Activision Blizzard downgrades stock due to Old Republic concerns
Activision Blizzard has downgraded its stock rating due to indications that many World of WarCraft subscribers
World of WarCraft has been perched high atop the massively-multiplayer throne for seven years now, but is about to get its first serious dose of competition when the Electronic Arts-published Star Wars: The Old Republic launches. While it's not really a shock to learn that some folks have already indicated that they'll be leaving Azeroth for a galaxy far, far away, a new survey indicates that World of WarCraft could shed anywhere between 900,000 and 1.6M players when the lightsabers start swinging.
According to Develop, a survey of nearly 400 online World of WarCraft customers indicated about 50% of them planned to purchase The Old Republic. In light of those results, Lazard Capital Markets downgraded Activision Blizzard's stock from 'buy' to 'neutral.'
However, it's worth noting that the very same survey indicated that 33% of WoW players said they'd re-subscribe to the game upon the release of the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. People love pandas.
The stock rating downgrade also follows the news that World of WarCraft's subscriber base is down about 800,000 users in recent months, as well as news that majority shareholder Vivendi "shed thirty million of its shares in Activision Blizzard, reducing its stake to 60 per cent," last week.
All this aside, World of WarCraft still has more than 10 million current subscribers.
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replyJeff Mattas posted a new article, Activision Blizzard downgrades stock due to Old Republic concerns.
Activision Blizzard has downgraded its stock rating due to indications that many World of WarCraft subscribers-
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yeah, people are running from a universe with anthropomorphic pandas to one with jar jar binks
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Well, unfortunately WoW did "jump the shark" when those Pandas came out, IMO. We have to wait and see about SWTOR.
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Incorrect title.
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Shit, Skyrim is what has pulled me away from WoW.
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sad story
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I haven't played even a minute of WoW since Skyrim came out, but I'll probably go back once 4.3 hits to see the new dungeons and the raid (since LFR will mean I can actually play it)
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SWTOR is better than either of those games.
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The difference? The genre actually brings players to the table. Well, that, and professional development. EA/Bioware are no slouches when it comes to game development. They are well known, well respected, professional gaming companies.
There is really NO bigger franchise than the Star Wars/Star Trek franchises. A well designed game in these franchises (this is) will do nothing but feed the franchise, and enhance the industry.
When all is said and done, this game will have been just over 3 years in the development cycle (from announcement to release), from a professional team, people that build astounding games. They KNOW there's a lot on the table, and they're bringing their A game
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Try 865,000 (as of Nov 12th):
http://www.vgchartz.com/preorders.php
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meh... Wouldn't be the first time leagues of people left WoW (or at least said they would) for the 'shiny-new' MMORPG. LoTR online, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online...
I expect The Old Republic to be a decent game, as do a lot of people, but it really looks like it could have just been Knights of The Old Republic III.
With the current trends, and gamers current state of mind, I could see The Old Republic ending up Free-2-Play just like the rest of them, in a future not so far, far away... -
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Don't worry, they'll make sure to
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Guys, come
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no kidding. wt
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Meh, gimme guild wars 2.
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"atrocious"? really? c'mon. i'm glad i didn't let you people get to me before i got to try it.
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yes i have >:(
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What's laughable about it? It's pretty much WoW with voices, and if you're expecting some great revolutionary MMO you will be disappointed, but I don't see what's laughable about it.
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I thought it was awesome. It takes alot of the best elements of WoW and Bioware games. While WAR and AoC were good games, they really didn't last too mucn. TOR is the first MMO that I've played that I felt the same way when WoW first launched. I hope it does well, regardless of the issues, it's still seem like it's going to be a great MMO.
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Uhh... No, it's not. It's just like WoW with better storytelling. I wasn't hugely and overly impressed, but it sure as hell wasn't "atrocious". Technically solid and the storytelling does make a difference. If you're going to throw around terms like that, back it up with some details at least.
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I've been burned out on WoW for years. Quit playing regularly about 2 years ago, picked up an expansion or two, finally said no more in January.
Come August when I got my TOR beta invite, I was all in, and I haven't looked back since. The game actually does what it's supposed to do, makes players feel like a part of it, as opposed to just running around with a 'toon'.
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I haven't seriously played an MMO since EQ, yet TOR grabbed me right away. At least in my case, that's far from laughable.
