The question of “how do you kill World of Warcraft” continues to be asked by companies and players alike, yet it is a question that has already been answered. As Blizzard themselves have admitted, World of Warcraft cannot be killed by imitating it:
“Players that have invested time in WOW don’t just want to do the same thing in other game – they want to try something completely new and different,”
-Shane Dabiri, Blizzard, on WoW Clones
Rather, World of Warcraft can only be killed by Blizzard, and it appears that will be as simple as players completing the content and leaving. World of Warcraft’s subscribers peak when an expansion releases and gradually fall as players finish or become bored with the new content. Back in May, Blizzard announced in a conference call that they intend to release expansion packs on a more regular basis to combat this post-release drop in subscriptions, which I theorized could actually lead to players feeling over-charged and have a negative effect (read: Death by Expansions).
Over the past few months, Blizzard has introduced a series of updates to bring new players into the game, including updating the free trial to allow players access to content up to level 20 for absolutely free, with no time limit, and the recent release of World of Warcraft in Portuguese with a new client and servers for Brazil. That being said, this isn’t a doom-saying for World of Warcraft. In fact, despite this drop in subscribers, World of Warcraft’s profit margin continues to grow, $313 million as opposed to $299 million this time last year.
Not that anything I say will stem the “Blizzard will go bankrupt by the end of the year!” posters.
MMO Fallout 