I enjoyed WoW greatly when I subscribed to it years ago, but I stopped subscribing after the WotLK expansion. I've also greatly appreciated the few times Blizzard offered free time to play again though I never resubscribed. When the play free up to level 20 was introduced I simply created another account & whenever I had a WoW itch I'd play it that way to soothe the temptation. Resubscribing today just doesn't have the appeal knowing the economy would be severely inflated & there'd be too much catch-up to do compared to a lack of incentive with the investment versus reward scale. If they offered a tiered system similar to: subscription, buy, &/or totally free then I'd be more tempted to offer financial support because then if there was something to purchase & I knew it was something I wanted I would. Nonetheless, even though WoW is definitely dated nowadays, it's still a good game & can be fun.
More click bait,eh guys?... ^^ I really can't see Blizzard jumping on the F2P bandwagon. But I did expect them to stop reporting their subscriber numbers. What surprises me is that its not under 5 million yet.
Legion is going to be interesting... If we see yet another spike, followed by the type of steady decline that marked WoD, the writing will be on the wall. But WoW is likely to be around for years and years to come, if only as a shadow of its former self.
I'm wondering if they will even bother with a WoW 2.
the fact that people hope for Warcraft 4 or WoW 2 baffles me. have you guys not seen their current games? they are all good, but they are no match against Warcraft 3 or WoW classic (+ Burning Crusade + Wrath of the LK) doesn't matter if the whole planet play their games, popularity doesn't always come from quality.
PS: i am not baffled when Journalists ask for it though i am talking in general. Journalists obviously will benefit a lot from huge names being mentioned by them
my top MMOs: UO,DAOC,WoW,GW2
most of my posts are just my opinions they are not facts,it is the same for you too.
Going f2p "I would not like it" and then start working on a new MMO would be a cool way to go. I like that idea.. Making a more sandboxy WoW version would be really awesome...and definitely would sell.. I hope..
I don't understand their reasoning to not release their sub numbers anymore. I could understand if it dropped to 1-2 million, because that's when the competition really starts. It just seems odd to stop at ~5.4 million.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
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.
Eh, wishful thinking in which Blizzard are just too greedy to comply with.
Most games that transfer from subscription to F2P make an increase in profit. With the continuing decline if subscribers, Blizzard must realize that F2P will be an option someday. Just look at the overwhelming figures Blizzard is making from both their F2P (and P2W) games...
I think some people need to face the reality that WoW's continuing success is no where near as important to Blizzard as those people like to think. The game has had an amazing run for an MMO. Its brought the company a metric fuck ton of money. However its apparent to those not still wearing the blinders of Wowslaying that the company has moved on and has realized that branching out into other venues will bring in better profits in the long term.
Case in point, Blizzard just dropped a cool 5.9 billion .... let that number sink in for a minute... to become king of the mobile market. They know which way the wind is blowing. As the gaming market evolves and expands games such as MMO Themeparks, with all the baggage that comes with them, are becoming more and more irrelevant. None of them managed to make Wow money, and now Wow isn't even making Wow money. So the logical conclusion is Wow's days as a major factor in Blizzards business strategy are over.
The King is Dead, Long Live the King.
I could have just pressed the agree button but I agree so much that I just quote you right here and now and say: Agree.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
'the only way he could nail it any better is if he used a cross.'
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
wow now has 5.4 million players. And since the release of the next expansion is sep of next year. Yay 1.5 years of same content.... Hurra for blizzard amazing way to do business. Well the subs will go down to 2 million or something. It still has more then enough people to still have a sub model. Wow wont go free to play anytime soon.
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.
I love the fact they won't be telling us how many subscription numbers they have anymore, because now people will actually look at how much they made each quarter. The number of players only means so much when it comes to the health of a game, especially when wow has been counting the Asian market in the subscription numbers! Revenue means so much more from the perspective of the company and what they feel they will need to do to raise it!
They still make more many then any of the free to play games... An expansion every 2 years and still $80M on subs every month...
