Originally posted by joocheese

Anyone know...

1. How many copies of wow have been sold? (the original one, cause you can't play any expansion without the original)

I think that might be hard to figure, because of:

1. It's included in the WoW Battle Chest
2. The offers where it was bundled to some of the expansion packs and/or other games by Blizzard or by some retailer
3. Digital sales ... I don't think it's really possible to get the exact numbers here due to thousands of channel those keys where sold through - not until Blizzard states how many keys the've generated and someone could figure out how much where actually sold to the end customer.

Originally posted by ActionMMORPG

 Overall, I don't think they're counting on much from the NA EU markets.  I think the real target for MOP is Asia.

I'd second that. I do not really know how chinese people think about Blizzards implementation of pandas. But they love/worship pandas and if Blizzard has done it in a way appealing to them, it could break sales records just by counting those in china alone.

Originally posted by SoulOfRaziel

Originally posted by Requiem6

Originally posted by ActionMMORPG

Many came back for Scroll of Ressurection.  The instant 80, free cata upgrade, free transfer, free gear upgrade, and free flyer for the inviter was quite a bargain for the cost of a month's $15.00 subscription.

 

The question is, how long will they stay.

A pretty long time with MoP coming up.

If anything MoP will make even more people come back and number will grow.

Thats right u can say that WoW is old and obsolete and i will agree i think there are better mmorpg out there but Blizz did a very good job turning it into a money maker machine

And why would I as a gamer care about creating money maker machines? I care about good games.

on this scroll  of res  whats the deal

i currently only have   up to burning crusade    if somone  sends me a scroll   and i sub for a month do i instantly get upgraded to cata  ?

is there a time limit on the offer?

Originally posted by zimboy69

on this scroll  of res  whats the deal

 

 

 

i currently only have   up to burning crusade    if somone  sends me a scroll   and i sub for a month do i instantly get upgraded to cata  ?

 

 

is there a time limit on the offer?

this is what ya get without subbing first

When your friend accepts your invitation and returns to WoW, he or she immediately receives the following FREE rewards for ONE character:

• Character boosted to level 80 - limited time offer
• FREE upgrade to Cataclysm
• 7 FREE days of game time 
• This is before you s

Originally posted by Terrorizor

out of all my friends that played WoW, the last two have quit and are hoping to sell their accounts.  So it's 10,199,998 now unless 2 new people started up. Unless someone can prove 2 new players, I won't buy into this whole 10.2 million thing.

Really? All the "rez scoll plz" threads in here would not convince of that?

Well, ok. 2 of my friends took a scroll recently and are back in the game, we are back at 10.2 millions people! (the rest of the post answers random other posts in the thread, not to the quoted part)

As for the "gimmick" of the yearly subscription... what gimmick? what RIP OFF? why???? you pledge to pay for a year of WoW (in whatever form you want, you do not pay all up front) to get free diablo III, assured partecipation in MoP beta and a free mount... what rip off is there??

I Think MoP will be more succesfull than Cata as well, it is a "Real" expansion, much more like Wotlk and BC, with a clear theme, continent and chocked full of new things. New way to play the game, both at max level and while levelling up especially should be all needed here.... Plus somehow they managed to top their graphics once again and Pandaria looks incredibly amazing.

As for people trying to speak for the "vets" do not believe them. Me, my wife and all my friends have NEVER been hardcore but we ARE MMOs vets, from UO to EQ and yes, from Vanilla WoW...only I do not keep my rose tinted glasses on, Vanilla had many good memories but also many really glaring flaws and I'm quite happy how the game has progressed to this point... So yeah.. not all "vets" are leaving in droves... this one certainly isn't (that won't stop me from trying new MMOs of course... I tried SWTor and will try TSW as well :D) and neither are my friends.

10 million people and they all want EPIIIIIIIIICCCCCSSSSSXXXXXX!!!!!!

Jeez, some of you guys really have no clue how business minds work.  The fact that they stayed at 10.2 million for Q1 2012 is not indicative of the pulse of the game.  Now, I am not saying I presume to know all, but I would venture to guess that this is mainly due to the scroll of rez.

