Not surprised at all. Activision is trying to keep the game afloat until Titan is released. If Activision came out with more ideas and better expansion this time around I would probably go back and try it out but this pandarian expansion isn't worthy enough for me to blow forty dollars on. It's the same thing we've seen every expansion, just with less than other expansions. I'll most likely pass on it.

I believe Blizzard did it purposedly to stop the subs from bleeding.

Next year will be the perfect storm nightmare for Blizz once Planetside 2, Blade & Soul, Archeage, GW2 and Age of Wushu are launch in the east.

If all these game are really good Blizz might have to go F2P or unleashed the Titans lol.

Originally posted by Badaboom

Another desperate attempt to retain subscribers in the face of blizzard's biggest competition yet in GW2.

I think fans of WoW should actually thank Anet.  Question to everyone, "Do you think Blizz would have done this if Anet was not coming out with GW2?"

Delete GW2, Insert AOC, War, SWTOR blah blah blah.

Actually Blizzard already did this.. For like the past year you could make BEs and Dranaii and BC was included with the original box.

Actually blizzard has stated that titan wont compete with wow, So im not expecting titan to be a fantasy rpg, They in tend to run wow even after titan, and sell it as hard as they can

I expect titan to be activisions foray into free 2 play, Its the new norm in the world after all, Maybe buy 2 play with a cash shop like gw 2

That said blizzard has a sale on there expansions right now on all the expansions u can conievably buy the battle chest for 5 , lk for 5 and cata for 10 so only 20 dollars for the entire game up to the new mop right now

while they say one week only id expect this to become the norm once mop goes live. 

Originally posted by Gamefun

Not surprised at all. Activision is trying to keep the game afloat until Titan is released. If Activision came out with more ideas and better expansion this time around I would probably go back and try it out but this pandarian expansion isn't worthy enough for me to blow forty dollars on. It's the same thing we've seen every expansion, just with less than other expansions. I'll most likely pass on it.

´afloat´   Have you checked how much profits WOW makes..  it is like a billion dollars a year.   WOW is hugely profitable.

And as they indicated in the financial results,  the majority of the lost subscribers were from China.. so they kept the higher paying customers and lost the lower paying ones.   This is obvious when looking at their profits, which barely budged.

SWTOR is ´afloat ´ with 500k subscribers.   WOW has about 10x´s that number in the west.  If WOW is only ´afloat´, then it is amazing other games aren´t bankrupt by now.

Originally posted by kalinis

Actually blizzard has stated that titan wont compete with wow, So im not expecting titan to be a fantasy rpg, They in tend to run wow even after titan, and sell it as hard as they can

I expect titan to be activisions foray into free 2 play, Its the new norm in the world after all, Maybe buy 2 play with a cash shop like gw 2

That said blizzard has a sale on there expansions right now on all the expansions u can conievably buy the battle chest for 5 , lk for 5 and cata for 10 so only 20 dollars for the entire game up to the new mop right now

while they say one week only id expect this to become the norm once mop goes live. 

I really think Titan is going to be  Call of Duty  FPS-MMORPG.   There is no way they are going to mess with WOW.  The profits from WOW are HUGE and stable.

I know everyone things F2P is the future..it isn´t, unless you are a massive failure trying to grasp at last straws.   F2P has not worked for EQ2, AOC and most other attempts.. the only game that had success going to that model was DDO, because it was FIRST to do it as an AAA mmorpg.

Developers, especially publicly traded companies want stability ( $15 per month).  SWTOR never would have gotten the green light to be developed if it had been pitched as a f2p game...  f2p is where MMOs go before dying.

Originally posted by newbinator

Originally posted by Badaboom
Another desperate attempt to retain subscribers in the face of blizzard's biggest competition yet in GW2.

 

Riiiiight.

 

They're doing this because there will be a massive influx of new players when MoP launches. Many of which will probably be trials. Opening all races to those new players increases the odds they will get hooked and become a subscriber.

ROFL guess you not a stock market watcher they have done this in a last attempt to stop the slide of their share price. If you do a little more research you will see they have already tried to off load Wow but no one in their right mind wants to buy a sinking ship. As soon as they start to loose loads of subs the company will go bust.

So what Badaboom wrote is very close to the mark, why do you think they announce the new expansion on the same day GW2 hits the streets....In plain English they are shitting them selves my friend. Enjoy while you can because when the suits pull out the shit will hit the fan. they are trying to stop people going to GW2 end of.

Bandit