WoW drops 1.3m users in the first quarter of 2013

[Kilmer02]

http://m.ign.com/articles/2013/05/08/world-of-warcraft-loses-13-million-subscribers

"Activision has confirmed that World of Warcraft has lost 1.3 million subscribers, pushing it down to eight million overall. According to Activision, the lost subscribers were “mainly from the East, but in the West as well.” Despite the decline, World of Warcraft remains "the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world."

World of Warcraft had as many as 10 million at the time of Mist of Pandaria’s release, and had more than 12 million at its peak in 2010.

Activision noted that the decline raises concerns, "as do continued challenges in the global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years.”

This is very sad for me because I am a total WoW addict and I really saw this coming. The game has lost any form of challenges it once had, as it became mainstream with Cata. And the whole panda thing didn't help either. Blizz needs to bring the game back to Pre-cata times, atleast in the gameplay aspect.

[ShiverMePenguins]

i used to pay for wow. can you tell me what seperates it from every other mmo in the world?

 

i mean, there are quite a few mmo's that have 10x better graphics so its not like wow is leading in that aspect anymore.

[Kilmer02]

For me, wow is about the wide open world, the different mounts, the raids and PVP. I am a huge PVP junkie and I find wow to be best for me. Everyone has their own opinion, lots have switched to LoL but I remain loyal. Wow was the MMO that changed the face of MMOs

[BlackOutCrisis]

I played WoW like a religion up until the very end of cata when Dragon soul was released is when they killed me. I literally have some of my best memories in games from WoW but I'm so glad to see it fucking dieing because it will prove to other companies to not become sell outs. Rift is my new MMO of choice and though Trion world is having a rough time dealing with the huge name they are getting I feel they have the people to keep it true to what they had in mind when they first launched Rift.

[IRIpZz]

I used to play WoW and after reaching level 70 it became very boring and dull, it basically turned into a dungeon crawler. In the early stages of the game (level 1 - 60) there is an abundance of quests you can undertake to level up and get a sense of a story line in the various parts you travel to but later on the quests start dying out or they become similar quests such as 'kill 20 such and such and collect whatever', it just became tedious. Then it becomes more dungeon, raiding, arena and PVP orientated, which for me completely ruined the experience. I do think it is a shame that it has lost a fair mount of subs over the years but like you said, you could see that it was going to happen at some point - as there are many MMORPG/MOBA games out there. 

[Talsyrius]

From the critic I have heard Neverwinter might pick up some of that slack. Never really played wow, tried it, but never got in to it.

[XiaoPigs]

Well WoW is kinda of old now. I'm quite surprised it has lasted even over a 5 year life span. Alas even the mightiest of MMORPG games has to fall. People are just not interested in WoW anymore. Nothing new about the gameplay already. Maybe if they came out with a new expansion that innovates gameplay greatly. I see WoW continuing down hill.

[MzCatieB]

WoW needs to kick things up a notch, and realise that asking for more money is losing them popularity. if they droped what they are asking down to like $7 it will increase in membership by allot and they will intern get more money

[zahlio]

For me, wow is about the wide open world, the different mounts, the raids and PVP. I am a huge PVP junkie and I find wow to be best for me. Everyone has their own opinion, lots have switched to LoL but I remain loyal. Wow was the MMO that changed the face of MMOs

Yea, i had it the same way. however they didn't really support the competitive scene like Riot has with LoL.

[Helepolis]

 Miss the Vanilla wow days, good times, good times.

[Borgodoc]

.

[tabuburn]

I liked WoW for the first few years. But after that, it became redundant.

[Owen]

Aren't they making a new game, Titan or something?

[Toby]

Here's the thing...WoW didn't change the face of MMOs. It simply gave its face a wash. It took the best parts from MMOs at the time and polished them, but it still very much resembled an MMO of it's time.

Now, over the years they've managed to progress things a bit, but WoW was never particularly innovative. If they made a sequel now, I'm not sure it'd be different enough to warrant it's own existence. Besides, they're still the most popular MMO going.

As to why that is, it's down to a mixture of it's own notoriety and people's attachment to their characters. New MMOs don't tend to be different enough to persuade people to go and start fresh when they could just go back to WoW, with their old guild and a character that has god knows how many days, week or months /played. Guild Wars 2 is a step in the right direction, but it's very much "in between generations", rather than a new generation of MMO.