Think about it...for what, 3, 4,5 straight quarters WoW experienced subscription loss in some fashion?  Investors were becoming antsy. They wanted re-assurance the game isnt beginning to decline in popularity, otherwise why else continue to invest?  Some of these guys invest a lot of money over a long period of time.  They want to be re-assured that their investment is stable for the long term, not one or two years.  Since they've seen declining subs over at least a year, they were worried.  Lets also not forget, the #1 job, responsibility and PRIORITY for ANY company worth it's spit (and take an economics class for this one) is not necessarily to please your customerbase, but to keep the stockholders happy (which, most of the time does conicide with pleasing customer base).  If they could please the stockholders and provide them with re-assurance no matter the cost, they will.  Blizzard just wanted a quick way to boost sub numbers so they dont have to report to these investors (who prop up the company) that they had declining subs for another quarter.

So they released this temporary "fix" for their subscription issue.  Lots of people come back to check it out.  With 3+ months of DS till MoP, and WoWs already growing reputation for releasing poor content, I see a lot of those Scroll of Rez returnees to leave in the next month or two, or have already left.  They looked around and realized its the same bland game, even if I was handed a free 80. 

In short, after the honeymoon two week period of Scroll of Rez wears/wore off, a lot of people will leave again until MoP or for good.  They will lose subs again in Q2 unless they apply a gimmick fix like they did in Q1.  The fact that they remained stable in subscriptions is nothing more than a result of clever business management aimed to keep the stockholders happy.  Nothing more.  The game is as stale as it ever has been, and continues to steal a lot of its ideas from other games (wait, don't all companies do that now?).

On a side note, I think this is the first expansion that Blizzard has released for WoW that the community is half and half mixed on.  Half the people love it, half hate it.  I do not remember BC, WOTLK, or Cata receiving this much mixed reactions.  Because of this general feeling, I think that many people won't be coming back to WoW because they cannot keep up with the innovations of other companies, or I think a lot will leave before 3 months into MoP when they realized "if you polish a turd its still a turd".  The graphics are still mediocre, even for a game released 7 years ago, the talent system is the wrong way of doing things (see Teras glyph system to accomplish what you really wanted to do blizzard), Pet battles wont fix the game, etc..

Just my two cents as a business analyst myself.

WoW is the first and IMO still the best theme park MMO on the market. People aren't tired of WoW, they're tired of theme park MMO's. 

I tried the Rift demo and I just couldn't do it. It was the same "Kill 10 bears, collect 5 bear asses" like WoW was. Same with SWTOR: "Kill 8 troopers, and use this scanning device on their bodies. And while you're out there I need 5 bear asses."

I don't think any of these games are bad (disappointing in an area or two, but not bad), but it's the same kill X, collect X, run to quest hub X, raid with X people, dungeons with X people concept that WoW started 7 years ago. I hope if anything positive comes out of the disappointment many have in SWTOR, it's that a developer or 2 will shy away from the theme park model and try something new and innovative.

Edit: Also I'm coming back to WoW for the expansion, mostly to check out Pandaria as well as the Farming and Pet Battles. I know a lot of people might laugh at that, but both owning a farm and doing pokemon style pet battles is something I've never done in an MMO.

Of course Blizzard only mentioned in the small footnotes of their investor reportsheet the little fact that Eastern "subsriptions" had increased while total subs stayed the same, which of course means but was never directly mentioned that Western WoW subscriptions declined again and losseswhere merely compensated by the Eastern "subscriptions". A small detail missing from any of the summaries and the summarized handouts. They certainly know how to misslead the press and their customer and make them rejoice over matters that if you understand them actually are bad news.

Ironically WoW Korea and Taiwan both where already merging server, hence they are likely as usual gained from the Chinese market as much as some fans would like to deny it. The Chinese online gamer market appears to grow faster than WoW could die out. Or they pulled another cheap "free playtime" promotion campaign to inflate "active user"="subs".

