Re:Warcraft fans' fury at Blizzard over server closure
by simonh on Friday April 15, 2016 @07:12AM
(#11503420)
A sort of assumed this was sour grapes and Blizard probably know what they're doing, but then I checked the subscriber history for WoW. They're back to 5.5m, the same as 2005 a year after launch and down from a high of 12m. Ouch!
The downward momentum looks crushing. The few big temporary peaks over the last few years vanished immediately and it reverted back to decline as though they'd never happened. So people jump in for a look when there's something big happening, but _none_ of them (statistically speaking) stay afterwards. No wonder they're hammering down hard on anything that might draw away subscribers.
Edit: It just occurred to me that even given this, perhaps Blizzard is doing the commercially adept thing. Suppose decline for a game like this is inevitable. In which case switching to a model that extracts maximum revenue from players at the cost of long term viability might be the best way to capture value. Cynical? Me?
The downward momentum looks crushing. The few big temporary peaks over the last few years vanished immediately and it reverted back to decline as though they'd never happened. So people jump in for a look when there's something big happening, but _none_ of them (statistically speaking) stay afterwards. No wonder they're hammering down hard on anything that might draw away subscribers.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/276601/number-of-world-of...
Edit: It just occurred to me that even given this, perhaps Blizzard is doing the commercially adept thing. Suppose decline for a game like this is inevitable. In which case switching to a model that extracts maximum revenue from players at the cost of long term viability might be the best way to capture value. Cynical? Me?