World of Warcraft Subscribers Plummet
Sad Pandaria as Free-to-Play bites into online gaming
Activision/Blizzard has declared its first fiscal quarter results and we'll get to those later. What is fascinating is that at the top line of its release on the matter it talks about how Blizzard's once all-conquering World of Warcraft is suffering in this new F2P world.
“Our first-quarter performance was driven by continued consumer interest in all of our key franchises. Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm was the #1 PC game for the quarter," began CEO Robert - Bobby - Kotick. "Additionally, during the quarter, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft remained the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers... but then the bombshell.
"...although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well," said Kotick, pulling no punches.
Kotick added, “While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter.
"The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy.
"For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years.”
In terms of the cash-money, which is what the press release was about mainly:
"For the quarter ended March 31, 2013, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues were $1.32 billion, as compared with $1.17 billion for the first quarter of 2012," so upward motion is good.
And there is more... "For the quarter ended March 31, 2013, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.40, as compared with $0.33 for the first quarter of 2012." So that's some happy shareholders at least.
Source: Activision/Blizzard
“Our first-quarter performance was driven by continued consumer interest in all of our key franchises. Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm was the #1 PC game for the quarter," began CEO Robert - Bobby - Kotick. "Additionally, during the quarter, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft remained the #1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world with more than eight million subscribers... but then the bombshell.
"...although the game saw declines of approximately 1.3 million subscribers, mainly from the East, but in the West as well," said Kotick, pulling no punches.
Kotick added, “While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter.
"The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy.
"For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years.”
In terms of the cash-money, which is what the press release was about mainly:
"For the quarter ended March 31, 2013, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues were $1.32 billion, as compared with $1.17 billion for the first quarter of 2012," so upward motion is good.
And there is more... "For the quarter ended March 31, 2013, Activision Blizzard’s GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.40, as compared with $0.33 for the first quarter of 2012." So that's some happy shareholders at least.
Source: Activision/Blizzard
Read More Like This