Blizzard Financials; WoW Down to 6.8M Subs

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It sounds bad when you say it like this but, the truth be told, most companies would give anything to "only" have seven million people paying them fifteen dollars a month. ;)

Activision Blizzard announces second quarter 2014 financial results calling them "better-than-expected" as they raise their financial outlook for the full year. Here are some numbers for your crunching pleasure: "For the quarter ended June 30, 2014, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues were $970 million, as compared with $1.05 billion for the second quarter of 2013.
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I wonder how many of those got in on the $100 lifetime sub back in 05.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
A loss of $35 million & they're still not hurting. :eek:
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Since the drop was for the overall company Activision Blizzard it is hard to decipher if it is Activision or Blizzard who is bringing down the performance ... if it is Activision and they have a lot of stuff in the pipe for fall then they are probably not too worried ... if it is Blizzard (given their long development lead time) then it could be more concerning
 
Companies like Blizzard and Riot are really not only raking in the $$$$, but doing so with consistency, which is a lot more difficult to do than cash spikes with new game releases as per the norm.
 
Surprise, game that gets new content at a glacial pace loses subscribers!

Siege of Orgrimmar has been out for ~11 months, people have nothing to do.
 
amazing they retain almost 7 million. that is significant. sure its getting stale, etc. but really.. who would have imagined!
 
Also, many people pay in their local currencies. For example, here we pay R$ 15, what amounts to something like US$ 6.50. And from what I've seen, a chunk of these subscribers are indeed from Brazil, as WoW grew exponentially here since the launch in Brazilian Portuguese.
 
I can't think of any other 10 year old game that still has almost 7 million people paying a monthly fee. Wow's success is amazing.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
A loss of $35 million & they're still not hurting. :eek:
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They probably don't even really look at it as a $35m loss, just $35m less that they are making. They still pulled in $306m for the quarter from subs alone, and that's not including the store, RoS, and HS (yes it's F2P but there are still going to be people that pay for packs).
 
To my understanding, this expansion was well received but they've had limited new content especially in the last few months so this isn't too surprising. The next expansion I haven't seen too much on but from what I've seen it has an old wow look that may bring back a lot of previous subs but only time will tell.

Either way, Blizzard isn't hurting and for a 10 year old game this isn't really shocking or surprising.
 
Meh I quit the game. Won't come back until the subscription fee is significantly reduced or free. Also the game had realm issues. They were merging them at the pace of a snail.
 
New expansions always bring back a ton of people. I'll probably play WoD even though I haven't touched WoW in 14 or 15 months now. The challenge is keeping those people playing once the well of content runs dry for months at a time.
 
ocellaris said:
New expansions always bring back a ton of people. I'll probably play WoD even though I haven't touched WoW in 14 or 15 months now. The challenge is keeping those people playing once the well of content runs dry for months at a time.
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Blizzard's solution is...

#1 Daily Quests.
#2 Daily profession lock outs.
#3 Weekly raid locks.

You'll find yourself spending months trying to do something that could take you minutes if it isn't for their lock out system. BTW, China WoW allows them to clear a raid twice a week. Chinese don't put up with that shit.
 
Decade old and its showing, still they technically lost more subs this round then any other MMO has subscribers, and their revenues seem to be meeting expectations

I like looking at the subscriber numbers

During Vanilla, BC and Wrath the game had 37 earnings calls and all 37 showed increases in subscriptions or an equal amount from the last call and zero decreases

During Cata and MoP they've had 14 earnings calls, 2 of them were actual increases (one being a 900k jump from Cata to MoP) all the rest were losses
 
Ashbringer said:
Blizzard's solution is...

#1 Daily Quests.
#2 Daily profession lock outs.
#3 Weekly raid locks.

You'll find yourself spending months trying to do something that could take you minutes if it isn't for their lock out system. BTW, China WoW allows them to clear a raid twice a week. Chinese don't put up with that shit.
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This is why I stopped playing Rift. When I realized that the set of gear above mine was going to take a year+ to grind out because of artificial limits put in place it was time to go.
 
Kardonxt said:
This is why I stopped playing Rift. When I realized that the set of gear above mine was going to take a year+ to grind out because of artificial limits put in place it was time to go.
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This is also why people are quitting the game. Too many mechanics in the game that seem to exist for no other reason other then to keep you in the game and pay that monthly fee. To give you an idea, nearly a year ago Blizzard cut the price for realm transfers in half, and suddenly they announced connected realms. A lot of people would never realm transfer if they knew about connected realms. All done as a money grab.

People were still so pissed off that Blizzard now allows cross realm raiding, up to Heroic. Except in WoD they will introduce Mythic which won't allow cross realm raiding. So if you want to raid that level of content with anyone, you'll have to pay for the realm transfer fee.

And of course they can't balance the game still. So many classes with broken specs for both PvE and PvP. The game was more balanced in WOTLK back in 2010 than today. The only thing consistent about this game is that it's imbalanced. You'd think with the money they make they could make more intelligent and responsive changes to the game. So if they can't do that then why the hell am I paying $15 a month for?
 
