WoW revenue down 54% in seven months

[Veliko]

The faux experts have been lining up to proclaim the death and downfall of WoW ever since it was released.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

A monthly sub is a hard sell when there are nearly identical MMOs out there like Rift which are basically just as good but also F2P.

WoW has had a good run so far, something that probably wont be beaten in terms of players or revenue for a very long time, impressive but clearly on the downward spiral now, maybe a few expansions can bring people back for a while but it's definitely a case of diminishing returns for them.

 

[cuafpr]

bad economy + F2P options hurts, but WoW is here for the long term and will be sub based for the long term as well. i've been around since the start and though I can't raid like I used to he additions of LFR and now flex give me a chance to still enjoy the game.

Also if i recall from the 5 year anniversary page 500k subs and 5 xpacs was the goal..... needless to say the subs got blown out of the water, and every year blizz states they will make Xpac's as long as there is a community for it. I suspect we will break the lvl 100 cap. Hell i'll probably die b4 the last WoW server is officially shut down.

 

[AViking]

I don't play this game but find the article interesting since I have friends who play and their complaints seem to have pretty simple solutions that never get solved. They play on servers that are depopulating, unbalanced, and only have one faction. Rather than simply merge servers Blizzard milks their customers for server transfer and faction change fees. Financially this might make sense short term but I don't know how it can possibly add up long term. Blizzard probably sees the writing on the wall and their customers are suffering because of it.

Look at their recommended (never mind the minimum) system requirements. They require hardware from 2007. To me that just screams that they are not investing money into a better game. It looks ancient. With all the competition out there they can't possibly expect to attract new players to an ancient game. Now they're seeing an exodus. It will only get worse unless they suck it up and merge servers and actually implement common sense solutions to their most obvious problems.

 

[Anubis]

has wow ever needed to merge servers due to low pop?

interesting question, they have not done it but they should have done it back in 2005/2006 there are a lot of very low pop servers that should just be merged

the one i played on back then was pretty tiny because it was listed as High/full on the realm selection when it was not

 

[Vampirrella]

Look at Everquest.. It went F2P a few years ago I think and they are coming out with their 20th (i think?) expansion. I doubt they are making a loss otherwise sony wouldnt keep investing money into development for expansions etc. Going on 14 years is way too long tho IMO. Prolly only the very ultra hardcore still play it i'm guessing.

If wow went F2P, I would prolly play it very casually again and pick up where my worgan warr left off at the end of cata with item rating of 398. Reason I stopped was cos i was bored running lfr's all day and no decent guild to do the norm / heroics with wah

 

[Veliko]

I don't play this game but find the article interesting since I have friends who play and their complaints seem to have pretty simple solutions that never get solved. They play on servers that are depopulating, unbalanced, and only have one faction. Rather than simply merge servers Blizzard milks their customers for server transfer and faction change fees. Financially this might make sense short term but I don't know how it can possibly add up long term. Blizzard probably sees the writing on the wall and their customers are suffering because of it.

Look at their recommended (never mind the minimum) system requirements. They require hardware from 2007. To me that just screams that they are not investing money into a better game. It looks ancient. With all the competition out there they can't possibly expect to attract new players to an ancient game. Now they're seeing an exodus. It will only get worse unless they suck it up and merge servers and actually implement common sense solutions to their most obvious problems.

Given that WoW has been going for nearly nine years now, I'm skeptical that Blizzard haven't only been looking at things in the short term.

The forums are always chock full of people who think that their ideas are really simple and would 'rescue' WoW, but they're usually wrong.

And being able to run the game on old hardware is surely an example of long-term thinking, as lots of their subscribers have old hardware.

I think paid server transfers were only brought in about three years ago.

 

[AViking]

Yes well if they want to cater to people with 7 year old computers then so be it but people like me want to play a modern game. Seven years ago they released The Burning Crusade. Unreal Tournament 3 came out then. It's ancient.

Everyone is forced to server transfer multiple times to keep up with the aging of the game and the erosion of their player base. They charge you for it. If you faction change they charge you more. If you have alts they charge you more.

Maybe I'm crazy though. Here's a video of current content.
http://www.wowprogress.com/video/42688-garrosh-hellscream-25man-nurfed-druid-pov

Look at that. The game belongs in a museum.

Long term thinking would have higher hardware requirements for raiding and better graphics. Let people with ancient computers run around questing all they want at low settings but if they truly wanted to attract new players and not lose the ones they have they need to keep the game modern.

 

[Veliko]

Yes well if they want to cater to people with 7 year old computers then so be it but people like me want to play a modern game. Seven years ago they released The Burning Crusade. Unreal Tournament 3 came out then. It's ancient.

Everyone is forced to server transfer multiple times to keep up with the aging of the game and the erosion of their player base. They charge you for it. If you faction change they charge you more. If you have alts they charge you more.

Maybe I'm crazy though. Here's a video of current content.
http://www.wowprogress.com/video/42688-garrosh-hellscream-25man-nurfed-druid-pov

Look at that. The game belongs in a museum.

