Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced a total of more than 4.5 million customers for its massively popular MMO World of Warcraft, simultaneously announcing an official launch for the game in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The company’s last major subscriber milestone was 3.5 million ‘customers’, reached in July 2005.
According to Blizzard, the commercial launch of World of Warcraft in the territory follows an open-beta test during which WoW reached a peak concurrency of more than 140,000 players, with a total open-beta base of more than 800,000 players.
Blizzard’s partner, Soft-World, and its subsidiary, GFI (Game First International), are leading the operation and management of World of Warcraft in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. GFI’s dedicated team in Taiwan will provide synchronization of content updates and deliver player feedback to the developers. The team will also offer 24-hour customer service with direct game master (GM) support and local call-centre representatives dedicated to helping players with questions regarding gameplay and technical issues.
Finally, a footnote to Blizzard’s new provides interesting information on how its 4.5 million customers are defined, since Asian MMO game use differs significantly to North American players. The company explains: “World of Warcraft customers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or purchased a prepaid card to play [the game], as well as those who have purchased the installation box bundled with one free month access. Internet Game Room players having accessed the game over the last seven days are also counted as customers.”
That last paragraph is a bit confusing. I’m guessing that the 4.5M is current players who have paid for time or haven’t had their initial month run out, plus the Asian Internet cafe players. Or, it could represent total box sales + game cards + cafe players.
I wonder when the numbers will begin to decline? Blizzard opened up some new servers this week too.
Sure, that would be the annualized range, with everyone paying $15 a month. Granted, it’s probably a crap-ton of money any way you slice it, but the 3 million-plus players outside of North America have differing subscription plans, with game cards being most popular in China and southeast Asia (net cafes). You pay for the number of minutes you play, not for a 30 to 90-day subscription window.
And although the revenue is enormous, the hardware and staff infrastructure must scale to support the user base. At their Irvine campus, Blizzard has an entire office building dedicated to WoW GMs.
Sure, that would be the annualized range, with everyone paying $15 a month. Granted, it’s probably a crap-ton of money any way you slice it, but the 3 million-plus players outside of North America have differing subscription plans, with game cards being most popular in China and southeast Asia (net cafes). You pay for the number of minutes you play, not for a 30 to 90-day subscription window.
And although the revenue is enormous, the hardware and staff infrastructure must scale to support the user base. At their Irvine campus, Blizzard has an entire office building dedicated to WoW GMs.[/quote]
Of course, they have hand selected the GMs from the world’s finest midget game masters.
There’s a line I left out of the customer definition that may or may not clarify things for you - possibly not:
“World of Warcraft customers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or purchased a prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the installation box bundled with one free month access. Internet Game Room players having accessed the game over the last seven days are also counted as customers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or canceled subscriptions, and expired pre-paid cards. Customers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.”
Hey Mark, how is your server Horde side? I’m getting bored on mine, and am looking for server where I can A) hop into PvP on demand and not waste an hour waiting around. B) I don’t like Queue’s to log on.
Currently is there very little wait time for AB and AV on my server on the horde side. Warsong just doesn’t run.
AV can be instant to 10-15 minutes if it’s running, which it has been for the last month or so since they changed it. AB is about the same, though seldom takes 10 minutes. Every now and then it might take a bit longer.
I usually do a /who alterac and /who arathi and pick the one I want to access. Then I’ll either trot on over to AH to kill a few minutes if there’s some wait time, or even hop on a bird to Winterspring to grind some mobs. If I do that, usually I get the message to enter the BGs while the bird is in flight.
Currently is there very little wait time for AB and AV on my server on the horde side. Warsong just doesn’t run.
AV can be instant to 10-15 minutes if it’s running, which it has been for the last month or so since they changed it. AB is about the same, though seldom takes 10 minutes. Every now and then it might take a bit longer.
I usually do a /who alterac and /who arathi and pick the one I want to access. Then I’ll either trot on over to AH to kill a few minutes if there’s some wait time, or even hop on a bird to Winterspring to grind some mobs. If I do that, usually I get the message to enter the BGs while the bird is in flight.[/quote]
That’s a stark contrast to how it is on my server (Mal’ganis). Horde side waits are an hour long during peak hours; This is a time when you’d expect wait times to be shorter, generally.