This is a horrific reminder that there are plenty of people who have played WoW every day since its release.
 
I know someone that still pays and yet hardly logs in to his account. Maybe once a month, if not longer. for some reason he can't just let it expire. I have a feeling that some people invest(ed) so much time into this game that they just can't see it go away. If they cancel their account then they have nothing to show for all that virtual time/grind and money they spent on it.
 
HydroBudz said:
I wonder how many of those got in on the $100 lifetime sub back in 05.
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There was a lifetime sub? Damn I missed the boat on that one.

Supposedly they really meant that they will be pushing 1 year expansions after WoD so we'll find out next year. One year between final content patches and the next expansion pack is wayyyyyyyyy too long.
 
What I find funny is that all the friends that don't "play" the game. They log in and chat with guild members and and use world chat like an IM service, but they don't do anything else within the game.

I think the only reason that WoW still has these numbers is because a lot (and I really mean most) of people joined when it was the "big thing" and stayed to socialize. I don't believe that most of the people still paying their monthlies actually do anything in game, they just don't bother to cancel.
 
I've been playing WoW in it's original state when it launched and stopped playing after Lich King because I got bored with it - or bored with gaming in general. Started playing this MMO called "real life" :-P

I resubbed to WoW with the Mist of Pandaria expack about 3-4 months ago and gave it another go. Found that I had to make a new toon because I didn't know how to play my 80 warlock anymore. Felt it was better to start over and relearn all of the new spells and the leveling system. I found that crafting was more out of reach than ever because of the massively inflated AH economy. I was constantly sending money from my level 80 who had thousands of gold to my new toon so he could keep up. I was grateful that learning skills were free now, and mounts were interchangeable between toons.

But overall I felt that everything was either being handed to me by Blizzard (I reached level 65 dying only twice. They made it TOO easy to play), or that I had to rob my level 80 toon to buy things from other players. The balance was too far off.

I cancelled my sub a few days ago. Ain't nobody got time fo dat.
 
Azhar said:
I've been playing WoW in it's original state when it launched and stopped playing after Lich King because I got bored with it - or bored with gaming in general. Started playing this MMO called "real life" :-P
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The problem with WoW is that Blizzard has made it that the game is going to revolve around your life, unlike other games which are just a source of entertainment. This is where the subscription plan is going to bite them in the ass, cause when you pay to play you feel like you have to play, otherwise it's a waste of money. Then you meet people and have to log in a few days of the week, and suddenly it's a job just to see end game content. Add to it daily quests and lock outs then it takes days or weeks just to finish something in this game. This is why people who play WoW are assumed to have no life, cause the game demands it.
But overall I felt that everything was either being handed to me by Blizzard (I reached level 65 dying only twice. They made it TOO easy to play), or that I had to rob my level 80 toon to buy things from other players. The balance was too far off.

I cancelled my sub a few days ago. Ain't nobody got time fo dat.
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It's too easy and boring as hell. They now charge $60 to skip the leveling experience. The real meat and potatoes of your game is leveling and yet you charge money to skip it? Doesn't that strike anyone at Blizzard at something woefully wrong? Also the new LFR system introduced also is just horrible. That's what you do when you're max leveling, and now they essentially created raid content that anyone with at least one working brain cell can finish.

You would think that all these changes were a bad idea since they lost like half their subscribers since WOTLK, but just keep coming out with more bad ideas. I would keep an eye out for Riot games, since a lot of Blizzard developers seem to be making their way there. Like Greg Street left them to work on a project. How many developers you need to keep working on League of Legends? They must be working on a much bigger project, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was a WoW killer. One that doesn't require a money fee.
 
Ashbringer said:
BTW, China WoW allows them to clear a raid twice a week. Chinese don't put up with that shit.
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IIRC, China WoW charges hourly, with no unlimited sub like in NA. Slightly different situation over there.
 
Ashbringer said:
if it was a WoW killer. One that doesn't require a money fee.
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Yawn. You know how many WoW killers have come and gone??? Free to play WoW killers? Dozens. I am not a regular but have been on and off since Beta 2004. I actually took 2 straight years off and come back while I am recovering from a broken foot to see my Talent Tree totally freaking gone. Over simplified. But honestly, I don't mind the subscription for the stability and safety net it provides. I have seen hackers on the Stars Wars OR, Aion, Age of Conan,and Guild Wars just to name a few. WoW I have one time because of my simple password, with authenticator=0. WoW is still the only Seem less MMO out there where I can travel a whole continent without load screen. Sometimes I like to just ride across Azeroth, like a little escape. It allows me to do that, with no load screens.

My biggest gripe with WoW since 2007 has been graphics. Its time for background textures to get an upgrade or at least let ppl with high powered systems have that option. They gave us DX11 water and now original characters are getting nice polygon count bump and look good too. There should be Tessellation on the stone streets in the game and Stormwind Castle. Trees with proper DX11 coding can look like proper trees without the papercraft look.

The point being they could have when making 1 billion dollars a year, made graphical enhancements for todays systems while still keeping their cartoony style.

