

World of Warcraft now has 10M paying subscribers - breck
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/world_of_warcraft_hits_10_mill.php

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henning
Reality check: WoW is desktop software, built by a large team of highly
experienced professionals (not college kids). World of Warcraft took 3-4 years
to build. The profits go to Blizzard's parent company, Vivendi, which is a
massive global media empire.

The old ways are still here and if you're at the top they are very profitable.
Think about that the next time you read Tim O'Reilly drivel about Ajax-Web
2.0-old business models "dead" bullshit.

~~~
marketer
It's not impossible, however, for a small team of people to make profitable
games. Take as an example the Desktop Tower Defense game, which was created by
one person. It's the web 2.0 aspects that made the game so successful, namely
sharing high scores and seeing opponents solution.

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rms
I think the gameplay was more important than the web 2.0 aspects. At least,
the web 2.0 aspects wouldn't have meant anything if DTD wasn't such a perfect
example of tower defense.

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jakewolf
Before you go off and say $15 * 12 months * 10 million users and drool
yourself to death, take a look at the actual press release.

"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."

In the first half of 2007, total revenue for Vivendi Games ( Blizzard
Entertainment, Sierra Entertainment, Sierra Online and Vivendi Games Mobile)
was about $700mm.

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daniel-cussen
Jeez, their year revenues must be huge. They could conceivably spin off WoW,
take it IPO, and make a killing.

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bayareaguy
As someone who recently cancelled my kids WoW accounts (they played for about
a year before losing interest), I tend to think the number is probably
inflated by at least 1M.

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Tichy
So you have 1 million kids? Impressive ;-)

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bluelu
In other words, 10 million addicted childish people who waster their life
playing WOW

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bayareaguy
I don't think it's that simple. When my kids started playing I was suprised
how many people they met in WoW who were depressingly sick, poor or
significantly limited in their freedom (e.g. stuck on a military base) for
whom WoW was one of their only options to socialize.

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wallflower
I was even shyer than I was now in college, and I fondly recall wasting away
hours chatting with people I never ever met on IRC. Yes, anti-social but not
really - even the most shy people need some social contact. I think that's the
true power of the Internet - from WoW to Facebook helping guys meet and date
women they wouldn't otherwise.

~~~
eru
At least virtually.

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pius
World of Warcraft grosses $1.5bn+ per year? Really?

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randallsquared
No, because the majority of players are in the Asian markets, where you pay by
the hour for only the hours you play. These players pay far less than
$15/month, I would guess.

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breck
I agree that it's probably a lot less than $15. ReadWriteWeb doesn't cite any
source for the figure and Blizzard's press release doesn't mention it.

