During yesterday's investor's call, Activision-Blizzard announced that World of Warcraft subscriber numbers are ~10.2 million. This number is down approximately 100,000 since November of last year. The company indicated, however, that profits for the quarter were up due to successful releases of Skylanders and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and to over a million folks taking advantage of the WoW Annual Pass.

Read the full investors' report and its news about World of Warcraft.

news title would have been better stated as:

Activision/Blizzard:  Wow subs down, Profits up

Actually the subscriber loss isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Plus a million annual passes sold.  The ship isn't sinking quite as fast as I was lead to believe.

I thought WoW's subscription loss would be much greater since last November due to the launch of SWTOR.

Originally posted by Qazaam

Actually the subscriber loss isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Plus a million annual passes sold.  The ship isn't sinking quite as fast as I was lead to believe.

should be noted

a million annual passes does not mean that players payed for a year in advance

the annual pass is a declaration of "intent to pay for a year"

players can pay monthly and be part of the annual pass  -- and the player can drop out from the agreement anytime

 I agree, WOW is doing OK

Originally posted by mmoDAD

I thought WoW's subscription loss would be much greater since last November due to the launch of SWTOR.

Well like 90% of WoW's subs are in regions where SWTOR is not yet available.  You will see a bigger drop in subs from Rift opening in China than SWTOR launching NA and Europe.

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by Qazaam

Actually the subscriber loss isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Plus a million annual passes sold.  The ship isn't sinking quite as fast as I was lead to believe.

should be noted

a million annual passes does not mean that players payed for a year in advance

 

the annual pass is a declaration of "intent to pay for a year"

players can pay monthly and be part of the annual pass  -- and the player can drop out from the agreement anytime

 

 I agree, WOW is doing OK

I know how the annual pass works, but considering the fact that only about 5 million accounts even qualified to sign up for the annual pass and that 20% said, "I plan on playing WoW for another year" speaks volumes. 

The other thing to consider: with so many players getting into the MoP beta - I wonder if they are even going to charge for that xpac considering how many will get to consume it's content before it's even out. Hmmmm.

Originally posted by ProfRed

 You will see a bigger drop in subs from Rift opening in China than SWTOR launching NA and Europe.

thanks for ithe info

I wasnt aware that RIFT is launching in China in march

Things are never as bad as this site makes it out to be.

The money lost from the small number of cancelled subscriptions is easily made up by their cash shop.

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by Qazaam

Actually the subscriber loss isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Plus a million annual passes sold.  The ship isn't sinking quite as fast as I was lead to believe.

should be noted

a million annual passes does not mean that players payed for a year in advance

 

the annual pass is a declaration of "intent to pay for a year"

players can pay monthly and be part of the annual pass  -- and the player can drop out from the agreement anytime

 

 I agree, WOW is doing OK

The one line of this I would bring up is:

"players can pay monthly and be part of the annual pass -- and the player can drop out from the agreement anytime"

Actually if you sign up for the pass the cancel option is greyed out on your account.   Mousing over it will say you cannot cancel until (and I forget the exact wording) but its 12 months from when you signed up for the pass.

Obviously you can go to your credit card company and decline the charges... however, you will then have your account permanently banned as well.

So yes you can drop out anytime... if you don't plan on ever playing that account* again.  (edited to add "that account" )

Some people may choose to do that...

I just thought it should be clear that while you could "opt out" there is no way to go into account management and do it.   Or in other words... There is no Blizzard approved way to simply drop out.

Originally posted by Antarious

"players can pay monthly and be part of the annual pass -- and the player can drop out from the agreement anytime"

Actually if you sign up for the pass the cancel option is greyed out on your account.   Mousing over it will say you cannot cancel until (and I forget the exact wording) but its 12 months from when you signed up for the pass.

Obviously you can go to your credit card company and decline the charges... however, you will then have your account permanently banned as well.

So yes you can drop out anytime... if you don't plan on ever playing that account* again.  (edited to add "that account" )

Some people may choose to do that...

I just thought it should be clear that while you could "opt out" there is no way to go into account management and do it.   Or in other words... There is no Blizzard approved way to simply drop out.

people have paid with a time card and their acct was frozen when next month wasnt paid - not banned

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/338806/Annual-pass-no-money-taken.html

faq

http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/world-of-warcraft-annual-pass-faq

terms of use

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/world-of-warcraft-annual-pass-tou.html

If your World of Warcraft subscription lapses during the Twelve Month Commitment, or if you fail to make any required payments or timely payments, Blizzard reserves the right to terminate your participation in this offer in addition to any and all other remedies that may be available to Blizzard at law.

Originally posted by Nadia

news title would have been better stated as:

Activision/Blizzard:  Wow subs down, Profits up

Yeah, unless Blizzard sells more stuff in the RMT as well. It wouldn´t actually be that far fetched, 100K players ain´t so much.

People paying for a year really is a profit that should be splitted for the entire year or they suddenly will lose money next period since those people already paid.

Wel I think now and in the next few months WOW will actually get more subs. I see three reasons.

1) People realizing that Star wars is just blah. People who didnt sub to wow cause they were waiting to see how star wars would turn out.

2) I think theres a lot of people (like myself) who havent played since WOTLK and are missing wow. I could see this because other then Rift there is no other fantasy mmo's worth playing. 

3) People getting the anual pass to get diablo 3 free.

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/38102/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm/

The gullible fanboys really think there are still 10.3 million active subscribers when they only sell 3 million of the latest expansion?

...yeeeea, not likely.

Originally posted by wormed

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/38102/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm/

The gullible fanboys really think there are still 10.3 million active subscribers when they only sell 3 million of the latest expansion?

...yeeeea, not likely.

blizzard claimed one month sales of 4.7 million --- I trust that more than an "estimation" site

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?id=2847887

Originally posted by wormed

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/38102/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm/

The gullible fanboys really think there are still 10.3 million active subscribers when they only sell 3 million of the latest expansion?

...yeeeea, not likely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft:_Cataclysm#Sales

Blizzard would also be breaking the law by releasing false information to investors. 

Even if your link was true, 3 million would still make it the most played MMO on the market wouldn't it?

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by wormed

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/38102/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm/

The gullible fanboys really think there are still 10.3 million active subscribers when they only sell 3 million of the latest expansion?

...yeeeea, not likely.

blizzard claimed one month sales of 4.7 million --- I trust that more than an "estimation" site

http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?id=2847887

If that's the case, it's still a far cry from 10.3m.

Originally posted by dreamsofwar

Originally posted by wormed

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/38102/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm/

The gullible fanboys really think there are still 10.3 million active subscribers when they only sell 3 million of the latest expansion?

...yeeeea, not likely.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft:_Cataclysm#Sales

Blizzard would also be breaking the law by releasing false information to investors. 

Even if your link was true, 3 million would still make it the most played MMO on the market wouldn't it?

 

Yea, and I'm sure you think the "law" is pristine and perfect in the United States. /sarcasm

That 4.7 million is still just one month of sales. It hardly equals the total sales of the expansion.

i hated cata with a passion but it outsold all other wow expansions on its release

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/12/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-breaks-sales-records-for-pc-gaming.ars