And as for Titan. Titan was going to be the WoW replacement and eventually WoW was going to be phased out, ie, server combined down till no longer fiscally acceptable. But as long as WoW is make close to a Billion dollars, there will be no Titan. You don't interfere with a proven money maker for a new IP. At the current rate of decline, WoW won't be done till 2019 at least.
 
WoW is still fun... but for me it is in intervals... they come out with Hearthstone and who has time for WoW when I can get virtual gold foil game cards :D !
 
I just re-upped the other day. I was playing Rift and just thought to myself, "hey, why do this when I have a decent toon on Wow and can play that instead?"
I still love wow and I figure in a month I will be done with it again. I dunno, I don't take it seriously and that makes everything easier.
You can sense the reduction in population on the server and that is a good thing. Less BS.
 
Activision lies repeatedly about its subscription numbers, american subs right now are hovering at just slightly more than one million subscribers.

I mean sure, its down from the 6.2 million at the end of The Burning Crusade, but they're still raking in money like mad.
 
illli said:
I know someone that still pays and yet hardly logs in to his account. Maybe once a month, if not longer. for some reason he can't just let it expire. I have a feeling that some people invest(ed) so much time into this game that they just can't see it go away. If they cancel their account then they have nothing to show for all that virtual time/grind and money they spent on it.
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Teach your friend about Sunk Costs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs
 
illli said:
I know someone that still pays and yet hardly logs in to his account. Maybe once a month, if not longer. for some reason he can't just let it expire. I have a feeling that some people invest(ed) so much time into this game that they just can't see it go away. If they cancel their account then they have nothing to show for all that virtual time/grind and money they spent on it.
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Sure they have something to show for it, $15/month in their checking account, or $180/year. That's a decent mid range GPU update every year. I'd rather have that than a WoW account I never play. Seriously, it's not like it impresses me that you have an old WoW character. Whoop-dee-effing-do ;)
 
Maybe it's just me, but I go for weeks without being able to game due to family/work/etc.

I couldn't ever justify paying a monthly fee to connect to a service to game. I just don't get it.
 
elzeus said:
There was a lifetime sub? Damn I missed the boat on that one.

Supposedly they really meant that they will be pushing 1 year expansions after WoD so we'll find out next year. One year between final content patches and the next expansion pack is wayyyyyyyyy too long.
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They said something similar around Cataclysm as a reason to a 5-level increase.
 
doho7744 said:
What I find funny is that all the friends that don't "play" the game. They log in and chat with guild members and and use world chat like an IM service, but they don't do anything else within the game.

I think the only reason that WoW still has these numbers is because a lot (and I really mean most) of people joined when it was the "big thing" and stayed to socialize. I don't believe that most of the people still paying their monthlies actually do anything in game, they just don't bother to cancel.
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probably this, the only thing i miss with wow if the friday night raid and 10 man vent, i still talk to most of them on facebook, quit wow after beating Cata..a few i still talk too through battle.net when i play d3, and there are just in wow to talk to old friends. seems most of us from the classic/BC era grew out of it for the most part, we all complain we need a new game to play together again but nothing decent has come along, tried a few here and there
 
Ashbringer said:
The problem with WoW is that Blizzard has made it that the game is going to revolve around your life, unlike other games which are just a source of entertainment. This is where the subscription plan is going to bite them in the ass, cause when you pay to play you feel like you have to play, otherwise it's a waste of money. Then you meet people and have to log in a few days of the week, and suddenly it's a job just to see end game content. Add to it daily quests and lock outs then it takes days or weeks just to finish something in this game. This is why people who play WoW are assumed to have no life, cause the game demands it.
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Just a few posts back you were advocating for 2 raid locks per week. You do realize that 2 locks per week would INCREASE the demand the game would have on people, right?
 
TwistedAegis said:
Any word/leaks on Titan?
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Titan is effectively dead. Who knows what we'll hear eventually about it but now its gone.

Subs always lose interest during the dead period of content. Blizzard is announcing the expansion pack release date this month (on the 16th) and once it releases millions of players will come back just as they have before. Its the same cycle.

But it doesn't matter as Blizzard has said before that even with 1/4 of their all time high sub numbers the game would remain very profitable.

I myself sometimes think about replaying it but why? There isn't anything interesting to do except the same shit as before. I might buy the expansion pack but only if I have nothing else worth my time.
 
I admit to still playing, i have been playing it for 10 yrs. I have stopped playing it twice moving to swtor for 8 months first time then 6 months 2nd time. As it is now the game is somewhat boring. However im not drawn to anything else at this time. BF4 pulls me away sometimes but no other games.

I have tried pretty much all of the other MMO and swtor was the only one that keep me playing it for more then a week.
 
ocellaris said:
Surprise, game that gets new content at a glacial pace loses subscribers!

Siege of Orgrimmar has been out for ~11 months, people have nothing to do.
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every expansion has watered every aspect of the game down and the next one is only going to reset everything back to 2004-2005-era amounts of stats and health...

what point left in this game there is I have no idea.
 
I only played it for so long for the story, I got wicked bored during wotlk and that was the part I was originally most anxious for! Now it's just bastardising the story to Hell and I'm just pretending none of this happening.
 
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