It’s ”normal to see some declines” as we move away from an expansion’s launch. The fans have become ”much better and much faster” at consuming content.
Sub numbers have been dropping since the end of the June 30th quarter, but that’s entirely expected says Blizzard at an investor call. The total number of subscribing users remains incredibly high for an MMORPG which stands around 11.1 million.
”…what we have seen is that subscribership tends to be seasonal and driven by content updates,” explained Blizzard boss Michael Morhaime. ”So as we’re heading further away from an expansion launch, it’s normal to see some declines,” he continued.
Morhaime said back in May that what they produce is getting consumed more efficiently by the fans as they’ve got to grips with tactics and team work over the years.
”As our players have become more experienced playing World of Warcraft over many years, they have become much better and much faster at consuming content,” he said.
”And so I think with Cataclysm they were able to consume the content faster than with previous expansions, but that’s why we’re working on developing more content.” Could that new content be the ’Mists of Pandaria’ which was spotted as a trademark?
Since Blizzard altered the trial version of World of Warcraft from a fixed number of days to unlimited play up until level 20, they’ve seen ”significant increase” in the number of new accounts created, although it’s ”still too early to tell” how many become subscribers.
The continued expansion overseas in places like China and even Russia will help keep World of Warcraft going strong said Morhaime.
”Their economy has performed very well compared to the rest of the world during the recession,” he said, speaking of Brazil. ”We already have some Brazilians playing in English, but we think the market can be a lot bigger in Portuguese.”
”There are other countries that we’re looking at beyond these as well, but I don’t have anything that I can talk about.” Do you consider yourself a ‘seasonal subscriber’ to World of Warcraft, or do you stick with it even during the quieter times?
