People need to define their failure conditions before making their claims.
IMO it will be a success with 500k monthly players. Some people might consider that number to be a failure.
This feels like a GD threadâŚ
It was. It got moved.
I am guessing that Blizzard would trade the revenue it gets from all of their current monetization methods for the subscription revenue they were getting from Vanilla to Wrath.
I would have argued it will fail because the value proposition of $15 per month to play a 15 year old game vs various other subscription services where you get a multitude of different content for cheaper seems pretty weak.
Of course there will still be plenty who come back for the nostalgia and many might hang around for a while but personally I canât see a world where you would choose WoW over some other service where you get much more for less on a truly ongoing basis.
And also I guess people still pay for modern WoW so maybe WoW just is that valuable to some. Either way classic WoW will never do as well as it did originally and modern WoW will likely continue to stagnate with each big content push bringing fewer and fewer players back to the game.
Those things will undoubtedly arrive in Classic someday, probably after Naxx has been out a while to give everyone a chance to âbeat Vanillaâ, something they missed out 15 years ago.
Whatâs there to know about a one dimensional character like you?
This is a guarantee, but no-one is putting that requirement on it. And it may help usher in a return to the old models with a new MMO.
The way I see it, Classic feels like a minimal investment, full profit way of getting back some lapsed subscribers. Even itâs in the 500K range it would be a success as it will likely push WoW subs over another million milestone when combined with Retail. Of course, these lapsed subscribers return on the promise of a reasonably authentic old game, and if they muddy this with microtransactions you could ruin the offering for a lot of people.
Classic is meant to be the one-stop shop for those who want Vanilla gameplay and to take private servers out of the trade. MTX is a great way to give private servers another reason to exist, even if they have less legal ground to stand on once Classic comes out.
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Classic doesnât just feel like a minimal investment. It very clearly is a minimal investment. Just about every decision made about the game seems to be aimed at cutting costs for shareholders. Hopefully once Classic proves to be profitable we might see some time and effort spent on things like the real Vanilla Alterac Valley.
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OP⌠Your post history is probably the most negative Iâve ever seen on these forums. Thatâs a pretty impressive feat.
Almost zero content⌠interesting. I managed to play it constantly from beta to TBC without belonging to a raiding guild, seeing any of the larger dungeons, playing battlegrounds frequently, etc⌠all with a smile on my face and having a blast with my buddies every night. I guess your version of content and mine just donât match up. Fair enough, I suppose. Different strokesâŚ
The reason why I think Classic has a great chance of success, is that it has something retail does not (IMHO): It is actually fun to play, and it actually feels like an online world (what MMORPGs were supposed to be).
If not, then perhaps MMO games as us old school / original players knew them are truly dead and gone, and there is no audience anymore. Vanilla WoW was almost too polished in my opinion compared to older games, but I still consider it one of the last great true MMOs.
Oh yes there gonna burn tons of development time and money that they spent on getting classic up and running for those that want to play it. Have you considered that with the sub numbers being so low, that it might be in their best interest to bolster the sub count with all the potential players just from classic. Wow and OW currently are the two big money makers for blizzard right now.
So theyâre gonna devote hours for a product that competes with their current client and the only cost is 15$ with no 60$ initial purchase needed? I expect goldselling to run rampant.
If you are willing to have an actual conversation and take criticism then thatâs great, but you must be aware such a controversial and strange take could be received as trolling to some?
Anyway, your first problem is immediately in the first sentence. It would not make sense that it is engineered to fail as it is a 15 year old game. It would not have been designed to fail upon initial release in 2004, and Classic is a recreation of that game. While it has some differences, the game hasnât been drastically altered, therefore its initial design or engineering is the same.
Now your next point, monetization, also doesnât really hold much weight to it. You can say what youâd like about Activision and many AAA companies on their monetization practices, but it isnât a all-encompassing rule that games must adhere to. There are plenty of games that have come out recently with little to no micro-transactions.(Excluding DLCs, as they can be compared to expansions in a sense) Post-launch monetization isnât a requirement for a game to succeed.
But aside from that, I donât see why it would be detrimental to a game company for their game to be such a massive success that it changes gaming trends in a positive way. If a game like Classic was to show outstanding success without the need for further monetization and even outshine their microtransaction based games, it would make sense to double down on the more profitable practice would it not?
Philosophy changes over time, it is not permanent. Microtransactions and post-launch monetization was not always the philosophy, but times changes.
Yes it is buggy, but that is to be expected and can be fixed. Compared to games like Anthem and Fallout 76 which launched with massive flaws in their core design, simple bugs can be fixed. Also to note, bugs occur with every update to any game. It isnât uncommon to have bugs, and with the monumental task they had with recreating vanilla, its amazing there arenât more bugs.
And I donât see how no mention of forums for classes, server or guild recruitment is really relevant to the games overall success at this time.
Advertisements for a 15 year old game? They target audience for classic are people who are already interested. Throwing an ad up on youtube or a commercial isnât going drag in as many people as youâd think. The community that wanted this project is already here, donât need to advertise to them.
Not having a $40+ price tag is a massive plus for getting people to try the game. Only requiring a base subscription will get many people who never experienced the game back then to hop onto classic. Whether they stay is another issue.
Classic isnât a groundbreaking new invention, its a 15 year old museum piece. It does not require the advertisement or price tag of a brand new game. I completely disagree with the idea that people who will play classic already have a subscription. Many people donât like the way Retail has gone, and are looking forward to returning to play a version of the game they prefer.
I donât personally think it is going to compete with retail either. The two games are tailored to completely different audience. While they share the same name, the games are almost nothing alike in gameplay and storytelling.
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With the subs being in the real low millions yeah. I honestly expect at least 3-5 million people to come back and give it a try. Some may stay, most will leave. Once the population stabilizes i think its going to be around 2-4 million active subs. So thats 2-4 mil from classic and lets say the 1-2 mil from retail.
Also who knows if blizzard was smart they could fill out content droughts from retail with new phases from classic, there for keeping people subbed for longer.
Edit: All in all its a pretty easy way to kill multiple birds with 1 stone. They get extra money from new or returning subs, Private servers close their doors. They get people to stop asking for classic, and so on.
People are so easily baited.
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Good or bad, it will have little to no effect on Classic.
While the reason you have listed are legitimate to an extent I think most of us that are looking forward to Classic are aware of the issues that were present back in âthe dayâ and will just continue on.
My fear is something you mentioned⌠" lack of monetization potential" they will create that potential and ruin the game. With any number of ways like âxp boost tokens.â I strongly suspect we will see a time in the future where they will ABSOLUTELY monetize classic and kill it. Because Activision.
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They know the original blizz team was a superior product to what they are now.
Hence the shame they bare. The shareholders are forcing them to push this cash cow on us, reluctantly.