I havn't noticed a drop in population at all, even if they did drop to 5 million that is still more than tripple any other MMO's numbers, the next highest is about 1 million (Linage I think) according to the latest stats.

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

Originally posted by NasherUK

I havn't noticed a drop in population at all, even if they did drop to 5 million that is still more than tripple any other MMO's numbers (I think the next highest is at about 800-900K subscribers).

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

They should continue to hold the servers hostage until they agree to allow Panderen into the game. 

Aion doesn't need to kill WoW, everyone's saying WAR will kill WoW so it will.  Mark my words - WoW will die a few days after WAR is released.

So just because people have a different opinion of the game or any issue concerning WOW they are considered trolls ?  I'm sorry but all of us aren't led by the nose and are made to believe what game developers or media personnel say. We don't look through rose colored glasses everyday.

Originally posted by NasherUK

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

I find it even more funny that blizzard refuse to release any quarterly subs figures since ~AION~ has gone live in Asia. Considering how happy they were to talk about the sub numbers before.... A little korean game like Aion has really shut blizzard up, its really funny

Originally posted by SaintViktor

So just because people have a different opinion of the game or any issue concerning WOW they are considered trolls ?  I'm sorry but all of us aren't led by the nose and are made to believe what game developers or media personnel say. We don't look through rose colored glasses everyday.

Not necessarily different, just some.

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by NasherUK

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

 

I find it even more funny that blizzard refuse to release any quarterly subs figures since ~AION~ has gone live in Asia. Considering how happy they were to talk about the sub numbers before.... A little korean game like Aion has really shut blizzard up, its really funny

What is funny is that people were saying the same things about War, AOC and darkfall.  They were all going to hurt WOW.

Aion is nothing special.  it is very similar to WOW without the content.

If you want to delude yourself with your conspiracy theory, go ahead.  The fact is that WOW can't release subscription numbers becauset he china servers are still down.  They have accountability to their shareholders.  It would be stupid for them to say "we are down to 6M subscribers" and then a week later say "we are back up to 11.6M".   The SEC would probably be all over them.

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by NasherUK

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

I find it even more funny that blizzard refuse to release any quarterly subs figures since ~AION~ has gone live in Asia. Considering how happy they were to talk about the sub numbers before.... A little korean game like Aion has really shut blizzard up, its really funny

 

What is funny is that people were saying the same things about War, AOC and darkfall.  They were all going to hurt WOW.

Aion is nothing special.  it is very similar to WOW without the content.

If you want to delude yourself with your conspiracy theory, go ahead.  The fact is that WOW can't release subscription numbers becauset he china servers are still down.  They have accountability to their shareholders.  It would be stupid for them to say "we are down to 6M subscribers" and then a week later say "we are back up to 11.6M".   The SEC would probably be all over them.

Yeah someone who gets it!!

I am glad someone understands. I find it funny that he thinks Blizzard won't release sub numbers because of Aion when it actuality it is mostly due to business/legal issues. It is unbelievable that it is that difficult for some people to understand such a simple fact.

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by NasherUK

Quite funny how Blizzard now have the power to rally so many people to their cause in China by simply turning their servers off :P

 

I find it even more funny that blizzard refuse to release any quarterly subs figures since ~AION~ has gone live in Asia. Considering how happy they were to talk about the sub numbers before.... A little korean game like Aion has really shut blizzard up, its really funny

YES you are right:

1. yes, aion had tremendous impact on the release of subscrition numbers
2. yes, there has never been a moon landing, all has been filmed by the CIA in a filmstudio
3. yes, still they keep those aliens imprisoned in area 51
4. yes, sliced bread is a korean invention

---------------------------

let

   sarcasm = 0

in

  sarcasm

end

I don't see how you can compare number between Aion and WoW considering WoW was released in 2004 and Aion will be released in September of this year.

Who cares anyway? Many games have 100k to 500k players and still do well.
As for the people saying the sub numbers in Korea/China are low, it's because a majority of them are already with WoW.
Plus, I don't remember WoW doing that well within their first year or so on release and so far Aion is doing quite well pre-release.

Nothing I said is out of spite towards Blizzard/WoW ((I was a WoW fanboy up until about 3 months ago... until I found the greener side of the pasture.) because they did have a great game. But in the past year or so it has just gone downhill and personally don't see it getting much better for them.

 

I will add to this "discussion" that it doesnt matter if you have a million subscribers in Korea and China or a billion, if the money you make from those subscribers is meager at best then theres really no point to gloat.

Lets have a little comparison.

