What constitutes a "sale" of World of WarCraft and/or any of it's expansion packs? From GamaSutra, we have this definitiion of what Blizzard terms as a "subscriber" of which there are 11.5m as of the end of 2008.
Specifically, Blizzard's use of 'subscribers' includes "individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers."
Certainly in the west, users have to "buy" an account to start playing WoW and have to pay a one time fee to "upgrade" their accounts to use the expansions. This we can comfortably translate into "sales" for our GLS predictions. However, this only makes up half of the current WoW subscriber base.
In China, Blizzard partner with The9 to deliver a localised version of WoW via business models that make sense for the Asian market (where MMO's are huge). From the link above, here's how it works;-
Concerning payment for online games (Page 37) “To use our fee−based online games, a customer must register an account in our Pass9 system. Once registered, the customer may log into our network, select and activate the desired games and the game districts where the customer wishes to play, and then charge his account with a prepaid card or prepaid online points sold by Internet cafés or given by us through our promotional events that enable the customer to play for a specified period of time.
Each customer needs to maintain only one Pass9 account, which provides information regarding the customer’s available prepaid game playing time for each selected game district and payment history"
Here the situation is somewhat different. The player purchases a card from The9, "activates" the required game and then purchases game playing time to play them. I guess the key word would be what is meant by 'activates'. If the player isn't required to pay anything to activate a game then how does that frame a "sale" of either WoW or the Expansion Pack?
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What constitutes a "sale" of World of WarCraft and/or any of it's expansion packs? From GamaSutra, we have this definitiion of what Blizzard terms as a "subscriber" of which there are 11.5m as of the end of 2008.
GamaS
Specifically, Blizzard's use of 'subscribers' includes "individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers."
Certainly in the west, users have to "buy" an account to start playing WoW and have to pay a one time fee to "upgrade" their accounts to use the expansions. This we can comfortably translate into "sales" for our GLS predictions. However, this only makes up half of the current WoW subscriber base.
In China, Blizzard partner with The9 to deliver a localised version of WoW via business models that make sense for the Asian market (where MMO's are huge). From the link above, here's how it works;-
Concerning payment for online games (Page 37)
“To use our fee−based online games, a customer must register an account in our Pass9 system. Once registered, the customer may log into our network, select and activate the desired games and the game districts where the customer wishes to play, and then charge his account with a prepaid card or prepaid online points sold by Internet cafés or given by us through our promotional events that enable the customer to play for a specified period of time.
Each customer needs to maintain only one Pass9 account, which provides information regarding the customer’s available prepaid game playing time for each selected game district and payment history"
Here the situation is somewhat different. The player purchases a card from The9, "activates" the required game and then purchases game playing time to play them. I guess the key word would be what is meant by 'activates'. If the player isn't required to pay anything to activate a game then how does that frame a "sale" of either WoW or the Expansion Pack?