China Propels World of Warcraft Subscription Base to 3.5 Million

[XenonCJ]

Source (http://www.blizzard.com/press/050720.shtml)

IRVINE, Calif. - July 20, 2005 - Blizzard Entertainment®, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®, its subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has surpassed 1.5 million paying customers in China - just a month following the game's commercial launch on June 7, 2005. The critically acclaimed World of Warcraft has now achieved another significant milestone as the largest MMORPG in the world, with more than 3.5 million global customers.

[kickmybum]

Doesn't Lineage and Lineage 2 have more than 3.5mil?

[Wyrm]

No, WoW is currently the most popular one in the world.

It just keeps getting bigger...

[ÜberJumper]

Talk about the midas touch.

[Liquidize105]

You gotta give it to them. People go wild when the box has the word Blizzard on it.

Their next true RTS will test the worth of the current Blizzard. Frozen Throne copied Brood War like there's no tomorrow.

[Nojiko]

Frozen Throne copied Brood War like there's no tomorrow.

And that's a bad thing since when? Heh.

That is truly amazing though, I never thought they'd be bigger than the other Oriental MMOs, goddamn.

[Furious Wang]

Wow, that's already almost double that of Xbox live.

[Ghost_Saint]

Frozen Throne copied Brood War like there's no tomorrow.

I think that was the whole thinking. If I wasn't this lazy I'd go find you the quote from the blizzard rep. And it was a good thing they did do it, much better than just having a couple more missions, and a couple of units that don't make much diffrence in the gameplay.

[Liquidize105]

I'm talking about the singleplayer campaigns. A few of them were too similar. War3's not the same kind of RTS as Starcraft, it's pretty silly to xorex the scenarios, not to mention everybody has played those already.

[RMan]

Of course, they likely pay a tenth of what NA players pay, but the money being made is not as impressive as the number of players. Still very nice, but should be kept in perspective.

[Orphiuchus]

3.5 million x $15.00 a month = 52.5 million a month they make from subscribers, and that does not include the sales of the game itself.




I tend to think they could afford a few more community reps.

[Dirty Harry]

Of course, they likely pay a tenth of what NA players pay, but the money being made is not as impressive as the number of players. Still very nice, but should be kept in perspective.
can anyoine confirm that asian players pay a cheaper monthly fee?

[Orphiuchus]

Even if they pay less monthly I would still bet blizzard makes no less than 30 million a month from this. Now that is before servers and payroll and everything, but blizzard cant cost THAT much to keep running.

[ldi222]

What an amazing revenue stream. I wonder how this incredible monthly influx of cash is going to influence future titles and platforms. I suspect they have their eye on recreating their PC success on the even larger console market.

[Reanimated]

Holy christ... 1.5 mil copies in China in one month?

[Somberfire]

China players of WoW are on their own special pricing scheme. They do not have monthly fees like we do, they buy cards that are consumed as they play alot like pay as you go cel phone cards work.

If I remember someone did the math and it is about 1/10th the cost to play in China as it does to play in the rest of the world.

[Grath]

Chinese players buy cards, not pay monthly fees. They pay 30 yuan (3.6 $) for 66 hours of playtime. So you can count with 4$ / 3 day ingame time.

Im really not a grinding powerplayer, but in 5 months, i have 21+ days of ingame time. That would be 28$ in China, and around 72$ in the US (if you count with a 3 month, and two 1 month subscriptions). Its really far from that alleged 1:10 ratio, but for an average player its truly cheaper. But i think in China there are some (hundred) thousand players, who play much more than me...

((http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050607/cntu017.html))

[Kefkataran]

Doesn't Lineage and Lineage 2 have more than 3.5mil?

Maybe put together, but by themselves? I don't think so...

Grats to Blizzard for WoW. Personally, I had a blast with it the six months that I played and I hope to return and have a blast again at some point in the future.

[bobbler]

Lineage 1 has around ~1.7 million and Lineage 2 has like ~2 million I think. (www.mmogchart.com has a bunch of fancy charts and some decent info about subscription based gaming)

Over the next 6 months WoW will continue to grow while L1 and L2 probably won't really (at least not by any meaningful amount). 4mill subscribers isn't far off.

Do you guys realize how much money Blizzard will be raking in over the next 6+ years from this beast? 35-45 million a month (depending on how much china is charged) and probably at MOST 20 million a month to keep everything running (bandwidth, servers, developers/support, etc)... That is a lot of pure profit (some will go straight to expansions and all that jazz) but the rest is money in the bank for Vivendi and Blizzard.

[51|RandoM]

what is that trademark money farmer phrase?

Rang rang!

[Bushido]

Pkjoo Rang Rang

[Eric_T_Cheng]

...has surpassed 1.5 million paying customers in China...

Of course 1.45 million of those are goldminers...

[Frogleg Special]

Console MMO are not gonna reap that many people in China and Korea.

[Rommel]

We are trapper keeper!

[Paltry]

they have computers in china?

[Redline]

Listen. Hear that sound? That's the sound of about 30 more MMORPG products getting the green light. Any bets on the attrition rate? ;)

[51|RandoM]

Blizzard has the best product in the genre at this point, imho. Nothing groundbreaking, just the typical attention to detail and cohesive art direction that you find in most Blizzard titles.

I canceled my account recently, but before that, I definitely got my money's worth out of the deal.

[Kefkataran]

they have computers in china?

Yeah. Lots.

Blizzard has the best product in the genre at this point, imho. Nothing groundbreaking, just the typical attention to detail and cohesive art direction that you find in most Blizzard titles.

