World Of Warcraft loses 1.3 million subscribers in 3 months ( I guess the panda didn't cut it)

[DainBramaged]

World of Warcraft has hit another huge decline, this time dropping to 8.3 million subscribers, down from 9.6 million just 3 months ago. I actually still play myself casually and have toyed with the idea of abandoning ship as the game still lacks anyway to gear up properly, and quickly, without doing raid content. Then again, I am just a casual gamer in a fairly hardcore crowd

Of course, one should remember that they remain the #1 subscription based MMORPG, but 1.3 million lost subscribers is a huge hit.

Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer, Activision Blizzard, said:

“Our first-quarter performance was driven by continued consumer interest in all of our key franchises. Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarm™ was the #1 PC game for the quarter. Additionally, during the quarter, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft® remained the #1 subscription based MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers, although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well.”

Kotick added, “While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter. The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U™, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the
global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years.”


http://www.majorgeeks.com/news/story/world_of_warcraft_loses_1_3_million_subscribers_in_3_months.html

[Chan790]

1. How do we interpret this?

I see two ways to read the tea-leaves here but don't have the background or information on the larger MMO environment to discern which is right.

Is this:

1.) Indicative that WoW has worn out its interest factor and the new changes are insufficient to revive consumer passion?

2.) The first substantial indicator that perhaps the gaming public is beginning to reject the fundamental underpinnings of a substantial monthly subscription-fee model for MMO gaming on content they also have to pay for at point-of-sale. (Part of why I never got into WoW in the first place was that I can buy a brand-new blockbuster game every other month or 3 months for what I'm saving not playing WoW...and another game a year not paying for the expansions.)

[jeff47]

2. uhhhhhh

Part of why I never got into WoW in the first place was that I can buy a brand-new blockbuster game every other month or 3 months for what I'm saving not playing WoW

WoW's $15/mo. A "brand-new blockbuster game" is $60. That's not every other month or every 3rd month in savings.

As for what it means, I believe it means more people are getting tired of the game, it's mechanics and/or setting. I stopped before Pandas because I feel they went too far dumbing the game down after BC.

There's not a lot of TV shows that managed to stay on the air for a decade. People just get tired of the old show. Same thing applies to MMOs.

[Chan790]

3. I never pay retail for anything.

I'm one of those insanely-savvy shopping people. Coupons, store passes, preferential pricing, trade-ins, etc.

[Riftaxe]

4. $60 for the impatient only.

Just wait 3-6 months and you can pick up most for $30 or lower.

Personally I won't buy a publisher's game that has a console version for over $20, since you are likely getting an inferior game (think what Skyrim could have been if it had not been a bastardized console port, Borderlands 1+2, Fallout 3 franchise, etc.)

[jeff47]

5. That's why "brand-new-blockbuster" was a quote. (nt)

[uriel1972]

6. Ummm it was the other players and cross realm zoning that made me quit...

It just wasn't working for me.

[Javaman]

7. I used to play WOW quit a bit..

not quite hardcore, but up there.

Until finally something clicked in me. It took me a while to figure it out but I finally arrived at this: the game mechanics.

Yeah raiding was fun and yeah it was a the modern replacement of the weekly poker game, but it was the same thing over and over.

the repetition just became annoying.

My playing tapered off until I just dumped it.

Now when I think about it, I can't believe a committed so much time to something that just retreads old content over and over.

Since then, I've had extensive conversations about the mechanics of questing. The old model of "getting ten things of whatever then bringing them back to quest giver" is a completely outdated concept.

Yes, WOW has been introducing new types of quest models, but at it's core, the vast majority of quest are basically what I have mentioned above.

What I have been finding is that many of the new stand alone games have been breaking that model. Some with success others not so much, but it's showing that the gaming industry as a whole is waking up to the fact that quests need to be more challenging, not so much in the task of having to "kill 10 whatever" or "finding 10 whatever" but the ways in which you get a quest, and the methodology in how the quest is achieved.

And the new ideas for these quests are coming from the stand along games.

I could go into a whole litany of other reasons why I stopped playing WOW, of course, but they are purely superficial, were as the questing issue, to me, is the core of the issue.

This is why I'm eager to see how the Elder Scrolls online works out. They have had some really interesting concepts and ideas with quests in Skyrim and I'm hoping they apply those same things to Elder Scrolls.

Plus, I think many a fantasy player is looking for something more grown up oriented in it's content than what WOW has to offer.

My two cents

[onyourleft]

8. Cross-realm...

...zoning has worked quite well for me. I have people on four servers and cross realm allows me to engage with my main guild for instances (I will not PUG because of the nastiness of other players) and the new Barrens quests.

While questing does get boring, it's really no different than real life where I go through basically the same routine every day, day in and day out.

Overall, I've been satisfied with the new content.

[Whisp]

9. That Panda thing was a real turn off for me.

I dislike animal characters or bug eyed kids with lime green hair as characters.

I only paid/played Wow for a couple months besides the free trials. There is no there there for me. So many ftp that are far better.