Game over? 'World of Warcraft' loses 600,000 subscribers


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World of Warcraft, the massively popular online video game, has seen 600,000 subscribers leave in three months.

It means a total of nearly two million players have turned off since the start of the year.

Announcing its second quarter results, Activision Blizzard, which makes the dungeons and dragons-style game, said it now had 7.7 million subscribers. At the start of 2013, shortly after expansion pack Mists of Pandria was launched, it boasted 9.6 million. At its peak in October 2010, 12 million people were signed up.

Subscribers pay a fee or buy a prepaid card to enter the Internet-connected game world and take on quests alongside other players.

Despite the steady decline, World of Warcraft is still easily the world's most popular MMOG (massively multiplayer online game). A new in-game store, announced earlier this month and allowing players to buy extra items, may also help shore up subscriber numbers.

Some paid-for online titles have struggled over the last year and dropped their subscription fees, casting doubt over the future of the business model.

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Eh not surprised, interests come and go. I doubt it'll be going anywhere any time soon though.. shoot look at EverQuest and Ultima Online, they're still going. WoW's got plenty of life in it yet I would think, just not as big the numbers as it used to be.

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i used to love playing wow but could not justify pay the fee for a little as i ended up playing after cataclysm, if they would just make it free to play with premium items like pets, armor skins, and other items as such i would play again.

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Also agree, they may be passed their peak, but feel they will be around for a long time go come. 

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It's not game over. Just a side effect of becoming a casual game. Doesn't take months to beat all of the content. Many of those will come back when the next expansion comes out, play for a while, and then wait again for another expansion. I leveled from 1 to 90 in 2 weeks and reached the raiding final boss of the time a week later. No reason to play after that.

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World of Kung Fu Panda and World of Pokemon lost 2 000 000 players.

 

World of warcraft doesn't exist anymore so it can't lose any player.

FYI, Pandarens were in the Warcraft lore more than 5 years before Kung Fu Panda was released....

 

That being said, WoW is not "Game Over" yet, but it is definitely declining. I can see Blizzard making it F2P with limitations or with an added in-game store eventually, the declining player base will eventually push it towards that type of business model....but I think that's still a few years off.

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I have mixed feelings about this. I played this game since the origional beta, and logged 7 years total, and right now have 8 lvl 90, with full raid gear. I cannot now, bring  myself to re-sub my subscription, and everyone I have played with has quit also. I cannot wait for the next big mmo from blizzard though.

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I have a deep love for World of Warcraft and all the memories I shared on there (including with my ex-fiance... ouch), but the game just hasn't aged well, especially by comparison to what's out now. Granted some of the other games might be a bit more shallow today, World of Warcraft hasn't really added depth to their existing infrastructure so you end up hitting a wall if you're a long time player (and arguably even as a new player since old content is still old).

 

Anyway, I hope the game goes free to play sometime down the road. Maybe then I'd actually play here and there, but as it stands, $15 + expansions is just a bit over the top just to get on and mess around in a video game.

 

Until then, they're going to keep losing players. I also really really dislike the talent builds today; seems like the "streamlining" helped them to balance the game easier so that it can sit on the back burner rather than trying to implement something interesting.

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I've managed to somehow avoid the game altogether. I could have the thing for free as so many people offer to buy my sub, give me a geared max level and tons of gold *just* so I'll play with them, but I can't bring myself to it. I see the addiction in them, it's not so bad now, but It used to be literally insane.

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I really, really enjoyed Burning Crusade, also enjoyed Wrath of the Lich King quite much, but Cataclysm really killed it for me. With all the dungeon finder and raid finder cross-realm stuff all of the community feeling was just gone. I loved picking your own teammates, flying out to dungeons and summoning others. Even though I progressed really slow it was just a lot more fun. Now you just hit "find raid", breeze through something that's way too easy while half of your team isn't even trying, get loot, leave and do the same again.

