTS. Although I expect expansions to be purchased so maybe it's B2P.
Actually, reading the wording just indicates that they don't want to keep reporting low sub numbers and instead will focus on revenue.
World of Warcraft 2 would be awesome. But even if they started developing it last year we wouldn't see it til 2025 with how fast Blizzard is at development.
WoW 2 would have been great but i doubt this will come to be. Anyways we could see that F2P coming from miles away with the way they where nerfing everything and making the content trivial at best.
Every xpac you can skip the content faster and faster. They don't care anymore about the content on your way up to glory.
If the film is a massive hit I can see a WOW 2 perhaps being made but if not then no chance they will spend the money to make another mmo like WOW
I don't agree. I personally feel the WoW film is more like trying to milk the last gasp out of the franchise. Similar to what a closing long running television series does sometimes.
I agree. We have little to no chance at seeing WoW 2 anytime in the near future, if ever. I'd wager we'd see a WC4 before a WoW 2 if the film reinvigorated the franchise somehow.
Blizzard seems far more content working on smaller games that have a much higher pay out ratio. Hearthstone's success really opened eyes over at Blizzard HQ. They can churn out much smaller and more focused games and earn a tremendous profit. Heroes of the Storm isn't as massive success, mostly due to LoL and DotA 2. I would wager that Overwatch is going to be absolutely huge for Blizzard as well.
At this point, it doesn't really matter what they do with WoW. It's nearly 11 now, it still has respectable numbers, and it's dying a pretty slow death. All they really need to do is release an expansion every 18 months or so to keep those interested still interested.
People insult WoW's sub # but its still higher then any mmo combined, most mmos with sub hope to gain even 1 mil subs let alone 5-6 mil.
As @SBFord said Activision Blizzard didn't say largest subscription mmo let alone more than all others combined.
$155M - amount WoW earned - divided by 3 (months) divided by $15 is 3.4M. A very, very crude calculation: factor in royalties (from China, Thailand etc.), new box sales, cash shop sales, the fact that tokens cost $20 not $15 and the number is - probably fewer than 3M, could be less than 2M. There is stuff like exchange rates and sub discounts to allow for but:
To be absolutely sure Activision Blizzard would need to know L1's numbers etc.
Yes WoW is still huge but why are you making a claim that even AB are not making.
@azarhal I agree 100%. As a current WoW subscriber, I can tell you that my once-high population server is a ghost town. I almost fell out of my chair at only 100k being lost when I would have put money on 1M+. I also further agree that the nebulous wording of the "metrics for success" is troublesome. If you look at the investor graphic created, Destiny's, Hearthstone's and Diablo's numbers are all touted, but not WoW opting instead to call it (and rightly so) "the world's most popular MMO" (or something like that. It's almost as if they don't want numbers coming out and showing that, while still arguably successful, it is a dying game that will continue to show negative growth between expansions in a continuously descending arc. I would "guesstimate" that WoW subs will go back to 7M with Legion and, as has always happened, sink below the pre-Legion sub numbers within 6 months and continuing downward until the next expansion and so on.
Agree with the number going down but as they have said "there are better metrics"; there is a cash shop in game and one outside game, they can just add all of the sales of cash shop, subscription sales, expansion/starter edition sale and then release a quarterly income statement to show upward revenue generation. In my opinion instead of subscription numbers a solid $$ value is a better way of showing the game is still making money and thus shareholders and players should have no worry about the game "dying".
Errrrr ....they have been reporting income in the SEC filings - from all sources for WoW - for some time: cash shop, royalties, subs, box sales etc. This quarter was $155M (down over 30% on last quarter) continuing the downward revenue generation trend.
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Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
Look at how long it took them to release the little content WoW has seen in recent years.
Means: if we would be seeing WoW2 in 5 years, it had to be in development for 5 years already.
Before that, we'd more likely have a Guild Wars 3, Borderlands MMO, Skyrim Online or SWG2...and i would prefer any of them over another WoW from Blizzard.
The genre doesn't need another WoW, WoW2 or 2.5 -we've had enough of them in recent years and it almost killed the genre we love.
Actually, reading the wording just indicates that they don't want to keep reporting low sub numbers and instead will focus on revenue.
Ed: leaky rowboat
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Feel free to speculate about how FFXIV will go f2p due to low player numbers, they have well under 1 million subs. Don't see you doing that do we?
Square advertises here a lot, so that would not be "fun"
Blizzard seems far more content working on smaller games that have a much higher pay out ratio. Hearthstone's success really opened eyes over at Blizzard HQ. They can churn out much smaller and more focused games and earn a tremendous profit. Heroes of the Storm isn't as massive success, mostly due to LoL and DotA 2. I would wager that Overwatch is going to be absolutely huge for Blizzard as well.
At this point, it doesn't really matter what they do with WoW. It's nearly 11 now, it still has respectable numbers, and it's dying a pretty slow death. All they really need to do is release an expansion every 18 months or so to keep those interested still interested.
Isn't this thread trolling by your own standards mods?
Wow at the weakest point is still 5-10 times as profitable as it's nearest competitor. Given that, why would they make wow 2?
$155M - amount WoW earned - divided by 3 (months) divided by $15 is 3.4M. A very, very crude calculation: factor in royalties (from China, Thailand etc.), new box sales, cash shop sales, the fact that tokens cost $20 not $15 and the number is - probably fewer than 3M, could be less than 2M. There is stuff like exchange rates and sub discounts to allow for but:
To be absolutely sure Activision Blizzard would need to know L1's numbers etc.
Yes WoW is still huge but why are you making a claim that even AB are not making.