[Missioncode]

The best way by far to bring back a lot of users would be offer one free charter transfer every so often or at lest cheap cheap like $5 so many people play as they can now afford to more their charter to a server that is not dead I know I would play if they did that $25 to move server is way to much. It cost them latterly $0. They are just being greedy bastards. If they want to lit server transfers just limit don't do it artificially with the high price maybe only to Mid. pop server and 2 a month but when my server died I know I stopped playing

[ZeroLogic]

I think something a lot of people are failing to realize is the natural decline in superscription following the "maturity" of an expansion.
I'm not here to argue that World of Warcraft is'nt declining in popularity overall. Rather, these subscription losses are to be expected after the fresh content an expansion brings is no longer fresh.
The majority of comments I've seen here are similar to "Blizzard killed WoW with Mists of Pandaria", this is simply not true. After every expansion the game is altered, without a doubt there will always be a minority who feel like they have been dis-serviced by this change. But just because this minority is very vocal it does not mean that the community believes that WoW is "boring" or "dull" or "redundant". Because of the aging engine that WoW is being ran on, the introduction of well polished free to play multiplier options, and a variety of reasons largely out of Blizzards control; subscribers are moving to other games.
Simply put, Warcraft is a game with 7+ years under its belt and with every introduction of a new competitor, its age is really beginning to show.

[Toby]

The majority of comments I've seen here are similar to "Blizzard killed WoW with Mists of Pandaria", this is simply not true.

 

I'm guessing you mean in other threads?

[techswede]

I kinda feel like an old fart when i say "it was better in the good old days" but i really miss vanilla wow :(
LFG and raid finder sped things up a bit but the social aspect was ruined :(
Now you can run a dungeon without even saying hello.
*old guy voice* Back in my day you had to stand in orgrimmar shouting "LFG Ragefire chasm! need 1 heal 1dps!"
i could not bring myself to keep on playing after i reached lvl 90 D:

[Lukiose]

It's mechanics are too old and arbitrary for this day and age. There is nothing interesting involved with clicking and pressing 1-2-3 repeatedly.

Modern(?) MMORPGs are already shifting towards Action-MMORPGs with actual FPS targetting elements, and even so, that would phase out in due time and people will have to continue innovating to make excellent MMOs.

One thing i can say, and is not ashamed of saying, is that if someone made HD Third-Person Open-World with as many things to do as Runescape, it would go wild.

[Night]

Meeeehhhhh??

MMORPG's have gotten stale. They are like facebook games now, they are just all the same. 

[Surprise]

I don't know where people get the idea that WoW is dying. It was said that WoW is dying since vanilla. It wasn't true then and it isn't true now. Every single expac these people have been saying this and it hasn't happened.

 

Currently wow is mid way through MoP, and people are waiting for the patch that brings in the last tier of raiding in the expac, think Trial of the crusader right before the launch of icecrown. Of course subs will be down.

 

this is a temporary dip before the last tier and next expac.

[BlackOutCrisis]

I don't know where people get the idea that WoW is dying. It was said that WoW is dying since vanilla. It wasn't true then and it isn't true now. Every single expac these people have been saying this and it hasn't happened.

 

Currently wow is mid way through MoP, and people are waiting for the patch that brings in the last tier of raiding in the expac, think Trial of the crusader right before the launch of icecrown. Of course subs will be down.

 

this is a temporary dip before the last tier and next expac.

People have not been saying that wow was dieing since vanilla lol. That was when WoW was taking over the world was after vanilla. Sunwell and Ulduar was when WoW has had its most subs ever.

[GM_Peka]

The problem I have with WoW is that it used to be a really hardcore MMO in my opinion back in Vanilla and Burning Crusade, but it seems more like they are trying to cater to a wider audience now and they've made some design choices that I really don't agree with. I just don't feel it is the ultimate MMO anymore and because of that I don't want to invest my time into it.

[Toby]

The problem I have with WoW is that it used to be a really hardcore MMO in my opinion back in Vanilla and Burning Crusade, but it seems more like they are trying to cater to a wider audience now and they've made some design choices that I really don't agree with. I just don't feel it is the ultimate MMO anymore and because of that I don't want to invest my time into it.

I'm guessing you didn't play MMOs before WoW?

 

It basically made it's name on having so much gentler a treadmill than EQ, DAoC, Lineage etc. Hell, I'm not even sure they use the term treadmill anymore.

[enRodjavel]

Been playing WoW since the relese and I still love the open world,raiding and the PvP. Things changed to the better with Tbc and wotlk but it almost died with cata, MoP gave WoW a nudge back in the right direction. But it wont be the same as Vanilla, Tbc and wotlk.