Proof that Warhammer is epic failure

Mythic Entertainment announced yesterday that it will be axing a total of 63 Warhammer Online servers, 43 in North America/Oceania and 20 in Europe, in their efforts to stabilize and consolidate the game's sparse population.

Gamasutra reported earlier on this move:

The closures are part of an ongoing effort to consolidate the game's online population, which started some months ago with a free transfer offer to more popular servers. The now-compulsory moves have been completed this week and the empty servers are set to close.

Mythic was recently forced to confirm layoffs in its customer support and QA teams, although the developer insisted this was not unusual for a post-launch massively multiplayer online game.

Although Warhammer Online attracted 500,000 registrations in its launch week, current subscriber levels are now at 300,000. Both Mythic and publisher Electronic Arts have indicated they remain committed to the game.

The complete list along with a handy FAQ is now made available on the War Herald:

On Tuesday, March 10, we will be performing a final transfer of characters from several of the servers that have been, in the past, a source server (ie. we have offered transfers off of). Please read on for all the details, including a list of affected servers.

Characters on the source servers listed below will all be consolidated onto the corresponding destination server. All source servers will eventually be closed.
Source/Destination Servers

Tower of Doom: Magnus
Heldenhammer: Ungrim
Thorgrim: Monolith
Sea of Malice: Badlands
Chaos Wastes: Dark Crag
Anlec: Darklands
Middenheim: Gorfang
Mordheim: Gorfang
Wasteland: Gorfang
Averheim: Iron Rock
Be'lakor:Iron Rock
Rakarth:Iron Rock
Lucan: Ironclaw
Lustria: Ironclaw
Marius: Ironclaw
Drifting Castle: Ironfist
Grimnir: Ironfist
Thorgrim: Ironfist
Bretonnia: Ironfist
Tor Achere: Magnus
Tower of Doom: Magnus
Ungrim: Magnus
Azazel: Monolith
Drakwald: Monolith
Avelorn: Ostermark
Skavenblight: Ostermark
Tor Elyr: Ostermark
White Tower: Ostermark
Eerie Downs: Praag
Hochland: Praag
Wolfenburg: Praag
Wurtbad: Praag
Bechafen: Praag
Kragg: Skull Throne
Reikland: Skull Throne
Kislev: Volkmar
Marienburg: Volkmar
Red Eye Mountain: Volkmar
Sea of Claws: Volkmar
Heldenhammer: Vortex
Saphery: Vortex
Sylvania: Vortex
Ulthuan: Vortex

Hey, look, it's like the retarded troll kid in the back of the group that's a couple of weeks late, who missed all the "This is what the game needed" posts.

I made you feel special by posting in your thread!

I'll also assume that you were simply living under a rock, or disengaged from the MMO genre overall, for the past...oh, I dunno...couple of months. I haven't seen you around.

Originally posted by Bruticus_XI

Hey, look, it's like the retarded troll kid in the back of the group that's a couple of weeks late, who missed all the "This is what the game needed" posts.

I made you feel special by posting in your thread!

I'll also assume that you were simply living under a rock, or disengaged from the MMO genre overall, for the past...oh, I dunno...couple of months. I haven't seen you around.

If it's such old news, why can't I find a news story about it in the news section forum of MMORPG.com? The most recent state of the game news post there implies Warhammer is doing well which it obviously is not.

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

Proof that Warhammer is epic failure

Sorry, not proof. 
If the people playing it are having fun and the game is making money than it is not a failure at all

A.  They started with way too many servers.  I moved servers 4 times in the first week because of low pop on most of the servers.

B.  I'm sure CoX has less than 300k subs, and it has been a enjoyable and successful game for years.  I'm still having fun with it.

C.  As long as they a profitable they are not a failure.

D.  The population drop off was WoW players checking out a new game they had no intention of leaving WoW for.  Just because you play WoW, doesn't mean you can play another game for one month.

The only failure here is you, and others who have to judge every game by comparing sub numbers to WoW.  If WoW is such a benchmark for you than go play it. The only benchmark I use is fun, and different people have fun with different games. A game can have a very small population and still be a great game for the people that play it and a successful game for the people that make it.

