Activision conference call: WoW still at 11.5 million subscribers
by Mike Schramm 
May 7th 2009 at 9:00PM
The OC Register has a great breakdown of what Activision said on their earnings conference call today. Perhaps the biggest WoW-related stat to come out of the call is that the number of subscribers to the game has apparently leveled off: they're holding steady at 11.5 million. Which is nothing to cough at, but it's what we were told four months ago, and if, as Ghostcrawler claimed, the numbers are still going up, then they're going up very, very slowly. Morhaime says that numbers are growing everywhere, but that China will be a main focus of growth this year as Wrath of the Lich King releases there soon.In non-WoW Blizzard news, the Starcraft 2 beta will start this summer and will be the "final" phase of development for that game. The new Battle.net interface will be tested then as well, so keep an eye out for that. And Blizzard expects big things there in China also -- NetEase, the company that will now be handling Wrath's launch, is already set up to run both Diablo III and Starcraft 2 out there, so it'll all be under one umbrella.
In short, there's no really bad news from Blizzard, but no really great news either -- the best news to come out of the call is that even in the slow economy lately, Blizzard is holding steady. Not a bad thing at all, but we probably won't see any spikes in player interest in Blizzard or WoW until they announce what's next on the content plate, whether that be at BlizzCon or before.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
First May 7th 2009 9:17PM
Wow might have got an increase from Asian players but I bet there is a drop in US & Oceanic players.
elvendude May 7th 2009 9:28PM
What leads you to think that, if I may ask?
Zarfay May 8th 2009 2:06AM
"What leads you to think that, if I may ask?"
Well I don't know about the U.S but where is the oceanic love? A few months back I heard some U.S players get 0 ms. I thought the person who told me was joking.
An oceaning player with a good connection would get about 300-600 ms and someone with a bad connection would get over 1000 (I personally have played wow with 20,000 latency)
U.S servers have been around for a while now - When do we get REAL servers? :(
Knopperz May 8th 2009 3:17AM
That goes for Euro too...
People are bored out of their Skulls with the Content + Lags.
The Numbers will prolly drop pretty soon.
Jason May 8th 2009 4:18AM
I'm amazed the OP didn't get down rated for using that name.
wordsofivory May 8th 2009 9:20AM
@ Knopperz and everyone else bitching.
It's amazing how simply minded some people views of the world is that they can't see anything outside of their very limited sphere of interaction.
So you think because you and your "hardcore" friends aren't enjoying WoW and are bored with the game that that can be the *only* reason for the evening out of subscriptions? Are you kidding me?
1) Many people seem to forget that back in Vanilla WoW, there was one point where we went nearly a year without any new content. And people were whining and bitching about a lack of things to do back even more than they are now.
The subscriptions didn't drop.
Here's a suggestion; if you don't like the game anymore, stop playing, or just cancel your account until something new content *does* come out.
Many of you sound like drug addicts who are desperate for a hit but realise that the drugs don't give that same hit they did the first few times you took them, yet you keep taking them hoping that it will.
2) We're in the middle of an worldwide economic recession, the worst the world has seen in almost 80 / 90 years. The fact that the game has even managed to keep subscriptions steady is a miracle, as well as a testament to the game's appeal.
@ First
3) I would argue the exact opposite is likely. China still hasn't gotten Wrath of the Lich King, which means that most Chinese players have gone almost a year without substantial new content.
So it's a lot more likely that Chinese subscriptions are down, not US and EU ones.
Funny thing is, while all the fanboys in the west are bitching about a lack of things to do in game, the east actually *has* had to deal with a lack of content for ages now because of a stupid legal censorship board.
Remember that next time you're running through Ulduar, or gearing up for the Icecrown Citadel raid against Arthas a year down the line.
jerzz80 May 8th 2009 10:03AM
First said...
Wow might have got an increase from Asian players but I bet there is a drop in US & Oceanic players.
elvendude said...
What leads you to think that, if I may ask?
I say....
I have list of friends, using WOW's in game friend list, that has diminished GREATLY since WOTLK. My friends come from all over the world. And they arent playing WOW any more.
The hardocre have beaten the content. The wanna be hardcore are trecking through Ulduar. The serious players are dropping out becaus ethey game sucks now. Period. Every single thing about Wrath is worse then BC. Why am i going to continue playing a game that is progressively less apealing?
Keep paying for your subs, you mindless consumers. Keep defending Blizzard as if they give a flying Sht about you other than the money you send them on a monthly basis.
Activision was the worst thing that ever happend to Blizz and WOW. Period.
ahac May 8th 2009 1:16PM
1) There is no WotLK in China yet. That probably means a much larger lack of content than US or EU will ever see.
2) Chinese pay by the hour. They don't pay monthly subscriptions. That means it is much easier for them to take a break at anytime... and jump right back again even if just to check out new stuff.
3) There is also the change of Chinese operator from the9 to Netease... could it be that the9 didn't do a good job with the servers?
So... all these things mean one thing: the Chinese are probably playing less.
