Something someone said in a thread I put up a while back (I do read y’all’s posts, you know!) has been on my mind in some form or another for a while. It’s mutated into my own kinda doomsday theory about WoW.
So, Microsoft is very “make-number-go-up” capitalistic,right? Midnight is a hail mary of “EVERYTHING THE TELEMETRY SAYS YOU LIKE! ELVES! HOUSING! ELVES! DARK EDGY THEMES! ELVES!” I wouldn’t be surprised if the preorder bundle we hear about in a few weeks is absolute crack with housing early access and elf stuff and void stuff and elf stuff. This is it, the middle beat of a trilogy, and with enough distance from 14.0 to tell us if we get another huge arc… or a wind-down.
I’m really kinda scared that Midnight will decide if the last titan hooks another saga by its end, or if Microsoft will see the numbers and not be impressed. As a D&D Dungeon master of an ongoing game for over 10 years that’s a continuation of a 30+ year continuity, every major chapter’s end is an evaluation of “do we still got it for another round” while we’re at what could count as a suitable pernament end point. I’m really kinda concerned that WoW may be doing the same thing. Monetarily, if Midnight doesn’t absoultely blow it out of the park, they could turn the ship toward “wind it down after Last Titan.”
Yes I know, Metzen said “vector forward” for decades and such, but he said “Warcraft,” not WoW.
Hell, collector’s bounty put another layer of tinfoil on the hat, giving us a chance to get the RNG mounts we’ve always wanted so we can enjoy them…before it’s all gone.
I’m not trying to be a doomer, but like… That D&D DM instinct to re-evaluate whether or not to start another multi year arc, it’s a real thing man.
Meh. They keep ESO around and it only has a fraction of the WoW player base.
And since they are working/worked on 3 x-packs at once…im sure we’ll get at least 2 more before we reach the earliest point were they start making those kinds of decisions
“bad numbers” by WoW standards would equal a huge tremendous mind blowing success for literally any other game. There is no danger of WoW getting axed for not meeting certain numbers. The worst that could happen is someone gets fired and replaced by an effective clone who does everything exactly the same.
Wow has 7 million monthly subscribers by most estimates. That’s over 100 million dollars every month. Can you think of anything else that pulls in 100 million dollars a month? Besides phone games that is.
You could cut the subscriber count by 90% and it would still be massively worth it to keep the game going forever and ever.
It’s unlikely Microsoft will shut down WoW completely.
If people are still paying to play, they’ll keep it running.
Ending further development and putting the game into maintenance mode? A distinct possibility… but I have doubts. Easy cash cows will not be put out to pasture too early. They could be replacing the lead designers and other key figures if it doesn’t deliver, however.
I can’t imagine a new player joining in TWW, dealing with the prevalent/persistent bugs and terrible Blizzard Support, and actually wanting to stick around for another expansion if it has more of the same issues.
That said, no, I do not think Midnight will make or break WoW’s future. There are enough of us old-timers with sunk-cost that will carry the game for at least a few more expansions.
Well, as far as we actually know, anything can be possible. But speculation is speculation from any of us, and as far as we are aware, World of Warcraft is the only one in the Warcraft IP in constant active development.
For me, this was what killed my “worry,” such as it is. I’d forgotten that Blizzard has always tried to at least curate access to their IPs and games, even if they’re clearly in maintenance mode. A maintenance mode WoW would require more I think, and we may be heading there with us being able to “make stuff,” but I think they know the notes they have to hit before they’d ever go essentially hands off on WoW… which yes, I can admit is potentially not even in my lifetime (I’m old).
Even warcraft rumble…will technically still exist.