Looking to leave World of Warcraft? Good luck!

by Michael Zenke Nov 6th 2008 at 11:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, MMO industry, Warhammer Online

If you're playing World of Warcraft right now, odds apparently are that you'll be doing that for some time to come. That's the word straight from sister site Joystiq, which listened in on the Activision/Blizzard financials conference call earlier this week. In speaking to the assembled business-types Blizzard President Mike Morhaime reiterated earlier statements, saying something like 70% of folks who left WoW for Age of Conan are already back. Of the players that left the game for Warhammer Online, almost 50% of them have already returned to the Azerothian fold.

Mark Jacobs may have pooh-pooh'd Blizzard claims (on more than one occassion) but anecdotally it certainly seems like Shattrath has been a busy place in the last few weeks. These numbers, of course, are all in advance of Wrath of the Lich King's launch next week. Analysts see Wrath of the Lich King garnering a whole new wave of attention to the game, and within the next few weeks we could see announcements of even more individuals signing into Blizzard's juggernaut of a title.

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, mark-jacobs, mike-morhaime, war, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Uldon said on 11:40AM 11-06-2008

I actually lefta few days before the 3.0 patch and haven't regretted it once. It is a fun game and I had my fun but I got tired of it and left it for good.

Now I am sitting in LOTRO again and realizing that this is the game for me. I won't be back to WOW, had my fun and moved on.

Abriael said on 11:24AM 11-06-2008

Will laugh when we'll see how many will re-dump wow as soon as they discover that wotlk is the same old soup served in the same old way, with the same old boring grind & farm.

This, of course, even not considering that Morahime is just spewing plain bull droppings, as usual, expecially due to Warhammer definately high account retention ratio, which is higher than 72%, a detail that Massively has quite conveniently forgot to mention since when it's been made public.

MediumSizedRob said on 11:47AM 11-06-2008

Well that same old soup served the same old way has completely changed the MMO market, destroyed all other games as far as numbers go, and is still growing. Seems that recipe is pretty successful. Even if he's blatantly lying as you seem to think and doubling the numbers, still no other game comes close.

As far as people re-dumping it-- you have to dump it before you can re-dump it, and since WoW numbers hit 11 million after WAR came out, it seems most people just never left it to begin with.

People like you who are tired of the game are the loudest voices, but there are over 10 million people still paying for it (taking into consideration the % with multiple accounts), keep that in mind.

Abriael said on 11:58AM 11-06-2008

Oooh the usual X millions user bla bla bla.

Who cares? Even the big brother and the other reality shows are watched and drooled upon by million goons. That doesn't make them quality TV, or superior to anything else.

WoW is successful because it hands out fake fantasy "success" to it's players on a silver platter, but as far as quality or innovation goes, it's laughable.

A big percentage of those 10 millions are there just because they never really tried something else, because they don't want to leave friends and guild, or simply because they're frightened to waste all the time they spent on the game, most definately not because wow is any better than any other MMORPG out there (it's, quality-wise, one of the worst) Keep that in mind.

In any case, Warhammer's retention rate is quite a proof that WoW won't kill this one, despite what Morahime and his fellow goons drool every time a new potentially successful MMORPG is released (while copying features from them whenever they can).

Brian! said on 2:17PM 11-06-2008

The sub numbers of WoW are all funky now too as they include the Asian markets that don't have the same model as us.

I would be more interested to know what the actual subscription numbers are for US, UK, Aussie, Asian, etc...

And what will the number of a game like WAR be when it releases into the Asian markets too?

Razzledazzle said on 11:47AM 11-06-2008

Lol, with all the WoW slant on this site, you guys might as well close Massively and just write for WoWInsider.com.

Abriael said on 11:58AM 11-06-2008

I was kind of thinking the same thing.

Barth said on 11:54AM 11-06-2008

Should an MMO site not talk about the MMO that has more people playing it than most others combined?

They're just reporting what's being said by industry people anyways. They never said anything about which game is "better." Just that one is incredibly popular, and people aren't leaving it in big numbers despite new games coming out.

Abriael said on 12:12PM 11-06-2008

considering that they already have a sister site dedicated just to talk about that? Lessee...

Weiser_Cain said on 11:49AM 11-06-2008

I left because WoW wasn't fun (that's not pvp that's harassment) and the only way to get anywhere is by grinding, also not fun. And because they restrict a lot of content until the highest levels, and my highest level character was 30. I'll admit I looked into LK but all it's features were for high level characters.

Daraujo said on 12:34PM 11-06-2008

Ah yeah, that's not pvp, that's harassment.

fobe said on 1:40PM 11-11-2008

So you say the game is bad because you aren't instantly level 70. If there was an mmo where you started had the highest possible level it would not be fun. And ofcourse Wrath is targeted at high levels. Or do you suppose we ad a full 25 man raid to level 35.
It is possible to completely level to 70 with quests(and the mobs you have to kill for them). And it is even more easy now with level 30 mounts so don´t complain about having to grind to level.
And pvp is pvp if you play on a pvp server don´t complain about getting killed or camped by a level 70 while questing. PvP on wow means to be able to attack everything, and to always be in danger of being attacked

Weiser_Cain said on 10:34PM 11-11-2008

Actually I said it wasn't fun. Grinding isn't fun to me. And the point wasn't the grinding but the fact that all the new content is for high levels again just like the last expansion.

And I'll complain all I want, I have as much right to speak as you.

Scopique said on 12:47PM 11-06-2008

But what about the 30% who left for AoC and 52% who left for WAR, and did NOT come back to WoW? I think that's far more newsworthy, because even with the millions playing WoW, it shows that other titles in the genre can errode WoW's numbers.

onetrueping said on 5:18PM 11-06-2008

See, the problem of looking at it that way is, 30% of a fraction of the userbase is an even smaller fraction, and saying that you retained 30% of the players that played your game when they compared it to the big game isn't exactly bragging rights.

steve said on 12:36PM 11-06-2008

joy yet another pointless article about how wow is king or is that queen anyways i wonder if wow will be saying what they are saying in 4 years from now when we should have this talk.

why because it took wow that long to do it's thing why not let others do theres

Daraujo said on 12:23PM 11-06-2008

WoW was awesome for me for some time. The most fun I had was while playing with my old RPG pals. Doing instances with good friends is something pretty cool, however, playing alone was like drinking wattered coke. In the last days I would only play with my budies, but once everybody started focusing on other things, the game died for us. Well, at least for me =p

Tasogare said on 12:33PM 11-06-2008

I very strongly believe that WoW is a fluke. You can only really do what they did once, then you start cannibalizing your own market share. It simply continues to be a success because it has the right mix of being as much for the casual player as it is for the hardcore, and I don't think there is a single studio that has anywhere near the same reputation as Blizzard when it comes to mainstreaming a gaming platform. There isn't any REAL innovation in any of the games they make, but they are all entertaining and are as casual or in depth as you want them to be, why do you think Starcraft is STILL nationally televised in Korea?

When it comes to pure sub numbers, it's probably pretty fair to mention that they've released the game in far more countries than any other MMO, and they've got the money to pump advertising into each new territory they go into. The new 11 million number comes right at the wake of releasing the game in Russia, so of course you're going to see the numbers rise. Like it or not, it's not going anywhere until Blizzard decides it is.

fobe said on 1:43PM 11-11-2008

They didn´t just released the game in Russia. It has been there a long time. The only created special Russian reamls. Just as you have France, German and Spanish realms.

procyon said on 1:16PM 11-06-2008

...and non stop Scenario grinding is sooo much better than WoW grinding.

I have an active WoW and Warhammer account. Before patch 3.0 in WoW I was playing War exclusively. I have not touched War for almost 3 weeks now. I do like it. It is rather enjoyable to play. Unfortunately I have not been able to get into it as much as WoW. With the new talents and the expansion coming up, trying to get to 80 as quickly as possible so our guild can start raiding 25 man content ASAP, and the overall familiarity of the WoW world I do not see myself going back to War for some time.

I will pop on occasionally and run some quests or scenarios, but when it comes down to it, both games are similar. They are both a grind and farm experience and no one in the MMO industry has really done anything to change that dynamic in any game that has been released over the 10 years that I have been playing MMOs. It is a matter of making that mind numbing experience fun and interesting and even then at some point there is burn out. Then a choice needs to be made to move on or stick it out. Most in WoW have stuck it out, but a decent amount have left. A lot have come back, but some have left. That is the cycle of an MMO. At some point people get burnt out and move on. It doesn't mean anything is wrong with the game you are moving on from...it just doesn't peak your interest anymore...and that is ok.

There is no need to try to be little someone elses gaming choice just because you have decided to move on and do something that is better for you. It's ok for people to play Wow and it's ok for people to play War. Both are excellent games and neither is better than the other.