Is it time to consider rolling WoW subs into Xbox Game Pass?

Community General Discussion
1

Before I begin, please remember this:

  1. I am Australian, so I use Australian pricing
  2. Understand business, and that taking a loss is a “bad idea”

My WoW subscription is due on June 22nd. This is the first of the “new pricing” announced back in February. I will go from paying $19.95 a month to $23.95 a month. I also pay for an XBOX Game Pass Ultimate subscription for $21.95 a month. Since both are owned by Microsoft, I’m now wondering if it is worth paying for both when you could roll WoW into Game Pass and pretty much lose nothing; if anything, you could get more people playing WoW.

For $21.95 a month with Game Pass, I have access to a few hundred games per month, including Blizzard games like Diablo 4, and soon, Warcraft 1 through 3.

On the other hand, I will be paying $23.95 a month for WoW and I get… WoW, and that’s it. And it’s not even that much anymore. I pay $23.95 for… the ability to grind mythic+, delves, and raid each week. The content is no longer there now that the story is done. So why pay to continue to waste time on things that no longer matter.

Now, before people complain about servers and all that… That stuff no longer matters now that everything has been compressed down to next to nothing on that end. The technical reason for a monthly subscription isn’t needed anymore and could easily be rolled even further into the Xbox game servers, which are maintained through Game Pass subscriptions anyway.

As for the “I don’t want Game Pass” crowd… Why? For less than what you pay for WoW, you could get more games to play and save money. Sorry to say, but you’d be stupid to not use something like that.

Then there’s the “but the bottom line/profits/development costs” crowd. Here’s my suggestion. WoW gets rolled into Game Pass, but we still pay for the expansions separately. That way they get the sales numbers and can say “X amount bought WoW’s latest alpha test build game” (Let’s be honest, what expansion hasn’t launched in a horrible state over the last few years). As for the costs, Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar company, they’re going to cover development costs either way.

I think it’s time. Give the players a break, or at least value for money, by rolling the WoW subscription into Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

2

Im sure they will soon, they just added warcraft games to gamepass so im sure its coming down the road.

3

Why?

World of Warcraft is not joining Xbox Game Pass as far as we know. Even if it did, why would Blizzard accept a portion of the subscription costs for their game when they get the majority of it through their own launcher and payment systems?

If WoW was going F2P, I would see it being added to Game Pass. But let’s look at other Blizzard games on Game Pass. Overwatch? Do I get access to the premium battle pass as an Xbox Game Pass subscriber? No. Diablo 4. Do I get access to the premium battle pass as an Xbox Game Pass subscriber? Also no.

So why would I get a WoW subscription by becoming an Xbox Game Pass subscriber?

2 Likes
4

wow will def be going to xbox its just a matter of when, not if…but its a matter of when

5

Because WoW has been losing players like crazy for years now. Game Pass would bring exposure and fresh players to the game. Other than greed, there is no reason to accept double-dipping payments for services, especially since the WoW services have been horrible for the last many years, with less content for higher prices.

1 Like
6

Game Pass pays peanuts to developers. No way it will even get close to $15 a month per player for Blizzard.

7

No, it has not. In fact, a recent GDC talk Blizzard did showed WoW subscriber numbers climbing significantly following the disasters that were BFA and Shadowlands.

If we were still in the BFA/Shadowlands timeline? Okay, I might buy that because those expansions were truly terrible for WoW. But we’re not. You appear to be misinformed.

1 Like
8

couldnt agree more and with the 1 button rotation they added its just more steps they are taking to make it easier for controllers, granted you can do wow now on a controller with a TON of different key binding commands but still.

9

You think Blizzard gets anything from the subscription fees anymore? Microsoft owns Blizzard, so Microsoft gets that $15 now, then they give the Blizzard team a budget when development time comes.

10

Microsoft is no idiot either. Rolling WoW into Game Pass will be a loss for them.

11

Would they lose some subscription fees? Yes. But they would gain more through allowing Game Pass subscribers to join WoW. Small loss for a bigger gain.

12

WOW for consoles is a given at this point…it’s just a matter of when.

13

They absolutely get money from their subscription fees, and you’d be a fool, a very misinformed fool, to think otherwise. If Blizzard were to fold subscriptions into Xbox Game Pass, then Microsoft would be getting the majority of the money, and they’d give Blizzard a slice of that, since the money would be changing hands through Microsoft’s systems, not Blizzard’s.

As it currently stands, not only does Blizzard get the majority of the revenue from WoW subs through their own payment platform, but that money helps fund games that are less profitable and the development of new titles.

You really don’t know what you’re talking about.

1 Like
14

I’ll admit I don’t know the workings of game developers and publishers, but I thought they were still separate entities and blizzard was just under Microsoft but left to their own thing?

15

This is gonna sound foolish in a way but. Microsoft now owns world of warcraft now, they own the ip as well as the company who made it. They (devs) work for phil spencer as well as microsoft. Not seeing wow on game pass is crazy to me. We should be able to pay through wow token, xbox game pass as well as monthy, 6 month, yearly subs.

16

WoW wont go to game pass at its current model.

They wont lose easy extra money from the sub for nothing. More players that dont buy anything aren’t really the goal of any enterprise and in all honesty, wow do not suffer from lack of players either.

So no, in its current model, wow wont joing gamepass simple because it means less money.
Every company want its product to charge a monthly fee, charge expansions, have an ingame store etc, none want to lose a product that has managed to have all of that lol.

17

I’m no ceo but I’m guessing you don’t run a company this big without paying someone (probably a nice amount) to know that kind of thing.

18

Microsoft bought Activision-Blizzard, which means they own Blizzard Entertainment through that purchase. They now profit from all Activision-Blizzard profits, including Blizzard’s titles like World of Warcraft. But as far as we know, internally Blizzard has room to make what they want to make without much corporate interference.

They own Activision-Blizzard, and through it they own all of Activision-Blizzard’s subsidiaries, including Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, and King Digital.

However, Blizzard Entertainment still owns the IPs they made. They are not owned by Microsoft. Which is why you do not see Microsoft or Activision-Blizzard’s logos on any of Blizzard Entertainment’s products. If Blizzard were to be sold or buy itself out from Microsoft (which could happen), then all of Blizzard’s products would go with them.

1 Like
19

I understand how business structure works, which is more than what you seem to understand. To keep it simple

  • Microsoft owns Activision/Blizzard
  • Microsoft owns World of Warcraft
  • Microsoft gets all the money from the companies under its umbrella
  • Activision/Blizzard funds are now Microsoft funds
  • Microsoft ultimately makes the decisions
  • Microsoft can absorb the loss from a small percentage of lost WoW subs
  • By putting WoW on Game Pass, you get more exposure and numbers than you would if you kept things as they are now
  • Metrics look better to shareholders than watching one section of the business barely hang on.

I’m not misinformed. I’ve been following all this for many years and can see a case for something that you, personally, do not want to see happen. Your personal preference does not account for how someone in a management postion would think and make decisions.

20

You might have a general understanding. But each business is different. They are not all made by cookie cutters from the same sheet of dough.

Blizzard is familiar with navigating the waters of corporate ownership, as they’ve been owned by many companies since before they were even named Blizzard Entertainment (they got that name while being owned by Davidson & Associates).

Unless you work for Microsoft, you do not know how Microsoft’s business structure works; you can only make best guesses from what little knowledge you can glean from official documents, and I doubt you’ve even bothered to read any of them, which means you’re talking out of your rear right now.