Activision Blizzard has announced World of Warcraft currently has 7.7 million subscribers, down from 8.3 million last quarter.
This represents a loss of 600,000 subscribers in three months, and brings the number of people paying to play the game to its lowest figure since before the launch of the first expansion, The Burning Crusade, back in 2007.
It marks a continued decline in the number of people playing the most successful MMORPG in the world; World of Warcraft had as many as 10 million subscribers when the most recent expansion, Mists of Pandaria, released last September and had more than 12 million at its peak in 2010.
The company appears to be taking steps to mitigate the loss in earnings caused by the cancelling of subscriptions; earlier this month it was confirmed an in-game store would be coming to the title, with Eastern regions being offered additional items like experience-boosters.
Quite what this means for the future of the genre is unclear. We've been asking for some time if we should be paying to play MMOs, considering the number that have jettisoned their sub fees of late. While it seems Warcraft is unlikely to convert to free-to-play any time soon, it'll be interesting to see what effect this has on the likes of upcoming MMOs WildStar and The Elder Scrolls Online, both of which have yet to announce business models.
This latest subscriber loss means there are more former-MMO players than ever before floating around looking for a new title to latch onto. Have you played World of Warcraft before and, if so, what features would you want in a new MMO to coax you back in? Or are you just suffering from extreme genre-fatigue? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Junior Editor and former World of Warcraft player. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
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