The press release submitted by zukaus says at the bottom:
World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition World of Warcraft subscribers include 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. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.
I think frozen accounts fall under "expired subscriptions" and so they are not counted. If that is the case, the current 5.6 million copy forecast is actually somewhat realistic sounding now.
Wow 8 million now? Growth is still very strong. The biggest bullish part is 3.5 million players in China. I didn't realize how big it was there. With that market opening up, there's room for millions more. I'm surprised there's only 2 million in the US though. I thought American PC gamers are the ones most likely capable of playing PC games...then again WoW is not that intensive. The only question for BC is how many of this 8 million are active accounts and not frozen accounts.
From Blizzard's FAQ: - Only the new non-raid dungeons will have Heroic mode - Heroic mode requires Level 70 characters - Heroic mode requires completing other objectives to unlock
From http://www.worldofwarcraft.com - Arena matches require Level 70 characters, and the formation of organized teams. There will be practice matches for lower levels, but no points are earned.
The expansion is going to provide much more content geared towards more causal players then hardcore raiders. Every dungeon has atleast 2 5 man instances, which can be run on two seperate difficulties. The "Heroic" mode allows for the acqusition of tokens that can be turned in for epic gear. New pvp options, which include Arena's and World PVP objectives. The new honor system is also much more causal friendly then the grind it was since it was introduced. The new system means you earn honor points which you can spend as currency on equipment.
They probably will make a box set eventually, but the continued growth of WoW should be dramatically smaller going forward. At 7.5 million copies sold, it is already one of the best selling video games of all time. More expansions will breath new life into the game but I think most of the people who would play WoW have WoW by now.
Many of these people have dropped out. Expansions for WoW will likely be further endgame content that fewer and fewer players will actually be able to use. People who dropped out likely won't pick up the expansion because they are already so behind. My friends who dropped out for a few months after MC had no chance of getting back in when the guild was doing Naxx. A very small percentage of players even get epic mounts or raid...BC offers the endgame player even more expensive mounts and even harder raids.
sure only people that have completed it so far will get the expansion, but dont you think they will make a wow & burning crusades box set? Its always done with mmo expansions..
As mentioned previously, 5 million copies is awfully optimistic. As of 11-9-06, WoW has 7.5 million subscribers (Wikipedia). I think expecting 2/3 of the user base to purchase the expansion "easily, if not more," is unrealistic, especially when one considers that much of the expansion content is only for those who've already reached endgame.
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World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include 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. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.
I think frozen accounts fall under "expired subscriptions" and so they are not counted. If that is the case, the current 5.6 million copy forecast is actually somewhat realistic sounding now.