WoW Consensus?

\/\/olverine · Post by **\/\/olverine** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:11 pm

There was a World of Warcraft site that tracked server information called WoW Consensus but I don't know the address. Link anyone?

ChrisGwinn · Post by **ChrisGwinn** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:37 pm

I think you're thinking of WoW Census at www.wowcensus.com. It appears to be down now.

philosophist · Post by **philosophist** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:39 pm

The consensus at OO is that it is an excellent MMORPG.

\/\/olverine · Post by **\/\/olverine** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 9:19 pm

Sorry wasn't looking for any opinionated information but specifically factual =)

Faldarian · Post by **Faldarian** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 1:53 am

ChrisGwinn wrote:I think you're thinking of WoW Census at www.wowcensus.com. It appears to be down now.

It's back up again.

My cat's breath smells like cat food.

(cool site, btw)

\/\/olverine · Post by **\/\/olverine** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 3:41 am

Geeze man there are 1.2 million players...

All the numbers are completely staggering, Blizzard is going to be filthy rich off of just WoW. The numbers are even outdated, it shows my guild as having 10 members when we have more like 40.

ChrisGwinn · Post by **ChrisGwinn** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 11:19 am

I wouldn't put that much confidence in wowcensus's numbers.

VegasD · Post by **VegasD** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 11:50 am

Geeze man there are 1.2 million players...

Those are Characters, not Players.

I am one player, and I have 6 characters.

Odin · Post by **Odin** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 12:52 pm

I posted a link in Games by Title to a Q&A with Blizzard about WoW's player numbers. Here's a relevant quote:

According to our research, other successful MMOGs in the U.S. had achieved roughly 300,000 subscribers after 12 months of operation. What ended up happening with World of Warcraft is that we achieved double these numbers in approximately the first six weeks of launch.

So they're at roughly 600,000 PLAYERS. Each of whom could have up to 8 characters, or thereabouts.

Sith

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 2:33 pm

\/\/olverine wrote:The numbers are even outdated, it shows my guild as having 10 members when we have more like 40.

The census isn't 100% accurate. I think only people who have the client installed contribute. So if a player isn't visible to them (in various /who searches) when the client is mining data, that player doesn't come up.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 3:00 pm

Sith Lord wrote: So they're at roughly 600,000 PLAYERS. Each of whom could have up to 8 characters, or thereabouts.

Sith

600,000 x $14.95 = $8,970,000 a month.

Now, the actual figure is less than that because of the price break granted to those who purchase multiple months up-front.

Still, at least $7,000,000 a month.

Is Blizzard a publicly traded company?

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 3:05 pm

Faldarian wrote: My cat's breath smells like cat food.

SuperHiro · Post by **SuperHiro** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 3:05 pm

Exodor wrote:
Sith Lord wrote: So they're at roughly 600,000 PLAYERS. Each of whom could have up to 8 characters, or thereabouts.

Sith
600,000 x $14.95 = $8,970,000 a month.

Now, the actual figure is less than that because of the price break granted to those who purchase multiple months up-front.

Still, at least $7,000,000 a month.

Is Blizzard a publicly traded company?

They are owned by Vienvidi Universal I think. Which IIRC was going through bankruptcy and/or financial troubles. I do believe they were shopping Blizzard around.

VU is a publicly traded company, but I wouldn't recommend their stock.

I'm not sure exactly what's happened since though.

Maybe we can pass the hat around!

ChrisGwinn · Post by **ChrisGwinn** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 5:19 pm

The first month is free. I wonder what their retention numbers will look like - it's quite possible that a relatively high percentage don't renew.

Bandero · Post by **Bandero** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:51 pm

First month is free, but you do still have to buy the retail product to get the free month, so there still is some money going into Blizzard's pocket.

Of course the streams of income are where it's really at for making cash, but 600,000 x roughly $50.00 is quite acceptable also!

Granted large chunks of that money end up outside of Blizzard's coffers, but still...

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 6:57 pm

Bandero wrote:First month is free, but you do still have to buy the retail product to get the free month, so there still is some money going into Blizzard's pocket.

Of course the streams of income are where it's really at for making cash, but 600,000 x roughly $50.00 is quite acceptable also!

Granted large chunks of that money end up outside of Blizzard's coffers, but still...

I would have to guess that the majority of box sales dollars are allocated like most other PC releases. That is developer, publisher, distributor, retailer, etc all the the same cut they usually do. So selling 600K units isn't bad at all. The monthly fee probably goes more directly to Blizzard, but at the same time they also have the post-release expense of maintaining the the MMO infrastructure. I mean geez, how many concurrent users do they average? 100K? More?

Biyobi · Post by **Biyobi** » Tue Jan 25, 2005 7:15 pm

LawBeefaroni wrote:I mean geez, how many concurrent users do they average? 100K? More?

Has to be more. I usually see that many in the AH on just my server.