In the first quarter of 2009 WoW by itself made $281 million
(by the way, thats after operating costs but before taxes)

Alternatively, boosted by a strong performance from Aion, NCSoft as a whole made a whopping $46 million

So, while Aion was racking up millions of subscribers in Korea and China, WoW by itself still made more than 6 times more money than every game that NCSoft has.

So, Aion can lay claim to however many millions of subscribers they want and Blizzard will laugh themselves stupid all the way to the bank.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Xiaoki

I will add to this "discussion" that it doesnt matter if you have a million subscribers in Korea and China or a billion, if the money you make from those subscribers is meager at best then theres really no point to gloat.

Lets have a little comparison.

In the first quarter of 2009 WoW by itself made $281 million
(by the way, thats after operating costs but before taxes)

Alternatively, boosted by a strong performance from Aion, NCSoft as a whole made a whopping $46 million

So, while Aion was racking up millions of subscribers in Korea and China, WoW by itself still made more than 6 times more money than every game that NCSoft has.

So, Aion can lay claim to however many millions of subscribers they want and Blizzard will laugh themselves stupid all the way to the bank.

 

Correction here: NCSoft official figures for Aion ... are still at 1.5 M "internet cafés subs" .... (not "millions of").

And as long as Xfire stats show trends (ask Gauge and Mark Jacobs about them) I only see growth for Wow these days...

http://www.xfire.com/games/wow/World_of_Warcraft/

MUCH growth :)))

Subscriptions in Western based mmorpg's with monthly fees are so much harder to gather.

Certainly 3 months after the hyped launch. :))))

 BTW I love the PIE Chart : http://www.xfire.com/genre/mmo/massively_multiplayer_online/

 

I had a look at those pages dont they only pertain to xfire users ? Also the pie chart does not appear to be dated . It can only be an older model given the situation in China if it is indeed ment to be indicative of WoW worldwide subscription status .

Really only an statement from Blizzard would solve the question .Unfortunatly there has not been one forth coming in the last 8 months .If they miss another that will be the third quarterly statement they have missed . I m sure we will get one sooner or later and it is more than likly going to show a drop in subscriptions . I just wonder how large that drop will be .

Originally posted by arthen999

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Xiaoki

I will add to this "discussion" that it doesnt matter if you have a million subscribers in Korea and China or a billion, if the money you make from those subscribers is meager at best then theres really no point to gloat.

Lets have a little comparison.

In the first quarter of 2009 WoW by itself made $281 million
(by the way, thats after operating costs but before taxes)

Alternatively, boosted by a strong performance from Aion, NCSoft as a whole made a whopping $46 million

So, while Aion was racking up millions of subscribers in Korea and China, WoW by itself still made more than 6 times more money than every game that NCSoft has.

So, Aion can lay claim to however many millions of subscribers they want and Blizzard will laugh themselves stupid all the way to the bank.

 

Correction here: NCSoft official figures for Aion ... are still at 1.5 M "internet cafés subs" .... (not "millions of").

And as long as Xfire stats show trends (ask Gauge and Mark Jacobs about them) I only see growth for Wow these days...

http://www.xfire.com/games/wow/World_of_Warcraft/

MUCH growth :)))

Subscriptions in Western based mmorpg's with monthly fees are so much harder to gather.

Certainly 3 months after the hyped launch. :))))

 BTW I love the PIE Chart : http://www.xfire.com/genre/mmo/massively_multiplayer_online/

 

 

I had a look at those pages dont they only pertain to xfire users ? Also the pie chart does not appear to be dated . It can only be an older model given the situation in China if it is indeed ment to be indicative of WoW worldwide subscription status .

Really only an statement from Blizzard would solve the question .Unfortunatly there has not been one forth coming in the last 8 months .If they miss another that will be the third quarterly statement they have missed . I m sure we will get one sooner or later and it is more than likly going to show a drop in subscriptions . I just wonder how large that drop will be .

Wrong, they issued statements, just not statements with sub numbers which they do not have to do.

And why they haven't released sub numbers has been explained multiple times in this thread.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

E3 2009: Blizzard accepts Guinness World Record Awards

http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/e3_2009_blizzard_accepts_guinness_world_record_awards/

11.6 million subscriptions.

Date June 05th 2009.

As the Guiness book of world record is only working with accredited official appointed laywers.

Who still wants to have more proof of the 2nd quarter????

Third quarter end on Sep 30th btw.

PS. The downtime in mainland China (not Taiwan) was from June 7th to July 28th and was not even on a full monthly basis.

 

Then they dropped 6 million players.

whats that then 5.5.. 5.6 million left?

