The beginning of the end for WoW?

[Nghtmr9999]

Stumbled across an article on my RSS feed stating that WoW lost 800,000 subs last quarter (10.3 million down from 11.1 million). Most of the losses were from eastern territories like China and Korea. It seems like experienced subscribers play to finish expansion content, then unsubscribe again.

World of Warcraft lost 800,000 more subscribers last quarter: has the end begun? ? Video Games Reviews, Cheats | Geek.com

Just a small dip in player base, or possibly the beginning of the end for WoW.

Discuss!

[Broomba37]

Most were from China

[Smithnweson]

Even when you look at the numbers like Blizzard is hemorrhaging subscribers, they still have more than every other major MMO Combined. We are quite far from panic mode. You win some, you lose some. The ebb n flow of an MMO's life. I'm not the least bit worried, I'll still log into my characters and I will still be able to play. I knew the day I bought my first copy of wow, that someday it would end, I understood it, and I chose to make the purchase anyway.

I predict that WoW will be profitable for Blizzard for at least another 10 years easily.

[Drarkan]

10 years I doubt possibly 5 since they plan on two more expansions after pandaria. Ok maybe 6. By I suspect that blizzard will loose about a million or two due to a loss of interest cause its been going for so long. Most players will stay to see the end end game of wow then after 6 months to a year of killing the final boss, the numbers will drop by the hundreds of thousands then they will cut expenses in support for it to the point they will make enough off those still into playing, shut servers down to save costs, and they won't care cause they already made a sht ton of money more than they expected from the game. Not to mention they already have plans for their new MMO to take over for those who leave wow, to give them a fresh game, a fresh world, fresh playstyle, and new class types and races. We don't know what it is yet and they are still planning the logistics for it, but they will gain back subscribers where wow will loose subscribers.

I just hope project Titan will be just as flexible to multibox in as wow is.

[Chamassa]

Originally Posted by Broomba37

Most were from China

Cause blizzard would ever openly admit that they are losing their position rapidly? XD

No, basicly WoW is losing its HUGE advantage over other games, it will have to start competing to survive and end up being a better game because of it.

Im not worried, wow with 5 million subs is still wow. We are a LONG way from it 'dying'

[Drarkan]

But they will eventually stop making new content after the level 100 cap which they announced will be the limit, hence why we're going up 5 levels per expansion pack instead of 10. They want to have room for the expansions they plan on releasing.

How long will wow last after the level 100 expansion? How long after the final end game boss? Only time will tell.

[SethLan]

funny thing is if they shut the servers down? they should give you money back for the game (i think) --

[Ualaa]

Everquest I debuted on March 16th, 1999... and it still going.
It had 1 million players at its peak.
It currently has 17 expansions plus the original game.

World of Warcraft debuted on Nov 23rd, 2004.
It has had over 12 million subscribers at one point, and likely will continue to re-peak at higher subscription numbers with the release of each expansion.
MoP will be its fourth expansion.

I doubt the game is dying, or that is will at any point in the near future.

Even if they stopped level advancement with a given expansion... they could bring in the equivalent of AA points, which make your toon better at whatever.
They could bring in a new continent or planet, with its own factions and quest content plus dungeons and raids; the item level would be better, the pvp gear a tier higher, etc..
If the level cap did not increase in MoP at all, the new zones, quests, factions, race, class, etc... would still make the expansion fun and likely a huge success.

With even a measly 500,000 player subscription base, the game will be profitable.
If it ever got to that point, they'd likely combine servers as EQI has done.

They don't guarantee continuous access to their servers.
I'd imagine they would either refund subscriptions or stop accepting subscriptions beyond a certain point.
But I highly doubt anyone would receive compensation for the games they've bought.

[Chamassa]

Blizzard will never refund when they merge servers ( note i say merge, not close)
I dont think WoW in its current form would survive a drop below 1M subs, but keep in mind blizzard always had an open mind about a 'freemium' model.

If you look at the subscription loss, 1.8 million feels like a lot, but wow is still much, much bigger then any other subscription based western Mmo.

Also, i personally suspect wow focus will shift to pvp once we hit 100, Titan is out, and the usual 3 tiers of last Xpac had their time.
Blizzard might have made bad décisions about stuff like spectator mode so far, but shifting to a pvp focus is a low-effort sustainable option for wow in the future. RBGs and to some degree arenas have big potential as e-sports

[Prepared]

WoW isn't dying, however, I predict server merges for the first time some time after Star Wars the Old Republic is released. When Guild Wars 2 is released, there will be even more WoW server merges. December 20, 2011 will be the date that will cause the most players from WoW to stop playing because that's the date Star Wars the Old Republic is released.