World of Warcraft Revenue Dropped 54% in 7 Months

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knightmike

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My ideal way to pay for a MMO is with a subscription that gives full access to content including major patches (AKA expansions).

What I don't like are F2P games like LOTRO. You have to spend hours researching the store so you don't waste money.
 

Marcus52

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Actually there is a lot of resistance to more micro-transactions than pets and mounts in WoW's current player base. They announced a plan to test a leveling potion in the Eastern marketplace, and it was resoundingly slammed on the Western-market WoW forums.

Those of us paying subscription fees in WoW do NOT want "F2P" elements mucking with the game. They are already dropping players every quarter, I suspect the addition of micro-transactions that effect game play will cause them to lose more at a faster rate. They would have to be betting that the new players would more than replace those of us that left.
 

StarBound

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There are 2 things working against them.

Firstly is that the game has been going for 10 years. There is that level of fatigue that has settled in. No matter how much extra you add WoW is still WoW. After Wrath of the Lich King I've been waiting patiently to no avail for Warcraft 4 to return to its RTS roots to create a new story of Horde vs Alliance action to set the stage for a WoW2 maybe years later. This has not yet happened and I've grown distant from the Warcraft universe.

The Second is perhaps not just F2P but I prefer my pay once model and play the game with micro transactions never imbalancing the game. I compare every MMO that is released to Guild Wars 2. The prospect of paying once for a game and enjoying it as long as the servers run is just something that can't be ignored. I don't know how the game makes its money but the amount of updates the game receives is nothing short of breathtaking.

If WoW maintains a 3 million sub base they still have no problems. But the game needs a break and overhaul before we can come back to a fresh WoW experience.
 

senkyen

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WoW loosing players and revenue is pretty much obvious, but I'm not sure the results of this report are accurate. They are comparing total revenues, but 7 months ago (September 2012) is when the last expansion was released, which means millions of 40$ box sales, so it is kind of expected to see bigger revenues is September and October because of that. It would be much more interesting to see a graph that shows the revenues from a few months before the expansion release up until now because that would offer a more meaningful comparison point.
 

eiskrystal

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It must be terrible to be reduced to only making $93 million per month on a 10 year old game. Clearly they are in deep trouble and that 3rd yacht will now be forever out of reach.
 

Jonathan Marsh

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lol, XP boost potions in WoW? I only takes a couple days to get to max level. Why not just give players the option to buy a potion to directly level them to 90?

Blizz better get Titan sorted out, and actually pay attention to how different WoW is from the newer MMOs.

WoW was a great game, until they dumbed it down so much. At this point I am not sure how a lot of costumes could influence how many people want to play. Especially considering the graphics compared to FFXIV, GW2, and TERA.

Throwing in Pay-to-Win items would really hack a lot of people off. So I am not sure what micro-transactions would be worth it. Mounts? Skins? More Pokemon?
 

heero yuy

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blizzard do need an in game cosmetics store
that is priced correctly
the xp potion is acceptable but unfortunately people think any sort of boost = p2w
 

Jonathan Marsh

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As I was saying, compare the graphics between WoW and other newer MMOs. It's like getting costumes for Pacman.

I am impressed that WoW is still going strong. After trying out other MMOs I have never thought twice of going back.

I would have been extremely happy if Blizz had brought out WoW 2.0 using UE3, and reworked all the spells etc. and made it more of an action MMO. Same world, different take.

Then again, that is the style they choose ... back in 2004. It is 9 years later. Use that immense amount of lore they have and look at F2P, with lots of customisations through micro-transactions.
 

sjc1017

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If they lowered the prices for subscriptions, people might be prepared to pay-to-play but is there any rationale for continuing to pay-to-play when there are other options available? I bought Pandaria and logged in and just thought "I can't do this", just the graphics style and the grinding and the solitary play interspersed with abuse in instances, I just thought "do I want to pay for this" and I decided I didn't and went to play other mmos. Rift being free gives a quality alternative to WoW and has similar mechanics. I think GW 2 would have been even more successful than it is if it had, had a tank-healer mechanic at the core of its gameplay, it would have deepened the experience.
 

InvalidError

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I used to be a semi-hardcore player and what turned me off of WoW is how whenever I decided to take a break from it, I usually ended up having to start over. After going through this three times, I decided to give up: as much as I liked hardcore-ish raiding, it didn't feel like it was worth paying over $120/year to maintain an active account all-year-'round to avoid getting kicked out of guilds and the frustration from having to start over wasn't worth the ~$80/year for playing on-and-off.

Another thing that bugs me is paying for access to servers on top of paying for expansions. If MoP came with two months of access included, I probably would have at least tried it.
 
