Activision Blizzard Financial: WoW Subs Drop to 9.1M [Aug 02, 2012, 8:17 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
Activision Blizzard's Quarterly Financial Results beat analyst projections due to strong performance of the new installments in the Diablo and Skylanders series. The company is raising its outlook for the full year, in spite of word that World of Warcraft has shed another 1.1 million subscribers since their last report, leaving the MMORPG with only about nine million more paying subscribers than the typical such game: "Second-quarter sales, excluding changes in deferred revenue, rose 51 percent to $1.05 billion and beat the $837 million average of 19 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Total revenue fell 6.2 percent to $1.08 billion. The company’s “World of Warcraft” multiplayer online game lost 1.1 million subscribers in the period, finishing at 9.1 million."
Poor Blizzard. I ache for you.
Creston
Creston
Re: Activision Blizzard Financial: WoW Subs Drop to 9.1M
Aug 3, 2012, 10:18
Aug 3, 2012, 10:18
*cough* i still pay 14.95 a month for 3... yes 3 Anarchy online accounts. and every time i cancel them for a month or two.. i always end up reactivating them. I have had at least 1 active AO account since 2001.
for me... and perhaps 20k others (id guess at this point maybe more).. there is no other digital crack.
for me... and perhaps 20k others (id guess at this point maybe more).. there is no other digital crack.
The Whales name is Bob.
Re: Activision Blizzard Financial: WoW Subs Drop to 9.1M
Aug 3, 2012, 09:44
Aug 3, 2012, 09:44
Cram wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 00:49:Dades wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 00:34:HorrorScope wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 23:30:
9.1 million is nothing to sneeze at. Pretty amazing that people can stick to something for so long like that.
Yeah but at the same time losing 10% of that in a quarter is nothing to scoff at either, that's a crazy churn rate with the kind of instability that drives investors crazy. Expansions bring people back but they don't stick around long.
This. If I were an investor, you know...the people that publically own this shit, I would be temporarily pleased with the Diablo 3 stuff, but horrified with WoW. Their investments were in part based on WOW having well over 10 million subscribers (seriously believing this would last, cause most of them don't really know anything), and that isn't happening.
The next time around, it'll be a lot quicker subscription loss then it was with Cata. They'll bring a million back for one quarter for when the expansion is released, and lose 2-3+ million within the next 1-2 quarter conference calls afterwards. Probably more with GW2 (no sub) coming on top of the other issues discussed in this thread.
Well if I were an investor I would have to be wise enough to know that this is bound to happen and prepare for it one way or another. I would have speculated a much larger drop quite a while back. Now if the business is all based on Wall Street, then well that is their problem, if you can have 9 mil. subs but not make it work at the end of the day, oh my what webs we weave.
Re: Activision Blizzard Financial: WoW Subs Drop to 9.1M
Aug 3, 2012, 09:27
Aug 3, 2012, 09:27
LFR is the fast track to content burn-out.
LgFriess wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 09:00:Me too since its open beta and stress tests. It was fun and crazy. I even blogged about them like http://aqfl.net/node/198 ...Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 08:48:Muscular Beaver wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 07:34:I miss the first year or two in Vanilla. The interface was pretty rough compared to later, but it didn't really matter to me. My first character was a Night Elf Hunter. It was at least a month, even though I was playing a ton, before I even left Teldrassil, three months at least before I ventured beyond Darkshore. Ahh... those were the days. A world filled with mysteries. Hard to believe I got that feeling of awe and wonderment at my age.
The funny thing right now is that I actually miss playing WoW.
*sigh* I wonder if I'll ever get that again in a game.
Yep, I've been in search of that again myself. Good times back then. It's come full circle for me though. I'm finding so many single player games that bring back that old gaming sense of adventure again. I'm looking forward to giving GW2 a run though.
I haven't touched WoW for many years. I am still curious to see Catalyst changes in the game one day!
Only 9 million?! Wow total failure (sarcasm)!:)
Not paying a dime of my own money for the addon. Yes, D3 has issues, but there is no history or facts out there that support Blizzard will just abandon this game. They will tweak it and the RMAH has treated me pretty good thus far and that is with weak items at the moment.
This comment was edited on Aug 3, 2012, 09:09.
Not paying a dime of my own money for the addon. Yes, D3 has issues, but there is no history or facts out there that support Blizzard will just abandon this game. They will tweak it and the RMAH has treated me pretty good thus far and that is with weak items at the moment.
This comment was edited on Aug 3, 2012, 09:09.
Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 08:48:Muscular Beaver wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 07:34:I miss the first year or two in Vanilla. The interface was pretty rough compared to later, but it didn't really matter to me. My first character was a Night Elf Hunter. It was at least a month, even though I was playing a ton, before I even left Teldrassil, three months at least before I ventured beyond Darkshore. Ahh... those were the days. A world filled with mysteries. Hard to believe I got that feeling of awe and wonderment at my age.
The funny thing right now is that I actually miss playing WoW.
*sigh* I wonder if I'll ever get that again in a game.
Yep, I've been in search of that again myself. Good times back then. It's come full circle for me though. I'm finding so many single player games that bring back that old gaming sense of adventure again. I'm looking forward to giving GW2 a run though.
Muscular Beaver wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 07:34:I miss the first year or two in Vanilla. The interface was pretty rough compared to later, but it didn't really matter to me. My first character was a Night Elf Hunter. It was at least a month, even though I was playing a ton, before I even left Teldrassil, three months at least before I ventured beyond Darkshore. Ahh... those were the days. A world filled with mysteries. Hard to believe I got that feeling of awe and wonderment at my age.
The funny thing right now is that I actually miss playing WoW.
