silvermember
Banned
Unless they let you keep your progress that would be pointless. The reason why a lot of people stick with wow is because leaving would cause them to loose their hard work.
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World of Warcraft at 5.5 million subscribers, will no longer share numbers
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
It's pretty incredible. Everyone I know predicted a lot worse... But WoW has this core playerbase that'll not abandon it regardless of what happens. I just wonder what that number actually is. Tens, hundreds of thousands? Maybe a million? We'll see what happens when shit really does get bad.
Slayer-33
Liverpool-2
This game was super special for me. Greatest experience bar none.
Magical and wondrous, good lord. I'd do it all over again if I could and regret the time spent at the same time.
It was amazing. closed stress test, open beta and retail. Until 2010 I believe
I don't think any other game will ever have the holding power this thing did over me. Nothing
Magical and wondrous, good lord. I'd do it all over again if I could and regret the time spent at the same time.
It was amazing. closed stress test, open beta and retail. Until 2010 I believe
I don't think any other game will ever have the holding power this thing did over me. Nothing
tiredheadcrab
Member
5.5 million after all this time is damn good. Yes the sun is setting on the game itself but WoW is a very accomplished MMO.
What is the struggle here? WoW is declining rapidly, everybody knows and acknowledges that.
Just that when we say the current 5.5m sub number is still a juggernaut, it does not mean we are in denial of its decline
Well they can still play the old WoW then, this would be to attract NEW people.
A friend of mine that still plays said that he has reached free to play status via the gold he makes on the auction house and the new token system they implemented. No offense to him, but he isn't the worlds best wow player, so it makes me wonder how many of the more experienced and skilled wow players that are still playing have also managed to remove the subscription fees just by using their in game resources.
For all the people claiming Draenor has killed Warcraft, have you actually looked at the numbers?
WoW peaked in subscriptions (12 million) with Wrath of the Lich King.
During Cataclysm, it dropped to 9.1 million (a 24% drop).
During Mists of Pandaria, it dropped to 6.8 million (a 25% drop).
During Warlords of Draenor, it has (so far), dropped to 5.5 million (a 19% drop).
They could lose another 400,000 subscribers and still be on the same path they've been on since Cataclysm.
I fully expect to see at least two more expansions after Legion.
WoW peaked in subscriptions (12 million) with Wrath of the Lich King.
During Cataclysm, it dropped to 9.1 million (a 24% drop).
During Mists of Pandaria, it dropped to 6.8 million (a 25% drop).
During Warlords of Draenor, it has (so far), dropped to 5.5 million (a 19% drop).
They could lose another 400,000 subscribers and still be on the same path they've been on since Cataclysm.
I fully expect to see at least two more expansions after Legion.
Gunmonkey36
Member
I can't imagine that's worth the time investment for them... To get the scale of a world, new engine, new story, new class design it would be years of work...All in a hope of getting fresh players into a genre that most people call stagnant?
Good luck ever getting the okay to do that. Pretty sure they've also stated they have no plans to do another MMO.
What is the struggle here? WoW is declining rapidly, everybody knows and acknowledges that.
Just that when we say the current 5.5m sub number is still a juggernaut, it does not mean we are in denial of its decline
WoW was declining rapidly up 'til this point, but losing under 5% of the remaining playerbase in 3 months during which no content was added isn't really what I'd call a quick descent. I expect it to steady out, maybe leak a few players here and there as quarters go by, shoot back up with Legion, and repeat indefinitely with slightly lower peaks and slightly bigger drops each time.
WoW can still have 1m subs in ten years time if they don't move to f2p... That's my guess, anyway.
A few of my friends did that, but now the tokens are a lot more expensive and some people can no longer afford to do so. They're 60-65k over here I think... Not sure, I've not bought one since just after they went live.
Teknopathetic
Member
"I fully expect to see at least two more expansions after Legion."
Very few MMOs actually die, especially successful ones. WoW will more than likely continue to get expansions until the end of time, just like EQ1/2. There will always be a couple hundred thousand people who will play the game.
