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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsWorld of Warcraft reaches 12 million players
by Adam Holisky 
Oct 7th 2010 at 10:33AM
That's a lot of Deadmines runs.
VanerasToday we announced that World of Warcraft has passed another major milestone and now hosts more than 12 million current subscribers around the globe. Check out the press release for the full announcement, and thank you to all of our players for making this possible -- we're grateful for all of the support and enthusiasm you've shown over the years, and look forward to continuing to provide you with great entertainment experiences for a long time to come.
For those wondering exactly what constitutes a subscriber, check after the break. Otherwise, know that Blizzard has pretty strict accounting practices, and this number isn't blown up by some cheap trick.
Blizzard PRWorld of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 7 of 7)
Artificial Oct 7th 2010 4:48PM
"...compared to the amount of money they put back into the game towards improving various features (in-game moderators for example)..."
Which would be... how much, exactly? If you don't want to look like you're just talking out your ass, you need to actually cite the numbers. Otherwise the reasonably presumption is that you can't, since you are in fact just talking out your ass and have no idea what the numbers are.
Haimdall Oct 7th 2010 2:40PM
God Bless Azeroth.
Land of the free,
Home of the MRRGLGLLGRGLL.
Hyp Oct 7th 2010 3:00PM
Frankly i call BS, i don't think Blizzard has anywhere near that amount.
Who we are supposed to trust? Blizzard when they say this? WoW Insider's "reporting"
Please, Blizzard will say anything they like to make themselves look good and WoW Insider who seem utterly incapable of forming an intelligent probing question
And then there are comments like this from WoW Insider
"Otherwise, know that Blizzard has pretty strict accounting practices"
Excuse Mr Holisky, are you in fact an accountant? Did Blizzard in fact open their actual books to you to show the bottom line numbers of people actually playing. Or did you simply take a 'blue' response as 'holy scripture'. Forgive me for being skeptical by having you simply taking some companies word for it isn't exactly the most reliable way of getting facts
Direwoe Oct 7th 2010 3:09PM
As Activision is a listed company - putting out a false press release that directly affects the view of the future performance of the company is a big no-no.
jfofla Oct 7th 2010 3:24PM
@Hyp
Man you are a negative person.
Have you kicked your quota of kittens today?
Bossy Oct 7th 2010 4:03PM
@ Hyp.
Actually Blizzard publishes their financial results EVERY 3 months in an official AUDITED report and supported with several independant banks and authorities.
They do it together with Activision, but Blizzard's results are published seperatly.
You can also find these results on the Activision quaterly financial pages on their website and find the FULL transcripted text of these meetings on line:
example of 2009 last quarter:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/187939-activision-blizzard-inc-q4-2009-earnings-call-transcript.
So in fact these subscriptions are backed up by LEGAL and audited financial reports for the stock holders.
Meaning around 1.25 billion dollars worth of revenue for 2009 and an expected revenue of more than ... 1.4 billion for this year (Blizzard group alone).
So there is "your proof".
Artificial Oct 7th 2010 4:53PM
@Hyp: Pardon me for being skeptical, but you're accusing the management of Blizzard of committing a felony (misrepresenting financially relevant info about a publicly traded company) -- where is your evidence? Excuse me for not simply taking some anonymous blog commenter's word for it, it isn't exactly the most reliable way of getting facts.
Rufio Oct 7th 2010 9:35PM
Boooyah! And Bossy crits Hyp for [insanely large figure]. How you like THEM proof!
Well played Bossy, well played sir!
Moghar Oct 7th 2010 3:34PM
Wow, Gz to them! Like srsly, hitting 12kk before their most awesome expansion.
nic4rest23 Oct 7th 2010 5:14PM
how many of these subscribers work for gold farming and power leveling companies?
Ashleigh Oct 7th 2010 6:00PM
What you mean the ones that use stolen accounts?
Rufio Oct 7th 2010 9:36PM
7.
Sir Kanotana Oct 7th 2010 7:26PM
OMG! ITS OVER 9000!!!!!
Stannislaus Oct 8th 2010 3:56AM
The underlying message in snuzzle's post was ok, in fact I pretty much agree with it, that cata should be more difficult. It was the complete arrogance and intolerance for any playing style but his own that I felt qualified for a new level of douchebaggery. This is a post about 12 million people playing the same game, but to him there's only one.
Synfresh Oct 8th 2010 10:56AM
Waiting for a sign at the login screen that says 'millions and millions served'.
You know, because McDonald's has the same thing.
Hyp Oct 8th 2010 2:12PM
Since people felt the need to back out my skepticism of Blizzard ill repost mt original post
Frankly i call BS, i don't think Blizzard has anywhere near that amount.
Who we are supposed to trust? Blizzard when they say this? WoW Insider's "reporting"
Please, Blizzard will say anything they like to make themselves look good and WoW Insider who seem utterly incapable of forming an intelligent probing question
And then there are comments like this from WoW Insider
"Otherwise, know that Blizzard has pretty strict accounting practices"
Excuse Mr Holisky, are you in fact an accountant? Did Blizzard in fact open their actual books to you to show the bottom line numbers of people actually playing. Or did you simply take a 'blue' response as 'holy scripture'. Forgive me for being skeptical by having you simply taking some companies word for it isn't exactly the most reliable way of getting facts
Hyp Oct 8th 2010 2:23PM
@Direwoe
"As Activision is a listed company - putting out a false press release that directly affects the view of the future performance of the company is a big no-no."
You mean all companies are upfront honest and transparent, Shocking shocking i say. Then i guess the whole mess with Companies on Wall Street never happened.
thanks for your.....shall we call it insight?
Hyp Oct 8th 2010 2:22PM
@jflofa
"Man you are a negative person.
Have you kicked your quota of kittens today?"
What you call negative i call skeptical, what you call positive i call naive.
Hyp Oct 8th 2010 2:23PM
@Bossy
"Actually Blizzard publishes their financial results EVERY 3 months in an official AUDITED report and supported with several independant banks and authorities.
They do it together with Activision, but Blizzard's results are published seperatly.
You can also find these results on the Activision quaterly financial pages on their website and find the FULL transcripted text of these meetings on line:
example of 2009 last quarter:"
http://seekingalpha.com/article/187939-activision-blizzard-inc-q4-2009-earnings-call-transcript.
So in fact these subscriptions are backed up by LEGAL and audited financial reports for the stock holders.
Meaning around 1.25 billion dollars worth of revenue for 2009 and an expected revenue of more than ... 1.4 billion for this year (Blizzard group alone).
So there is "your proof""
I openly question blizzard and i dont trust them anymore than anyone else should. And whats laughable is that you gave the link to a conference call that Blizzard themselves simply told the same story here.
"So in fact these subscriptions are backed up by LEGAL and audited financial reports for the stock holders."
So was Enron, Worldcom, Bear Stern, AIG Lehman Bros. and half of those guys were , oh my heavens to betsy, banks themselves
So ya you were saying backed up by "LEGAL" reports? As if Activision would never stoop so low as to be dishonest or anything