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I agree, they have completely killed the social aspect of this game, removed any challenge it ever had and even ruined the immersion of the world with flying mounts and portals. When I first started playing years ago the world felt huge, almost endless. There was so much to explore and it was actually dangerous to go out in the world. Is it even possible to die while questing now? No more forming groups and making friends on your server, no more travelling to the dungeons. Everything is just handed to you now, you can get to 90 and get full raid gear without speaking to another person or even leaving the city. It's just boring.

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I have mixed feelings about this. I played this game since the origional beta, and logged 7 years total, and right now have 8 lvl 90, with full raid gear. I cannot now, bring  myself to re-sub my subscription, and everyone I have played with has quit also. I cannot wait for the next big mmo from blizzard though.

Right there with you. Will be bitter sweet when its gone. No more temptation, but it was once a great, challenging game.

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Is it even possible to die while questing now? No more forming groups and making friends on your server, no more travelling to the dungeons. Everything is just handed to you now, you can get to 90 and get full raid gear without speaking to another person or even leaving the city. It's just boring.

That's what eventually turned me off about the game.. loved the original, fond memories of BWL raids, etc.. actually had to work for the rewards, and you had "proper" raids. Burning Crusade was ok, but Lich King was the turning point for me.. enjoyed it for a little while but wound getting bored and eventually retired my account. When Cataclysm came out I got the free week offer... gave it another go but didn't make it past day 3. Haven't tried it since, and a few people I still keep in touch with tell me the same, it's been dumbed down to an absurd level. Just my impression, but felt like they were catering to the lowest common denominator to get the most subscribers versus keeping the standards up to what made the original game great.
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It's not game over. Just a side effect of becoming a casual game. Doesn't take months to beat all of the content. Many of those will come back when the next expansion comes out, play for a while, and then wait again for another expansion. I leveled from 1 to 90 in 2 weeks and reached the raiding final boss of the time a week later. No reason to play after that.

Shows how easy its gotten to raid, and how all the decreases in required XP to level (along with RaF bonuses etc. not assuming you used them though) have made the game. No wonder many 'hard core' people have left. I personally quit at the end of WotLK.

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Having played this for a long time, I find it comes and goes. I'm in the "goes" stage right now.

But I have to agree, the cost is rapidly becoming not worth it especially considering many other MMO's are now F2P.

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I agree, they have completely killed the social aspect of this game, removed any challenge it ever had and even ruined the immersion of the world with flying mounts and portals. When I first started playing years ago the world felt huge, almost endless. There was so much to explore and it was actually dangerous to go out in the world. Is it even possible to die while questing now? No more forming groups and making friends on your server, no more travelling to the dungeons. Everything is just handed to you now, you can get to 90 and get full raid gear without speaking to another person or even leaving the city. It's just boring.

 

 

Sad, too. It's all the result of caving in to people constantly bitching about stuff being too hard. People whined that not enough stuff was accessible to "casuals" so they had to lower the bar for them over and over, but nothing ever stops people from complaining. The players who actually succeeded and built competent guilds and cleared raid content were called "elitists" by the idiot masses because they could actually earn the things the other players expected to have handed to them.

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Shows how easy its gotten to raid, and how all the decreases in required XP to level (along with RaF bonuses etc. not assuming you used them though) have made the game. No wonder many 'hard core' people have left. I personally quit at the end of WotLK.

Didn't use any exp boosts other than the one you get with the Panda. The challenge is completely gone from the game.

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Sad, too. It's all the result of caving in to people constantly bitching about stuff being too hard. People whined that not enough stuff was accessible to "casuals"

 

I did not hear too much people complain about the game being too hard. People mostly complained about the grinding in BC. Blizzard went way too hard with the grinding in BC. Lot of hardcore raiders i did dongeon with back then actually did agree with that. BC was fun but the rep grinding made the game not so fun for people who did not have too much time like me.

 

For me Blizzard got it right in WOTLK. Hard enough. But not too much grinding so people with not too much time but skills like me could actually exploit them. It was enjoyable for both casual and hardcore.

 

Cata was nice up until they decided to nerf Fireland and create the raid finder in DS. I really liked the dongeons in cata. Since then the game is going downhill. It's way way too easy.

 

My toon was Granule, Garnotte and Bourlette on Emerald Dream.

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