This thread is fun!

 

-----signature-----

Yes, but they're on the Taiwanese servers. They have very different laws there, and it's not under direct control of China's government in all aspects. Cataclysm is not released for China yet, and China makes up a very large playerbase.

 

-----signature-----

I think many (if not all) would agree that the 12 million number is at least SLIGHTLY inflated.

Even so, if you told Blizzard that 39% of their existing players would buy the expansion pack within the first 30 days of it's release, they would have been celebrating.

39% buying the new expansion in the first month? Blizz will take that every single time. That is a win.

 

-----signature-----

Because they are a super power yes. If 39% means 4.7 million boxes, sure that is a win. However by that logic compared to most other MMO sales, if 10% of their player base bought the expansion that would have still be a win sales wise.


Would that ratio hold true on a much smaller scale? This is an actual question I don't know too much about video game marketing. If Rift were to release an expansion, would they concider 39% of their player base buying it a worthy investment?

 

-----signature-----

39% of 12million people bought it. It was only available to 40%-50% of the 12million people.

 

-----signature-----

Burning Crusade sold 3.5M in it's first month. WotLK sold "over 4 million" in it's first month, which broke the record held by BC. Cataclysm sold 4.7M plus in it's first month breaking the record held by WotLK.

By the way they worded the WotLK sales in the first month- "over 4M", I would guess the actual number is between 4 and 4.1M. If that is true, there was a bigger sales increase from WotLK to Cata, than there was from BC to WotLK.

Any way you want to look at it, those are some ridiculously impressive growth numbers for a what- 6 year old game? 6 year old games in this industry are the exception, not the norm. 6 year old games posting those kind of numbers aren't even the exception, they're unheard of.

 

-----signature-----

You have no actual data to support what you're saying. First we are speculated on how real a number 12 million even is, and now you claim to know that only 40-50% of those people had Cata available to them.


Any more stats you want to invent?

 

-----signature-----

Agreed, those are some impressive numbers no matter how you look at it. At least as far as volume.

 

-----signature-----

huh?

And yes, Syrus, I think any game company would consider 39% of their quoted subscriber base buying the expansion pack *in the first 30 days* a win. That's almost half your quoted subscriber base upgrading inside of one billing cycle!

 

-----signature-----

Right I guess we need to keep in mind too the whole one month fact. This isn't 39% bought the expansion and that is it. It is 39% bought the expansion in just one month.


Personally I know a few people who came back to the game for cata but didn't have to buy the xpac yet because they were starting out new characters and didn't need it quite yet.

 

-----signature-----