Pathfinder: The 9 Billion Dollar Mistake

Community General Discussion
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There are consequences to not listening to the customer.

Pathfinder is a classic example of what happens when a company does not listen to it’s paying customers. Think of Sears: Customers don’t know what is fun, they must come to the Mall not shop on Amazon. Or think of U.S. carmakers in the 70’s. Customers do not know what a fun car is, they will buy our cars not those made in Japan!

Or Blizzard. A quick calculation of their losses from removing flight and putting in the much hated pathfinder. Note: This is an estimate not an exact number.

(10 million subscriptions lost X $15/month per subscription X 60 months)= 9 Billion Dollars.

That’s right, the bottom line cost of removing flight is 9 Billion Dollars.

And while some will say that not all 10 million lost subscriptions (12 million peak, 1.7 million now) was due to flight, consider this: Not only must you count the subscriptions lost but the new subscriptions that you do not get because of this decision.

Just like with Sears, it was not just the customers they lost, it was the new customers that never in their lifetime set foot in a Sears or the carmakers who not only lost customers but didn’t get new customers who never purchased an American made car.

Blizzard lost 9 Billion Dollars over the decision on flight.

Now, they have a choice. They can follow one of two paths.

  1. The Sears path: Change nothing and go bankrupt.

  2. The U.S. auto maker path: Make a product that your customers want.

Blizzard: You must add in flight now, with the very next patch. You must remove pathfinder and allow flight at the max level now and forever. You must eliminate current and future “no fly zones”.

Do this, or be just like Sears.

The players have spoken and in the end the customer is always right.

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I’m the most pro flight person you’ll ever find and this is the dumbest thing I’ve seen all week.

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Yep, it’s sunday alright.

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Sunday, Sunday, SUUUNDAAAAY!

For what it’s worth, most people I know don’t have a problem with Pathfinder itself. The issue lies in Part 2 being added so late in the expansion. Like, if Pathfinder Part 1 and Part 2 were added from the very start, I don’t think people would really complain at all. (Or at least, a lot less)

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I mean it would still be a pointless time gate to a feature that was perfectly fine before Blizz decided to meddle with it. Remove the rep requirements and then it’d be ok.

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Agreed. If Actiblizz lost 9 billion over pathfinder, there wouldn’t be a pathfinder right now.

This post :-1:

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Lot of unverifiable numbers flying around in this one. Someone might lose an eye.

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As pro flight as I am I actually like the pathfinder system. Gives me something to look forward to AND I can hoard my gold for shiny trinkets and such.

rides off on giant sauropod blasting Boralus theme

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I’ve yet to see a post from the OP that doesn’t make me think he’s a :melon:.

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Its cost them money but who knows how much. So hes right. Market research is also important. I’m not familiar with sears, but this expansion really failed the players by ignoring feedback.

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Starts to reply… realizes who OP is. Never mind. :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Of the “Big List of Things BLizzard Screwed Up”, flight isn’t even on the first page.

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Watch out Magni seems like Azeroth has a new speaker for everyone

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You are wrong on every account past your first paragraph the minute you made up a number of subs.

The issue with any argument you make about player base numbers is always going to be wrong from the moment they decided never again to tell us the numbers and since they never ask for why we are leaving, only to come here to discuss, even Blizzard does not truly know why players are leaving.

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There is no doubt it cost them huge amounts of $$$. I never stopped paying them for 5 years or so until they did this no flying business and now almost every expansion 4 months or more no pay. Things add up even if people don’t permanently quit.

Plus I have 2 other accounts which I would be building up but this pathfinder is just a huge turnoff having to do 2 or more times. I have done it twice in WoD and legion but I really dont’ think I can do it in BfA and that means those accounts won’t get the expansion even purchased.

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Wow. No pun intended, but… what is your source for all this information? Your $9B calculation stems from the claim of WoW losing 10 million subs since the introduction of Pathfinder, but you have no clue how many of those subs were actually given up as a direct result of adding PF.

I will use myself as an example. I don’t play regularly as I have a life outside this game. I work 50-70 hours a week, so when work is slow, I load up my sub and play for a month or two. Then when work picks up, I unsub and might stop playing for a month or 2 or 6 or a year. Then I re-sub. I am constantly subbing and unsubbing due to what’s going on in my life. And I think that is how it is for the majority of players.

So to say they lost 10 million subscriptions as a direct result of adding pathfinder I think is a gross miscalculation unless you have insider info from Blizzard themselves. Which I doubt because Blizzard no longer releases subscription numbers, let alone a reason for why players unsub.

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Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

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Agreed. And I’ve seen some pretty dumb posts this week.

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While one might think that is what they would do, it is very common for corporations to ignore their customers.

Remember Kodak? Their statement was their customers did not know what they liked and would never use something like a smart phone to take a picture they will keep buying film and flash bulbs because they are wrong not to like our product.

P.S. My heart count is surging.

“An extremely high like to post ratio” is noted by Blizzard.

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