I don't think 300k subscribers is an epic failure.  That's a pretty successful game.  I'm actually quite suprised that have that many.

Before WOW, Lineage 2 and other MMOs. A success meant around 300 000+ customers. only WOW (love it or hate it) broke that exception... So again, love it or hate it, WAR is doing good and they simply anticipated way too much players lol.

Originally posted by Ponico

Before WOW, Lineage 2 and other MMOs. A success meant around 300 000+ customers. only WOW (love it or hate it) broke that exception... So again, love it or hate it, WAR is doing good and they simply anticipated way too much players lol.

 

EQ was the biggest North American MMO before WoW, and its heyday was supposed to of been around 450k. I am unsure who the biggest in Asia was...but seems like Lineage 1 hovered around 1M back then.

Just staggering numbers, in comparison, when you think of the NA market before WoW.

Pity lots of folks feel that now it has to be WoW numbers or nothing.

EQ is still my fav, and I wish it had 300k still. Heck I bet SOE wished all their games had 300k each...along with CoH, DAoC,etc etc.

I don't know anyway around this sort of thing.

You will always sell more boxes than you will retain subscriptions. That's just a fact. Some people will buy the game, but decide they don't want to continue playing.

You MUSt have enough servers when you release so that people can log on and play the game without queues. If not, players will be pissed off, and you can't just say "hey, not all of you will continue to subscribe, so just wait a month or two and the queues will be gone".

So, shortly after release, you will have more servers than you need, and you'll need to consolidate. Unless you are WoW, and only WoW is WoW.

    Since when is 300k players a "sparse" population??......They had way too many servers at launch.....WAR is a game that is absolutely dependant on player pop........

That number of servers to begin with seems crazy. Lotro has I think 12 US and 10 Europe?  And only 3 of the US ones are decently populated. They must have been expecting WoW like numbers out of the gate for that many (I have no idea how many WoW has, actually)

---

Originally posted by GreenChaos
The only failure here is you, and others who have to judge every game by comparing sub numbers to WoW.  If WoW is such a benchmark for you than go play it. The only benchmark I use is fun, and different people have fun with different games. A game can have a very small population and still be a great game for the people that play it and a successful game for the people that make it.
 

---

---

Originally posted by Ponico
Before WOW, Lineage 2 and other MMOs. A success meant around 300 000+ customers. only WOW (love it or hate it) broke that exception... So again, love it or hate it, WAR is doing good and they simply anticipated way too much players lol.

---

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

Mythic Entertainment announced yesterday that it will be axing a total of 63 Warhammer Online servers, 43 in North America/Oceania and 20 in Europe, in their efforts to stabilize and consolidate the game's sparse population.

By yesterday, you mean about a week ago. Old news and there have already been a few threads on this already. You even put the date of final transfer of Tuesday March 10. I think you are the epic failure here.

Originally posted by Ponico

Before WOW, Lineage 2 and other MMOs. A success meant around 300 000+ customers. only WOW (love it or hate it) broke that exception... So again, love it or hate it, WAR is doing good and they simply anticipated way too much players lol.

Yeah only Wow... But wait a sec, Guildwars sold almost 6 million copys. And many Wows subs are asian, so logically you should count asians MMOs also.

No, the problem with WARs sub numbers is just that Mythic counted on stealing a lot of Wows subs (source: Barbett before launch) but they didn't succed with that. The reason of that could be debated, if the game is to close to Wow, not good enough, or if the Wow fans just love Wow no matter the reason.

So yeah, if you compare the numbers of subs that Mythic exoected before launch with the current the game failed but things are not just about subs and money. The real question is if Mythic made a good game or not and if WAR will start to get more subs again or if EA will kill it.

If Mythic work hard on the game and are able to get 400K subs to next summer or so the game will not be a fail. It on the other hand it do close down soon it will be.

We can spend a lot of time talking about what Mythic should have done different and did right but to say a game have failed so soon after launch is wrong. Cash and numbers are not everything in life.

