World of Warcraft Ending? Legendary Game Series May Conclude After 'Legion' Expansion
Earlier this week, Activision Blizzard released its earnings report for the third quarter of 2015, in which it mentioned that subscription numbers to its long-running MMO World of Warcraft had steadied at around the 5.5 million mark.
Now, sources are saying that Blizzard will no longer be reporting the game's monthly subscriber numbers.
Though retaining over 5 million subscribers is something many game companies would be thankful for, the number pales into comparison to the heyday of WoW in 2009 and 2010, in which over 12 million gamers were logging onto Azerothian realms on a daily basis.
But the decision to cease the reporting of subscriber numbers isn't to hide behind a dwindling number of players. In fact, some suggest the company will switch to reporting Monthly Active Users, which is a much more accurate representation of the number of people actually playing the game on a daily basis.
It's not as if Activision Blizzard has anything to be embarrassed about. It simply is changing its focus as the "wow factor" (sorry) seems to have worn off of Warcraft. Despite the numbers WoW has generated over time, those numbers are nothing compared to the 25 million Destiny players throughout the globe.
It seems the tides of gaming are changing once more. When WoW first came out in 2004, the idea of a living, breathing online world was brand new to most gamers. MMOs have since become fairly commonplace among hardcore gamers. Even though WoW hasn't dipped in quality in the past 11 years, the nature of the game has become old hat.
Nevertheless, 5.5 million gamers are still playing WoW, and will be happy to purchase the newest expansion, Legion, when it hits the shelves. Even though the game may have lost its luster, Blizzard isn't shutting down production completely.
With the success Activision Blizzard has had with Destiny and Hearthstone as of late, one can only assume that it has some tricks up its sleeve to innovate the gaming world once again in the coming years.