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Riiiight
You go ahead and stick with your kiddy-pandas then
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from what i hear they're trying to speed up content, i can't see them managing it tho, blizz is not good at speed. if it's out dec 2012 it's on par with every other expansion. if they can manage another raid before then i hope to fuck it's better than that abortion of a raid they tacked on the end of wotlk (never downed it, there was no reason to)
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True - the only reason to go to Ruby Sanctum was because everything else was freeloot by the time this raid was released. Momentarily in 3 hours you can easily do Firelands 7/7 or farm BoT & PSA. Some Heroic Modes are still keeping my raid busy, but tbh we just do them becaue there is nothing else to conquer (yet).
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stela?
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Hide yo' kisd, hide yo' wvies
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wow opened up the mmo market, this new mmo wont do shit. i predict the same cycle. they launch, a bunch of people sub. there are a few "OMG they have like a million subs after 2 month! WoW is dead!@" articles on gaming sites. then everyone will abandon the game after a month or two and go back to wow. they will retain a core base and nestle into thier share of the market while wow still dominates. i see nothing in mmo screams wow killer. and honeslty, at this point the only people who can kill wow will be blizzard.
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Have you seen Lineage Eternal? Watch the whole vid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxenADDtB80
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chinese mmos are a different beast, i don't have the willingness to piss away my time that they seem to be able to muster.
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I agree. This smells like Warhammer to me.
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The biggest difference between TOR and Warhammer is that this has an absolute huge amount of content, whereas Warhammer had relatively little. If TOR's Bioware-style story and mission structure does a good enough people of roping people in, it will take quite a few months for the average player to consume it to the point of feeling sated.
TOR will almost certainly make money, simply because it functions well as a single-player RPG. What remains to be seen is the number of subscribers a year from now.-
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"because it functions well as a single-player RPG"
really? this is good news to me! :D-
I basically play the beta as a sp rpg and it holds up.
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This but probably some people after playing Star Wars will just stop laying MMOs altogether and quit both games as they are sick of WoW and SW failed to hold their attention.
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WoW didn't open up ANYTHING. There were MMO's before WoW, there WILL be MMO's after WoW.
As far as your predictions? Yeah, they're pretty much garbage. I mean, you don't even know what you're talking about as far as MMO's, clearly.
The reality is this:
WoW has it's own player base, and it'll keep trying to reach younger audiences.
Lucas has an entire following of people, JUST as big as (if not bigger than) WoW.
This game does more than WoW could possibly imagine, and it brings elements of play that Blizzard couldn't begin to do.
I played WoW for years, off and on, got tired of the same old, same old boring BS around January, haven't played since. Been playing (testing) TOR since August, and I can't get enough!!!
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That isn't going to happen the way Blizzard sees it. They're already shedding their WoW player base so they wont need to fight them when Titan comes around and they phase out WoW, but GW and OR will leave their mark and all the players wont transition to Titan. This is the perfect time for new MMOs to strike.
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While OR looks good, it's definitely not a game changer in terms of bringing new and refreshing ideas to the MMO scene. While it definitely adds a new and inviting feel, it's just taking swings with a sledgehammer to Blizzards mighty pillar.
We aren't going to see the real show till GW2 hits. I am very critical of video games and I don't see anything really changing till that happens and it will do what Blizzard has failed to do in there seven years of lethargy, push forward the entire gaming industry.-
HOnestly, while GW2 looks sweet, I don't think that's going to do anything. Personally, I see TOR giving more competition than GW2. Most of the people that I know that want GW2 are the people who don't want to pay for a sub.
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Shouldn't this story headline be worded, "Activision Blizzard stock downgraded"? It wasn't Activision Blizzard who downgraded the stock; it was an analyst who did it.
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Yeah... kinda hard wording
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Very true
The analyst pointed out that they've been steadily losing clients for years, good point.
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payback for what they did to SWG.
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Blizzard should make a MMO in space because then every expansion they can just add a planet, aka a whole new world to travel to and experience, a new race etc. It would just be unlimited money hats.
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I think if they could get away with that they would - but spacefaring doesn't exactly mesh with the WoW universe.. even though the Dranei.. (drenai.. drano-people?) anyhow, one of the races are supposedly from another planet. I expected them to take it to that next level once they added the race, but it never happened.
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World of Diablo!
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