Very few MMOs actually die, especially successful ones. WoW will more than likely continue to get expansions until the end of time, just like EQ1/2. There will always be a couple hundred thousand people who will play the game.
FFXIV problems go beyond PS3 limitations. Stuff like the poor battle system, limited depth and itemization have nothing to do with the console it runs on.
Robin64
Member
Interesting, but fair enough.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-will-no-longer-report-world-of-warcraft-s/1100-6431943/
I just looked it up - I had no idea EQ was still getting paid expansions!
Also, looking around for shut down MMOs, I was surprised to find Dark Age of Camelot is still up and running. Even Asheron's Call II, which I knew for sure was shut down, has since been re-launched.
Blizzard is actually making more money when this happens - someone still paid for those tokens, but they paid $20 instead of the normal $15 monthly fee.
Hari Seldon
Member
I think WoW could easily recover, I mean WoD brought a TON of people back, the problem is the garrison shit was top 10 worst ideas in the history of MMO design. There is a thirst for quality MMOing still, just no one is delivering anymore.
Amentallica
Unconfirmed Member
Someone needs to do an Arstechnica graph showing a downward trend over the next five decades. Please.
Kind of makes sense. The raw numbers mean little, especially with Asia moving on. For all we know this 5.5 number has been their benchmark in subscription regions for a while.
Interfectum
Member
Haha going the MS route I see.
PeskyToaster
Member
What a legendary game though. I don't think any MMO will ever come close to sniffing it at its peak and that was with a ~15 dollar a month subscription. Even now it still dominates the others more than 10 years after its release. Probably still one of my top ten most played games even if I haven't touched it in over 4 years.
Aquavelvaman
Banned
I bought a token last week for ~36k. I make way more than that every week just from doing garrison missions every other day on all of my characters. It takes about 2 hours a week to log in that many times to do the missions and sell the salvage. The game is incredibly easy to do free to play if you have a few 100s.
I haven't really played the game all expac, I've just been hording gold for no reason since the tokens were introduced. Have about 3 million gold now. No reason to ever pay for the game time.
I haven't really played the game all expac, I've just been hording gold for no reason since the tokens were introduced. Have about 3 million gold now. No reason to ever pay for the game time.
Hari Seldon
Member
How do you make that money just doing garrison missions? What is the secret sauce for that, is there a guide?
Aquavelvaman
Banned
Have 9 lvl 100s. All followers have the bonus gold trait. Just spam missions for gold and salvage crates. Vendor/DE/auction salvage in whatever way is the most profitable. There's no secret to it.
Unless for some reason Legion brings in 10 million players, then we will hear numbers loud and clear...
I've stopped playing as of late, but simply because there isn't anything left to do....they need to speed content creation and release up, these gaps really hurt.
Outdoor Miner
Member
I will be back when there are classic servers with gated content releases. Blizzard knows a shit ton of ppl will return then but I think they're saving it for when/if they ever enter panic mode re: subscriber base.
R
Rösti
Unconfirmed Member
Don't forget the Activision Blizzard Investor Day 2015 on Friday at BlizzCon (right before the opening ceremony). I expect them to talk much more about the future of World of Warcraft then.
As for these news, I'm glad the drop wasn't greater. I was actually expecting a number below five million.
As for these news, I'm glad the drop wasn't greater. I was actually expecting a number below five million.
It really does have effect.
People only have limited time resource to play the game. I know multiple ppl who quit every other game and just play lol these days.
The Lamonster
Member
I wouldn't have unsubbed if they didn't make it so hard to unlock flying in Draenor.
Flying was my favorite thing to do in WoW.
Flying was my favorite thing to do in WoW.
Hari Seldon
Member
Well fuck that I"m not leveling up 9 people to 100 just to play the game for free, I'll just play something else lol.
HarryDemeanor
Member
Did the last report factor in WoW Tokens? If not it looks like it was a huge success for them in stopping the bleeding.
I hope they have some good stuff to show at BlizzCon for Legion.
I hope they have some good stuff to show at BlizzCon for Legion.