Unfortunately Blizzard is fudging their online revenues which until now clearly indicated the decline of WoW over the last years despite all missleading hype and PR twists, with those newly added "Call of Duty" membersgip fees next to SC2 royalties, to cover up the decline of WoWs revenues. Of course CoD could only cover it up for a few two or thee quarters even if its doing well. And CoD was doing well. Memberships and premium memberships doubled since 2011, which means CoD online revenues should  have stayed the same. But no worries Blizzard will certainly count D3s P2WAH revenues and probably even boxsales into the online revenue section either thanks to the convenient fact it requires an online connection.

Still if you look between the lines we already know for fact:

WoW officially lost Western subscriber again.

WoW lost Western subscriber despite anual pass deals and resurrection scrolls reactivating inactive accounts with enhanced benefits.

WoW revenues ineviteably dropped due to lower revenues from Asian "active accounts".

Originally posted by Sukiyaki

Of course Blizzard only mentioned in the small footnotes of their investor reportsheet the little fact that Eastern "subsriptions" had increased while total subs stayed the same, which of course means but was never directly mentioned that Western WoW subscriptions declined again and losseswhere merely compensated by the Eastern "subscriptions". A small detail missing from any of the summaries and the summarized handouts. They certainly know how to misslead the press and their customer and make them rejoice over matters that if you understand them actually are bad news.

Ironically WoW Korea and Taiwan both where already merging server, hence they are likely as usual gained from the Chinese market as much as some fans would like to deny it. The Chinese online gamer market appears to grow faster than WoW could die out. Or they pulled another cheap "free playtime" promotion campaign to inflate "active user"="subs".

Unfortunately Blizzard is fudging their online revenues which until now clearly indicated the decline of WoW over the last years despite all missleading hype and PR twists, with those newly added "Call of Duty" membersgip fees next to SC2 royalties, to cover up the decline of WoWs revenues. Of course CoD could only cover it up for a few two or thee quarters even if its doing well. And CoD was doing well. Memberships and premium memberships doubled since 2011, which means CoD online revenues should  have stayed the same. But no worries Blizzard will certainly count D3s P2WAH revenues and probably even boxsales into the online revenue section either thanks to the convenient fact it requires an online connection.

 

Still if you look between the lines we already know for fact:

WoW officially lost Western subscriber again.

WoW lost Western subscriber despite anual pass deals and resurrection scrolls reactivating inactive accounts with enhanced benefits.

WoW revenues ineviteably dropped due to lower revenues from Asian "active accounts".

Saw the title of the post, "WoW holds at 10.2million"... and thought to myself..

......WoW, who still cares? Its such a tired subject Im honestly going to bed after posting, night! -_-'

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Originally posted by expresso

Where are your links and sources for this info, or are you assuming?

---

China is only mentioned to say that Blizzard renewed with distributor their.

Also, if you look at revenues by region from this quarter and last quarter Asia Pacific is only up by $2 million.

So, who knows.

Originally posted by expresso

Originally posted by Sukiyaki

Of course Blizzard only mentioned in the small footnotes of their investor reportsheet the little fact that Eastern "subsriptions" had increased while total subs stayed the same, which of course means but was never directly mentioned that Western WoW subscriptions declined again and losseswhere merely compensated by the Eastern "subscriptions". A small detail missing from any of the summaries and the summarized handouts. They certainly know how to misslead the press and their customer and make them rejoice over matters that if you understand them actually are bad news.

Ironically WoW Korea and Taiwan both where already merging server, hence they are likely as usual gained from the Chinese market as much as some fans would like to deny it. The Chinese online gamer market appears to grow faster than WoW could die out. Or they pulled another cheap "free playtime" promotion campaign to inflate "active user"="subs".

Unfortunately Blizzard is fudging their online revenues which until now clearly indicated the decline of WoW over the last years despite all missleading hype and PR twists, with those newly added "Call of Duty" membersgip fees next to SC2 royalties, to cover up the decline of WoWs revenues. Of course CoD could only cover it up for a few two or thee quarters even if its doing well. And CoD was doing well. Memberships and premium memberships doubled since 2011, which means CoD online revenues should  have stayed the same. But no worries Blizzard will certainly count D3s P2WAH revenues and probably even boxsales into the online revenue section either thanks to the convenient fact it requires an online connection.