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I find myself taking longer and more frequent "Breaks" from WOW.The Graphics are Terrible, as well as the clunky game play. You would think after 10 years of Sub based Revenue, not to mention the money made from the Cash shop and Exp releases that WOW would be on par with Current Games. After AION Released I was amazed at the graphics. That was when I started feeling the Cartoon Network effect from WOW.
I don't Play Aion any longer and its around 6 years old, F2P and barely hanging on and the graphics are still superior to WOW's. Its no surprise to me that WOW is sinking and will eventually start scratching for subs. Its outdated and has become a cesspool of Trolls and Elitist who who have an epeen the size of which only Blizzards ego can match. Goodbye WoW.
 

tolham

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my guess is WoW's membership is sinking to it's core base. if blizzard isn't going to take the game F2P, then it seems somewhat pointless to compete directly with F2P games. I think blizzard should focus on keeping their core base happy and make WoW a unique experience.
 

Sam Bittermann

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I find myself taking longer and more frequent "Breaks" from WOW.The Graphics are Terrible, as well as the clunky game play. You would think after 10 years of Sub based Revenue, not to mention the money made from the Cash shop and Exp releases that WOW would be on par with Current Games. After AION Released I was amazed at the graphics. That was when I started feeling the Cartoon Network effect from WOW.
I don't Play Aion any longer and its around 6 years old, F2P and barely hanging on and the graphics are still superior to WOW's. Its no surprise to me that WOW is sinking and will eventually start scratching for subs. Its outdated and has become a cesspool of Trolls and Elitist who who have an epeen the size of which only Blizzards ego can match. Goodbye WoW.

That's a a very good but but then the Asian kids can't play it on their 7 year old laptops...
 

silverblue

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Lineage II was the same, albeit without having to pay for new chronicles. You'd play for months in an attempt to keep up with the cheaters (who NC never really did that much about despite protestations to the contrary), get bored and leave for a bit and get left behind. Still, it did progressively get easier to grind to high levels even solo, but it was always best in a clan.

I liked Aion as well - great visuals, custom look items, very nice music, and pretty different to L2, but fort sieges would go past at 10fps on numerous occasions. The sheer number of quests keeps things interesting, and it's not that difficult to get the items and experience you require, but it does require a decent measure of working in pick-up-groups... and they're usually not without incident. Additionally, like with L2, there's issues with character balance, but not quite to the same degree in that you feel punished for rolling a support toon.

I paid for two accounts for a good period when I played L2 (£8.99 apiece) then quit and only played the one in Aion. Might revisit either of them in the future (I have since they both went P2P) but I guess that, with MMOs requiring so much time, I may not have the time available.

Never played WoW, never wanted to. L2 players generally saw it as too cartoonish and "carebear".
 

oneeyed

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I applied for the Game Designer position awhile back. I got turned down immediately, and I have plenty of experience, just not super-star experience. I had a whole plan written out to get more subscribers and maintain a low budget. Whoever is making decisions at the executive level above the games is bleeding Blizzard dry. All their games are dying slowly when they should be increasing in popularity. They have all the right technologies and staff to implement. I do not see why they are allowing this to happen.
 

master9716

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First of ALL , Rift is free to play and its a master piece of a game , No Strings attached. They were the Original developers of WoW and EQ after all that made RIFT . Its so good but all these WoW nerds wont try it the ones that do cancel their WoW account. I canceled my WoW 2 years ago after being a End Game Content player , only thing abot rift that sucks is that theres no Arenas yet.
 

Heironious

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Rift? I tried rift for like 2 months when it released. My God did it ever get stale fast. If you think wow was repetitive, just grind rifts and all day spawning bosses non stop all day. Also even if you are 20+ levels above the mobs the entire zone aggros on you it seems. I haven't played WoW in over a year too, and don't miss it one bit either. If you want PvP that takes more skill than luck of hidden rolls of the dice, play BF3 (Soon 4). WoW was fun up to WoTLK. ALl the rest of the expansions changed things too much.
 

jl0329

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Guys, WOW is doing super well for a 10 years old game. I hope you all realize that. No matter what they do, WOW is not going to be the big hit it once was. Accept that and move on. Now days, nobody I talk to is still playing WOW. I myself quit after TBC. Even WOW goes F2P, I doubt a 10 year old game with so out dated graphic will pull in the new players (people who dig F2P are usually children, and children judge the game heavily on its graphic).

Not sure if they will announce a new expansion on Blizzcon this year; but I know for sure no xpansion will get me excited even a little bit.
 

brucek2

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This report is comparing one period that includes most players paying their ~$15/mo subscriptions AND a ~$60 expansion vs the next period that includes only the subscriptions. Of course the revenues dropped.

This is either a total fail by the research agency to not notice this or to decide to go with the misleading headline to get attention anyway; and then again by the reporter here for not asking any questions.

WoW's revenue is dropping but its nowhere near 54%.
 
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