Originally posted by deakon

Originally posted by doodphace

Originally posted by deakon

Originally posted by doodphace

Why would a game with 700 times more players than most other AAA MMOS out there go FTP, especially when their subscriber numbers are up 600k year over year?

I love the forums on this site, always find a good chuckle ;)

I thought they were down from last year? I could have sworn i read 10.2 million this time last year?

It was "over 10 million" at the launch of MoP...it was 9 million this time last year.

 

Nope was 10.2 million

link

 

 

My Apologies, I was referring to this.

Originally posted by Ramonski7

Be careful what you wish for. If WoW were to go F2P it would cause such a huge implosion on the rest of the industry with players old and new flocking back to play that the only time you would see any really huge migrations would be when new games were released. It would be like seasonal migrations of canadian geese. Flying back and forth between WoW and a new mmo and back again.

 

I know I would. Long forgotten avatars that sit idle in a mmo I no longer have the desire to pay for would suddenly be top on my list to play. Millions! And I mean MILLIONS of players would flock back just to see their old friends once again. If not to continue where they left off it would be to serve as a common stomping ground. A mmo touchstone if you will.

Wellllll....short term you are probably correct.  But of the millions (?) of players that go back how many would actually play it for longer than the nostalgia factor?  Most people who quit didn't quit because of a sub.  They quit because the game changed so much. So I opine.

I would actually love to see it happen.  Can you imagine the server stress on the first day of f2p?  Hello queues!

Honestly can't answer this one, because WoW is one of the only games who registers both east and west subs as one number.

Here's also food for thought...

In the east, WoW has always basically been f2p- all content for free, the game gains it's money from the cyber cafes'  'rental', and each rental is considered a 'sub' on the quarterly reports.

Shortly after this all started is the time Vivendi started to try and sell Blizzard, and still no buyers.

Again it is a huge thing to remind folk, WoW is one of the only games from the west who counts it's subs from the east in it's quarterly reports as a whole. Even games from the east do not share that info regularly here in the west, or if they did, WoW's numbers wouldn't really seem all that much.

Just something to ponder.

Would a F2P WoW gain a huge amount of people, initially yeah, but I really don't think it's strong enough to keep the masses in today's market...In fact if a F2P SWG(v1) was released, I think that would surpass it. just my humble opinion, but since this is all hypothetical, why not!

Originally posted by itgrowls
That bunch is entirely too greedy to do something like that for one. Secondly they need to launch another title with a monetization since WoW has been their revenue source for all other projects to continue at Blizzard so no. And third, the Marine Biologist has to go out and buy that summer home before turn that over to F2P

F2P isn't some charity thing devs have started doing. They go F2P to make MORE money not less.

Originally posted by Skooma2
Saw the financials today.  They have 9.6 million subscribers.  That's more than $1,000,000,000 per year.   You're gonna have to buy the cow on this one because they ain't giving away the milk.

No, it's not.

The sub fee in the east is a rental fee from a cyber cafe, the most expensive being $5, and that's on the very high side. Considering the wages in China, I'm pretty sure most pay considerably less than that. Each rental is considered a 'sub'.

Wait, if you saw the financials today, then you would know the exact figure, wouldn't you?

Originally posted by Rider071

Honestly can't answer this one, because WoW is one of the only games who registers both east and west subs as one number.

Here's also food for thought...

In the east, WoW has always basically been f2p- all content for free, the game gains it's money from the cyber cafes'  'rental', and each rental is considered a 'sub' on the quarterly reports.

Shortly after this all started is the time Vivendi started to try and sell Blizzard, and still no buyers.

Again it is a huge thing to remind folk, WoW is one of the only games from the west who counts it's subs from the east in it's quarterly reports as a whole. Even games from the east do not share that info regularly here in the west, or if they did, WoW's numbers wouldn't really seem all that much.

Just something to ponder.

 

Would a F2P WoW gain a huge amount of people, initially yeah, but I really don't think it's strong enough to keep the masses in today's market...In fact if a F2P SWG(v1) was released, I think that would surpass it. just my humble opinion, but since this is all hypothetical, why not!

Pretty easy to see where you stand when you say somethign as silly as SWG ever generating WoW numbers. In it's prime it wasn't even close and removing the sub wouldn't change it at all.

