‘WoW party is coming to an end’
World of Warcraft looks like it is finally running out of steam. After loosing 1.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of this year, Activision now reports the loss of an additional six hundred thousand subscribers, with the count now at 7.7 million.
The title had peaked in 2004 with 12 million subscribers, and has since been dealing with falling numbers, yet this year’s figures show the starkest drop in a while. The message seems clear — the WoW party is coming to an end. There are many possible causes here. The primary concern is that WoW seems to have jumped the shark. With more and more ridiculous concepts (kung-fu pandas anyone?) and a constant lowering of difficulty, the game may have cut at the basis of it’s success. WoW also is facing much stronger competition, with games like The Old Republic, DC Online and Guild Wars 2 carving out niches by leveraging powerful IP’s.
However we cannot ignore the effect of age — WoW has been around since 2004, and no matter how many expansions and updates are included the game’s core is still tied too the era of it’s creation. Already the game has succeeded far beyond the average MMO, smashing records all over.
Whether or not WoW’s success can be replicated is impossible to tell, for all we know it could have been lightning in a bottle. Assuming that there will be a successor, one of the strong contenders would be Elder Scrolls Online. The game will enjoy a well-known world with a strong core of fans. The opportunity to play all of Tamriel already has excited the base.
Another contender seems to be coming from EA, who are rumoured to be working on a new MMO set in the Star Wars Universe. Finally Red 5 Studios are working on Firefall, a game that promises to recreate the challenge and reward system of old school MMO’s.
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