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It's over 500,000! Warhammer Online's first week count of subscribers.

T

Teknopathetic

Member
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/...d=news_view&newsId=20080926005101&newsLang=en

FAIRFAX, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Armies have assembled and the Worldwide WAAAGH! is Underway! Mythic Entertainment, an Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) studio, today announced that in the first week since launch over 500,000 new players have registered for fantasy MMORPG, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™ (WAR), in North America, Europe and the Oceanic territories. EA’s most highly pre-ordered PC title, WAR has now become the fastest-selling new MMO of all time.

“In just one week we have a half a million people playing WAR online, and the ranks of Order and Destruction are growing at a record-breaking pace for a new MMORPG,” said Mark Jacobs, co-founder and general manager of Mythic Entertainment. “We spent years working to provide players with the most stable, epic, and polished online world we could, but it is the players that have truly brought the Age of Reckoning to life.”

Based on the popular tabletop war game from Games Workshop, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning features revolutionary Realm vs. Realm™ conflict that will provide an engaging battleground for years to come. Available for PC and rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB, WAR is now in stores everywhere at an MSRP of $49.99. For more information, visit http://www.warhammeronline.com/.


Yes, I used an old as fuck meme.
 
D

Die Squirrel Die

Member
bounchfx said:
Didn't Age of Conan have over 1,000,000? how long did it take for them to get that?
Click to expand...

I thought with AoC it was huge sales at retail that haven't translated into subscriptions, thats what's causing the problems with it.

For MMOs, it's subs that are the real gravy train.
 
V

Ventrue

Member
Die Squirrel Die said:
I thought with AoC it was huge sales at retail that haven't translated into subscriptions, thats what's causing the problems with it.

For MMOs, it's subs that are the real gravy train.
Click to expand...

Uh, yeah, but nobody has paid a monthly subscription to WAR yet. This is the same sort of announcement that AoC had 800,000 for.

But yes, it may break down differently to AoC.
 
M

matmanx1

Member
Well deserved IMO. And I believe those numbers will continue to climb and that their retention rate will be higher than AoC's. Time will tell, right?
 
X

Xiaoki

Member
500,000 is pretty good for the first week. However, it is ultimately meaningless.
The first test of an MMO is not how many it sells in the first week but how many people stay past the first free month.
Also, while high it is not great considering that they shipped 1.5 million copies.

AoC never had anywhere close to 1 million. AoC had 400,000 accounts in it's first week.
 
L

Loxley

Member
FunCom said they shipped 1 million units of AoC. Last I heard they had about 700,000 players about a month after launch. I haven't heard anything regarding the number of subscribers the game has now in a while, which I suppose isn't a good thing : /

But yeah 500,000 is great, (and at this point, dare I say it's only slightly above average for a new MMO, given just how many freaking people are into the genre now). But yeah, now Mythic has the task of keeping those subscribers and getting more, which will indeed be quite a challenge considering the other two high-profile MMOs on the Market right now, WoW and LOTRO, both have expansions coming out in November.

I have no doubt that they'll be able to break 1 million, they're experienced developers and WAR is relatively well polished, hope the game's success continues :)
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Farnack said:
Wait wait wait wait...

Isn't the first month free? :lol
Click to expand...
It's like that for most MMOs isn't it?
 
G

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
Ventrue said:
Uh, yeah, but nobody has paid a monthly subscription to WAR yet. This is the same sort of announcement that AoC had 800,000 for.

But yes, it may break down differently to AoC.
Click to expand...

The difference is that the popular opinion seems to be that WAR is a pretty decent MMO, and seems to be pretty polished with lots of content, considering it just launched. Whereas AoC seemed to be pretty fucked at launch.

There is a muuuuuuch greater chance that WAR will retain subscribers better than AoC did.
 
K

krypt0nian

Banned
Game is amazing RvR. But I had to bail out in order not to get sucked up in another MMO right now.

I'm going to keep my account, for later days though.
 
C

Chris R

Member
Defcon said:
It will be down to 200k subscribers in 2 months.
Click to expand...
Doubt it will be that low, but there will be a dip I think. If they can show the people playing just how awesome and kick ass the end game RvR is, and bring out a sizeable patch/update within the first 4 or 5 months, I'm thinking the game will have no problem being around for a few years.
 
D

DrDogg

Member
How does this game compare to FFXI?

Keep in mind I "like" FFXI and all the level grinding and nearly forced party elements. I can't stand WoW.
 
T

TheDarkKnight774

Member
I'm a long time Warhamer fan so i'm really rooting for the game to go well.

In fact the reason why i bought the first Warcraft game was because from the box art it looked like the closest thing i could get to a warhammer video game at the time. I'm not moving from wow but i hope the franchise that blizzard owes a lot of look and themes hangs around and isn't one of the "big splash" and then things die down.

It seems like they have some fresh ideas that are pretty interesting.
 
X

Xiaoki

Member
verio said:
Doubt it, WAR is actually an enjoyable MMO. You know... compared to others...
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's enjoyable ....if you ignore all the problems.

It will probably settle around 250,000 subscribers in the long run.
A pretty average MMO that focuses on PvP is not going to have mass appeal.
 
