Tag: Subscribers

The Old Republic: 1.7 Million Subscribers


Many years ago, I could provide you with hard subscriber facts because companies were actually able to reveal them. Today, thanks to investors and “trade secrets,” we generally have to settle for vague statements of growth, decline, or breaking even. Actually, these days World of Warcraft is one of the few developers left that come straight out and give base number of subscribers, while NCSoft goes into a detailed breakdown on sales figures per title rather than subscriber numbers.

Since plenty of people have called for the imminent death of The Old Republic, Electronic Arts has eased our pain and suffering of needing to know everything by revealing that The Old Republic has sold over two million copies with 1.7 million subscribers (1 million concurrent), or a retention rate of between 80 and 85 percent. Despite the level of vitriol on certain websites, Origin accounted for 40% of those sales.

You can find an interview below at Darth Hater.

(Via: Darth Hater)

Eve Online: 350,000 Subscribers


Convincing an MMO developer to release their subscriber numbers is difficult, if not downright impossible. After all, since World of Warcraft came in and scooped up twelve million people, somehow players have decided to use the most popular MMO in existence as a benchmark for success. Still, Eve Online is one of the big players remaining on the pure subscription section, boasting three hundred thousand players a few years ago. Earlier this year, CCP pointed out after the hubbub over their in-game cash shop that Eve Online was still growing year over year.

In an email to past subscribers, CCP is offering a reactivation for the new years. In the email, they mention “Join CCP Games and the 350,000 subscribers of the Eve Community…” So much for the “Eve Online is dying” crowd.

Warcraft's Cataclysm: World of Warcraft Continues Freefall


It’s been a year of discussing World of Warcraft’s peak and gradual downward shift. In the first quarter, Blizzard revealed that subscriber numbers dropped from Warcraft’s peak of over 12 million down to 11.4 million. By the second quarter, those figures had slipped down to 11.1 million. Despite this, Blizzard noted that revenue from the MMO was higher than ever, thanks to the sales of cash shop pets and mounts. The company pinpointed the loss of subscribers as directly related to the release of expansion packs, vowing that expansions would be released at a greater pace from now on.

According to Venture Beat, Blizzard is now reporting a subscriber number of 10.3 million in the third quarter, a loss of 800k subscribers since its last report. But put your pitchforks and torches away, Blizzard trolls, because despite the loss of over one million accounts this year, profit has reportedly tripled. So again, the people paying for sparkling horses and vanity pets are more than making up for the people quitting.

So what does this mean? I predict that World of Warcraft will settle just like Everquest did. It might not be number one in a few years, but it’ll still be healthy enough for Blizzard to keep the servers rolling, keep churning out regular updates and expansions, and everyone will be all hunky dory.

Until then, Blizzard will enjoy its seat at the head of the table.

Warcraft’s Cataclysm: World of Warcraft Continues Freefall


It’s been a year of discussing World of Warcraft’s peak and gradual downward shift. In the first quarter, Blizzard revealed that subscriber numbers dropped from Warcraft’s peak of over 12 million down to 11.4 million. By the second quarter, those figures had slipped down to 11.1 million. Despite this, Blizzard noted that revenue from the MMO was higher than ever, thanks to the sales of cash shop pets and mounts. The company pinpointed the loss of subscribers as directly related to the release of expansion packs, vowing that expansions would be released at a greater pace from now on.

According to Venture Beat, Blizzard is now reporting a subscriber number of 10.3 million in the third quarter, a loss of 800k subscribers since its last report. But put your pitchforks and torches away, Blizzard trolls, because despite the loss of over one million accounts this year, profit has reportedly tripled. So again, the people paying for sparkling horses and vanity pets are more than making up for the people quitting.

So what does this mean? I predict that World of Warcraft will settle just like Everquest did. It might not be number one in a few years, but it’ll still be healthy enough for Blizzard to keep the servers rolling, keep churning out regular updates and expansions, and everyone will be all hunky dory.

Until then, Blizzard will enjoy its seat at the head of the table.

Rift Has Over 1 Million Customers, Is #2 In West


Alright everyone, pitchforks and torches are in the barrels to your right, lighter fluid and booze to be handed out liberally and excessively. In an article on Gamasutra, Trion’s own David Reid made a few statements on premium MMOs and the subscription model. He mentions how companies need to adapt and evolve in order to survive an increasing demanding market with more and more cheap alternatives sprouting every day. Trion is currently running Rift, with upcoming free to play RTS End of Nations and upcoming shooter Defiance that will run hand-in-hand with the Syfy show of the same name.

“It’s a lot harder to make your money back in the premium games space than it used to be,”

More importantly, David Reid mentioned that Rift carries over one million customers, and is the second most subscribed game in the west. Once again, pitchforks and torches to your left, booze on the right. Help yourselves.