Can we finally stop talking about WoW killers?

[jschild]

In a live interview with Eurogamer readers, Warhammer Online's executive producer Jeff Hickman has stood by the game's subscription numbers.

EA's recent financial report put the game's subs total at 300,000 at the end of 2008 - quite a tumble from the 750,000 players the game claimed in its first month.

"We are super proud of our subscription numbers," Hickman said.

"We expected a hit from our competitors' launch, and the economy is tough right now," he added - presumably referring to the launch of second World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King in Novmber last year, two months after Warhammer Online hit the shelves.

"But our subs are growing, especially as we see people return from 'That Other Game'," Hickman said.

I have a feeling nothing is going to take it out for a while. Not saying there aren't great MMO's out there by any means, including WAR, but I don't see any beating or even hurting WoW anytime soon. That even goes for the only MMO I'm excited about, the Star War Old Republic game.

There's room for them all, even if they have to crowd around the 800lb gorilla.

[Trakamoocow]

They never ever claimed they were going to be. Just saying.

[det]

People need the feeling that a king can be killed. I remember reading on "screen International" how some funky german film pushed Terminator 2 from the no 1 spot in the US cinemas. (obviously that was like a hundred years ago)

Headline was like "Sensation - xxx pushes Terminator 2 from no 1 pos". Well, yeah..T2 ran like 20 weeks and had made a 400 million dollars and that film ended up at something like 9 million total.

Complete crap for the sake of news.

WoW just has steamrolled it all...if you dont like it..fine..find your niche. You can be happy there. We all may be happy soon in our Diablo 3 niche

[Kodonn]

I wouldn't worry about any other MMO killing WoW unless it starts being referred to with 3 distinct names. All famous "killers" have 3 full names. :grin:
I guess if it was War Hammer Online...that might count, but it's a stretch.

[jschild]

Lol Kodonn, good serial reference :)

[elsegundo]

first off, i dont care if another game comes by and kills wow. i'll still be playing the game i like, whether it be wow or not. this is much like how one of my friends love playing EQ2, and no matter the amount of prodding i do on my part, she'll never switch.

secondly, the reason WHO... War Hammer Online... did not do so well is because their game isnt all that good. it has very little to do with the economy. even in this economic times wow is holding up well. dont blame the economy when its not really the economy. if the game cant come to terms with its actual problems, i dont ever see it being a contender. 750k vs 11 million? 7%?

[jschild]

Actually now its 300k vs 11.5 million or 2.6%.

And this wasn't directed at the makers of WAR, but the rabid fanbois who said it would kill WoW.

Blizzard is the most likely person to kill WoW (though not any time soon) and I wouldn't be surprised when both Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 are out if we don't see a significant dip of maybe a million. As for the eventual WoW killer, I bet it will be something we don't expect, and not one of the huge ones.

[Trakamoocow]

It necessarily has to be a 'wow killer'? Yet another buzzword to talk wow up. Hows about, the next game that comes along with WoW on the decline, since every game has a use by date (even MMOs).

Newer, more immersive engines, completely new tech will become available, WoW will be yet more generic'ed up due to its long lifespan having let things been sloughed to as even a playing field as they could manage, etc.

So "The New Game" wont necessarily "kill" Wow, Wow gets to die a natural death after its long lifespan. 5 years in the game is doing well, nothings 'killing' it before its time by the looks.

If they release a 'New' MMO based on WoW with a completely new engine/setup? No doubt they could continue on. Blizzard seem to understand what keeps people interested in gaming.

[clevins]

WoW will naturally decline, something else will grow. It's one thing to have a level cap of 80, but that doesn't work for 2 more expansions... nor does a 2 year release cycle. level up to level 100 and then raid for 2 years...

I'm already bored with WoW... Uldaur will be nice, but if the only way they have to keep me interested is to drag out the release of raids... that's not a good thing.

We'll see - the SWG game could be good or crap. The KOTOR the same way. For me, though, it's about the friends I have in game... and that's what will flip the numbers from WoW... when the buzz starts being "Dude, this is effing amazing" and groups of friends leave... that will be big. Until then, nothing will dent WoW.

I wonder if we'll see a non-fantasy based MMO do well though (well being significantly in excess of 1M subscribers)... so fare everything's been a variation of cookie cutter fantasy ideas.

[Alaris Mystique]

Guild Wars 2? (dodges flames)

All right, let's not start a flame war. But my WoW subscription is pre-cancelled for when GW2 comes out.

I'm also curious, I seem to remember a mention somewhere about Blizzard making another MMORPG based on an entirely new franchise... That could be cool to look into...

[ptarn]

I agree with the title of this thread. People should stop using the word 'wow-killer', since it doesn't make sense. As some of you already said, every game, every MMO has an expiration date beyond which it won't be the number one best-selling MMO anymore. But, that doesn't mean WoW will be 'killed', it only means people will move on to other games and some people will continue playing WoW, only not as much anymore.

I for one am really looking forward to the Star Wars online game that has been mentioned here and I'm sure I will be playing that alongside WoW when it comes out. Every MMO has to try and make its own niche and come on, if more than 500.000 people play a game for a prolonged period of time, that's quite an achievement I think.

[WatcherZero]

I like the idea of a star trek mmo, though putting it into practise is going to be very tricky. Im a bit scared off by the rumours ive heard its going to be chock full of micro transactions to help pay the licensing fee.

[jschild]

I like the idea of a star trek mmo, though putting it into practise is going to be very tricky. Im a bit scared off by the rumours ive heard its going to be chock full of micro transactions to help pay the licensing fee.

I'd a little bit interested in it as well. Kotaku.com had a funny thing about character creation - mocking Star Trek's silly history of having alien races look just like us other than some facial bumps. The character creation in Star Trek Online luckily gives us dozens of facial bump options :)

[MrBCorp]

When I saw the thread title I thought, "Eh? Someone is killing people who play WoW?" and "Why isn't this on the news page?".

Glad to see I was wrong!