Long term thinking would have higher hardware requirements for raiding and better graphics. Let people with ancient computers run around questing all they want at low settings but if they truly wanted to attract new players and not lose the ones they have they need to keep the game modern.

How would forcing everyone to spend money updating their hardware encourage the current players to stay?

Catering to people who want something modern is short term thinking, as they would leave when the game starts to look old again.

 

[AViking]

People buy mobile phones every 2 years. TV's every 5. Cars every 5. Etc.

Why is 7 year old hardware suddenly a stroke of genius? Who has a computer that old and plays video games online?

Who invests money into a monthly paid subscription but can't afford to upgrade their computer every 3 years or so?

It doesn't have to be bleeding edge all the time. The problem is that the game pretty much looks the same that it did on release. They changed the water and a few things but that's it.]

To make matters worse you have the game play but that's for others to argue.

 

[Tweak155]

How would forcing everyone to spend money updating their hardware encourage the current players to stay?

Catering to people who want something modern is short term thinking, as they would leave when the game starts to look old again.

Pwnt.

Good graphics != good game.

 

[Tweak155]

People buy mobile phones every 2 years. TV's every 5. Cars every 5. Etc.

Why is 7 year old hardware suddenly a stroke of genius? Who has a computer that old and plays video games online?

Who invests money into a monthly paid subscription but can't afford to upgrade their computer every 3 years or so?

It doesn't have to be bleeding edge all the time. The problem is that the game pretty much looks the same that it did on release. They changed the water and a few things but that's it.]

To make matters worse you have the game play but that's for others to argue.

It's a very simple concept. The more computers you can support, the larger market you can target. They realize they lose people who want the latest tech (hell, even Diablo 3 wasn't very modern when it was released), but they make up for those guys with the others they gain.

 

[Veliko]

People buy mobile phones every 2 years. TV's every 5. Cars every 5. Etc.

Why is 7 year old hardware suddenly a stroke of genius? Who has a computer that old and plays video games online?

Who invests money into a monthly paid subscription but can't afford to upgrade their computer every 3 years or so?

It doesn't have to be bleeding edge all the time. The problem is that the game pretty much looks the same that it did on release. They changed the water and a few things but that's it.]

To make matters worse you have the game play but that's for others to argue.

I'm struggling to understand what point you're trying to make.

There are many other MMOs that look far better than WoW yet none of them are anywhere near as popular - so why do you think that Blizzard need to make any considerable changes to the graphics?

In what context is it a 'problem'?

 

[AViking]

The problem is that their revenues fell 54% in 7 months.

The solution is to not lose customers and to gain new ones.

I maintain that a game that doesn't look like the ones I play on my phone and where servers are kept balanced without charging the customers for it would do far better.

 

[Veliko]

The problem is that their revenues fell 54% in 7 months.

The solution is to not lose customers and to gain new ones.

I maintain that a game that doesn't look like the ones I play on my phone and where servers are kept balanced without charging the customers for it would do far better.

You're putting two and two together to make five.

I don't see any link between WoW's graphics and this supposed sudden drop in revenue.

 

[Tweak155]

The problem is that their revenues fell 54% in 7 months.

The solution is to not lose customers and to gain new ones.

I maintain that a game that doesn't look like the ones I play on my phone and where servers are kept balanced without charging the customers for it would do far better.

You've yet to prove why that "solution" will increase their playerbase enough to justify the cost. Also prove that they wont drop any playerbase at the same time.

They have all this data likely. I'm guessing they know most of their user base hardware at this point.

 

[Chiropteran]

I maintain that a game that doesn't look like the ones I play on my phone and where servers are kept balanced without charging the customers for it would do far better.

I disagree with your first point- the most fun I have had in recent gaming was playing Hotline Miami, which has graphics that look like they could fit in on an NES 8-bit console. Shiny graphics can get attention and attract customers, but retaining customers requires fun game play.

As far as your second point, YES, absolutely, it's a huge problem- though it's just one of several huge problems.

The thing is, for many casual players $15/month is not a big deal, even if WoW isn't as fun as it used to be. The real killer is the server transfer fees and faction change fees. It's okay if you have one character, maybe, but I have friends with multiple max level characters, some have one of each class, so the idea of paying the transfer fees for every single character makes switching servers insanely expensive. And the difference between playing on a good populated server and a ghost town are massive.

 

[AViking]

To increase their playerbase they need to do multiple things. I didn't even bring up game play. They have dumbed the game down quite a bit since release. Some of it is justified but other changes have simply driven off their more "hard core" players. Now catering to that small minority is not good business but what was a US top 300 guild in BC is now a US top 50 guild. There simply aren't that many guilds anymore. I don't even understand their use of epic and legendary items anymore. They aren't epic. They aren't legendary. Look at the latest cloak. Any class can wear it.

Ultimately everyone I know had to make a decision. Do they pay the money to server change and faction change AGAIN or do they spend that money on another game? It's not that difficult of a decision when you start playing other games that have good game play and way better graphics.