But if they are not able to match the old number they used to have i doubt they will ever bring it up again.

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

Originally posted by tryklon

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

Ok, let's go through this again.

Last year,  Age of Conan and Warhammer were both launched.   WOW grew by over 10% last year and picked up almost 2 million subscribers during the launch of those two competitors

Champions Online and Aion have are nothing compared to the hype of Warhammer and AOC.   Not only did WOW not decline last year, it GREW.  

Look at amazon.com or NPD, WOW battlechest is STILL in the top 20 of all game sales, which means a ton of people are still buying the game and just now starting to play.

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by tryklon

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

 

Ok, let's go through this again.

Last year,  Age of Conan and Warhammer were both launched.   WOW grew by over 10% last year and picked up almost 2 million subscribers during the launch of those two competitors

Champions Online and Aion have are nothing compared to the hype of Warhammer and AOC.   Not only did WOW not decline last year, it GREW.  

Look at amazon.com or NPD, WOW battlechest is STILL in the top 20 of all game sales, which means a ton of people are still buying the game and just now starting to play.

We will see, when the numbers get out, if they ever do...

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by tryklon

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

 

Ok, let's go through this again.

Last year,  Age of Conan and Warhammer were both launched.   WOW grew by over 10% last year and picked up almost 2 million subscribers during the launch of those two competitors

Champions Online and Aion have are nothing compared to the hype of Warhammer and AOC.   Not only did WOW not decline last year, it GREW.  

Look at amazon.com or NPD, WOW battlechest is STILL in the top 20 of all game sales, which means a ton of people are still buying the game and just now starting to play.

So new games launching bring more subs to WOW? Could someone explain to me how that works? Or when someone quits WOW to sub to say Warhammer then comes back to WOW does Blizz count the returning player as a new sub? Somehow this just doesnt sound right.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by tryklon

I don't think blizzard with say the numbers if they are under the 11.5M they advertised last, or else it would show a loss of players.

With Champions Online, Aion and other games on the way, that, more or less will attract players, plus the chinese fiasco, i dont believe Blizzard will anytime soon present sub numbers.

 

Ok, let's go through this again.

Last year,  Age of Conan and Warhammer were both launched.   WOW grew by over 10% last year and picked up almost 2 million subscribers during the launch of those two competitors

Champions Online and Aion have are nothing compared to the hype of Warhammer and AOC.   Not only did WOW not decline last year, it GREW.  

Look at amazon.com or NPD, WOW battlechest is STILL in the top 20 of all game sales, which means a ton of people are still buying the game and just now starting to play.

 

http://www.xfire.com/games/wow/World_of_Warcraft/

The same trend is already showing with the Beta launches of those newest "competitors".

Ask Mark Jacobs how trustworthy the trends shown on Xfire really are.

Reason for this growth?

Patch 3.2 is launching next week, two weeks later there is Blizzcon and in December the final countdown with Arthas is programmed.

Shrug.Just see the graphs, last time this year Wow had around 82K on Xfire this year it is around 90K+.

That is all extremely nice, but still, i fail to understand why Blizzard is jumping quarters without sub numbers release

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by tryklon

Originally posted by Zorndorf

 

http://www.xfire.com/games/wow/World_of_Warcraft/

The same trend is already showing with the Beta launches of those newest "competitors".

Ask Mark Jacobs how trustworthy the trends shown on Xfire really are.

Reason for this growth?

Patch 3.2 is launching next week, two weeks later there is Blizzcon and in December the final countdown with Arthas is programmed.

Shrug.Just see the graphs, last time this year Wow had around 82K on Xfire this year it is around 90K+.

 

That is all extremely nice, but still, i fail to understand why Blizzard is jumping quarters without sub numbers release

 

http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/e3_2009_blizzard_accepts_guinness_world_record_awards/

Guess again:

Info came on June 5th (2nd quarter) WITH official confirmation of the GWR).

Or perhaps those guys ALL lie....

Now couple this with the link of present days Xfire trends...

Then realize the new Chinese relaunch on July 28th ... showed the log in screen of ... WotlK.

Need a bet what the launch of WotLK will do to China in the fiollowing months?

Again, and I quote "AGAIN" this link is bogus. The guiness world record number doesn't state at what date these sub numbers were derived from. You think you talk alot about facts but in reality the crap you spew are straight up lies to preach your WoW shill propaganda..

