Patch 5.4 patch notes
Virtual Realms feature revealed
The Proving Grounds are coming
The latest patch 5.4 newsActivision conference call: WoW still at 11.5 million subscribers
by Mike Schramm 
May 7th 2009 at 9:00PM
The OC Register has a great breakdown of what Activision said on their earnings conference call today. Perhaps the biggest WoW-related stat to come out of the call is that the number of subscribers to the game has apparently leveled off: they're holding steady at 11.5 million. Which is nothing to cough at, but it's what we were told four months ago, and if, as Ghostcrawler claimed, the numbers are still going up, then they're going up very, very slowly. Morhaime says that numbers are growing everywhere, but that China will be a main focus of growth this year as Wrath of the Lich King releases there soon.In non-WoW Blizzard news, the Starcraft 2 beta will start this summer and will be the "final" phase of development for that game. The new Battle.net interface will be tested then as well, so keep an eye out for that. And Blizzard expects big things there in China also -- NetEase, the company that will now be handling Wrath's launch, is already set up to run both Diablo III and Starcraft 2 out there, so it'll all be under one umbrella.
In short, there's no really bad news from Blizzard, but no really great news either -- the best news to come out of the call is that even in the slow economy lately, Blizzard is holding steady. Not a bad thing at all, but we probably won't see any spikes in player interest in Blizzard or WoW until they announce what's next on the content plate, whether that be at BlizzCon or before.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Expansions
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Tutunkommon May 8th 2009 9:27PM
Since accounts that de-activate are never deleted, does Blizz still count those as accounts? In other words, since I canceled the auto-renewal on my 5 accounts (all but one of which has become "frozen"), do those accounts still count toward the 11.5 million?
Falcom May 8th 2009 5:30PM
if the undead didn't pass for china because a couple bones are showing, how do they expect to ever get diablo 3 out the door resembling anything like what the game is supposed to be? Killing rabbits instead of demons?
dippyzippy May 9th 2009 1:44AM
If you still pay a sub or are in china and pay for game credit, you count as a subscription. If anything, the fact it has stayed at 11.5 million means that there are a lot of dual-boxers out there still paying for 2 accounts, I bet 99.9% of people who used RAF are dual-boxers.