IRVINE, California - June 14, 2005 - Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that World of Warcraft®, the company's highly acclaimed subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), has surpassed two million paying subscribers worldwide*. As the game's worldwide population continues to grow, so does the game itself: Blizzard recently introduced the highly anticipated player-vs.-player (PvP) Honor System and the game's first two Battlegrounds, Alterac Valley and Warsong Gulch. These new PvP battlefields offer a variety of fast-paced combat and some of the most valuable rewards yet seen in the game.

You can view the full press release here

Man these guys must be rolling in the dosh now! And yet there are so many people quting due to certain lackluster classes and features.

It just goes to show how popular you can become by noobifying a previously kind've niche genre and sticking the masses on a levelling treadmill

Your f***en kidding, Hashy, right?

Niche genre? Hello every other mmorpg being a fantasy based one, and hello all of them having ridiculous leveling grinds...

last edited by casa at 08:49:15 15/Jun/05

meh, im addicted to molten core.

So whos going to do the sum?

the sums easy 2,000,000 x $15 = $30,000,000 a month.

It just goes to show how popular you can become by noobifying a previously kind've niche genre and sticking the masses on a levelling treadmill

gees you've got some angst hashy.

The sum is not that easy. I don't think they charge the chinese 15usd.

as if they woudlnt...they charge us 15 usd...if htey dont i demand justice!

they must be making a KILLING off the koreans

they get charged something stupid like 27USD a month and justify it by not having to pay for the boxed copy at the start. my reliable source

I think what was meant by bringing MMO to the masses was that unlike most MMOs where alot of time need be invested to reach the high levels and alot of effort during those times, difficulty wise... wow is easy. Anyone can hit 60, the penalties for death in both PVP and PVE are non existant. (a few gold each time, meh)

WOW is a carebear MMO. I played it for a few months and its still lots of fun, but it is much more accesable. It was a good move by blizzard, then again, warcraft had such a wide demographic that it drew non-MMO players in as well. Hopefully all this money allows them to push out starcraft2 or something.

I've had WoW for 2 weeks and find it brilliant because it satisfies the game I was looking for.

I needed a time-out game from Eve (which is incredibly complex, long-winded and humongously time consuming) where I could login, kill some s*** and get all happy because I achieved something.

WoW fulfills this genre perfectly. Now if only they could fix the server disconnections and lag, I would be happy.

It was a good move by blizzard, then again, warcraft had such a wide demographic that it drew non-MMO players in as well. Hopefully all this money allows them to push out starcraft2 or something.

Business wise it is an excellent move. What was previously seen as a niche market in 'Western' countries is now going main stream. I hear people talking on the train to and from work all the time. These aren't retarded kids either, these are people aged between 24-40 easily. They appear to come from all sorts of back grounds as well. Just the other day I had a chat to a fellow who must have been about 50 when he overhead me talking about WOW. I have never seen an MMO embraced like this (outside of Asia).

Your f***en kidding, Hashy, right?

Niche genre? Hello every other mmorpg being a fantasy based one, and hello all of them having ridiculous leveling grinds...

yeah... when before now has a mmorpg been this popular amongst mainstream gamers?

Niche genre? Hello every other mmorpg being a fantasy based one, and hello all of them having ridiculous leveling grinds...

Yes, niche genre - what? I also never implied other MMORPGs don't have levelling grinds.

honestly, who would pay every month to play a game?

The sum is not that easy. I don't think they charge the chinese 15usd.

i dont think they charge them that much either. but since they only just brought out the chinese servers i think that the $30M a month figure is close enough.

honestly, who would pay every month to play a game?

Compare it to other goods and services you pay for. It's not all that bad.


last edited by gimpy at 13:21:49 15/Jun/05

honestly, who would pay every month to play a game?

About 2 million people I believe (at least not including other MMO's). I guess that is 2 million people not surviving on welfare who can afford the morgage breaking monthly subscription.

And i swear all those 2 million are on bloody Proudmoore.....

can anyone tell me how the hell to talk in a chat channel (like darkshore channel) in wow?

last edited by ravn0s at 16:13:38 15/Jun/05

can anyone tell me how the hell to talk in a chat channel (like darkshore channel) in wow?

usually its /1 for general, /2 for trade /3 for loacal defence and /4 for LookingForGroup
/p got party /g for guild and /raid for raid party
also what server you end up joining?


last edited by Irhabi at 16:29:38 15/Jun/05

last edited by Irhabi at 16:30:42 15/Jun/05

ahh ok so i just type /1 < message > to talk in general?

i joined bleeding hollow alliance. I have a level 16 druid

last edited by ravn0s at 16:32:48 15/Jun/05

yeah thats all you have to do

if you're not connected to the channel you will ahve to go /join general. this will get u into the general chat channel of the zone ur in.
/trade for trade channel in town

Man these guys must be rolling in the dosh now! And yet there are so many people quting due to certain lackluster classes and features.

Apparently blizzard employees only got phat lewts for the first 100,000 copies sold.

sif type anything... teamspeak/venty...

honestly, who would pay every month to play a game?

The same kind of super geek who lives in the basement and has paid for a SA account. Ha! They saw all 2 million of you coming.....

No Internet game is worth paying for... evar. Write that down.