Blizzard Speeding Up WoW Development
A dramatic drop in subscriptions after Cataclysm's release has prompted Blizzard to consider faster content releases.
Monday during Activision Blizzard's First Quarter 2011 Financial Results conference call, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime told investors that the company is shooting to launch the Diablo 3 Beta sometime in Q3 2011.
However the good news trailed a gloomier note that-- following the release of Cataclysm-- subscriber levels of World of Warcraft have decreased faster than what was experienced with previous expansion releases. Does that mean PC gamers are finally getting bored with Blizzard's monster MMORPG? Not at all. According to Morhaime, players have actually gotten better at consuming new content.
"As our players have become more experienced playing World of Warcraft over many years, they have become much better and much faster at consuming content," he said. "And so I think with Cataclysm they were able to consume the content faster than with previous expansions, but that's why we're working on developing more content."
He admitted that the team needed to be faster at delivering new content to players. "That's one of the reasons that we're looking to decrease the amount of time in-between expansions," he said, clarifying that the team was looking into ways of speeding up the development process after an investor asked if the decrease meant smaller expansions.
Buzz over the Cataclysm expansion propelled World of Warcraft subscriptions to an all-time high, exceeding 12 million as of October 2010. But now subscription numbers have dropped to the lowest it's been since December 2008, returning to "pre-Cataclysm levels in the West" (but more like Lich King levels) with a mere 11.4 million subscribers. That's a loss of 600,000 subscribers at the least.
So where have all these players gone? Are they flocking to free-to-play MMORPGs that offer a similar setting? Or have players reached a point where the only time they really need to play is when a new expansion has been released? Is it time for Blizzard to open the doors to free-to-play gamers?
Right now Blizzard isn't ready to disclose any additional details about speeding up the development process, or what future expansions will contain. That said, we're betting a new expansion will be announced at Blizzcon 2011.
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Or alternatively, if my housemate is anything to go by, Cataclysm is BORING and people decided not to bother.
All the underwater stuff, for example, is just a dull grind (even more than normal) and that alone actually forced her into getting her other characters up to spec instead of pushing through with the two level 80s she already had. There also doesn't seem to be enough variation in quests and adventure to support the ludicrous amount of XP you need to hit 85, especially if you don't raid.
I also wouldn't be surprised if players actually got annoyed with the total reshaping of the world and just left - it certainly took my housemate quite a while to get used to it and re-learn everything, but it was frustrating, not fun.
@LePhuron I totally disagree with what your saying about cataclysm. After the redesigning of azeroth leveling toons is a lot faster and easier due to improved quest lines. Yes you need 9.5 Million exp to get from 84-85, but consider the fact most high level quests in twilight highlands give 50-125k exp it's not really alot of questing time.
The focus on cataclysm was switched back to endgame raiding and there is alot of good content. Simple answer is your friend is bored because she doesn't raid, either down to lack of time or lack of skills required to raid at high level.
I guarantee those 600k subscribers who have left are what dedicated WoW fans and players call "Lich Babies!" those who started playing during Wrath Of The LichKing which basically was a complete ludicrously easy face roll. Now difficulty levels are back towards Burning Crusade difficulty whiners and the bad players complain.
^ Which is entirely possible. I don't play it myself so I'm only going by what she's said.
She doesn't raid because she finds most of the players irritating (too many bad experiences with too many guilds), and she can't usually be bothered to log in at a specific time to join a party.
Certainly she's having more fun starting from the beginning and doing the Burning Crusade and Lich King stuff again than working through Cataclysm (although I did see her pally jump from 82 to 84 in about 4 days so she must be playing it).
Maybe if she re-specced her DK to do it properly she'd have more fun ;-)
Cataclysm represented a third helping of "more of the same" since the original release.Its a well-polished old game that can become a bit of a gaming routine.I wouldn't be surprised if half a million subscribers out of that colossal player base felt similarly, and simply cancelled shortly after Cataclysm's release. I know I cancelled my subscription.