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Blizzard: World of Warcraft up to 7.4 million subscribers this quarter

T

Tamanon

Banned
http://blizzard.gamespress.com/THE-...HORDE-HAS-BEGUN-WARLORDS-OF-DRAENOR-PRELAUNCH

IRVINE, Calif.—October 14, 2014— A wave of destruction washes over the land as an army of orcs pours through the Dark Portal. With today’s launch of World of Warcraft® Patch 6.0.2: The Iron Tide, the Iron Horde’s invasion of Azeroth has begun! More than 7.4 million of Azeroth’s champions have taken up their positions on the front line, ready to face the full might of the Iron Horde with the upcoming release of the Warlords of Draenor™ expansion on November 13.*
Click to expand...

Uptick of 600k from the last quarter. Numbers released ahead of the earnings call.
 
T

Teremap

Banned
Still nowhere near that 11m peak they used to have.

We'll see how things go once Warlords of Draenor releases.

I don't know why I'm commenting on this game, I only played it for like 1 hour
 
K

KojiKnight

Member
Teremap said:
Still nowhere near that 11m peak they used to have.

We'll see how things go once Warlords of Draenor releases.

I don't know why I'm commenting on this game, I only played it for like 1 hour
Click to expand...

There is not a developer alive who wouldn't want their game to still having 7 million active paying players after 10 years though.

Just because WoW is past it's prime doesn't mean it's not still a huge money maker. It's still the highest grossing MMO as well.
 
I

Iastfan112

Neo Member
KojiKnight said:
There is not a developer alive who wouldn't want their game to still having 7 million active paying players after 10 years though.

Just because WoW is past it's prime doesn't mean it's not still a huge money maker. It's still the highest grossing MMO as well.
Click to expand...

Hell, 7 million copies sold is a good number for everyone but Capcom.
 
R

Realyn

Member
Teremap said:
Still nowhere near that 11m peak they used to have.

We'll see how things go once Warlords of Draenor releases.

I don't know why I'm commenting on this game, I only played it for like 1 hour
Click to expand...
Hey, only 1(!!) post to bring up their peak numbers. What a frikking suprise ...

Those current numbers are absolutely ridiculous.
 
U

Unstable

Member
Expected as WoD is coming out. What will be really telling is the sub numbers in 6 months, that will tell us if WoD has better player retention then the previous two expansions.
 
X

Xyphie

Member
Would've thought they'd be down this quarter considering 12+ months of Siege. I guess free 90s with Warlords preorders brought a lot of people back.
 
V

Valnen

Member
Teremap said:
Still nowhere near that 11m peak they used to have.

We'll see how things go once Warlords of Draenor releases.

I don't know why I'm commenting on this game, I only played it for like 1 hour
Click to expand...

Still more than most other MMO's. Blizzard could lose millions more subscribers and still be better off more than most games out there.

I'd be playing right now if I could afford game time =(.
 
S

Saintguine

Member
It's amazing the staying power WoW has. I wonder if any MMO afterwards would cause as big as a bang as WoW did when it was released.
 
T

Tubie

Member
Orayn said:
Not all players pay exactly 15 USD monthly. There's currency conversion for other regions, and IIRC players in China can pay for subscription time in smaller increments.
Click to expand...

Yea, you're right.

It's probably closer to 50-70% of that, it's still a lot of money tho.
 
C

CrashPrime

Member
Arzehn said:
Now that Titan is cancelled everyone is reluctantly re-subbing.
Click to expand...

To be honest... this.

I am installing the client to check out the new models on my trial account. Very high probability I will be resubbing for the next xpac. The patch notes sounds like major positive changes have been flushed through.
 
C

Currygan

at last, for christ's sake
exclusive footage of Blizzard's board of directors

y5GKqwU.gif
 
S

Skelter

Banned
Not bad. WoD beta is really fun. Here's hoping Blizzard doesn't make us suffer another content drought for as long as SoO.
 
D

Danomeon

Neo Member
If I had to guess, there are a few reasons for this...

1. New expansion coming out soon always lifts numbers, and this expansion seems to have a pretty hefty first raid tier and some nice improvements that affect everyone. (the new race model patch went live today)

2. The hyped MMO alternatives to World of Warcraft have fallen particularly flat this time around. Wildstar's playerbase imploded shortly after launch and developers are desperately working to get their third patch out after the face of their game (Stephan Frost) resigned amidst a slew of bad news (they cancelled Holiday events this year and dropped their promised patch cadence in favor of quarterly updates). Archeage came and went. Firefall barely blipped. Guild Wars 2 is hitting a big lull as the living story has began taking constant breaks. MMO players are probably starved for a big chunk of meaty content again.

3. Project titan is cancelled and Blizzard has announced a longtime commitment to future WoW expansions, so this game is going to continue to be the defacto MMO for a long time to come, like it or not.

4. This new expansion has a dungeon that takes place on a moving train. WHAAAT?!
 
Alex

Alex

Member
Saintguine said:
It's amazing the staying power WoW has. I wonder if any MMO afterwards would cause as big as a bang as WoW did when it was released.
Click to expand...

Not without changing the style. Issue is there are extremely few MMOs that don't heavily ape WoW in structure and after a brief honeymoon of pretty new assets and feelings you start to realize just how good things were in WoW and come running back.

You'll have a few other stragglers that can get a cult status and make bank through quirks or brand power (SWTOR, Tera, FFXIV, GW2, etc) but that WoW effect is going to remain with Blizzard until something gives with the genre. I'm a retro Final Fantasy nut, so XIV got me for six months or so with it's great leverage of the franchise and plentiful assets but the actual game content kind of sucks so I'm dying to see some real itemization, real class design and real content.

For the future, with how much window dressing the "massively" aspects have become I'm wondering if we won't see a shift to a surge of Diablo/PSO-likes. Plenty of money to be made on cosmetics and perks when you aren't flushing it down the drain on an elaborate, often unused server structure to run your empty world.
 
Aces&Eights

Aces&Eights

Member
Man, I've wanted to try this game for YEARS but due to my OCD and addictive personality, I would probably get sucked in and never be heard from again, lol.
 
T

Tubie

Member
Aces&Eights said:
Man, I've wanted to try this game for YEARS but due to my OCD and addictive personality, I would probably get sucked in and never be heard from again, lol.
Click to expand...

Yea, don't do it.

Most of us long timers get sucked right back in when a new expansion hits.
 
Y

Yoday

Member
Danomeon said:
If I had to guess, there are a few reasons for this...

1. New expansion coming out soon always lifts numbers, and this expansion seems to have a pretty hefty first raid tier and some nice improvements that affect everyone. (the new race model patch went live today)

2. The hyped MMO alternatives to World of Warcraft have fallen particularly flat this time around. Wildstar's playerbase imploded shortly after launch and developers are desperately working to get their third patch out after the face of their game (Stephan Frost) resigned amidst a slew of bad news (they cancelled Holiday events this year and dropped their promised patch cadence in favor of quarterly updates). Archeage came and went. Firefall barely blipped. Guild Wars 2 is hitting a big lull as the living story has began taking constant breaks. MMO players are probably starved for a big chunk of meaty content again.

3. Project titan is cancelled and Blizzard has announced a longtime commitment to future WoW expansions, so this game is going to continue to be the defacto MMO for a long time to come, like it or not.

4. This new expansion has a dungeon that takes place on a moving train. WHAAAT?!
Click to expand...
More on point number three is that the dropping of Titan has also meant an explosion in the size of the WoW team. It is pretty clear that the new expansion has WoW veterans working on it, and it also seems like the expanded team is going to be pumping out content faster than ever. Blizzard seems to be talking about their goal of an expansion every year quite frequently. They have always talked about wanting to deliver them faster, but they seem serious about it this time, and for once I believe they might actually do it (though probably closer to 18 months than one year).
 
DiscoJer

DiscoJer

Member
KojiKnight said:
There is not a developer alive who wouldn't want their game to still having 7 million active paying players after 10 years though.

Just because WoW is past it's prime doesn't mean it's not still a huge money maker. It's still the highest grossing MMO as well.
Click to expand...

I think most developers would be thrilled with 1 million active subscribers after 10 years..

Or hell, even 400,000. I can't imagine SWTOR or LOTRO have even that.
 
T

Tubie

Member
G-Bus said:
....

So tempting. The wife would kill me if I jumped back in.

Who am I kidding. Don't have time for it these days. But.. Weekends. Maybe I can survive with less sleep..
Click to expand...

I promised myself I would be super casual with it this time and that MoP was the last time I ever did heroic (mythic now) raids.
 
C

Cormano

Member
Valnen said:
Vanilla was terrible honestly.
Click to expand...

Real social interaction? Actual grind for gear? Epics tbat were actually epics?

Vanilla WoW blew my mind like no other game has before, BC was good, but i felt like some of the charm was lost, and finally quit before WoTLK was released.
 
T

Teremap

Banned
KojiKnight said:
There is not a developer alive who wouldn't want their game to still having 7 million active paying players after 10 years though.

Just because WoW is past it's prime doesn't mean it's not still a huge money maker. It's still the highest grossing MMO as well.
Click to expand...
Realyn said:
Hey, only 1(!!) post to bring up their peak numbers. What a frikking suprise ...

Those current numbers are absolutely ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Valnen said:
Still more than most other MMO's. Blizzard could lose millions more subscribers and still be better off more than most games out there.

I'd be playing right now if I could afford game time =(.
Click to expand...
Guys...

Guys...

I know. ;3

I just couldn't resist being the one to make that observation.
 
F

Fjordson

Member
Sweet. Warlords looks good, have a feeling it will get another bump once it's out.

Cormano said:
Real social interaction? Actual grind for gear? Epics tbat were actually epics?

Vanilla WoW blew my mind like no other game has before, BC was good, but i felt like some of the charm was lost, and finally quit before WoTLK was released.
Click to expand...
The game today plays so much better than vanilla. It's not even close.
 
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