 

Still if you look between the lines we already know for fact:

WoW officially lost Western subscriber again.

WoW lost Western subscriber despite anual pass deals and resurrection scrolls reactivating inactive accounts with enhanced benefits.

WoW revenues ineviteably dropped due to lower revenues from Asian "active accounts".

 

Where are your links and sources for this info, or are you assuming?

I couldnt image how the lines could be in any way been missunderstood as me making "assumptions" rather than clearly refering to the black on white facts of the named report.

But let me help you with a citation and a oh so hard to find link to the recent reports:

"At March 31, 2012, the worldwide subscriber base for World of Warcraft was 10.2 million, compared to a subscriber base of 10.2 million at December 31, 2011, and 11.4 million at March 31, 2011. During the quarter there was a slight increase in subscribers in Asia. In general, the average revenue per subscriber is lower in Asia than in the U.S. and Europe. Looking forward, the company’s objective is to deliver new game content for World of Warcraft in all regions to further appeal to the gaming community. "

http://investor.activision.com/reports.cfm

http://investor.activision.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1104659-12-35264&CIK=718877

Details about CoD membership growth are part of the summaries for shareholders, again at the same place as every quarter for the past half decade:

http://investor.activision.com/common/download/download.cfm?companyid=ACTI&fileid=568134&filekey=b788d86a-4f47-4cb2-9455-105ef2850a9e&filename=ATVI_Q1_Summary_Sheet.pdf

And of course I was "assuming" the Asian subscriber came from China, as the "likely" clearly indicated, based on the recent reports about WoWs Korean and Taiwanese server merges which effectively eleminates them as candidates.

Originally posted by sk8chalif

10.million. 6 million in korean/china with a different sub model, like pay by hours or something,and 4 million NA/EU combined  with a 14.99$ sub,,

 

 

 

Sounds good except for the fact that Blizzards revenues blow away their previous numbers.   If anything, that indicates that the breakdown is shifting towards the $15/month model.

Also, Go back to Cata release..  3.3M boxes sold IN THE FIRST DAY..  and that was only in the west.

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It's almost like they're sabotaging their own game to make way for Titan.

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It seems this way, they did similar with D2.

Originally posted by Azrile

Originally posted by sk8chalif

10.million. 6 million in korean/china with a different sub model, like pay by hours or something,and 4 million NA/EU combined  with a 14.99$ sub,,

 

 

 

Sounds good except for the fact that Blizzards revenues blow away their previous numbers.   If anything, that indicates that the breakdown is shifting towards the $15/month model.

Also, Go back to Cata release..  3.3M boxes sold IN THE FIRST DAY..  and that was only in the west.

Except for the fact your are dead wrong. Unfortunately for you its the exact opposite and Blizzards public reported WoW revenues haver never been lower in history as according the their own financial reports.

Also the most recent official remarks about growing Eastern "subscriber" numbers but stagnant global "subscriber" count, thus declining Western subscribe count, also indicates exactly the opposite of what you believe or at least try to convince others to believe and claim as "fact"

Finally the usual inflated "boxsale record" twist still remains far from what you want to make it out to be and fool clueless reader, when a) almost all of the boxsales of a pretty much mandatory upgrade, had been ammased with month long preorder times (during the largest and most expensive PR campaign ever run for an MMORPG) to the "first day" and only a tiny fraction of those sales would continue over the following months and year and b) after the launch on the long run more player quit than joined and they litteraly lose millions of player.

Originally posted by Istavaan

i just don't believe that 10 million people are actively playing wow..it's bullshit..how many copies of the game have sold?

Of course not. 89% are chinese gold farmers.

Originally posted by Candomble

Originally posted by Istavaan

i just don't believe that 10 million people are actively playing wow..it's bullshit..how many copies of the game have sold?

Of course not. 89% are chinese gold farmers.

I wish I could get off of their mailing list. It's like I get attacked everyday thru e-mail by some goldfarming company in China !