World-leading MMO faces new challenges as customers chew through content
Blizzard is seeking alternative means to
attract new World of Warcraft customers, as the routine money-spinner
continues to lose customers.
The MMO, which has been trailblazing in its genre since 2004, dropped around 300,000 subscribers between May and July.
That puts its worldwide subscription count at 11.1 million, and represents a loss of interest for the second successive quarter.
The developer’s CEO, Mike Morhaime
(pictured), explained to investors that plans are in place to reverse the downturn.
The group recently launched the expansion pack Cataclysm in China – a region Blizzard believes offer huge growth opportunities.
Morhaime
said the staccato nature of Warcraft subscription numbers was due to
content cycles. Numbers peak with new expansions, and gradually fall, he
said.
However, Morhaime recently suggested that adding new content to an aging game becomes increasingly ineffective.
"As
our players have become more experienced playing World of Warcraft over
many years, they have become much better and much faster at consuming
content," he recently said.
"And so I think with Cataclysm they
were able to consume the content faster than with previous expansions,
but that's why we're working on developing more content."
Yesterday,
Morhaime made clear Blizzard’s response to this trend. The company
pledged to flood the game with new content as a matter of urgency.
Also
in effect is a new free-to-play scheme where any players can try the
game for as long as they wish, but must pay after they reach a certain
level of experience.
The fruits of that plan will be explained in more detail over the coming months.