Okay, last week Blizzard claims to have reached 8.5 million subcribers...

Well, after some analysis, I don't quite understand how this claim is even possible. And here are my reasons:

First off, Blizzard has a parent company named Vivendi...and like most corporations, it holds a multitude of subsidiary corporations. Kind of like Taco Bell being owned by Pepsi Co...that sort of thing.

At any rate, as a share holder of Vivendi, I obviously pay close attention to the value of the corporation's stocks. And let me tell you...the value of the stock has been doing nothing but going down since the middle of January. Coincidence? Highly unlikely, considering January was the release of the Burning Crusade. So, why the downward spiral in the corporation's stocks? I'll leave that question open for discussion.

Secondly, I have been closely monitoring the realm status...and it's been quite dissappointing as well. A week before and after the launch of the burning crusade; about 60% of the realms were max/queued. Now, I believe i've only seen ONE server max/queued over the past couple weeks.

Finally, according to Vivendi's fourth quarter financial statements for 2006, they showed a DECREASE in revenues. (I understand Vivendi owns many other corporations that could have accounted for this, but coupled with the other facts...it just doesn't seem likely, but who knows...)

Sorry Blizz, I just can't quite fathom this claim...how can the company reach a milestone of 8.5 million subscribers when the value of the corporation's stock has been decreasing AND the server populations have been dwindling as well?

Could it be some sort of marketing propaganda to get more subscribers as well as publicity? (Any publicity is good publicity) (King David used this tactic: he outright told the people of Israel the phenomenal amount of monetary contribution for the temple...when the people heard the amount of money, people got excited and gave even more money!)

They are probalbly counting every single different subscription. Like old perma banned ones, canceled ones, new ones from the perma banned peeps, renewed canceled ones..you get the pic..if 200k people renew thier canceled ones = 400k...perma banned ones buying new accounts = who the hell knows how many more new ones added to the total.

Edit to say not to mention lots of people for some reason or the other, have more then one account. That's why they said "Subscriptions" not "real live people playing".

blizzard stock =! venvendi stock

V is a french conglomerate, blizzard is keeping them up but they arent the only company that is owned by them. hell blizzard can probibly buy themselves out of it in a year at their rate =)

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They are probalbly counting every single different subscription. Like old perma banned ones, canceled ones, new ones from the perma banned peeps, renewed canceled ones..you get the pic..if 200k people renew thier canceled ones = 400k...perma banned ones buying new accounts = who the hell knows how many more new ones added to the total.

Edit to say not to mention lots of people for some reason or the other, have more then one account. That's why they said "Subscriptions" not "real live people playing".

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You are probably right with this statement...guess the world may never know ;)

Why... this isn't a server at all! It's just a cardboard box with "server" written on the side in glitter-glue!

Seriously, though... you jump to some pretty distant conclusions based off of severely limited data. I could compare this to people in the seventeenth century trying to explain illnesses.

Play the game past level 19 and you'll see why it's so popular. