only 500k subscribers?

[Destinova]

http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/pdf/ar_2014_01en.pdf

Page 4.

[HumsterMKX]

http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/pdf/ar_2014_01en.pdf

Page 4.

Uh.. it says DQX, FFXIV and FFXI toegther almost 1mil subs. 3 games for almost 1mil subs. It could be 500,001 rounded off or 999,999.

[ShiloEET]

Those numbers ARE abysmal! What a disgrace!

[FrogDog]

It makes me wonder where the MMO market is. Granted, I've only been subscribed for a total of 3 months (just recently decided to give the game a try again) but what kept me away was my old PC was having graphics driver crashes that made it too risky for me to do group content. I've always thought the game itself is pretty solid and fun to play - certainly deserving of more subscribers.

F2Ps haven't caught my interest in the same way and ESO and Wildstar seem to have bombed. So what are people playing other than WoW?

[Magis]

It makes me wonder where the MMO market is. Granted, I've only been subscribed for a total of 3 months (just recently decided to give the game a try again) but what kept me away was my old PC was having graphics driver crashes that made it too risky for me to do group content. I've always thought the game itself is pretty solid and fun to play - certainly deserving of more subscribers.

F2Ps haven't caught my interest in the same way and ESO and Wildstar seem to have bombed. So what are people playing other than WoW?

The MMO market was never suppose to have these huge numbers. MMOs didn't have these giant subscription rates until WoW came out. Most of these people aren't MMO players, rather they are WoW players, so this is just seeing the slowdown of the genre after WoW became boring and/or people are getting bored of it. Before WoW, 500K was huge for an MMO, and is why Everquest and FFXI were considered "successful" until WoW. Still, marketing and businessmen saw the money Blizzard was raking in so of course tried to copy the formula and then were bewildered why their shitty MMO didn't get 1+ million and went F2P.

Where are these people going? Not to new MMOs, they are playing their singleplayer/multiplayer games. It doesn't matter how much another MMOs copies WoW, it will never beat the original since well... it's a copy. That and how many times can you play WoW with another skin on it before you get bored of it?

[MilesSaintboroguh]

All this talk about sales and numbers reminds me of the console plebs who always act tough on the video game playground by trying to prove their console sells more than the other.

[Magis]

All this talk about sales and numbers reminds me of the console plebs who always act tough on the video game playground by trying to prove their console sells more than the other.

It's not a dick waving contest like consoles... it's general worry of the health of an MMO. Maybe for some they don't give a shit cause they only play during patch releases, but sub numbers directly tie to if a MMO will survive the long term. Those that want to play a single MMO for years on out hope for large numbers and steady or climb subscriptions, so that the game doesn't die in it's first or second year (and as a person burned by many MMOs that did just that, I definitely look at sub rates).

I think it burst a few people's bubbles when SE was touting 2.5 million registered users and they assumed active subs, then all of a sudden it's shown the number was in fact 500K.

[StrejdaTom]

It's not a dick waving contest like consoles... it's general worry of the health of an MMO. Maybe for some they don't give a shit cause they only play during patch releases, but sub numbers directly tie to if a MMO will survive the long term. Those that want to play a single MMO for years on out hope for large numbers and steady or climb subscriptions, so that the game doesn't die in it's first or second year (and as a person burned by many MMOs that did just that, I definitely look at sub rates).

I think it burst a few people's bubbles when SE was touting 2.5 million registered users and they assumed active subs, then all of a sudden it's shown the number was in fact 500K.

Well WoW has to be sitting on atleast 60M registered users. It is not a misinformation to use that number, it's problem of people if they can't understand what that number means. OFC that it is always much much lower than the subscribers count.

[Magis]

Well WoW has to be sitting on atleast 60M registered users. It is not a misinformation to use that number, it's problem of people if they can't understand what that number means. OFC that it is always much much lower than the subscribers count.

At the same time, Blizzard publishes (or did, dunno now) their subscription rates split across the different region zones (US West, US East, China, EU IIRC). SE hadn't until now so it was basically guesswork until a solid number came out. I dunno if "misinformation" is the right word, but it is using an inflated stat to make the game seem like it's doing better than it is, with the real meat and potatoes being hidden (until now). They weren't lying, they were just using different info to woo consumers in. Many people had an overinflated idea of what the sub rates were from the arguments I got into with people on the forums saying just that .

I'd like to know if SE will split their China and other regions next time sub rates are published. Because of China's subscription system (you pay money whenever you want to play, their is no "sub"), they could again inflate their numbers. At least with it split you can see the overall picture.

[ShiloEET]

Well WoW has to be sitting on atleast 60M registered users. It is not a misinformation to use that number, it's problem of people if they can't understand what that number means. OFC that it is always much much lower than the subscribers count.

As far as i'm aware that number is actually 100 million.