S

Sinatar

Official GAF Bottom Feeder
wmat said:
I'm still on the edge. I need more footage. Give me footage!
Click to expand...

MMO's don't really lend themselves to videos. Generally a bunch of dudes standing around shooting particle effects and big monsters doing a repetitive attack animation loop.

Basically if you like MMO's and your favorite part of WoW was the BG's and Arenas then this game is for you. If you're looking for something more akin to WoW's instance running and raiding experience then this isn't the game for you.
 
wolfmat

wolfmat

Confirmed Asshole
Sinatar said:
MMO's don't really lend themselves to videos. Generally a bunch of dudes standing around shooting particle effects and big monsters doing a repetitive attack animation loop.

Basically if you like MMO's and your favorite part of WoW was the BG's and Arenas then this game is for you. If you're looking for something more akin to WoW's instance running and raiding experience then this isn't the game for you.
Click to expand...
Well, fuck this game then!

Seriously though, I watched the 1 hour long demo from 3 months ago and I liked what I saw. Do we have any more insightful demos?
 
C

Cipherr

Member
Xiaoki said:
Yeah, it's enjoyable ....if you ignore all the problems.
Click to expand...


Diehard WoW player here.....Please do me a favor and name the MMO, hello ANY MMO that DOESN'T have problems? :lol
 
T

thetrin

Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
DrDogg said:
How does this game compare to FFXI?

Keep in mind I "like" FFXI and all the level grinding and nearly forced party elements. I can't stand WoW.
Click to expand...

You like sitting around for hours looking for a party? You must have a very boring life.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
Hopefully Mythic keeps the momentum on the game. My GOTY so far.
 
blitz64

blitz64

Member
Although I don't have time for a new mmo yet, I do hope this game does well. I liked to see more MMOs do well like WoW.
 
X

Xiaoki

Member
Puncture said:
Diehard WoW player here.....Please do me a favor and name the MMO, hello ANY MMO that DOESN'T have problems? :lol
Click to expand...
Yeah, except with Warhammer the entire PvE portion can be summed up thusly: looked good on paper, poor execution.
Especially the Public Quests. Mythic REALLY needs to redesign the Public Quests, they are almost pointless right now.

Another important test for MMOs is how they handle launch problems. WoW passed this test and went on to success whereas AoC failed this test spectaculary.
 
S

Sax Russel

Banned
gamecu_s.jpg


WARNING. INCOMING GAME.

world_of_warcraft_wrath_of_the_lich_king_logo_white_qjgenth.jpg


Seriously though, hope WAR does well :D
 
T

theinfinityissue

Member
Well, these numbers are actually double what I was expecting. My pick was 250k, so congratulations to Mythic. In a world without World of Warcraft, this would be an incredibly solid early adoption rate; in a world with WoW it's actually kind of amazing. The real question is this: Will the subscription base be growing, staying still or shrinking when WotLK hits? If they can hold steady or grow a little bit, there's a great chance that we could see the one WoW contender emerge after about 4-5 months when people start to get tired of WotLK. If WotLK sucks WAR's user base out like a mofo tho, it'll probably be hard for WAR to get it's momentum back, and might exist as a virtual backwater like LOTRO. While it would suck if that happened, it wouldn't be too bad. LOTRO's still around, after all, and its user base seems largely satisfied with the game. The difference being of course that LOTRO is more or less strictly PvE and can be enjoyed with a small number of players and WAR requires huge armies to get into its very best territory.

tl;dr GO WAR whooo.
 
R

RiverBed

Banned
awesome! I am loving my very first MMO. :) and the best part? I get to fight huge bosses and do raids (PvP and RvR) without leveling up a single level! I also LOVE the Public quests. finally, you don't need to kill a bajillion enemy to finish a quest. I had to do something liek that and I only killed two, cont'em, 2 enemies. the quest was completed-thanks to everyone else sharing the kills! :D :D
 
W

Won

Member
Quite impressive considering that I haven't subscribed to anything yet here in Europe.

And now roll out some patches Mythic! Thanks!
 
C

Cipherr

Member
Even though I cant trust Mythic after what they did with this same formula and DAoC all those years I spent playing, I do wish them luck. Competition will only do good things for the genre.
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
500,000? Impressive, Most Impressive.

It will be interesting to see how much it grows though, and how much of a impact WOTLK will have on it.

Oh and btw is there a free trial yet?
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
plastik said:
Damn, that's already more than the people currently playing FFXI.
Click to expand...
There is a reason for that...

edit: heh, just look at the post above.
 
T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
thetrin said:
You like sitting around for hours looking for a party? You must have a very boring life.
Click to expand...
Why would anyone sit around looking for a party? Either do something while you have flag up, like exp in Campaign, or read a book/watch a movie/play another game while you wait.
Or just form parties with linkshell members. I've gotten a lot of exp that way and it's even easier lately.
 
H

Haly

One day I realized that sadness is just another word for not enough coffee.
Sax Russel said:
gamecu_s.jpg


WARNING. INCOMING GAME.

world_of_warcraft_wrath_of_the_lich_king_logo_white_qjgenth.jpg


Seriously though, hope WAR does well :D
Click to expand...
I really hope WAR can survive Wrath's launch.
 
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