Sirex (!empty($user->lang['WROTE'])) ? $user->lang['WROTE'] : ucwords(strtolower(str_replace('_', ' ', 'WROTE')))(!empty($user->lang['COLON'])) ? $user->lang['COLON'] : ucwords(strtolower(str_replace('_', ' ', 'COLON')))Blizzard desperate to kill AoC? Ya thats a new one.. Considering they have 10 million subscribers to WoW..... They sure are desperate to kill a game like AoC that is Age Restricted, and still full of bugs. Not to mention Diablo III has probably been in the works for ages, and the concept behind it is probably older then AoC itself.
Just because the dagger is blunt, or the gun jammed, doesn't mean you shouldn't consider them threats.
The dagger can get sharper, the gun un-jammed, and they have allready felt a staggering loss, ask the people in warcraft actually playing loosing so many members our own guild disolving, and countless others like it, server shrinkage to boot.
The arrows on the graph are pointing down. Thats what you see in corporate meetings, they will do everything to stop the arrows from going down. 62,000 subscribers is 1 million a month, they are loosing more then that a month, yes yes they may have 9 or 10 million subscribers currently still but 1 million a month is a hefty arrow going the wrong direction.
Edit - adding actuall references to subscriber counts
http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/OK so 9 mill june of 07
10 mill 01/22/08
then .. come june of this year after a fiscal quarter, what no 11 or 12 mill count news release, nope - push out diablo III
They peaked at 10.8 or so and now the arrow is going, down again, and they don't release "back at 9 mil" news releases
There was a whole discussion
HERE about how they are counting subscribers of of public financial info provided, and about how 5.5 mil of these subscribers are Asia but if in may they were "so close" and then wow ... AoC was released, and no 11 mil mark. Wonder why no news releases and the sudden firing up of a game they had a barebones crew working on, thats now fully staffed.
I personally hope Diablo III does well though
[quote="Sirex"]Blizzard desperate to kill AoC? Ya thats a new one.. Considering they have 10 million subscribers to WoW..... They sure are desperate to kill a game like AoC that is Age Restricted, and still full of bugs. Not to mention Diablo III has probably been in the works for ages, and the concept behind it is probably older then AoC itself.[/quote]
Just because the dagger is blunt, or the gun jammed, doesn't mean you shouldn't consider them threats.
The dagger can get sharper, the gun un-jammed, and they have allready felt a staggering loss, ask the people in warcraft actually playing loosing so many members our own guild disolving, and countless others like it, server shrinkage to boot.
The arrows on the graph are pointing down. Thats what you see in corporate meetings, they will do everything to stop the arrows from going down. 62,000 subscribers is 1 million a month, they are loosing more then that a month, yes yes they may have 9 or 10 million subscribers currently still but 1 million a month is a hefty arrow going the wrong direction.
Edit - adding actuall references to subscriber counts
http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/
OK so 9 mill june of 07
10 mill 01/22/08
then .. come june of this year after a fiscal quarter, what no 11 or 12 mill count news release, nope - push out diablo III
They peaked at 10.8 or so and now the arrow is going, down again, and they don't release "back at 9 mil" news releases
There was a whole discussion [url=http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html;jsessionid=3757A44C0CA21EBD5E757437484A4853.app11_08?topicId=6441116950&postId=64401985875&sid=1]HERE[/url] about how they are counting subscribers of of public financial info provided, and about how 5.5 mil of these subscribers are Asia but if in may they were "so close" and then wow ... AoC was released, and no 11 mil mark. Wonder why no news releases and the sudden firing up of a game they had a barebones crew working on, thats now fully staffed.
I personally hope Diablo III does well though