8 Million Players

Kindness-akama · December 27, 2018, 6:43pm

Imagine the server queue. ARRRGGHHHHH.

Cheater-azjolnerub · December 27, 2018, 6:49pm

After the first or second raid tier release, 400k regular NA players, 600k EU players, I don’t care about Asian numbers, and Oceanic/other will be a small fraction of the overall population. (Regular = logging on at least every other day)

Kindness-akama · December 27, 2018, 6:54pm

Pretty much all the Zeldas are good in some way. I didn’t like Majora’s Mask as much though because the time limit was weird.

Cerenaran-destromath · December 27, 2018, 8:20pm

I feel like there is a forgotten player base for this game. I mean for at one point in its history to have 12 million players, a lot of fricken people loved this game. Granted it was to kill the Lich King (Arthas) which dated back to WC3 which was a major factor for people wanting to play WotLK.
I think there is still that interest for the game as it was.

If Blizzard looks at the numbers for Classic servers and views the interest people have for BC, WotLK, I think that there is potential for millions of subs with the addition of those expansions to the Classic Servers.

Edit: To add to this, Warcraft 3 Reforged will ignite that fire to play WotLK once again. It is the perfect pair of games. The old school RTS where you played as Arthas and saw/played through the history of Warcraft to then get into the World of Warcraft and slay Arthas on his throne.

Nefas-steamwheedle-cartel · December 28, 2018, 1:26am

Roughly under 2 million

Asglarek-hellscream · December 29, 2018, 5:32am

You keep throwing around the phrase “nostalgia has its place” but not in the mainstream but fail to realize that the retro culture is huge in clothing, home decor, auto’s and music remixes if these industries aren’t mainstream I dont know what mainstream is nor do you obviously.

anon44207803 · December 29, 2018, 5:45am

You keep throwing around the phrase “nostalgia has its place” but not in the mainstream but fail to realize that the retro culture is huge in clothing

To a point yes, but clothes arent video games.

, home decor, auto’s and music remixes if these industries aren’t mainstream I
dont know what mainstream is nor do you obviously.

A 2004 MMO with a pay to play paradigm using 2004 graphics and gameplay in 2018 is not mainstream.

Mogar-stormrage · December 29, 2018, 5:50am

Tell that to Nintendo and their Classic console sales.

anon44207803 · December 29, 2018, 5:52am

Tell that to Nintendo and their Classic console sales.

Neither of them are a

2004 MMO

with

pay to play

Single player only.

Mogar-stormrage · December 29, 2018, 6:00am

I wasn’t aware those consoles were free.

As far as 2004 graphics or gameplay, that is a completely pointless thing to say. If a game is fun, it’s fun. And Vanilla WoW is fun. Is Chess mainstream? Have they updated the chess board over the years? I could list a million examples, but I feel like they’d fly over your head.

Auddoras-stormrage · December 29, 2018, 6:21am

I believe it will be more.

Classic had 8 million they lose about 3 million in bc and gained about 5 million.
In WoTLK they lost another few million players and gained 5 million.

Ppl have doubts but I believe it will grow. If they do it right I am going to say 12 million. It could be so massive blizzard might have to change thier outlook on MMOs.

Gurrag-steamwheedle-cartel · December 29, 2018, 6:29am

8 million easy. Everyone I know is coming back to play Classic, and not one of them wants anything to do with retail. Retail will have tumbleweeds blowing through Stormwind when Classic is released.

Elynos-sargeras · December 29, 2018, 7:58am

WoW could easily rise to its highest numbers yet between classic and current wow combined

Dontlosmeßro-illidan · December 29, 2018, 8:13am

Those numbers were for BC which they definitely need to add at some point

Dontlosmeßro-illidan · December 29, 2018, 8:18am

anon44207803:

Across the U.S. and E.U. this game will have 8 million players.

Not even close. Im going to say I think that you are missing two points:

First: 8 million is way overblown. Looking at the market…and yes I agree there is an area for nostalgia…Id say a closer approximation would be one million. Maybe.

2004 gameplay is attractive from one sense, but to a great deak of the gaming public these days, is out of date and outmoded. Whether you choose to admit it or not, the time requirement alone will be a major turnoff.

and

“If you want a good game you need to commit the time” does not fly in todays market. Time is at a premium, and is one reason why you dont see any games like Vanilla anymore…wait there was one…it cratered at 300 mph.

Accept it or not, demographics drive game design.