Originally posted by Carl132p

Originally posted by Rider071

Honestly can't answer this one, because WoW is one of the only games who registers both east and west subs as one number.

Here's also food for thought...

In the east, WoW has always basically been f2p- all content for free, the game gains it's money from the cyber cafes'  'rental', and each rental is considered a 'sub' on the quarterly reports.

Shortly after this all started is the time Vivendi started to try and sell Blizzard, and still no buyers.

Again it is a huge thing to remind folk, WoW is one of the only games from the west who counts it's subs from the east in it's quarterly reports as a whole. Even games from the east do not share that info regularly here in the west, or if they did, WoW's numbers wouldn't really seem all that much.

Just something to ponder.

 

Would a F2P WoW gain a huge amount of people, initially yeah, but I really don't think it's strong enough to keep the masses in today's market...In fact if a F2P SWG(v1) was released, I think that would surpass it. just my humble opinion, but since this is all hypothetical, why not!

Pretty easy to see where you stand when you say somethign as silly as SWG ever generating WoW numbers. In it's prime it wasn't even close and removing the sub wouldn't change it at all.

It's actually math. When SWG(v.1) was released it held a significant portion of the entire MMO genre playerbase at that time. If you were there, you would know this. Or if you took your algebra class seriously you could comprehend it.

Originally posted by Rider071

Originally posted by Skooma2
Saw the financials today.  They have 9.6 million subscribers.  That's more than $1,000,000,000 per year.   You're gonna have to buy the cow on this one because they ain't giving away the milk.

No, it's not.

The sub fee in the east is a rental fee from a cyber cafe, the most expensive being $5, and that's on the very high side. Considering the wages in China, I'm pretty sure most pay considerably less than that. Each rental is considered a 'sub'.

 

Wait, if you saw the financials today, then you would know the exact figure, wouldn't you?

Yes, it is... the exact number is just under $1.3 billion for year ending December 31, 2012. So, whatever the arrangement is for Chinese subscribers, WOW is making hella-cash.

Originally posted by Rider071

Originally posted by Skooma2
Saw the financials today.  They have 9.6 million subscribers.  That's more than $1,000,000,000 per year.   You're gonna have to buy the cow on this one because they ain't giving away the milk.

No, it's not.

The sub fee in the east is a rental fee from a cyber cafe, the most expensive being $5, and that's on the very high side. Considering the wages in China, I'm pretty sure most pay considerably less than that. Each rental is considered a 'sub'.

 

Wait, if you saw the financials today, then you would know the exact figure, wouldn't you?

They said most of their sub losses were from the east...

Shoots a hole through that theory.

Games go F2P when they're bleeding subscribers and/or nearing the point of profit loss instead of profit gain.

So, until WoW reaches one of those (which probably won't be this year) - no, it won't go completely F2P or even B2P.

It also costs a lot of money to make an effective business model backing a F2P/B2P model that the community won't quit over.

Originally posted by Rider071

Originally posted by Skooma2
Saw the financials today.  They have 9.6 million subscribers.  That's more than $1,000,000,000 per year.   You're gonna have to buy the cow on this one because they ain't giving away the milk.

No, it's not.

The sub fee in the east is a rental fee from a cyber cafe, the most expensive being $5, and that's on the very high side. Considering the wages in China, I'm pretty sure most pay considerably less than that. Each rental is considered a 'sub'.

 

Wait, if you saw the financials today, then you would know the exact figure, wouldn't you?

Ok. Let say you are right. Not only that. Let say all 9,6 milion are east players.

5$ x 12(months) x 9 600 000 = 576 000 000 $

So even than that would be nice money. Now do the math to see how many west subscriber you need to get to 1B.

30% of that number?

And it's ridiculus how all of you "east are not subscribers guys" say that every month, and throw "arguments" like those are all players who play only one hour, like they don't spend any money and like WoW don't have milions of Asian players every month (that is a lot of one hour players :D )... Interesting is how nobody think: hmmm, they pay for time spend in game and not sub. There must be a lot of players who spend more than 15$ per month that way. Ever heard about top Chines guild? Or those people who die after playing 48h non/stop in China. Guess not.

Consider that they sell more than 100 000 of each mount and pet in blizzard store.

So yes, only Blizzard will kill WoW.