Originally posted by RedwoodSap

Originally posted by Bruticus_XI

Hey, look, it's like the retarded troll kid in the back of the group that's a couple of weeks late, who missed all the "This is what the game needed" posts.

I made you feel special by posting in your thread!

I'll also assume that you were simply living under a rock, or disengaged from the MMO genre overall, for the past...oh, I dunno...couple of months. I haven't seen you around.

 

If it's such old news, why can't I find a news story about it in the news section forum of MMORPG.com? The most recent state of the game news post there implies Warhammer is doing well which it obviously is not.

I remember seeing a thread about it in the WAR section.  I'm pretty sure that something must have been posted in the Pub and that the thread must have stayed on the front page for oh, two hours, before being promptly buried by 25 threads of inane theorycrafting and insignificant blather saying pretty much the same thing from thread to thread.

And that's why threads vanish: Nobody but WAR players are supposed to care, so we move the thread from the general section to their backwater of a forum.

Originally posted by Vetarnias

And that's why threads vanish: Nobody but WAR players are supposed to care, so we move the thread from the general section to their backwater of a forum.

Well funny thing is that overal forum activity here and on other WAR forums have dropped to an all time low. Funny isn't?

When I finally tossed the game in a dark corner half january this year, they could have easily shut down over 40 servers here in Europe alone already.

So only closing down 20 of the 60 servers is a joke and just another lie to let you all pretend WAR is doing so great. Right.

But then again, if they are left with 20 servers on each side of the pond (40 in total). That's still not that bad at all.

Means they still have around 200k - 250k active subscriptions. Wich is not that bad at all. Meaning the game is still doing better than any SOE MMO game at this moment.

Why do people insist on saying WAR was a bad copy of WoW?

WAR is nothing like WoW.

That was the problem, Mythic created a game more pvp focused with more focus on group activities (PQs, SC,Orvr).

Also Mythic decided to use a slower combat mechanic with auto facing, slower casts that right there should have told them that the WoW players wouldn't stay with WAR.

With no Arenas, Raid progression or generic crafting you had to be an idiot to think WAR would keep those WoW players.

If a game isnt 100% like WoW they will not stick with the game and tbh it was stupid to release a new mmo within a month of WotLK.

I was smart I decided to wait for a WAR trial before I started to play and thank god I did, the game is much improved now and guess what WoW fans. All those bored WoW players that mythic couldnt keep before are all coming back through the trial. on the trial servers T1 and T2 are packed with "WotLK is boring now" convos.

Maybe WAR does have a chance at keeping a steady stream of players after all.

great move by mythic . i dont see it as a faliure but just seeing the reality of thier user base and acting accordingly . i shall proberbly go back for the free 10 day welcome back trial at some point . given wows current problems since the lich king i only ever play that for the odd month now and level an alt given the endgame in wow is unblanced buggy and appallingly bad at the moment . warhammer should offer two week subs . its about the time period i can play it without getting bored with the constant pvp . i think if they did that they d have a lot more subs

Originally posted by Xiaoki

 

 Mark Jacobs said that 250,000 subscribers is the cut off point for profitability or the MMOs EA has cancelled in the past ...or even the financial woes EA has been suffering as of late.

 

offtopic but I think Ultima Online is the exception for EA

EA killed Earth and Beyond / Sims Online

but UO is still ongoing and is definitely under 100k

I would also like to add that WAR heavily relies on population. They dont have cross server arenas or Battlegrounds like wow so condensing servers is a great move imo.

Think about it for a second, in WAR if you don't have a massive amount of people playing on a server you can't do PQs, SCs, Keeps/Orvr and dungeons/lairs and this is only while leveling.

In wow you can solo 95% of your time while leveling only time you need player activity is for dungeons that arent even needed while leveling.

In WoW on a low pop server you can still quest, que for BGs and practice arena due to cross server battle groups.

Blizzard took away elite group quests while leveling because they knew WoW would be top heavy at this point.

hell until endgame WoW could have 200 people on a server and noone would notice since everyone is soloing all the time.

So the server merges may seem bad to WoW players but im sure if wow was as group focused as WAR (while leveling) with no cross server battle groups you would see a good chunk of servers merged also.