The sub system is still working for them.. All they need is a killer expansion that pulls every oldie back and keeps them playing..
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
They still make more many then any of the free to play games... An expansion every 2 years and still $80M on subs every month...
The sub system is still working for them.. All they need is a killer expansion that pulls every oldie back and keeps them playing..
Around $73M/month average in Q2; down over 30% to just over $50M/month in Q3; that is from all sources, subs, cash shop, box sales, royalties etc. (Source: Activision Blizzard financial reports for Q2 and Q3).
If - as seems likely - the fall has continued then this is what might - might not will - make them consider a change in business model. And if they change - to b2p say - they will do so if they believe they can make more money.
Really? They are not interested that 5 mil people left the game? Or am I reading this wrong? This a bit of topic, but what am I missing here?
I don't think they'll go F2P with 5 mil people.
Talking about games where thousands of players exist simultaneously in a single instance and mechanics related to such games.
WoW will never go F2P. It would be a stupid move for a game with 5 Mil subs. Even if they lost 4 million more, it would still be more profitable than F2P.
Just because I'm a gamer doesn't mean I drive a Honda.
I think if the film is a smash hit (not saying it will be) but if it went on to make say a billion dollars at the box office world wide. I would be very surprised if they did not create a new game to go along with what would be an obvious new film franchise.
Say it does become a smash it, how will they know that it a smash hit because of current subscribers? I just see the film as being a marketing ploy for Legions, nothing more. I only forsee a new MMO from AV by coming out with something thats "different" in regards to gameplay and game mechanics.
WoW will never go F2P. It would be a stupid move for a game with 5 Mil subs. Even if they lost 4 million more, it would still be more profitable than F2P.
Yeah they be crazy to go free to play they may end up losing more then gaining in how many people in wow hate free to play or some just can't deal free to play lockbox do to real life problem of spending to much and can't stop.
But it seem there leaning to something after the token for gold to pay off people sub as it was not that far back they added cash shop they didn't even need to but they wanted more money or so.
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.
A crap ton of MMOs easily breech that 1 mil mark. WoW grossly inflates or the community can't see behind company sugar coating statements. They have access to regions that that others don't, they don't distinguish between Asian and US accounts where the revenue is drastically different. Many months ago data on Western subs was lower than 5 mill or were hovering at around 5 mill and that was before a couple of sub plummetages. The saving grace to WoWs numbers is the Asian market who don't pay subs so who know how much revenue they really make. It's still a highly successful MMO, but I think its success isn't as leaps and bounds higher than everyone else, they just have a huge portfolio that no other company has I'd wager.
Download the client and login today for free. With restricitons By removing the "lvl 20 characters only" free mode and buffing the cash shop they are f2p.
Of course they will double dip with a "freemium" optional sub + cash shop.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
Comments
PS: i am not baffled when Journalists ask for it though i am talking in general. Journalists obviously will benefit a lot from huge names being mentioned by them
my top MMOs: UO,DAOC,WoW,GW2
most of my posts are just my opinions they are not facts,it is the same for you too.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Please visit my youtube channel for some H1Z1/DayZ casual roleplay videos!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrQoK5VZlwBBzpsksmXtjMQ
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Around $73M/month average in Q2; down over 30% to just over $50M/month in Q3; that is from all sources, subs, cash shop, box sales, royalties etc. (Source: Activision Blizzard financial reports for Q2 and Q3).
If - as seems likely - the fall has continued then this is what might - might not will - make them consider a change in business model. And if they change - to b2p say - they will do so if they believe they can make more money.
Lets see your Battle Stations /r/battlestations
Battle Station
But it seem there leaning to something after the token for gold to pay off people sub as it was not that far back they added cash shop they didn't even need to but they wanted more money or so.
Download the client and login today for free. With restricitons
By removing the "lvl 20 characters only" free mode and buffing the cash shop they are f2p.
Of course they will double dip with a "freemium" optional sub + cash shop.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development