I canceled my account recently, but before that, I definitely got my money's worth out of the deal.

Agreed, and same here. I'm sure I'll be resubscribing in the future.

[Wyrm]

Do the math. 3.5 million subscribers, let's say at least 2 million of them payed 50$ for the game and pay around 15$ a month. Do the math. That comes out to more than a billion dollars.

[XenonCJ]

Heh I just realized this is probably one of the few wildly successful USA exports to China.

[<JEDI>~ASH]

See my life does make a difference :)

[RMan]

Do the math. 3.5 million subscribers, let's say at least 2 million of them payed 50$ for the game and pay around 15$ a month. Do the math. That comes out to more than a billion dollars.
Their market doesn't work that way, they pay per play and would not pay for the initial product. Overall, they pay a fraction of what we do, and the pay per play setup ensures a really strong launch for any title since the cost of getting into the game is very low. This is still a strong launch, but the NA income per player is WAY larger than in China, direct financial comparison is pointless.

[XenonCJ]

Their market doesn't work that way, they pay per play and would not pay for the initial product. Overall, they pay a fraction of what we do, and the pay per play setup ensures a really strong launch for any title since the cost of getting into the game is very low. This is still a strong launch, but the NA income per player is WAY larger than in China, direct financial comparison is pointless.They don't buy the game initially? Where do they get it? I'm highly skeptical\doubtfull of that statment.

[RMan]

They don't buy the game initially? Where do they get it? I'm highly skeptical\doubtfull of that statment.
Chinese players primarily play at Internet Cafes and other social establishments, so the players themselves do not generally license a copy of the game. I really don’t know what the average deal is for the people who run the cafes, there may be a per seat license, but I kindof doubt it’d be very high, if there even is one (well, unless all the cost was per seat). For the player, it’s much more like an arcade (which is why they need the pay-per-play cards). Personally, I think much of the boom they’re experiencing there can be largely attributed to the social atmosphere the group gaming ensures, and I wish we had more of that here.

[Paltry]

well we can all afford our own computers here so we dont need to go to cafes

[Kefkataran]

well we can all afford our own computers here so we dont need to go to cafes

While I think that's maybe partially true, I don't think it defeats RMan's point. Going to the cafes isn't just about using computers you couldn't afford otherwise. They're also extremely popular in South Korea and Japan and in urban areas of china and SK where people almost definitely can afford computers. The cafes add this social atmosphere to gaming though.

We have a LAN center in town here and some buddies of mine in the Twin Cities just started one. Very fun places to hang out most of the time.

[XenonCJ]

Chinese players primarily play at Internet Cafes and other social establishments, so the players themselves do not generally license a copy of the game. I really don’t know what the average deal is for the people who run the cafes, there may be a per seat license, but I kindof doubt it’d be very high, if there even is one (well, unless all the cost was per seat). For the player, it’s much more like an arcade (which is why they need the pay-per-play cards). Personally, I think much of the boom they’re experiencing there can be largely attributed to the social atmosphere the group gaming ensures, and I wish we had more of that here.Yeah but that doesn't really explain the pics on the blizzard site of the Chinese launch party. Basically thousands of people in line to purchase the game... Maybe they were just getting game cards, but I don't think so...

[RMan]

Yeah but that doesn't really explain the pics on the blizzard site of the Chinese launch party. Basically thousands of people in line to purchase the game... Maybe they were just getting game cards, but I don't think so...
Ehh, I really can't say. I'm sure there are some players that play it like we do, and perhaps there are more of them playing now. I'm just going mostly by what other industry people tell me, and since I don't live there and haven't researched it much I can't say with authority. I can say that no matter how they’re buying it in China you are going to get a huge number of players in line for a major MMOG launch since these types of games are far more ingrained into their culture than they are here.

[RMan]

We have a LAN center in town here and some buddies of mine in the Twin Cities just started one. Very fun places to hang out most of the time.
Yea, definately what I meant. I miss the social interraction that I got from arcades, and although online games add a new experience, I'd love for that to be combined with the "human" experience that I got from arcades. I think games like Pong and Street Fighter 2 owe most of their success to the social aspect of the games, and the effect of live human interraction and it's ability to enhance some games is generally underestimated.

[Kefkataran]

Yea, definately what I meant. I miss the social interraction that I got from arcades, and although online games add a new experience, I'd love for that to be combined with the "human" experience that I got from arcades. I think games like Pong and Street Fighter 2 owe most of their success to the social aspect of the games, and the effect of live human interraction and it's ability to enhance some games is generally underestimated.

If there's a LAN center near you, be sure to check it out. These sorts of places almost always struggle in America, and a lot of times the people running them are very good and devoted. They generally deserve support.

[Paltry]

While I think that's maybe partially true, I don't think it defeats RMan's point. Going to the cafes isn't just about using computers you couldn't afford otherwise. They're also extremely popular in South Korea and Japan and in urban areas of china and SK where people almost definitely can afford computers. The cafes add this social atmosphere to gaming though.

We have a LAN center in town here and some buddies of mine in the Twin Cities just started one. Very fun places to hang out most of the time.

yea i know my im just trying to be a cynical prick here... come on.... this is the internet for christ sake

LAN play is the shit

[Kefkataran]

yea i know my im just trying to be a cynical prick here... come on.... this is the internet for christ sake

The part of the internets I hate. :(

[Paltry]

I heart you though Kefkataran :-)

[Kefkataran]

I wouldn't believe you if not for the cute smiley. But that sold it, dammit.