Half a million users register for WAR

by Shawn Schuster Sep 26th 2008 at 9:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Economy, MMO industry, New titles, Warhammer Online

According to a recent market report, Warhammer Online now has a half a million registered users. This isn't boxes sold to retailers or projected numbers, this is 500k people who have registered to play Warhammer Online.

These numbers come only one week after the game first went on sale, as publisher Electronic Arts claims the title of the fastest-selling MMO of all time. "In just one week we have a half a million people playing WAR online, and the ranks of Order and Destruction are growing at a record-breaking pace for a new MMORPG," offered Mark Jacobs, co-founder of Mythic Entertainment. Whether this sales trend will continue to rise, or taper off, is yet to be seen, but it will be interesting to keep an eye on WAR to see if EA's record-breaking claims hold true.

Tags: breaking, ea, electronic-arts, mark-jacobs, mythic, mythic-entertainment, registered, war, warhammer-online

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

david said on 9:46AM 9-26-2008

lol! We beat AOC! Amazing! WOOT! =)

AOC sucks and so does the crappy company that made it, Funcom (aka Failcom)

WOOT! WAR RULEZ!!! =D

ohnam said on 10:14AM 9-26-2008

Hmm David why is it that you have such issue with Funcom. Anytime there is a War post which has no mention to Funcom you have to mention Funcom. Someone has an agenda. You sound like McCain.

Tasogare said on 1:36PM 9-26-2008

I think he was molested by Erling Ellingsen.

Bam! said on 10:40AM 9-26-2008

What did LOTRO do in it's first weeks?

Tony said on 11:46AM 9-26-2008

That's a good question. I guess someone would have to dig up old NPD data? I certainly don't think it was near 500,000, though.

Unfortunately Turbine doesn't share any subscription numbers or anything else for the game... so anything beyond that sort of stuff is more or less just guessing.

Tony said on 11:48AM 9-26-2008

Businessweek (http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2007/id20070928_550277.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_innovation+%2Bamp%3B+design) had US sales at like 200,000. I'm sure it's higher now and I don't think that includes any online purchases, but it's certainly not super high.

But if we include Europe and other areas, I'm not sure what the number would be.

david said on 10:46AM 9-26-2008

Well, I guess you are for the lord Barack Hussein Obama. He is your savior, he wants to give you CHANGE, he is a media celebrity, the almighty chosen one!

Anyway...

I hate funcom as you can tell, they have the worst customer support I have ever seen. Pathetic, rude, idiotic customer support. I got suspended a few weeks back, they banned my email address and when I tried to email them on an alternative email they sent me this in response:

--------------------
"Your account and forum access have been closed. They will not be opened
and our support representatives will no longer assist you, as you are
not a customer of ours nor do we wish you to be.

--
Best Regards,

GM Odum
Senior Funcom Support
----------------

A few minutes later, he emailed this:

------------------
"Okay, I see that your account is reopened. I will see what can be done
about your email. Please do not send any more emails in. This will be
the ticket that we handle the issue on. if you send any other emails in
it will be considered spam and customer service abuse and I will be
forced to re-ban the account.

--
Best Regards,

GM Odum
Senior Funcom Support

-------------------

You can tell I HATE funcom for the crappy and pathetic customer support I have gotten from them. They are from another country but they can't get away with treating their customers like crap... Screw funcom...

Tasogare said on 1:41PM 9-26-2008

So you hate Funcom because you were most likely acting like a child and they banned you? AND you're a lunatic Republican!? OMG NO WAY!!!!!!!!

You should get together with Bill O'Reilly, you guys were made for each other.

Phil said on 10:51AM 9-26-2008

I'm actually quite worried because they don't communicate on the actual boxes sold, but on the users. Are the sales really as good as they were expected ?

Wildhammer said on 11:13AM 9-26-2008

No self-respecting Dwarf should say this, but this is a special occasion.

WAAAAGH!!

Hooray for WAR! =D

danarchy said on 11:31AM 9-26-2008

david=george? For a long time whenever their was a article about aoc someone named George would be there in seconds to flame the hell out of it, almost like he was on the clock and monitoring the site for the opportunity. Their are corporate hired flamers all over message boards these days, its a unique and annoying form of marketing.

Tom-AZ said on 11:48AM 9-26-2008

This is so great. Eat that FunCom!!!

Teach you to lie to us!!!!!!

I love WAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Jack said on 11:54AM 9-26-2008

I not known about David or George. But I also go with the hype of Age of Conan BTW they also did claim that there where the "fastest-selling MMO of all time". The true is this kind of claims are noting.

Any way I got burned pretty bad with AoC not much of a support issue but the game did simply not add up too the hype and not they finally bring in the PVP system I am unable to play.

This for me direct onto Warhammer (I got a real bad history with EA and there support) And I am just waiting a few months too see where Warhammer is going and not did buy the game right away like I do not want risk loss more money.

Sure the reviews of Warhammer are great and so where the reviews for Age of Conan sites like Gamespy and Gamespot rate the game 8/9! Its like I can not even trust anyone anymore....

I am shared like Warhammer online not even got a forum on there main site.....

Anyway I still look at Warhammer as a game I will buy one day but first I want to wait a few to see of it will fix some issues first.

phobic99 said on 11:54AM 9-26-2008

Why are people so fascinated with population/subscription numbers? I've never been able to figure this out. Sure it's nice to see how a game is performing from time to time but to see stuff like "LOLAOL!! WAR BEAT AOC! TAKE THAT FAILCOM LOL!!" really makes me wonder why people even bother.

Nettegen said on 3:51PM 9-26-2008

Phobic,
As much as I loathe this term, those people are "Fanboys". If you like a game that they don't, well then you suck. If they like a game and it just doesn't happen to be your cup of tea, well then you suck.

The truly hilarious part is that all of these people:
- Will be dwelling on Funcom for years to come because they have nothing else to do
- Will bail from game after game when they get done overhyping it/sucking the life out of it and rappel into WarhammerAlliance screaming that, "MYTHIC DOESN'T LISTEN TO ITS CUSTOMRERSR!!!1shift-one!!1!"
- Will swear at the top of their lungs that whatever the next MMO over the horizon will be perfect. You know...because it's hard to disappoint people when the MMO only exists in euphoric dreams(read: Darkfall). Once the game is released the cycle will repeat itself.

People like "david" aren't gamers. Games are just strawmen they can build up and then knockdown. The same type of person could just as well like sports, movie stars, or any other hobby that allows them to build something up on a forum and then tear it all down.

Why? David gets to attach himself to something as it rises...and then curb stomp it. It's probably a gratifying experience for him.

Carl said on 1:46PM 9-26-2008

I'm glad that they appear to be doing well, healthy competition make all the other companies work harder to make their games better.

I think time will tell on success of WAR, let's see how many people they have paying for it in 6 months.

Tasogare said on 5:56PM 9-26-2008

Considering that macs are virtually non-existent in Asia and that's where the majority of WoW's player base is....I'm gonna call malarky on that. Unless of course you really think every American gamer does all their gaming on macs, which is TOTALLY laughable. Apple will never be a gaming platform, so I'm with JP, links or it isn't true.