It would be interesting to see if WoW's subscribers deminish from when Warhammer comes out. I doubt it though because Lord of the Rings Online and Guild Wars were MMORPG's that I thought would give problems for WoW...I don't think 10 million subscribers shows that WoW is having any problems!

We'll just see what happens in the future I guess!

I doubt WoW will lose alot of people.

Anyone with a level 70 is probably not going to want to switch over to a new MMO, since they won't want to spend money on both subscriptions. There's always the chance they will though..

Well i'm a WOW player and i'm stickin to it, i almost have 2 70's and thats were i'm stayin, but if people wanna leave the servers thats ok less people out farmin gold

I left WoW for a bit and tried out LoTRO. It seemed like almost everyone on that game was a previous WoW player. But, after playing it for a few months I decided it just wasn't as good and came back to WoW.

I think WoWs numbers are going to go up quite a bit (or back up) when the new expansion comes out. I'm sure everyone with 70s who got sick of the repetitive end-game gearing up grind and went to try something new will be back the week before the expansion launches :).

I really think THQ has the wrong idea here. People that play MMO's play it for the character development, they play it for the social aspect. They don't play it to have a perfect, polished, awesome game play.

While I dont doubt that WoW's player base will fall with the release of WAR, they will need to release it soon and it needs to have features that top WoW's to really make an impact.

If they released it last year like their original time-line indicated, they would already have a decent playerbase and anything they updated players would be like "wow, this is awesome getting all these updates." Now, players will get the game, and after such a long wait if its not up to their expectations, they will go back to WoW.

I dare say MMO's are the one genre where releasing early and getting customer feedback from day one isn't a bad thing.

It "peaked" at 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and now 10 million. There have been plenty of other decent MMOs that have come out since WoWs release, few came out at opportune times when it seemed WoW was in a slump or missing a major piece of the MMO puzzle, ie pre TBC when pvp was crappy, and in the long run they didnt hurt WoW one bit.

This statement is really nothing more than Sorenson attempting to keep his game in the gamer news, when its quickly being pushed to the back with the obituaries. Cause really how many times now have they pushed back release dates now? Warhammer became vapoware, the last time they pushed back the release date and now are seemingly going to be releasing it somewhere in between AoC and Wrath. Whats Warhammers main draw, good pvp if i remember right. And yet many players in WoW are now content with the Arena pvp system, and to top it all off what truly drives WoW and pushes is to the next level is the pve, unfortunately thats being slowly ruined with mindless encounters and equal gear obtainable for 1/10 the time and gold spent.

After the let down of Earth and Beyond: EA and associates will NEVER be trusted again. Warbore.

Peaked? Not yet. I think it will peak with next expansion and then maybe go down.

Now this is very hard to say. WAR can be for PvP what WoW was for PvE and be very successful, it can also fail or just end with "only" 200-500k subs. SC2 as awesome and uber it will be is not MMORPG so it won't be as much time consuming (so you could play MMO + SC2 without problem).

People are very bored with WoW but then there is nothing better to play. And then it is very hard to make something better as it is Blizzard, it is Warcraft, it is being developed for too-many years now.

P.S. WAR is being made for 2.5 years only (by Mythic) so I would not call it v-word-ware. If you looking for v-word-ware go check Darkfall - 6 years now?

Honestly when was the last time THQ had a good game? I definately can't think of any.............

Company of Heroes and Dawn of War

the answer is never THQ never had a good game they all stink

I don't really think THQ came off as your typical higher ups that say, "So-and-so is old hat and tricks, our product coming out in X months will blow it away and every sheep will flock from so-and-so to us", more of a speculative "It's already passed XX Million, I don't think it could go higher" point of view.

On the other hand, making a couple of games for a niche-ish genre doesn't mean you should go into the MMO industry.

{Quote]They are planning to launch a futuristic/fantasy MMO. They estimate that the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO should be finished developed in a couple of years.

If Warhammer 40k does take years to come out, Blizzard has nothing to worry about...

What I am confused about is why there are two Warhammer MMO's planned...Sounds like when Warhammer Online just gets rolling and to a mature point, that this young beast will be the "Warhammer online Killer" just like everything that comes out is a "WOW Killer"

In other words nothing is an anything killer because everyone has their own taste.

War and 40K, both have distinct player bases. Most people who enjoy one aren't particularly fond of the other. At least in my experience, which, as a complete nerd gamer, is shamefully extensive. I doubt they'll endanger Blizzard's empire, but I know that many people will switch games at least temporarily.

In my opinion, LOTRO failed because the LOTR lore and world doesn't lend itself to an MMO atmosphere. Everything up to a certain point has been scripted, and everything after that point is already assumed. Guild Wars is ok, bot the fact that only the cities have player interaction makes people shy away from it. A comparison for the WoW players: It's almost as if the whole world is an instance. As soon as you leave the city, it's only you and your party.

Also, as far as THQ having good games, CoH and DoW we're both very successful. I enjoyed DoW, but never played CoH. And whether or not you think they're "good" games, you have to remember that gaming companies are of the opinion that good = lucrative and/or successful. With 3 expansions and 9 playable races over-all, DoW is an authority as an RTS, in the industry's eyes.

All this being said, I may try out 40K, but not WH. I'm not fond of their portrayal of "fantasy". 40K on the other hand, amazes me every time I see it or read about it. But I'm still not clear on how they are going to simulate the epic scale that is the entire galaxy. I guess I'll find out.

~Syruss

To many companies try to "Beat" WoW instead of drafting behind them considering how much money they make. Instead of trying to beat them and burning out your game quickly like so many other MMOs have done you just need to make the best game possible and like a seed in dirt it will slowly grow.

WoW has truely peaked. Look at what they are truely back on their heels. Releasing content for free and converting the game play from "run instances and raid and battleground pvp" to "daily quests and arena. and raid if you are already in a highish level guild".

The dailies show how desperate they are to keep people around. 250g a day to stay around until the expansion comes out. Maxxing at 25man content kills guild progression for anything other than die-hard players.

25 man content is the achillies heel of WoW, and it will come back to bite it soon enough

Very nicely put , and i couldnt agree more. 40k in an MMO could kick serious butt. I will def. also try it out.