Some had to server transfer or quit because of the terrible lag on their server. The Blizzard hardware could not handle their tuesday resets. Others because WOW and certain large internet providers do not work well together. For years. WOW reminds me an awful lot of AOL in 1998. They haven't stayed modern, their service is expensive, and their servers are crummy.

 

[HarvardAce]

People buy mobile phones every 2 years. TV's every 5. Cars every 5. Etc.

People buy phones every 2 years for two reasons:

1. You are already paying for the cost of a new phone every 2 years in your monthly wireless bill, so you might as well get the upgrade for little or no cost (at least using the US model).
2. The mobile space has seen extremely fast improvement. Capabilities are doubling every 12-18 months. PC hardware hasn't seen that fast of an improvement cycle in 10 years.

The average TV is being replaced every 6 years, and that is a sharp drop from where it used to be 10+ years -- again, given recent advances in technology.

Cars are replaced on an average of about 10 years, unless you are leasing or buying used cars that are already 5 years old.

Why is 7 year old hardware suddenly a stroke of genius? Who has a computer that old and plays video games online?

The XBox 360 will be around 8 when the XBox One comes out, and the PS3 will be 7 when the PS4 comes out. PS2 was 6 when PS3 came out, and keep in mind that they generally continue releasing games for the old platform for another year or two after the new one comes out. Prior to that, console updates were on about a 5 year cycle.

 

[SaurusX]

They still find me on Steam and tell me they want a DK Tank. I don't know why it was so hard for them to replace me.

Humble brag.

 

[Mushkins]

The problem is those expansions bring a lot of content and changes. You couldn't have that scope of development from a vastly quicker cycle. Perhaps a yearly cycle: one major expansion (that increases level cap) and one minor expansion (that adds new raids / instances / gear) on a biyearly cycle for each would work.

The problem is WoW is really old now. The engine hasn't been significantly changed much and it is still basically the same game with better gear and new instances as it was in the beginning.

Going F2P won't solve that problem. It is just not that huge thing it used to be. They need to either make a WoW 2 (not meant to run on a computer you bought from RadioShack in 1985) or significantly fracture the playerbase with a real, meaningful engine update.

WoW *is* really old, and it's definitely showing. The Warcraft art style and charm just isn't cutting it for a lot of people anymore even with the engine and model updates over the years. Comparing it to modern games like GW2 or FFXIV has a lot of people going "Wow, its like we're playing Everquest." The graphics are severely dated, the gameplay has brought little new and interesting to the table in years, and the new emphasis on catering to the weekend warriors has really done a lot to push the die-hards out when they were a serious part of the server communities.

I remember when there used to be 3-4 competitive 40 man raiding guilds on each faction on most servers. Now I wouldn't be surprised if most servers simply weren't able to put a 40 man raid together of that calibur of player, even the servers where the top of the top play don't have anywhere close to the number of high end raiding guilds they used to. Just in WotLK the server I was playing on went from 11 total at the start of the expansion to 3 that didnt completely disband due to players quitting in droves by the time Ruby Sanctum released. Those numbers never recovered in all of Cataclysm or MoP.

The game is certainly still massively profitable, but there's no denying it's in a clear decline.

 

[lupi]

No guilds are able to put together a 40 man raid.

 

[smackababy]

WoW *is* really old, and it's definitely showing. The Warcraft art style and charm just isn't cutting it for a lot of people anymore even with the engine and model updates over the years. Comparing it to modern games like GW2 or FFXIV has a lot of people going "Wow, its like we're playing Everquest." The graphics are severely dated, the gameplay has brought little new and interesting to the table in years, and the new emphasis on catering to the weekend warriors has really done a lot to push the die-hards out when they were a serious part of the server communities.

I remember when there used to be 3-4 competitive 40 man raiding guilds on each faction on most servers. Now I wouldn't be surprised if most servers simply weren't able to put a 40 man raid together of that calibur of player, even the servers where the top of the top play don't have anywhere close to the number of high end raiding guilds they used to. Just in WotLK the server I was playing on went from 11 total at the start of the expansion to 3 that didnt completely disband due to players quitting in droves by the time Ruby Sanctum released. Those numbers never recovered in all of Cataclysm or MoP.

The game is certainly still massively profitable, but there's no denying it's in a clear decline.

I don't know about the number of competitive guilds. I played on Illidan and the only real competitive guild there was Blood Legion. I was even in Shadow Warriors, and while we were pushing content, we weren't what I'd consider really competitive. Maybe top 100 in WotLK and I believe were were number 2 on Illidan.

The casualization of the game isn't what is hurting it. Less than 1% of people saw Sunwell during BC. Nax in WotLK was a bit better but Ulduar destroyed PUGs. The content didn't cater to most players, but I hear it got better (I quit after WoTLK).

 

[Red Storm]

It's unreasonable to expect a several year old multiplayer game to maintain revenue. People get bored/tired especially with grind-driven games, the game engine gets old and ugly, new games come out that chip away at your playerbase, etc.

 

[BergeLSU]

Humble brag.

More of a "This game is not that hard. Why can't people not stand in fire?"