Warhammer ends quarter with 300,000 paying subscibers

[Velorath]

From the EA financial report.

[Nebu]

That quarter ended in Dec 2008, didn't it? 

If so, I'm going to guess that the sub numbers have dipped significantly lower than 300k.  I'd be surprised if they have even two thirds that.  Ok, unless a bunch of dumb asses bought 6 month subs. 

[Velorath]

That quarter ended in Dec 2008, didn't it? 

It's EA's fiscal Q3, so I beleive so.

[waffel]

Haha awesome. Suck it MJ.

[Ratama]

I wonder if any of the Mythic folks will ever acknowledge responsibility for some of those lost jobs; if this happened in feudal present-day Japan, MJ would have already committed seppuku by now.

Edit: Not that any other sector of the NA gaming industry's big on accountability, either.

[waffel]

300k counts US AND Europe btw.

[Goreschach]

300k counts US AND Europe btw.

Ouch.

[Nebu]

The economy is to blame here!   

[HaemishM]

Double ouch. Like that's a serious butt pain from the fickle finger of fate being worked up my backside ouch. That beat my 150k prediction, but sure as hell fell under MJ's "we need 500k to be profitable" threshhold.

[Fordel]

So wait, does that mean WAR didn't beat out DaoC's peak?

[HaemishM]

I don't think so. I think DAoC peaked around 250k.

[Fordel]

Was that 250k US only or World Wide?

[Felgercarb]

C'mon, its got to be just enough money to get NFSO up and running, right? Stay classy, Mythic 

[Nebu]

Box sales of AoC and WAR clearly demonstrate that there is a solid market hungry for a quality MMO that is different from WoW (at least in some minor way).  If someone can manage to release such a title (pause for laughter), there should be plenty of money to be had.

[Ratama]

Warhammer's not unsalvagable; it just needs someone new at the helm, obviously.

[Nebu]

Warhammer's not unsalvagable; it just needs someone new at the helm, obviously.

I'm not sure I agree.  I think the game needs an entire rebuild.  Fixes to WAR will slow the bleeding, but this game's moment of glory has come and gone.

[Merusk]

Warhammer's not unsalvagable; it just needs someone new at the helm, obviously.

They'd have to pull a turnaround of EVE proportions, and that's taken CCP YEARS.

Then there's the engine problems Nebu's alluding to.

[Fordel]

CCP also delivers something truly unique in the current MMO world.

[waffel]

Warhammer Online was just voted the The Most Accessible Game of 2008!

Woohoo!

[Modern Angel]

The jokes write themselves.

[Soln]

moving to PC board

[tazelbain]

Paul needs to be shot from a cannon back to England.  He may be proud of his ignorance of MMOs but it really hurts WAR.

[Montague]

Looks like EAMobile cost them 370 million in writedowns 

Wonder if EA will pull the plug on them releasing in Russia. If so you can put WAR on the DNR list.

[Lantyssa]

I think Paul should release a video with an EA Exec dressing him down about how the 'bug' in subscription retention went unnoticed and unfixed for several months.

[Ingmar]

I think Paul should release a video with an EA Exec dressing him down about how the 'bug' in subscription retention went unnoticed and unfixed for several months.

God, that would rule.

[Soulflame]

When did WAR release again?  I know my 3 month sub (please don't laugh... ok, you can stop now...) just ran out about a week ago.  I suspect those numbers do not reflect the dropoff of those who did originally sub for 3 months or more.

Ok, Wikipedia says Sept 18.  So, yeah.  They're probably still counting 3 month subs, and I'd wager a fair number of those are gone by now.  The numbers posted at the end of Q1 2009 should be... interesting.

[waffel]

Mark poked his head out on the VN thread

P.S. Because not everything that I hoped to talk about was in the earnings call (they had other things to talk about obviously), I'm waiting on guidance from corporate to see if I can add a few additional bit of information that weren't contained in the call before I write a longer post than this.

Oh I hope it's good!

[UnSub]

So, to update a previous post of mine:

AoC:

1.2 million boxes sold to stores

800k boxes sold to players

EDIT - 700k activated boxes first month

415k subscribers a quarter out from launch or so

So, WAR:

1.5 million boxes shipped

1.2 million boxes sold

800k activated boxes first month

300k subscribers a quarter out from launch.

It seems that WAR tanked harder than AoC.

[Trippy]

Warhammer's not unsalvagable; it just needs someone new at the helm, obviously.

They'd have to pull a turnaround of EVE proportions, and that's taken CCP YEARS.

Then there's the engine problems Nebu's alluding to.

You could still salvage the game if you had the right people making the decisions (see: EQ II). However actually growing the game significantly is a different story, and much more difficult to do in this day and age. I think the best case scenario for Mythic is if they did put somebody who knew what he/she was doing in charge they could probably get to around 500K NA+Euro subs.

[Lantyssa]

It seems that WAR tanked harder than AoC.

They're number 1 after all!

[Redgiant]

Warhammer Online was just voted the The Most Accessible Game of 2008!

Woohoo!

I'm STEven HAWking, and I'M a SHAman.

[Redgiant]

They're probably still counting 3 month subs, and I'd wager a fair number of those are gone by now.  The numbers posted at the end of Q1 2009 should be... interesting.

So the Q3 numbers do not reflect a single multi-month subscription loss.

Of the 8 others I know in RL that play(ed) WAR at release:

- None play today
- 1 had a 1-month sub
- 8 (7 + myself) had a 3-month sub
- No one had longer subs

That means 1/9 of losses from my friends is reflected in Q3 numbers.

[Arthur_Parker]

Saying 800k current users last quarter really came back to bite them in the arse.

Edit to add.

Paul Barnett

Eurogamer: Do you have a number of players in mind that you'd consider a success?

Paul Barnett: I don't know what the business people have - they have all sorts of crazy numbers, and things to do with shareholders, and things that would probably get me fired. But we're having a staff pool. I put down my bet: a million within the year, and then three million.

[schild]

Paul Barnett doesn't add anything though. I don't even know how he got into gaming. Seems his previous career was snake oil salesman. What a damn worm.

[FatuousTwat]

Paul Barnett doesn't add anything though. I don't even know how he got into gaming. Seems his previous career was snake oil salesman. What a damn worm.

I think you could find someone like him in any company. Some people (morons) find his type of personality charming, can't see past the charm, and hire them.