Vincent Grayson
Member
In BC, WotLK, and MoP, you buy flying at cap, though both BC and WotLK allowed you to train your non-capped people in flying eventually, making successive runs through the old content less tedious. Cata, of course, offered flying from the start, and was designed around it, IMO, for the better.
WoD, on the other hand, had zero flying until recently, and requires you to finish out a particular achievement which involves getting several factions up to a specific reputation level, along with (IIRC), all the loremaster stuff for each zone, and a few other things. Basically, you have to have already done most things worth doing in the world before they let you fly now.
If WoD had flying the same as previous expansions, I'd likely still be playing it.
Gentleman Jack
Member
You can do it on a single character, but you end up spending the equivalent of a day's work farming the required gold outside of your garrison.
Most people I know who play for 'free' are generally winding down their existing stockpiles of gold (i.e. they capped gold on 10 alts during Wrath) because generally speaking there aren't any gold sinks left for them.
I fully Expect Legion to have the same quarter-long spike in subs that WoD had. Everyone's back to see what new, casual-friendly content blizzard is selling at $60, then they'll let the sub lapse and go back to their phones or other console/pc games. An MMO this old isn't creating and keeping a lot of new players anymore.
Netherscourge
Banned
They lost 5 million subs less than a year after WoD.
Crikey.
Time to start working on WoW2 Blizzard... Can't keep recycling this game.
Crikey.
Time to start working on WoW2 Blizzard... Can't keep recycling this game.
Hari Seldon
Member
A WoW2 would get 10 million sales in the first month easily. The problem is that I don't think Blizzard has the bandwidth to support developing WoW2 with all the other projects they have going on.
Sure, it's clear that everyone hates those aspects of XIV and it's really struggling as a result.
AmaterasuOni
Banned
#WoWisdead
Seriously though, I wonder how many subs is their proft margin until they need to start thinking alternatives? Their server infrastructure and personnel costs must be huge.
2 mil subs? 3 mil? When does the bleeding start?
Seriously though, I wonder how many subs is their proft margin until they need to start thinking alternatives? Their server infrastructure and personnel costs must be huge.
2 mil subs? 3 mil? When does the bleeding start?
Smushroomed
Banned
And they will get millions to buy back in for expansions and quit again every year (like me)
All according to keikakku
All according to keikakku
TimeEffect
Member
They're not gonna make a WoW 2?
Princess Carl
Member
This is a huge reason of why I personally stopped playing the game. And it's not even about the gold part, it's how much of a mobile game the garrisons turned into. It's stupid mindless busywork with slightly more involved systems to click and reset timers on arbitrary resource gains. Also you don't interact with anyone, none of the npcs are more than placeholders, there's no variety in the garrisons either. All that dev time to make something so shitty for an mmo community.
And then there's the rng weekly drop system for pvp that gave everyone around me exactly what they needed 1st or second drop and left me with little usable season gear after months. Yeah, fuck that.
ChaosZeroX
Banned
People always say its dead, but as long as blizz keeps supporting WoW. it'll never die.
shanafan
Member
So you really couldn't fly in WoD until you accomplish quite a bit of tasks?
Hmmm no it's been pretty much confirmed that it was Overwatch assets in some sort of MMO form.
Most of the assets have been re-used to make that game from something that was intended as an MMO.
HellofaMouse
Member
its amazing after 10 years its still one of the biggest mmos, if not THE biggest one.
mmos as a whole genre are almost dead yet wow still lives on
mmos as a whole genre are almost dead yet wow still lives on
Netherscourge
Banned
I think if they ever drop to 3 million or less, WoW becomes a F2P with micros game.
Because WoW subs aren't just holding up WoW, they are also funding every other game on Battle.net that doesn't have a more robust micro system.
The Diablos, Warcrafts, Starcrafts, etc... Those 1-time buy games with no subs or micros that they need to keep online.
Hearthstone, Heroes and I presume Overwatch will be mainstays as F2P with micros, so they can carry their own loads.
Legion will bring back the subs for a month or two most likely. WoW expansions don't have the content or staying power they used to have though. And if they keep taking stuff away like Reforging or Flight, then they are just idiots at this point.