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Blizzard doesn’t expect WoW’s subscriber count to grow again

Is it all down hill from here for World of Warcraft? Possibly, well at least as far as the subscriber count is concerned as the MMO's lead designer, Tom Chilton, has said that Blizzard doesn't necessarily expect the game to grow again.

In an interview with MCV, Chilton said: “We really don’t know if it will grow again.” Obviously, this doesn't mean that the company is losing any interest in developing for the game, after all, there are still millions of World of Warcraft subscribers left.

Chilton continued by saying “It is possible, but I wouldn’t say it’s something that we expect. Our goal is to make the most compelling content we can.”

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By building expansions, you are effectively building up barriers to people coming back. But by including the level 90 character with this expansion, it gives people the opportunity to jump right into the new content.”

World of Warcraft has been around for a decade and had a peak subscriber count of 12 million. However, things are finally starting to settle down for the MMO, 800,000 subscribers have left in the last few months and while there are still plenty left, it might be time for Blizzard to consider working on World of Warcraft 2.

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KitGuru Says: I never really got in to World of Warcraft, I guess I'm just not much of an MMO person. However, a lot of people still love the game. Do any of you guys still play WoW? If not, how long did you play before giving it up?

Source: MCV

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17 comments

  1. It Certainly wont grow in the uk since these idiots have put the sub price up! its a 10 year old game they should be looking at dropping the price to get more people not raising it.

  2. Zerhackstückler

    And you certainly don’t get the reason at all, why the prices are being changed. Currently UK users pay way less for their subscriptions than everyone else, the new prices are just a measure to fix that and even after the change they are still a bit cheaper than what it costs in the rest of Europe. This isn’t unusual practice at all, last year the game industry had to raise prices in Canada as well, due to the currency being so weak.

  3. You are not incorporating average people earn a month in the biggest EU Countries, if you look at the typical national minimum wage in the uk a month compared to the others you we pay around about the same or maybe abit more. also the vat we have to pay when buying games also.

  4. Zerhackstückler

    You can’t compare the average wage in some European countries to UK’s minimum wage, I mean of course you can compare it, but it doesn’t make any sense in the context at hand, while I can’t speak for the average cost of living in the UK, at least the average wage is pretty high and higher than the majority of European Countries. I mean, by no means am I an expert on this subject and I might be wrong, it’s just that your initial post sounds uninformed and I encountered similar behavior when Sony adjusted pricing on their games and consoles earlier this year in Canada which on their side was totally justified as they were losing money due to the Canadian $ being as weak as it is. In my opinion the only thing in these cases that is despicable by Publishers is that they don’t change prices like this the other way around, if a currency get’s stronger they tend to wait far longer to change pricing.

  5. If you can’t pay the extra 1 pound a month to play world of warcraft you have much bigger problems in your life then playing a game.

  6. There’s no way I’m getting back into WoW. I bought the Battlechest about 3 years back, which came with the base game + Burning Crusade. In order to play WoW fully, I’d have to buy Lich King, Cataclysm, Pandaria, and now Warlords. RIGHT NOW would cost me $27 through Amazon to get the 3 expansions I’ve missed, plus an extra $50 for Warlords, PLUS the consecutive $15/month for the sub. Just to get back into WoW, I’d be set back $77! I have school to pay for!

    There are a slew of games that are free and comparable to WoW, if not more engaging. I’ve sampled the F2P MMO market extensively and have found my favorites that I haven’t had to spend a cent on. If WoW radically restructured its pay scheme, I might come back because I do have fond memories of the game. I just don’t have the capital to invest in it, and I would rather get the value-per-dollar that EVE offers, if I’m going to pay every month.

  7. to be honest i love the game dont get me wrong but the paying to move a character a server is a ball ache!!! and paying for a subscription at the moment i dont have the time for which is a shame but come the expansion the month before im getting back into it with a bang! power leveling the rogue to 90 to make a start on the expansion with him 😀

  8. Inflation.

    EDIT: It’s like saying because Freddo’s have gone up 7 pence in the last 10 years you can’t buy a Freddo anymore.

  9. i’d like to note that this is actually false, as the battle chest now offers expansions up to Cataclysm for $15 (with a month), while mop is about $10. (i’ve also heard it’s free for new subs atm, as wod is out soon.)

    And WoD isn’t even out yet, so you dont’ have to pay it straight away.

  10. Yep, you can play Guild Wars 2, Metin 2, and many other… but… it doesnt have same quality like WoW. WoW will be always WoW….

  11. Amazon is just trying to take your money like always, Why would you give perfectly good money to a middleman site like Amazon? Go directly to Blizzard and they give you deals, You can actually get started back playing wow today for less than 10 to 20 dollars, of course Warlords is 50 with it being new content and 15$ a month is nothing compared to what you would spend on other games.The UK has always paid less for this game and its time for them to get up on par with everyone else. I mean if a couple of pounds is that big a deal imagine what it would be like for you to game on a console with buying a new game at least once a month. Cost wise in Gaming this would be one of the better bets out there giving you have the computer to run it, if not a 3rd grader could build a comp that actually can

  12. Amazon is just trying to take your money like always, Why would you give perfectly good money to a middleman site like Amazon? Go directly to Blizzard and they give you deals, You can actually get started back playing wow today for less than 10 to 20 dollars, of course Warlords is 50 with it being new content and 15$ a month is nothing compared to what you would spend on other games.The UK has always paid less for this game and its time for them to get up on par with everyone else. I mean if a couple of pounds is that big a deal imagine what it would be like for you to game on a console with buying a new game at least once a month. Cost wise in Gaming this would be one of the better bets out there giving you have the computer to run it, if not a 3rd grader could build a comp that actually can run it, seeing as it costs next to nothing these days to build a decent computer

  13. Never going to buy a game with Subscription. WoW team must be billionarries by now. Seen people playing it and thought to myself why would you pay monthly for this? Madness, utter madness. Hope you have alot of fun WoW fans cos you’d paid probably thousands over your time.

  14. 7p? I remember them being 10p and they’re 25p now!

  15. In the last few years people in the UK have become relatively poorer
    unless they are in the higher earnings bracket. At a time when many
    typical wage earners in the UK have had to make decisions between
    cutting back on food or heating in the winter months this is a pretty
    asinine decision. You can argue all you wish for inflation, but relative
    to my monthly disposable cash which has dwindled significantly since
    the credit crunch this is a significant increase. Even the 8.99 has
    become more relatively more to my wallet than it was 4 years ago. This for a product that is years old and losing subs.

  16. i thought they were 17p, not 25p 🙁 Sad times.

  17. I played WOW for over a year, till they banned me for no reason. Lost some high level toons and a lot of time. Tried to play again many times but Blizzard would have none of it. FU Blizzard!