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[sonycowboy]

Over 4 Million paying customers :O :O

Assuming an average revenue of say $10 (1 month = $14.99, 3 months = $13.99, 6 months = $12.99 US), that would be $40M dollars per month. Of which, none goes to console royalty or retailers. It's all Blizzards.


For reference, NCAA took in about $46M last month - retail (almost 1M copies * $50 each). Blizzard is essentially doing better than that EVERY MONTH.

World Of Warcraft Passes 4 Million Users
Posted On 08/29/05 @ 16:53 PM

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 29, 2005--Blizzard Entertainment® Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®, its subscription-based massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG), has reached more than 1 million paying customers in North America. This brings the total population for Blizzard's critically acclaimed game, the largest MMORPG in the world, to more than 4 million paying customers.

"It's very rewarding to see so many new and returning players logging in to play World of Warcraft daily," said Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "With the continued support of our retail partners, World of Warcraft has reached more than 1 million paying customers in North America well before its one-year anniversary in November. We would like to express our appreciation to both the players and our retail and license partners for helping us make World of Warcraft one of the most popular online games in the world."

To support World of Warcraft's expanding population, Blizzard Entertainment continues to release content updates on a regular basis. These updates continually evolve the game, rewarding subscribers with new experiences and enticing prospective players to join in on an ever-growing number of adventures.

World of Warcraft has been the No. 1-selling MMORPG in North America since it launched in November 2004. Reaching the 1 million customer milestone in North America further solidifies World of Warcraft's position as the biggest and most popular online RPG by far in the region.

Since its North America debut, World of Warcraft has steadily grown in popularity around the world. Following launches in Australia, New Zealand, Korea, and Europe, World of Warcraft recently released in China on June 7, 2005, and quickly garnered over 1.5 million paying customers in its first month. Shortly after the China launch, World of Warcraft made its debut in Singapore. The game is currently scheduled to launch in the region of Taiwan later this year.

For more information on World of Warcraft, please visit the game's official Web site at www.worldofwarcraft.com.

World of Warcraft's Paying Customer Definition

World of Warcraft customers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or purchased a pre-paid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the installation box bundled with one free month access. Internet Game Room players having accessed the game over the last seven days are also counted as customers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or canceled subscriptions, and expired pre-paid cards. Customers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.

 

[Mashing]

Why do I continue to pay monthly fees when I don't play this game anymore.

Answer: because I don't want my characters deleted when I eventually get the itch to play again.

Blizzard: sucker

 

[Tamanon]

Wow, and there's no doubt in the press release what paying customers are, unlike say AOL's practices. Go Blizzard, can't wait for the expansion to be announced at BlizzCon!

 

[DonasaurusRex]

dude they dont delete your characters if you dont have subscription. I didnt play from april to august my chars are still there ))). Most mmo's give you a few years to come back. Hell its been what 3 or 4 years since i started my toons in DAOC and I got an email for 10 free days with my OLD acct. No worries man /cancel.

 

[Screaming_Gremlin]

Why do I continue to pay monthly fees when I don't play this game anymore.

Answer: because I don't want my characters deleted when I eventually get the itch to play again.

Blizzard: sucker

To my knowledge Blizzard isn't deleting characters from expired accounts.

 

[heavy liquid]

because I don't want my characters deleted when I eventually get the itch to play again.

They're not deleting characters from cancelled accounts. At least, not yet. Hopefully they'll send out emails to people with cancelled accounts if they decide to change this.

 

[Mrbob]

Over 4 Million paying customers :O :O

Assuming an average revenue of say $10 (1 month = $14.99, 3 months = $13.99, 6 months = $12.99 US), that would be $40M dollars per month. Of which, none goes to console royalty or retailers. It's all Blizzards.


For reference, NCAA took in about $46M last month - retail (almost 1M copies * $50 each). Blizzard is essentially doing better than that EVERY MONTH.

This also doesn't figure into the fact that Blizzard probably averaged at least a sellling price of 40 us dollars on ever copy of World of Warcraft sold. May even be higher.

