I read an interesting news item the other day that revealed that World of Warcraft, the aging Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG for short) is still bringing in $1B a year in revenue for its parent company, Activision. The Blizzard game set the standard for MMOs a decade ago, but it really is a miracle of the industry that it’s not only survived for this long, but thrived. There are a few reasons why World of Warcraft has remained on top of the world for years and years now, and made it a nearly insurmountable foe for all other subscription MMOs.
You’ll notice that most of the subscription MMOs on the highest grossing list are older. The fact is, it’s far, far more difficult to start up a new game with a subscription system, and as such, it’s usually the older games that tend to still use the model to be profitable. The entire industry has dramatically shifted away from subscription MMOs because most new players simply don’t want to have to pay a monthly fee for a game, especially when there are so many cheaper or even free options. Rather, you see most new MMOs arrive free-to-play, or switch over from a subscription to free rather quickly.
World of Warcraft has the good fortune to have practically started this subscription MMO movement over ten years ago, and has held onto its throne since. It may not be the most popular game in the world as it was when it once boasted 15 million monthly players, but even with a player count hovering around seven million, that’s still enough players to nab more than a third of the subscription MMO market, and a billion dollars in revenue.
The reason subscription MMOs like World of Warcraft work in theory is that they’re so profitable, that the money can be reinvested into the game to constantly evolve the experience. World of Warcraft has retained its playerbase over the years by constantly releasing expansions. Without fail, they draw millions of players back into the game whenever they’re released, raising the level cap, adding new items, and giving out loads of new quests and raids.
Newer MMOs do this as well, but it’s hard to create the same level of constant new content without raking in all that subscription money. New games like The Elder Scrolls Online have launched with a subscription model because they say it’s the best way to provide quality content and a great experience for their players.
That very well may be true, but the problem is newer games simply don’t have that kind of clout when it comes to demanding subscriptions from customers who are now used to one-time payment games, or even a host of free titles across PC and mobile.
Perhaps the main reason World of Warcraft has remained on top for so long isn’t just the new content, it’s simply how loyal its core base of players is. Yes, many have come and gone over the years, but the fact is that many WoW players have sunk hundreds or more often thousands of hours into the game. The monthly subscription payment has been a part of their life for years now, so much so that they don’t even notice it. It’s just like the electric bill.
When you’ve invested so much time into a game, it’s tough to let it go. And even if you do, new expansions come in to tempt players back into playing. It’s just an exhausting prospect for many to consider starting all over again in a new MMO from the ground floor when they have thousands of hours invested into characters in World of Warcraft. Or Lineage. Or EVE Online. Or any of the other aging MMOs which have still held onto a surprising number of their players.
The subscription model is far and away the most profitable puzzle for a game developer to crack, but the high costs associated with MMOs have driven many developers away from the genre nonetheless. The new craze is MOBAs like League of Legends, though it’s almost standard practice for those to be free-to-play, making monetization harder.
Subscription MMOs may be dying, but World of Warcraft is a testament to the longevity of the model for very specific games. It was king then, and it’s still king now.
[Photo via Blizzard]