Todays gamer is mid 30’s busy, kids, family, job, RL commitments…and you cannot ignore that point. To do so denies the very real changes that have taken place in the entire gaming genre across the board.

Look at travel: in Vanilla it took a long time to get anywhere - in todays market - travel is not gameplay.

“Theres no market for those who want instant travel”

Bethesda would like to show you examples of where it works fine.

What I think you will find is a spike at first, maybe one mill maybe more…but a lot of them will be what has been called “tourists”, who will poke around, nod, say they remember this…but then the phone will ring…it will be work…or one of the kids will need help…or dinner is ready…or they have to go out…adult responsibility has to come first.

So they will bow out and go back to live.

That spike will be temporary…and in the end will leave you with whats been called “the hardcore element” who will be your main playerbase.

At a conservative estimation (leaving room for variance), you will be looking at a static playerbase of maybe 1 million overall. Thats still healthy, definitely, but nowhere near what you might think or wish for.

I fully expect the numbers to climb when retail content is cleared, which is what I think blizzard is hoping for, retaining subs that are usually cancelled once they burn through content.

This is close to the reality. Attrition will be a factor.

There is a love like no other for the Original game. It caused trouble to many lives because of it.

Yes it did. Thats why you wont be seeing it any more. The lessons learned in EQ (Evercrack) still remain. A recent example of what can go wrong was that Fortnite player…that is not what anyone wants.The days of long time playing and "commitment to a video game are dead and gone.

The emphasis can, and will be, quality of time online, not quantity.

. It will be interesting to see the numbers of the three classic servers combined. (Classic, BC, and WotLK)

Really? When did Blizzard say they were doing those?

I get the enthusiasm, and yes I did oppose the idea of Vanilla servers…so I was wrong on that. But at the same time, you will need to be realistic in terms of how many actually will come and play and how many wont.

Diablo 2 has more players on reset than the newer diablo 3 game.

Players are putting just as many hours in on gaming as they did 10 years ago… Trust me

If the game is as god awful as BFA is people will go play classic until changes are made

Naveeri-malfurion · December 29, 2018, 8:23am

Really? Everyone that plays games fits that description? I didn’t fit that description in 2004, and I’m 14 years older now.

Naveeri-malfurion · December 29, 2018, 8:41am

I didn’t start quite that early but Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos was one of my favs as were the old D&D games like, Eye of the Beholder and especially Pools of Radiance. I didn’t need a modem to play my games back then.

Böösey-destromath · December 29, 2018, 5:38pm

Let’s say, over the entirety of WoW this game will reach 12 million players with the inclusion of Classic: Burning Crusade and Classic: Wrath of the Lich King.
With resets happening ever so often who knows how long this game will last for.
It may influence future retail design for the better.

Edit: I would not be surprised to see it surpass 12 million over the entire game with the inclusion of the Xpac Classic Servers. Especially when the hype over the game’s classic servers will be all over the internet and news for the gaming community.

anon44207803 · December 29, 2018, 8:28pm

Really? Everyone that plays games fits that description? I didn’t fit that description in 2004, and I’m 14 years older now.

https://venturebeat.com/2014/04/29/gaming-advocacy-group-the-average-gamer-is-31-and-most-play-on-a-console/

The average age of someone who plays games is 31 years old. In fact, more gamers are over the age of 36 than between the ages of 18 to 35 or under the age of 18. They are also mostly men, but by a slimming margin. Men make up 52 percent. From 2012 to 2013, the number of women gamers over the age of 50 grew by 32 percent.

47 percent of gamers are between 18 and 49 years old.Apr 29, 2016

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/new-statistics-reveal-the-face-of-australian-gaming-20120802-23g49.html

According to the survey, the average age for an Australian gamer is now 32, compared to 36 for the whole population, and 75% are 18 or older. Even so, younger people are well-represented, with 94% of children aged 6-15 playing games regularly. 95% of Australian homes have at least one device used for playing games.

But yeah, Im making it all up…

anon44207803 · December 29, 2018, 8:32pm

Women now make up 47% of gamers, which goes some way toward explaining why the ways in which women are depicted in games has become such a talked about issue. This is up from about 38% in 2005, a sharp increase.

https://www.minervacollege.edu.au/new-blog/numbers-add-up-on-gaming-in-australia

Nearly 70 per cent of Australians play video games, nearly half of those are female and the average age of a gamer is 33.

Those are just some of the stats recently released in Digital Australia 2016, an empirical study about digital games in Australian households with a focus on demographics, behaviours and attitudes.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/130552/unmasking_the_avatar_the_.php