4 million times $40 + monthly fees = Blizzard making World of Starcraft :O

Actually WoW has sold more than 4 million since I've bought WoW and don't play online anymore. It was too addicting so I forced myself to quit.

 

[aerofx]

Why do I continue to pay monthly fees when I don't play this game anymore.

Answer: because I don't want my characters deleted when I eventually get the itch to play again.

Blizzard: sucker

That's why you sell your account and play off a friend's when you feel the itch.

 

[RevenantKioku]

I've stopped payments for my account a few times, and every time I restart it, my characters are there, same as it ever was.

 

[Tiktaalik]

At this rate they'll never make any more RTS games

The MMORPG genre seems to be massive money maker, but it seems that only one or two can make money on it.

 

[Piepz]

To my knowledge Blizzard isn't deleting characters from expired accounts.

Yep, they don't. I canceled my account for 3 months, renewed it recently, all my chars are still in...

 

[golem]

no MMO will ever delete your character (if theyre smart), because they always want you to return. it shouldnt cost them anymore than a few kb of db space to keep around anyways

 

[Tamanon]

Square "said" they deleted your FFXI character, but then they had that whole Return to Vana'Diel campaign where they mysteriously were able to produce the characters, guess it was just a marketing ploy for them

 

[Mashing]

I guess I shoulda realized that from the beginning (and 5 minutes of research would have easily turned up an answer one way or the other).

Anyway, I've cancelled. Funny thing is I can play for like another two months becuase I was on a 3 month recurring billing cycle.

 

[Bregor]

Actually, from what I've heard most of the profits are going to the parent company Vivendi, and not Blizzard. A shame really.

 

[The End]

Square "said" they deleted your FFXI character, but then they had that whole Return to Vana'Diel campaign where they mysteriously were able to produce the characters, guess it was just a marketing ploy for them

heh. restored from tape!

 

[Scrow]

Why do I continue to pay monthly fees when I don't play this game anymore.

Answer: because I don't want my characters deleted when I eventually get the itch to play again.

Blizzard: sucker

:lol

sucker indeed

 

[Open Source]

Actually, from what I've heard most of the profits are going to the parent company Vivendi, and not Blizzard. A shame really.

Yeah, it's always a letdown when the people who pay for a game's development get most of the profits. They might do something stupid like pay for another game to be made, and that hurts everyone.

 

[kenta]

Blizzard ain't gettin a dime from me, I know a life wrecker when I see one.

 

[Mayor McCheese]

I wonder if they have profit sharing...

I'll see you guys. I'm gonna go work for Blizzard.

 

[Amused_To_Death]

WoW has generated over $500 mil for Blizzard/Vivendi. That puts it on the same scale of GTASA and Halo2 and twice more than Madden, and it's still going strong...Every month of subscriptions is the equivalent of a 1 mil console game sold.

Blizzard does get portions of the sales in royalties...

 

[blackadde]

But but but PC gaming is dead! :lol

 

[Juice]

Actually, from what I've heard most of the profits are going to the parent company Vivendi, and not Blizzard. A shame really.

Thread closed.

This is just it. Blizzard isn't its own corporation. If it were, this cash cow would probably harken the advent of a new age of gaming, under Blizzard's philosophy. If Blizzard had the benefit of being self-owned, they'd really have the chance to apply their do-no-evil and just make good games philosophy, expand themselves, prepare an IPO, and then become the GOOGLE of gaming.

But yeah, Vivendi owns them and Vivendi has admitted themselves that they have NO fucking clue how the game industry works, during their multiple attempts to find a good buyer for the developer.

Hopefully some venture capitalist will buy off the company and then transform Blizzard into a self-publishing development house. Until then, I'm sure Vivendi will just funnel all funds into WoW until the revenue stream is all dried up.

Ideally, Blizzard should be given more funds to allot for the development of alternate games and not just further WoW expansions, because they NEED to diversify. Look at SOE's profile, by locking themselves into MMO's based on Everquest's success, and now that they're toppled as the local kings of the genre, they're almost entirely irrelevant on the development scene. Same goes for the guys behind Ultima Online.

MMOs don't just absorb the lives of the people who play them. Developers run the same risk.