Also, lmoa @ x-fire ..no one even uses this program. So any "trends" you gather can be flushed down toilet as with all the useless crap you preach.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by supbro

 

Again, and I quote "AGAIN" this link is bogus. The guiness world record number doesn't state at what date these sub numbers were derived from. You think you talk alot about facts but in reality the crap you spew are straight up lies to preach your WoW shill propaganda..

Also, lmoa @ x-fire ..no one even uses this program. So any "trends" you gather can be flushed down toilet as with all the useless crap you preach.

 

The Guinees world records are ALWAYS recorded with appointed laywers present and it was handed to Blizzard on June 5th.

11.600.0000 was a NEW number above the confirmed 11.5 M old number.

If you don't believe the confirmed Guiness records, well be happy. Even the top of Blizz was present as the link showed.

FYI: in the past Blizz mostly put out the subs per quarter. This last quarter it was done in combo with the Guiness book.

http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/e3_2009_blizzard_accepts_guinness_world_record_awards/

--------

Xfire shows very much trends in MMO's being played and Xfire showed the trends of AoC and WAR MONTHS in advance.

The samples are HUGE and they show trends that were actual ON top when predicting declinin subs of War and AOC in advance.

Like I said: ask the EX presidents of FunCom and Mythic just how accurate they were in predicting the subs (always confirmed MONTHS later by the number of open/closed servers and offical statements).

 

I dont get why you keep beating the same squirrell. Man those 11.6 million were achieved at the top of the games popularity, and the guiness record says the wow was the game with the highest subscription numbers. Where the hell does it say thet wow had 11.6 millions by june 2009?

Figures lie and liars figure....words of wisdom from Gramps.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by tryklon

Originally posted by Zorndorf

 

The Guinees world records are ALWAYS recorded with appointed laywers present and it was handed to Blizzard on June 5th.

11.600.0000 was a NEW number above the confirmed 11.5 M old number.

If you don't believe the confirmed Guiness records, well be happy. Even the top of Blizz was present as the link showed.

FYI: in the past Blizz mostly put out the subs per quarter. This last quarter it was done in combo with the Guiness book.

http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/e3_2009_blizzard_accepts_guinness_world_record_awards/

--------

Xfire shows very much trends in MMO's being played and Xfire showed the trends of AoC and WAR MONTHS in advance.

The samples are HUGE and they show trends that were actual ON top when predicting declinin subs of War and AOC in advance.

Like I said: ask the EX presidents of FunCom and Mythic just how accurate they were in predicting the subs (always confirmed MONTHS later by the number of open/closed servers and offical statements).

 

 

I dont get why you keep beating the same squirrell. Man those 11.6 million were achieved at the top of the games popularity, and the guiness record says the wow was the game with the highest subscription numbers. Where the hell does it say thet wow had 11.6 millions by june 2009?

 

Because the previous quarters mentioned 11.5 million.

11.6 million was the statement made in conjuction with the Guiness book people on June 5th.

 

The guiness book people gave the award on june 5 refering to the previous year, its muchb like the Oscars =P... what i want is a release of the first and second quarters of 2009 subscription numbers... link me that pls

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by tryklon

Originally posted by Zorndorf

 

Because the previous quarters mentioned 11.5 million.

11.6 million was the statement made in conjuction with the Guiness book people on June 5th.

 

 

The guiness book people gave the award on june 5 refering to the previous year, its muchb like the Oscars =P... what i want is a release of the first and second quarters of 2009 subscription numbers... link me that pls

 

You assumption is false (of course on purpose I suppose).

Why? http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=355698

---> Because the record of last year in December was 11.5 M, not 11.6 M. Like I said the 11.6 M was a new and higher figure than that "of last year".

As the official report of the 2nd quarter is not even out yet (August), it is nice you want to see info that is not even piblished yet.

Since Wow was taken out by the Chinese government between June 8th and July 27th, it would be interesting to see how the new launched WotlK will do in the next quarter.

there you are going circles again..... very well then, i dont want 2nd quarter numbers, only in august, and since that link you gave me is from december 2008, show me 1st quarter then, the official numbers. Or hasnt that been release yet also... maybe in august?

Besides, 11.6 million is not a posterior number, its right there, "its award-winning subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, is now played by more than 11.5 million subscribers worldwide"    read again, MORE than 11.5 so you have your 11.6 right there in december... i want 2009 numbers

So now we are getting somewhere, so after all the mighty world of warcraft , after 5 years of incresing sucess .... LEVELED UP and got STEADY... lol.... the cap has bee hitted i see..... and according to wotlk in china, we will see about that, first i want to see 2nd quarter numbers... you are only fooling yourslef if you think the China fiasco will go unpunished and you think the numbers will remain the same...