Edge talks Morhaime on Age of Conan

by Alex Ziebart Aug 2nd 2008 at 4:00PM

We made mention of Mike Morhaime's surprising words regarding Wrath's launch date during a recent conference call, but there's one thing we didn't really look at that Edge did. Mister Morhaime says Age of Conan's release a couple of months ago did manage to pull some subscribers away from WoW, but unsurprisingly, almost half of them came back pretty fast. Around 40% of them have come back so far.

This does not surprise me, really. That's usually how most MMO releases go, even if Age of Conan was the most heralded release since WoW. I'll admit, I haven't played it myself but I had ten or so guildmates of mine go and try it out. All of them ended up not playing the game after a month, saying that something was 'missing.' How delightfully vague, eh? They all came back.

A thriving, pre-existing community really helps a game's launch, and WoW had (and has) that in spades. You've gotta hand it to Age of Conan, though. For being a game that seems so niche in a market that has only moved out of nichedom in the last few years, they're putting up one hell of a fight. 40% of players have come back so far, sure, but 60% haven't. Yet.

Tags: activision-blizzard, age-of-conan, aoc, edge-online, mike-morhaime

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

RogueJedi86 Aug 2nd 2008 4:06PM

I predict the same thing will happen with Warhammer Online. It's just a fact of overhype. People will feel like it just ain't quite the same as WoW(in a bad way), and will flock back pretty quickly. It's the curse of overhyped MMOs. If anyone calls it a "WoW Killer", it won't kill WoW. Just like Killzone 1 wasn't a "Halo Killer", and so on.

Eternalpayn Aug 2nd 2008 5:08PM

They said that about EQ... Then WoW was hyped as an EQ killer... So, it will happen, eventually. I don't think until WoW 2 comes along, though.

mort Aug 2nd 2008 5:32PM

It's hard to say where warhammer will end up now really. If they had kept going down their current path without removing stuff to make release date it could have possibly been a wow competition. Not 100%, but definitely a possiblity.

As of now, I can't predict it at all, but I'd say it's less likely. I do suspect people will leave wow for war though, and in far greater amounts than to AOC.

Nick S Aug 2nd 2008 4:11PM

my understanding is that AoC is crashing and burning as we speak... losing investors, losing subscribers...

it's too bad. competition is a good thing.

Thander Aug 2nd 2008 4:14PM

If BC were the new expansion being released, I think a lot more people would be playing other MMOs. Northrend is just so much more cool than Outland. I know a lot of people are staying just to see it.

It's like do I wanna start a whole new MMO from scratch or wait a few months for Northrend. Some people really are bored of WoW and left for good but I think most are looking forward to Northrend a lot more than Outland.

If Blizzard planned Northrend to be around the release of these other MMOs, they did a good job. It's just so much better than Outland. I only found Outland somewhat interesting because of the Warcraft II Dark Portal nostalgia.

Iwanttobeasleep Aug 2nd 2008 11:51PM

Also, as the third iteration of the game, we know it's going to be an incredibly nuanced and polished experience. BC was a huge step up from vanilla, because Blizzard learned a whole lot, and Wrath is going to benefit even more from what they learned from BC.

brittwilson Aug 2nd 2008 4:17PM

I hope the other MMO makers can come out with some games that are better than WoW. Not because i hate WoW, but that it will force them to make an even better game, or fall out of the race.

Competition is good for the consumer, because it ends up with a better product from someone at the end that we can all enjoy.

Savant Aug 2nd 2008 4:18PM

The problem with people (with respect to competition) is they will judge a new game against a game like WoW that has had years to be able to refine itself. It will be a couple more years before WoW's underlying technology becomes dated to the point where a new game will be able to grab subscribers on the look alone. The gameplay of new titles will never fully grab people because the game is still being refined.

However, just as fast as WoW became hot, they can lose that to another game. It's just a matter of how the societal trends go.

Dean Aug 2nd 2008 6:23PM

You're right of course, that AoC gets compared to a far more developed WoW. Were we assessing them on their accomplishments and what the developers have done with the time available your point would be valid.
But the problem is, they're competing in the same market place for the same customers. And as such the comparison IS valid. Because the end-user doesn't care how the software was made, they just care which is better. Would AoC be better than WoW in 4 years if it had its money and subscriber base? Maybe. But most people are looking for a game to play now, and in terms of polish WoW is just so far ahead it is almost financially impossible for anyone else to compete.

