Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?

VentureBeat has estimated sales figures for the just-released Mists of Pandaria expansion for World of Warcraft by way of investment bank Lazard Capital Markets, where they estimate the MMORPG expansion has sold between 600,000 and 700,000 copies at retail since launching this week. This estimate does not include digital sales, but they add that "Lazard analysts believe Pandaria's digital sales won't make up for its poor retail performance." Word is: "Historically, each new World of Warcraft expansion has outsold its predecessors, Lazard said, but sales of Pandaria are down 60 percent from the previous expansion pack, Cataclysm, which has sold 3.3 million units since its launch in December 2010."
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49.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 08:46
49.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 08:46
Sep 28, 2012, 08:46
 
Cutter wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 23:07:
Prez wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 20:53:
That's one of the advantages of being a bartender and historian both. You come to understand human nature really well and you constantly see it repeated over and over again down through history. We all suffer from cognitive dissonance to a degree but mine is much less than most people by virtue of what I do and what I've studied most of my life. I calls 'em the way they are, as it were.

As a bartender you must see a lot of cognitive dissonance. Is it the scientific word for drunkenness?
48.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 08:37
48.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 08:37
Sep 28, 2012, 08:37
 
Jonjonz wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 07:44:
Fire the marketing bonehead that came up with the whole panda theme.

Dumbest, least attractive game theme ever.

Well it might be that or it might be that players have been disappointed with their previous expansion pack, the overhyped Cataclysm.. Now it's time for Blizzard to be disappointed. This said the best way not to be disappointed is not to set hopes up. I don't know if they live secluded but it's easy to listen to users comments and foresee it's not going to be a big success.
That and WoW has reached its downhill phase already. There are so many games I missed because I played WOW. I came out of it and I found myself in a nightmare world where Call of Duty is the FPS reference. Are they expecting us to play their game another 10 years?
47.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 08:37
47.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 08:37
Sep 28, 2012, 08:37
 
If this was album sales they would be cheering.
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Where's my BB gun?
46.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 08:23
Bet
 
46.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 08:23
Sep 28, 2012, 08:23
 Bet
 
jdreyer wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 20:41:
Dades wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 20:24:
I am shocked that the kung fu pandas expansion did not get the fan base excited enough to buy a copy, shocked!

Yeah, I mean KFP I & II are pretty good movies, but they don't really seem to me to cater to the WoW crowd. Certainly not enough to base a franchise on. And I'm not sure it's enough to build an MMO on. When I first heard about the expansion, I was really kind of shocked, as it just seemed out of place compared to the original and the previous two expansions.
Holy fucking lol, thought you guys were kidding. I never realized it was mists of Pandaria. I thought it was Pandoria. Like Pandora with an i in it. Pandas? Monk pandas? HAHAH.

Oh god my sides are hurting.
Avatar 9253
45.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 08:16
45.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 08:16
Sep 28, 2012, 08:16
 
Ok now diasco 3 and wanda panda is released they can be sold lets hope something good comes out of that Book
44.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 08:03
44.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 08:03
Sep 28, 2012, 08:03
 
imo MMOs need to go the route of one world server about now, no more 100 people on server x and you're stuck with 10 people on yours.
Ofc then you'd get ping issues etc. So that's where they need to develop more tech to handle that in some way
Avatar 21249
43.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 07:44
43.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 07:44
Sep 28, 2012, 07:44
 
Fire the marketing bonehead that came up with the whole panda theme.

Dumbest, least attractive game theme ever.
Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride! - HT
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42.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 05:58
42.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 05:58
Sep 28, 2012, 05:58
 
First visible sign of market exhaustion of WoW?
41.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 05:47
41.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 05:47
Sep 28, 2012, 05:47
 
Flo wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 03:50:
What did they expect?? I mean... they put fucking pandas in there!? Anyone!?

Exactly!
40.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 03:50
Flo
 
40.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 03:50
Sep 28, 2012, 03:50
 Flo
 
What did they expect?? I mean... they put fucking pandas in there!? Anyone!?
Supporter of the "Chewbacca Defense"
39.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 03:33
39.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 03:33
Sep 28, 2012, 03:33
 
JeffD wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 21:01:
Uhmm.. the last thing i wanted to do monday night was drag my ass out to buy pandaria at midnight. Go digital sales?

