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World Of Warcraft Drops Over 500K Subscribers Post-Cataclysm

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by Phil Kollar on May 09, 2011 at 07:30 PM
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Let me start this news story out by acknowledging the stark reality of the MMO world: World of Warcraft is doing just fine. It has more than enough subscribers to make any competing MMO envious. It's exactly because that wildly high number of paying players exist that a drop of any amount -- even a fraction of the total -- is noteworthy. Following the release of the latest WoW expansion, Cataclysm, Blizzard's MMO has experienced such a drop.

During Activision's financial call earlier today, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime revealed that Blizzard's subscriber base was down to 11.4 million players as of March. This is a drop of more than 500,000 from October of last year, just before Cataclysm's release, when Blizzard announced that they had crested 12 million subscribers.

Morhaime spun the dip in subscribers by saying the game had "returned to pre-Cataclysm levels in the West," but if the latest expansion didn't have enough draw to keep some of the players it pulled back in, I've got to imagine that Blizzard is carefully considering what to do differently with the inevitable fourth World of Warcraft expansion. Any thoughts on what they should consider changing?

[via Kotaku]

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Comments
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  • by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 07:56 PM
    I honestly have gotten bored of the game. Cataclysm was cool but even when they add more stuff it's still the same game over and over again. This expansion also felt like more of a new coat of paint rather than an expansion with new content.
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 07:56 PM
    Yeah scrap it all and make the next thing that every other game will be a bastardization of...
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 07:59 PM

    Interesting, but not surprising. Should be "experienced" in the first paragraph, not "experiences."

  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 07:59 PM
    No need to change anything. SWTOR is coming!
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:02 PM
    Blizzard is a great company and it's awful to see something like this happen to them, but after about a year of WoW I came to the conclusion that (at the bare) it is a mundane process of leveling, getting new gear, raiding, then getting more new gear. The expansion didn't change any of that. It was fun for a time, but I felt like I was falling into a 15-dollar-per-month vortex of never ending arena matches.
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:04 PM
    I would not be surprised if it gradually continued to decline around this time.
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:13 PM

    Well those graphics could not suck for a change that would be cool. But really the endless grind of gear to get new gear is just getting old. Its time for something fresh and some different ideas instead of more of the same. Rift only kept me interested for a month I got to cap and got the gear and was like eh this is the same crap over and over gain.

  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:15 PM
    Game is old and the graphics are seriously dated, I can see people getting tired of playing MMO levels of hours for a game that looks that bad.
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:17 PM
    For one reason and one reason only: It's too expensive. It's the reason why I never even gave them game a chance.
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:18 PM
    i haven't been enthused about playing WoW for almost 2 years now. i still love the lore of warcraft, but the game has grown quite tiresome. i even purchased rift thinking that would recharge my MMO batteries but i leveled to about 20 and just didn't care anymore. i'll more than likely check out star wars: the old republic just to see what it's like, but unless it's extremely fun and different from any other game like it, i'll probably just play it every once in awhile. with games costing $60 plus having to pay another $9.99 or $14.99 for DLC these days and gas prices going nowhere but up and up it's just not worth paying $14.99 a month to play a game that you do the same boring stuff over and over and over and over again.
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:19 PM
    I quit, after being in beta and sub'ing right after. I recently decided that I've been pretty disinterested for a while, and there are better things to spend time and money on. Kind of felt like that relationship we've all had where you sit back, take a look at it, and say "why the heck are we still together? Everything we enjoyed about each other is boring now, and there is nothing more to talk about." Even epic Nurples, I mean purples, doesn't change that.
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:20 PM

    WoW is dated now... it needs an update to graphics and gameplay. Something fresh. An expansion is not going to cut it. They need a new game.

  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:30 PM

    I haven't played since December, and I have yet to get the expansion (if I ever do).  I didn't really get bored with the game, it's just that there are so many great games coming out for the consoles that it's hard to keep up with any MMO anymore.

  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:30 PM
    Getting rid of 25 man raiding was what did it for me. Sure it still exists, but when you can get the same loot in 10 man with less headache(less people failing in the raid by standing in fire) and easier boss fights, why bother? The achievements aren't even separated by 10-25. Just get the achievement and no one is the wiser how much easier/harder it was for you. Blizzard has catered WAY too much to the casual people and the end game players are suffering.
  • by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:47 PM

    I've heard it was due to "Rift" being released and a lot of people becoming interested in that game.

  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:48 PM
    I have jumped ship, as well. When a new expansion comes out, I'm sure I will pick it up for a few months. Until then, I'll just be playing console games and trying to get past character creation on Champions Online. Seriously, I can't stop screwing around with character creator. I don't even get very far into gameplay before I get the hankering to mess around with it again. Anyone else have this problem?
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:50 PM

    500,000 subscribers less and that is still less than 5% of the total...

  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:51 PM
    Good. I'm glad to count myself among that number. Cataclysm was just a cataclysmic failure.
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 08:59 PM
    Haven't played WoW in years now. Great game, great fantasy world, way too big a time commitment to accomplish anything.
  •
    by Monday, May 09, 2011 at 09:02 PM

    doesn't really surprise me... lost interest in it a long time ago, i'm surprised its had this many million of subscribers for this long

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