Blizzard has seen some spirited competition recently with the new release of Star Wars: The Old Republic, its first major threat, back in December 2011. The amount of subscriptions has dropped but Blizzard has not released any numbers. With the current number of layoffs at around 600 people and a new Scroll of Resurrection campaign, Blizzard is doing what they can to maintain their numbers.
The senior producer of WoW, John Lagrave, spoke about the recent descent of subscriptions for the MMORPG. He said ?it has to at least be attributable to The Old Republic? that came out in December 2011.
“We certainly do look at [where WoW players go], and we have a very smart bunch of guys who do our analytics for us,” Lagrave said. ?Are they going elsewhere? Yes they are. We don’t have a lock on all the best games in the world.?
Despite Blizzard?s recent drop, they still maintain their dominance within the realm of MMORPG over the last seven years. As of November 2011, the number of paying subscribers peaked at 12 million.
With their latest announcement of the new expansion, Mists of Pandaria, it is sure to bounce back into play once things start rolling. There are two additional character classes, different challenge modes, new pet battle system, and the ability to reach level 90, also more innovative class abilities and content in regards to the world, Pandaria. There is no release date as of this point, but the Beta has made its way through, so players can get a taste of what to expect in coming months.