Well I wouldn't call that a 'critical hit' ... it's really just steadily retreating to pre-Cata levels. Question is : will it stop there?

It was interesting to visualize the pre-expansion apathy, naturally followed by the spike.

 

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You'd think that if someone did a job for a long time, surrounded by talented people, they would eventually get good at it. Well, this is the MMO industry, so maybe I shouldn't have been expecting much to begin with.

 

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Perhaps, the more curious question would be and the one you should be asking did such a drop occur in activity so quickly after Wrath?

 

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WoW. Just 4 months after an xpac and they are already almost down to pre xpac levels with no sign of numbers going back up.

The incredible part is that the nose dive began just one month after the xpac.

Mark my words, Greg Street (ghostcrapper) and others are going to get fired from blizzard, just like Mark Jacobs did from mythic when the swift decline went into full force.

 

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Actually, nm, I am not getting into this argument.

 

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I'd hesitate to compare the two people. It's a different day now than it was then.

Don't get it wrong, I don't like Mr.Crab at all, but I wonder what qualifies as a swift decline with an MMO that's enjoyed years of virtually zero market competition.

A loss of 50,000 subscribers for DAoC would have been huge. A loss of 50,000 for WoW is a drop in the bucket.

Still, color me surprised that Ghostcrawler is still around.

 

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Well, now that we know (from another thread) that WoW still only had 12 subscribers as of December 31st (the same number as before the xpac), which was 4 weeks AFTER the expansion released, then Cata did absolutely nothing to boost subscription numbers and in fact, now has caused them to decline.

I don't see how stockholders are not calling for someone's head about now.

 

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One problem with sites such as this is the small sample size compared to the total population. It isn't just the small sample that is the problem it is the fact that one group (Hard core burn through content fast) is providing the majority of the data that makes it suspect. There were similar population jumps followed by drops with TBC and Wrath mainly fueled by returning players that burned up the content very fast and then left again leaving the rest of us to work through the content at a more relaxed pace.

 

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I guess you haven't read the other thread. Blizzard's own stock report revealed that there were no jumps in subscription numbers as of December 31st, which was 3 weeks after cata released. Subscriptions remained stagnant (the same on Dec. 31st as they were back in October) so its not a stretch to realize that there is a decline happening.

 

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Not to mention, after every major expansion except Cata they've quickly announced their subscription jumps, and more people bought the Cataclysm expansion at release than any other expansion (there was a thread on this somewhere near the opening of Cata, as someone was trying to claim the amount of boxes they sold was fail - I actually argued in favor of Cataclysm then). And now populations are ALREADY settling below pre-Cata numbers (Horde is definitely under - barring the outlying pre-expansion month).

The ship may not be sinking fast, but it's quite obviously leaking.

 

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