AV never runs, ever. It only comes up for gasping breathes of air during the occassional holiday weekend.
And I never ever ever see any alliance in the overworld. Ironforge must have something real interesting in it, because they all seem to be huddled in there.
Thanks for the info. I’ll pass it along to the group of friends I’m considering moving around with.
Currently is there very little wait time for AB and AV on my server on the horde side. Warsong just doesn’t run.
AV can be instant to 10-15 minutes if it’s running, which it has been for the last month or so since they changed it. AB is about the same, though seldom takes 10 minutes. Every now and then it might take a bit longer.
I usually do a /who alterac and /who arathi and pick the one I want to access. Then I’ll either trot on over to AH to kill a few minutes if there’s some wait time, or even hop on a bird to Winterspring to grind some mobs. If I do that, usually I get the message to enter the BGs while the bird is in flight.[/quote]
That’s a stark contrast to how it is on my server (Mal’ganis). Horde side waits are an hour long during peak hours; This is a time when you’d expect wait times to be shorter, generally.
AV never runs, ever. It only comes up for gasping breathes of air during the occassional holiday weekend.
And I never ever ever see any alliance in the overworld. Ironforge must have something real interesting in it, because they all seem to be huddled in there.
Thanks for the info. I’ll pass it along to the group of friends I’m considering moving around with.[/quote]
Horde is in the minority on my server, so that may have something to do with wait times. I fear that AV may die again after a lot of players hit exalted - AB is better CP/HK gain than AV so the players hungry for PvP rank prefer it.
It’s a problem when you restrict access so that sides are balanced in a BG and it’s problem when you don’t. I don’t think there’s any correct answer.
I don’t think many people want to pay for small increments. We did have hourly fees a long time ago with online games like Neverwinter Nights, but they weren’t exactly micro-sized payments.
I’d like to play City of Heroes by the weekend. I’d probably pay $5 for a weekend that started Friday evening and ended Sunday at midnight. I’d do that once a month.
I do recall the ridiculous rates of way back, but those should not be needed anymore. Plus they could have both systems like if you went above say $17 in micro-payments for a month you get the whole month to play. Choice is a great thing to have.
CoH is indeed another good example. I love to play it form time to time, mowing down great groups with a superpowered hero can be fun after a day full of stress :D But I don’t have the time to play it enough to warrant the $15. That and my tastes running from fantasy/historical to science fiction which would mean I would have to run about 4 to 6 subs for my tastes, something that simply isn’t worth it for me. With micro-payments I would play all those games, but for shorter sessions.
I think it will be here sooner or later, only question for me is why isn’t it here now?
The tech is probably ready, but I think the financial institutions and the governments are not or don’t want to have(allow) it yet. :(
Eh, $15? Even over a year that’s $180. Now if I was getting by on foodstamps or a kid on an allowance this could be a problem but, hell, if I can afford cable modem service (and how insanely expensive is that?) or my (idiotic I know) smoking habit - $180/year isn’t that much money. In fact, and others have pointed this out, if you are playing with any frequency that cuts into your costs and spending overall. Every week I was up to my neck in SWG or CoH/CoV I wasn’t concerned about what new games were coming out. Had my hands full elsewhere.
I’m dreaming here, but I’d love to see a game charge actual rent-like levels to get in and quality control the entire process of membership like an condo’s board in New York. You hire a serious customer support team and have a lower level staff that works with content designers and the players to create a more immersive and seamless experience. You police abusive players, or players acting outside the game’s intent, mercilessly and crush them. Hey, it’s just a dream. But there has to be a profitable alternative to the poo-flinging Chuck E. Cheese experience in MMOs these days. Making membership a priviledge, not a right, and delivering a real immersive environment would be a start. Half of what can kill a restaurant is lack of ambience. Maybe one day we’ll see a “no shirt, no shoes, no service” setup. Probably not any time soon though. Producers will have to keep getting beat up by WoW and the doomed-from-the-start attempts to imitate it, there can be only one McDonalds, before they realize they need to do something different.