*sigh* I wonder if I'll ever get that again in a game.
“I don't believe in anything you have to believe in." -- Fran Lebowtiz
NKD wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 00:49:Dades wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 00:34:HorrorScope wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 23:30:
9.1 million is nothing to sneeze at. Pretty amazing that people can stick to something for so long like that.
Yeah but at the same time losing 10% of that in a quarter is nothing to scoff at either, that's a crazy churn rate with the kind of instability that drives investors crazy. Expansions bring people back but they don't stick around long.
And speaking of investors, a regional breakdown of the loss would be useful. I believe the figure a few years back was that China made up 60% of the players but only 6% of the revenue because of the Chinese company who runs it taking all the dough.
If the loss is heavily biased towards NA/EU subscribers, its a much bigger loss than it sounds.
The only thing they said about it was that they lost more from the East than from the West.
Re: Activision Blizzard Financial: WoW Subs Drop to 9.1M
Aug 3, 2012, 07:34
Aug 3, 2012, 07:34
The funny thing right now is that I actually miss playing WoW.
Pre-Cata WoW, that is. Im really sad what they did to it with and after Cata and MOP seems to make it even worse.
Pre-Cata WoW, that is. Im really sad what they did to it with and after Cata and MOP seems to make it even worse.
I have given up on waiting for BIS to come back to their senses and do a real ArmA 2 successor.
Re: Activision Blizzard Financial: WoW Subs Drop to 9.1M
Aug 3, 2012, 07:32
Aug 3, 2012, 07:32
Ant wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 01:03:Jackplug wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 20:24:Outside is overrated. :p
Another batch of kids have grown up and found out what the outside world is all about!!
But its graphics are nice!
I have given up on waiting for BIS to come back to their senses and do a real ArmA 2 successor.
So what you are saying is that after 7 years, 3 expansions (with 4th on the way and already a year and a half since last one) they still have 9.1 million subscribers? Name another game that comes even close in game sales, expansions and monthly subscribers. This is all planned out. They are making this back and then some on Diablo III and when Xmas gets here gamers will buy the expansion and return. Again.
Yup. The biggest fall offs are usually right before an expansion as people take a couple months off to go try and lose their virginity or make a buddy cop movie.
Okay now that was funny!
"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far."
"Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."
"Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."
Re: Activision Blizzard Financial: WoW Subs Drop to 9.1M
Aug 3, 2012, 03:12
Aug 3, 2012, 03:12
Parallax Abstraction wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 20:44:wtf_man wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 20:33:Cram wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 20:24:
Less and less are willing to pay $15 a month for any MMO it seems. The subscription based model is going the way of the dinosaurs. Love WoW, or ToR, or hate them, the entire genre is losing people.
Heh... I remember when online games (or the online services) were pay per hour.
Anyone remember MPlayer, Total Entertainment Network or Heat.net? Pay by the hour for horrible, laggy matchmaking. Oh those were the days.
Keep going back in the Way-Back-Machine™ to GEine.
Parallax Abstraction wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 20:44:Yes, I remember Heat and Mplayer, but you apparently don't because those services were free. You simply had to own a copy of the supported games to play using those networks and install their client software similar to the way Gamespy and Steam work. The only Heat game which was pay was an MMO called 10/Six which outlived the general Heat network. Mplayer did originally have an optional subscription plan, but it was basically only for ranked/tournament play on a couple of games like Quake. Mplayer eventually sold out to Gamespy, and Sega simply folded Heat.net but kept 10/Six going for awhile longer.
Anyone remember MPlayer, Total Entertainment Network or Heat.net? Pay by the hour for horrible, laggy matchmaking. Oh those were the days.
This comment was edited on Aug 3, 2012, 02:28.
RailWizard wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 01:05:
UH OH! BETTER CHAPTER 11 BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!
Immediately! Immediately! Harrumph! Harrumph! Harrumph!
UH OH! BETTER CHAPTER 11 BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!
Jackplug wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 20:24:Outside is overrated. :p
Another batch of kids have grown up and found out what the outside world is all about!!
Dades wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 00:34:HorrorScope wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 23:30:
9.1 million is nothing to sneeze at. Pretty amazing that people can stick to something for so long like that.
Yeah but at the same time losing 10% of that in a quarter is nothing to scoff at either, that's a crazy churn rate with the kind of instability that drives investors crazy. Expansions bring people back but they don't stick around long.
And speaking of investors, a regional breakdown of the loss would be useful. I believe the figure a few years back was that China made up 60% of the players but only 6% of the revenue because of the Chinese company who runs it taking all the dough.
If the loss is heavily biased towards NA/EU subscribers, its a much bigger loss than it sounds.
Do you have a single fact to back that up?
Dades wrote on Aug 3, 2012, 00:34:HorrorScope wrote on Aug 2, 2012, 23:30:
9.1 million is nothing to sneeze at. Pretty amazing that people can stick to something for so long like that.
Yeah but at the same time losing 10% of that in a quarter is nothing to scoff at either, that's a crazy churn rate with the kind of instability that drives investors crazy. Expansions bring people back but they don't stick around long.
This. If I were an investor, you know...the people that publically own this shit, I would be temporarily pleased with the Diablo 3 stuff, but horrified with WoW. Their investments were in part based on WOW having well over 10 million subscribers (seriously believing this would last, cause most of them don't really know anything), and that isn't happening.
The next time around, it'll be a lot quicker subscription loss then it was with Cata. They'll bring a million back for one quarter for when the expansion is released, and lose 2-3+ million within the next 1-2 quarter conference calls afterwards. Probably more with GW2 (no sub) coming on top of the other issues discussed in this thread.
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