WoW subscriber drop and possible 4th expansion.

[CasualMatt]

I figured people here would like to read this seeing how people like World of Warcraft and stuff:

First off: Cataclysm has lost 900,000 active subscriptions since its launch last Christmas. People who don't know what that means, the interest in the game is dropping - at least in the EU and USA anyway.

Source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2400...Blue-Posts

Second off: Blizzard have filed a copyright claim to the name Mists of Pandaria leading many to believe that this is the inevitable 4th expansion pack in the WoW series. The current consensus is that it'll add a new eastern themed continent to the game.

Source: http://www.mmo-champion.com/content/2399...f-Pandaria

What do you think?

[Roxas65]

There's already an entire thread on Mists of Pandaria in off topic.

[Djura]

Number 2 is old news.

But Blizzard will think of yet another ingenious/horrid/blasphemous way out of the money loss. I'm damn sure.

[Kira13]

We think we already talked about this. :3

[CappnRob]

Even if WoW has lost some 900k subscribers, it can be attributed to a number of things beyond loss of interest, such as the recession. Either way, WoW has some 12 million players world wide, so this is hardly a big loss in the long run.

[Kira13]

12 million? That was when the Wrath was released.

[Wuvvums]

Actually I thought interest in gaming goes up during recessions because people use it as a cheap way to relieve stress.

[Uthaniel]

Actually I thought interest in gaming goes up during recessions because people use it as a cheap way to relieve stress.

While interest in gaming may go up, interest in paying will certainly go down. Specially with private server alternatives.

[CasualMatt]

In the interest of fairness:

11.1M is the current number of active subscriptions on World of Warcraft (as of June 2011).

It's certainly not in trouble, this was more of a discussion of what do you think of 900,000 subscriptions being dropped in under 12 months?

[Kaghuros]

I think Blizzard will really try to cater more to Chinese and South Korean audiences with the new expansion, because that's where their fastest-growing market is.

[Dragonbeard]

It comes from people like me who have played since 2004-2005 and are just bored of the game because we've done everything we want to do.

[Binkleheimer]

Yea, that's kinda it really.
Even my interest is kinda gone with retail.

[SpiralLateralus]

On the one hand I'm sure they are concerned, on the other hand they still receive boatloads of cash every month.

[CharAznable]

The losses will likely be recouped in the long run. WoW has always gone through fluctuations in subscribers as expansions go along. As long as Asia keeps its populace up, I doubt they will panic too much.