"Lazard analysts believe Pandaria's digital sales won't make up for its poor retail performance"

Fuck you it won't... it is an expansion.. an expansion that you don't even need the dvd that comes with it for. you pay $39 bucks from a credit card.. and boom your in. No pre download.. no wasting gas.. nadda.

Stupid research companies.

Easy now Easy now , nobody will take your wanda panda game away from you Book
38.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 02:53
38.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 02:53
Sep 28, 2012, 02:53
 
Gotta love analysts to begin with. iphone 5 pushed 5 mil units and sales weren't there, now a expansion for WoW pushes 600-700k, boxed units, in a couple days and sales aren't there. Digital sales were probably bigger and that went directly into Blizzards piggiebank and won't be know until released. People probably wanted to play right as the new content went live at 3am eastern for the US servers so they had it bought and ready to go. The only barrier holding back sales is the usual requires the previous expansion to play. So a new player would need the base game, BC, Wrath, Cata and then this so that might leave some sales on the shelves.
Shoot I did the same thing back when Cataclysm went live and thought about going back to see it again as I dropped my sub probably 3 mo's after Cata since I was just burned out on MMO's. I figured sure I would like to play the monk class but do I really want to grind through 1-60 in vanilla area, 60-70bc, 70-80 wrath, 80-85 cata just before I see the new content of this expansion? Granted xp gains are probably better so can probably move to the expansion areas a level or 2 ahead by now but still the thought of seeing that content again stopped me from going back for now.
37.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 02:06
37.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 02:06
Sep 28, 2012, 02:06
 
I used to be passionate about a lot of gaming stuff too.
Nowadays I just have too much to play and no time to play it.

As far as pandaland goes however, I'm still in control of a guild that I created back in 2004? We have a few of the slightly harder core players, but nothing like it was back then. Mostly we're just a community of like minded wetards that spend far more time talking shit than actually achieving anything in game.
We keep trundling forward like a bunch of zombies for every patch/expansion that blizzard releases, and we only do it because it's the best way to stay in contact with people while having something to fill in the downtime between people coming on/offline.

Regardless of what the nutbags complain about, the game has lost it's hardcore appeal. (Something that was barely there to being with). And it's now pretty much winding down and only continuing for the majority which is the casual playerbase. I'm fine with this. 5 years ago, not so much, but I'm older and tired'er now.

I'd go on about the whole hardcore thing, but in all honesty they're the gaming 1%, and nobody gives a shit about their wants or needs.
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36.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 02:03
36.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 02:03
Sep 28, 2012, 02:03
 
n3farious wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 21:03:
Fuggin trolls. I'm sick of the kung fu panda references. The 'Pandas' have been part of the lore long before either movie came out.

Second, since the family and I all play, I purchased 5 copies of the digital version, and none of the physical. So, I contributed heavily to the 'poor retail performance'. The queue of 1200 players during prime times tells me that I'm not alone.

Finally, the expansion is very well executed. The artwork, engine upgrades and story lines are all phenomenal. Is the game dumbed-down for the masses from the old Molten Core 40 man raids? Sure. Are there a lot of usability enhancements which have been made to keep Blizzard's offering current with competition? Absolutely. Is the game worth playing? My monthly subscription says yes.

I bought it, because hey; I put in a TON of time in past years, and expansions were always a fun time to be around. My wife picked it back up again, so I figured I'd level a monk and call it a day when I got to level awesome and wasn't having fun anymore.

The things I've realized since getting back into it:
1) My server is dead. There really aren't that many people around. Even when there should have been tons of people around, when there was a queue when Cataclysm launched, when there was no mobs to kill... my server hit medium. Nobody excitedly dancing and emoting on new characters, not even a ton of people leveling new monks. It was really, really underwhelming.

2) Pandas are fucking stupid. The "they were always lore!" thing is BS, they were a joke. They've been around for quite a while, but never in any kind of major role, and that's because they're stupid and everyone seemed to know it and agree on that until Pandaria was announced and some fans decided they must be awesome then. The more I play the more Pandarians I encounter and the more I wonder why they chose them; the interviews Blue linked to here over the past week talked about how they were more serious than people realize, but no. No, they aren't.