Once WotLK gets approved and servers move to Netease then a lot of those players will come back to check out WotLK and that could push the number over 12 million.
no_mo_wow May 9th 2009 2:03AM
Wordsofivory:
Um....yikes. The fact that you got upvoted so much shows me that wowinsiders commenter base really is just a bunch of raving fanboys to whom blizzard can do no wrong....just as i suspected.
Someone posts their opinion that wow is on a decline/will be on a decline soon and you go off on a dam tirade about how perfect blizzard is and that they will never lose subscribers and bla bla bla. It's casual fanboys like you who are turning the gaming industry into a steaming pile of crap. You pay for shit games, youre paying 15$ a month so blizzard can come up with the next big grind (achievements, pvp, badges, gold) to keep you hooked and you blindly go along without questioning anything. And god forbid someone say a bad word about the mighty Blizzard and you go nuts, ranting about the economy and everything. Stop throwing good money at bad games! it encourages the developers (or publishers i should say) to cater to the lowest common denominator and do nothing but maintain status quo.
Jerzz80:
You posted what i was thinking. And dont worry, regardless of all the raving lunatic fanboy downvoters...there's a lot of people like you and me. Sooner or later blizzard will notice the hit in their subscriber base...
and to anyone reading this who is on the verge of quitting: DO IT. Its the best thing that ever happened to me! put you're money where your mouth is and force blizzard to either build a better quality MMO with something in it for the real gamers, or let them rot with the crying, whining, fanboys in their pit of commercial activision hell. (along with wii cooking mama)
p.s. i canceled my account after all my friends stopped playing. and that number may say 11.5 million, but i guarantee it's not an "active" 11.5 million like it was 6mos - 1yr ago.
p.p.s. yes i think most of WI is garbage, and i really despise activision's new version of wow, but occasionally i come around and find a good article worth typing a WoT for.
Hoggersbud May 7th 2009 9:44PM
11.5 million subscribers...yeah, that might be reaching saturation without a major paradigm shift.
RogueJedi86 May 7th 2009 9:46PM
When will we be getting the Beta for the rest of Starcraft 2? You know, the Zerg and Protoss campaigns.
MCRaider May 7th 2009 10:49PM
Either every year or every 2 years they are going to release the other 2 campaigns since they are each separate.
kia May 7th 2009 10:00PM
I'm not surprised the numbers have hit a plateau. There does have to come a point where everyone that would have tried the game already has, and I think it's going to be very hard to attract new players to the game if they announce another expansion with another ten levels to progress through. Imagine starting the game and having to level 1-90, with levels 1-70+ basically all on your own because those areas are dead. /boggle.
Xanwryn May 8th 2009 1:46AM
If that ever happens I'm sure they'll improve the leveling system for the Old World quite a bit.
We've all had discussions about raising the starting level, for all classes, and it works fine but there has to be a level cap at some time. Some number that they WON'T raise, at any point, in the future.
The level "cap" for WoW is 255, that's the cap your level can be. You can't be higher than that unless you recoded the game. Players can't reach level 255 but that's the highest achievable level AT THE MOMENT. If we get to the point of becoming that high, I'll just find it far too over exaggerated.
Level 100+ would already be far too much for me. But only because of the leveling rates. It is a lot easier to level from 1 to 60 now than it was in vanilla WoW but that doesn't change the fact it still takes time. And then when you get to 60, instead of being "Woot, only 10 more levels!" in BC it'll be like "Sigh... only 30/40 more levels..."
So my point is:
Levels aren't a problem. You can have a level cap of 1,000 for all I care. But it's the time it'll take to get there that counts. And I doubt they'll change the XP rate so much that we get 2-5x more XP than we do now (Old World) but adding more quests or changing the starting level may help when they eventuality happens.
Michael May 8th 2009 11:22AM
I don't know if they have really hit a plateau, but for any company to expect a revenue increase(4-5% is a fairly standard goal) every single year is unrealistic.
I would say that the economy combined with their issues in China have slipped them up a bit, but Blizz is a strong company that will continue to dominate in what they do.
kabshiel May 7th 2009 10:45PM
I can't wait to see the Chinese version of Diablo 3. If they had to edit the visible bones out of the Forsaken to sell it there, Diablo's going to be hilarious.
uncaringbear May 8th 2009 12:23AM
I think the delays in getting WoTLK out to China has been very bad for their subscriber numbers. Expect to see a jump when they finally release this over there. Investors shouldn't be worried, however, given the poor economic situation worldwide, Blizz is doing well to maintain their numbers.
Thander May 8th 2009 1:19AM
I think the bugs in patches combined with lack of interest of the same old grind is getting to people. (Ulduar might have new mechanics and lore but there's only so many ways to kill a boss). I still enjoy the game, but I'm pretty casual. I never play enough to get bored.
FFTARoxorz05 May 8th 2009 2:00AM
From what I've seen, people are starting to realize that 80% of level 80s are absolutely terrible at the game, and since the game is easier, you end up with them more often now.
Oh, and they can fix pvp one of these years.
Naix May 8th 2009 10:00AM
These are the same terrible players from level 60, 70 and now 80. So why not start people at 5 levels below cap?