Which sucks for them but Blizzard have raised the bar so high the reality of the marketplace is they provide a massive barrier to entry.

STereo Aug 2nd 2008 4:21PM

I didn't get excited about AOC myself when I checked it out. That said, wait and see. Blizz is very complacent and isn't listening to their user community. They're going to drop the ball.

Tuhljin Aug 2nd 2008 5:36PM

Anyone who says "Blizz doesn't listen" obviously doesn't read the beta forums much.

Thrashnak Aug 2nd 2008 5:55PM

Complacent and not listening? The only thing they don't listen to is the irrational extreme QQ that floods the forums. Every patch contains steps to improve the game based of rational feedback on problems. The expansions contains massive amounts of improvements and new goodies that are directly from customer feedback.

Way back in Warhammer alpha, we would get questionaires with what we'd like to see in an MMO that either didn't previously exist or was poorly implemented. Blizz has done the same (on very rare occurences) and also sees what it's fans react to. Much of what WAR has advertised as setting it apart and above WoW and other MMO's is what we now see on the horizon for WotLK.

I'm glad Blizz doesn't listen to the majority of irrational cry babies on the forums and instead focus on the bigger message and desires of the player base as a whole. Pretty much any "concern" raised in the forums that uses "Slap in the face" "Destroying the game", "massive failure", "GG Blizz", etc. is pretty much a sign that someone is completely over reacting, blowing the issue out of proportion, or just a flat out moron.

haust Aug 2nd 2008 7:44PM

ahahahahah !!

that's a funny one !!

What do you mean when you say "isn't listening" ??

WoW is an always evolving game. Each patch get its load of changes. WoW is not a perfect game, sure, but Blizzard is well aware of what people want. Keep in mind that they have to balance a lot of things so that the game remains fun to play for EVERY ONE.

People complaining about not being listened just don't know what they're talking about. And please spare me the "we need more of this, less of that, this class is cheated, my class get no love, etc." this is just old and boring....

Now for AoC and WH, I hope these games will succeeded so that every players will have a choice, the more the better. This will also force Blizzard to always do their best. AoC is still new and need some good polish to attract new players. For WH, I hope they have carefully studied what happened to AoC in order to avoid the same problems.

I'm playing WoW since its european launch and so far I haven't been disappointed. I will happily play WotLK and can't wait to test the DK :)

Perderedeus Aug 2nd 2008 4:29PM

Funcom was banking on that initial appeal with AoC. Unfortunately, they didn't design a game to keep their customers beyond 30-60 days. The coding in the game is terrible... it glitches and leaks memory and has overly-demanding system requirements. Levels 1-20 were polished, everything else was lacking. End-game content voids, buggy PVP sieges, buggy quests (particularly profession quests)... and every patch released fixed one problem while introducing two new bugs.

Eternalpayn Aug 2nd 2008 5:09PM

Did Wow even ship with MC though?

Perderedeus Aug 2nd 2008 5:49PM

At this point, I've lost track of WoW launch content. I know it was slim. If a lack of endgame content were AoC's only problem, most players would probably stick it out... it's all the other issues that are causing people to unsub.

Heck, AoC's focus all along has been massive PVP and they couldn't even get that polished for launch.

haust Aug 2nd 2008 7:58PM

Banking on initial appeal is a Bad Thing (tm) for a MMO after WoW went live. WoW raised the minimal quality level that people will demand.

Just hoping that people will come to your game because you a have some good licence is an error. The game have to be well polished and must feel finished out of the box now.

If AoC and Warhammer online can provide that level of quality I guess that Blizzard would/will have some concerns.

Aichon Aug 2nd 2008 4:56PM

Probably a big part of why WoW hasn't gotten back more than 40% is because the people that left were largely already disillusioned with WoW and were not interested in coming back immediately anyway. They were just looking for an alternative that AoC seemed, but failed, to provide.

I'm betting that if there were stats on who of those 60% are still playing AoC, very few of them would be. I would bet that the majority have cancelled their accounts and are simply not playing an MMO right now, instead waiting for either Wrath or WAR.