Oh, and as for the Kung Fu panda references... at level 20 you get your spirit travel as a monk and go to Pandaria, and one of the first guys you have to talk to? Yup, Kung Fu Panda reference.

Hell, the female pandas look like Fiona from Shrek 2. It's hard to unsee once you notice it.

3) Leveling through the Cataclysm-redone areas I've hit on what I see as being the problem for the last two years. Pop culture overload. Everything is meant to be funny, or a pun, or whatever... where did the serious stuff go? Maybe Horde is different, but I'm so tired of lame pun quests already. The story was Warcraft was f'ing cool, and it's kind of been subverted by this tongue in cheek crap from the A-Team to Harrison Jones. I miss the old stuff, and Pandaland isn't like the old stuff.

I never cared about 40-man raids, don't have rose colored glasses that say this game sucked since Vanilla (which makes me laugh...Vanilla was rough), or any of that. It's not the quality of Pandaria that's the problem, but for me as a solo player it's the absolute shift in tone. This is not the Warcraft that people fell in love with.

It's still the best dungeon grouping or raiding game on the market, hands down. I wouldn't be surprised if digital sales make up for a lot more than they realize, and the expansion does ok. But, after playing a bit, the thematic change and the feel and the perception of the game is different; I'd be beyond surprised if the game stops bleeding players because of this and not surprised at all if it gets worse.
35.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 01:41
35.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 01:41
Sep 28, 2012, 01:41
 
I wish I was still as passionate about video games as you guys are.
34.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 00:45
El Pit
 
34.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 00:45
Sep 28, 2012, 00:45
 El Pit
 
You mean Pandaland was no good idea? Wait for the next expansion "Revenge of the Pink Fairies". Or "Nightmares in Unicorn Land". Blizzard still knows what fans want (e.g. RMAH, always-online DRM). Ey, Actiblizz? Right?
In the current political and social climate, don't be an aggressive monkey . Show that you have evolved that important thin sugar coating called civilization. Don't fall for the fools.
33.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 00:22
33.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 00:22
Sep 28, 2012, 00:22
 
Darks wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 21:20:
And one of the big issues I have always had with this crap is the price tag on a subscription based game. There’s no call for a game add-on to cost this much.
Exactly why I played for 3 months, the base game and BC expansion I got in a package deal.

Afaik they still don't offer a complete package after 10 years, douchbags.
Scorpio Slasher: ... What about you boy, what do hate?
Marcus: ... Bullies. Tiny d*ck egotists who hurt people for no reason, make people lock their doors at night. People who make general existence worse, people like you.
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32.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 28, 2012, 00:21
32.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 28, 2012, 00:21
Sep 28, 2012, 00:21
 
I think subliminally people know pandas are useless creatures who're picky eaters, poor at reproduction, and need humans to pamper them to stay alive, otherwise they are an inferior life form that should vanish into history.
31.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 27, 2012, 23:21
31.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 27, 2012, 23:21
Sep 27, 2012, 23:21
 
I'm thinking this is a strategy- like Metallica's last album- "We're sick and tired of this shit we want to go shopping."
30.
 
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing?
Sep 27, 2012, 23:07
30.
Re: Mists of Pandaria Sales Disappointing? Sep 27, 2012, 23:07
Sep 27, 2012, 23:07
 
Prez wrote on Sep 27, 2012, 20:53:
It's only Actiblizz and their monetize everything mantra that keeps this churning out like a factory now.

Normally I find you a tad over-cynical in many respects but I think in this case you absolutely nailed it. Who would have envisioned Blizzard becoming a soul-less passion-less cash factory ten years ago?

Cynical? No. Pragmatic? Yes. That's one of the advantages of being a bartender and historian both. You come to understand human nature really well and you constantly see it repeated over and over again down through history. We all suffer from cognitive dissonance to a degree but mine is much less than most people by virtue of what I do and what I've studied most of my life. I calls 'em the way they are, as it were.
“With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." - Aaron Sati
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