Blizzard’s Frank Pearce predicts renewed subscriber growth with Cataclysm, China
If you’ve been following World of Warcraft’s published subscriber numbers for a while now, you know that we haven’t seen a rise in WoW subscribers since late 2008. Blizzard’s been holding steady on a figure of 11.5 million subscribers. But, according to Frank Pearce, Blizzard’s Executive Vice President of Product Development, that’s going to change.
Pearce told us that the launch of Cataclysm later this year, as well as the release of Wrath of the Lich King in China, will bring increased numbers to the MMO.
The full interview with Frank Pearce:
When asked if it had hit its peak as far as the number of players went, Pearce said: “No, I don’t think that at all.
“I mean, you can look at that number and if you look at some of the details around it… In China, for example, we haven’t even launched Wrath of the Lich King yet, and that expansion is already 18-plus months old.
“They’re still playing The Burning Crusade there, because we’re waiting for approval for Wrath from the appropriate agencies. And once we get that approval and launch Wrath in China then I think we will see growth.”
Pearce added Cataclysm will probably see some “win-back” from players who had broken from the game.
“Whenever we launch an expansion we usually see some win-back from players who have set WoW aside temporarily,” he said.
“Hopefully we will get some people back from Cataclysm as well. I don’t think 11.5 million is a peak, necessarily, but there are certain things that we need to do and need to do well in order to see it go further.”
Earlier this year during its full-year financials for 2009, Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime said that the MMO had stopped growing, and had stuck at 11.5 million subs since late 2008.