XIV and XI are still going, and XI recently got updates and still has a sub. XI is actually seeing a boon of new players right now due to the extreme popularity of XIV.
EQ 1 and 2 are still going side by side.
NCSoft - as scummy of a company as they are sometimes - still has multiple titles going despite shutting down others not deemed profitable enough, and I swear people just look at what they’re doing and think the whole industry is them.
And for the record, modern WoW is more similar to Wildstar with it’s game design. Long term stability is in question right now without a change of direction, especially as the needs of players in the genre shift with how reality is right now.
The only thing ESO is competing with WoW for is the RP population; the actual gameplay is too different and caters to a different audience, but people have actually left WoW for ESO in the RP circle. (…or other games like XIV.)
People invested in the genre as a whole will play both - and other games - as they always have, and will likely put more money into both games if WoW starts respecting player time more.
WoW literally already has party sync and timewalking, proving they can absolutely have it so every instance can be done by players at any level. They just refuse to expand on the system, wasting the majority of their content. (Seriously; all they need to do is just toss them into LFR.)
XIV rewards players for doing those old instances through a roulette to keep the story instances populated and relevant.
WoW’s refusal to actually use it’s content is entirely by choice, when it’s deep history should be a massive boon to the game. At this point though, they’ve put off such a basic thing for so long, people aren’t going to go back because it’s a waste of time because you could walk in and press one button and get all the loot for some long, without a real incentive, nobody’s going to do it. And that’s really depressing.
No, it honestly wouldn’t. Businesses care about profit, WoW takes a lot to develop compared to ESO and doesn’t have nearly the level of returns that ESO does due to its very minimal effort required nature. Coupled with the fact WoW’s current playerbase has tanked so low in recent years that it’s actually having to legitimately compete against games it curbstomped in the past that only got better over time while WoW got worse. In 2011 if you said that FFXIV was going to destroy WoW you were rightfully laughed off the internet. Now it’s something most people acknowledge as having happened that FFXIV eclipsed WoW in the wider community of MMO players.
Similarly ESO players are already acclimated to the game being monetized to hell with DLC content, microtransactions, etc. You’d have to deal with a lot of WoW’s players leaving if they get the faintest whiff of a microtransaction focused future. ESO can release the Thieve’s Guild as DLC and the players will deal with it. Imagine if WoW tried to lock reputations behind a DLC package and it had any interesting reward.
ESO from its start has only improved over time. WoW hasn’t. For ESO to get better it’s a much easier task. ESO needs some furniture. WoW needs an entirely new foundation, new walls, the ceiling needs to be fixed, it needs to be fumigated, etc. Look at it from a business perspective. Buying a car that you intend to fix up then sell at a higher value. WoW is a sports car that needs absurd levels of work and money to get it to the state it needs to be in should you try to profit. ESO is one that requires minimal investment and effort but will make you a good return and isn’t hard at all to make into a state that you can profit off it.
If they don’t think it’s fixable to the point where it’s no longer delivering the topline and bottomline they need, and everyone keeps moaning and complaining about it and driving people away from the game, then yes it will probably be canned.
Which for WoW, not at all that much. People appear to have conveniently glossed over where the earnings report outright stated that WoW was not earning as much as it used to. “This increase to segment net revenues and operating income was partially offset by lower revenues from World of Warcraft.”
I do agree with you but I reiterate - partysynch or lfr or timewalking, however you want to look at it - an instance with a very simple, short floor plan and a couple of bosses isn’t all that exciting.
Rather than making the early ones part of the normal dungeon round, what would be better is if they did what ESO did - create Delves. They are non-instanced dungeons where you just walk inside. They have mobs and one decently strong boss. Along the way there are things collect from chests and so forth and the boss drops something of a suitable level depending on the character’s level. You can do them alone, with friends or with anyone who happens to be there at the same time. In ESO there are crates and trunks and barrels which contain cooking materials which are very handy in that game and even sell reasonably well because those particular types of cooking mats can only be collected, you cant buy them from a vendor and you cant farm them (ie by doing things like fishing or killing beasts). So if someone wants to spend the time checking out every sack and barrel and box you can make a decent bit of extra gold.
Anyway, thats what I’d like to see; every zone across the game having a couple of Delves (or whatever Blizzard would call them) so that there is always something for your more casual player to do.
Here’s the full list of IPs that were acquired. I’m sure the beancounters will be privy to the internal sales/profitability by IP and segment, which we won’t. They will probably be the ones to decide which ones get canned in the interest of simplifying their product offerings. So many people have been complaining endlessly about WoW that it’s possible the beancounters may decide trying to re-attract them is a lost cause, and if it’s worth spending the extra money and resource keeping those of us still left playing the game and spending $20 a month happy. It will be an economic decision like what happens to surplus brands in any acquisition.
I think the majority of the smaller ones will get put on the game pass. Thats exactly the sort of stuff that Microsoft would be wanting to beef up their game pass content.
got the hard numbers to back that up or are we just pulling 1 million subs out of our butt and hoping they all pay the sub with their own money and not just farming the gold up each month?
And businesses look at trends before betting on the future, they don’t just say “what did it do last year”, they look at the past few years to see how it is trending.
And WoW has been in a death spiral for years now, it’s not a good, long term investment.
Take your sign and stick it, you don’t like the truth but it is what it is. I have a long time invested in this game as well and don’t want to see it die either, but all the wants and dreams don’t change cold,hard,facts.
I get the worry but even in decline WoW is profitable. No one spends 68.7 billion to kill IPs. I attempted to link the third quarter earnings but they don’t allow it here.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, I just would believe that for the amount they spent, they see some value in Activision/Blizzard IPs. I know they more than likely eye balled Call of Duty as the marquee piece, but inheriting the most successful MMO of all time seems like a good move. At this point I can’t really see anything but improvement to our current game situation.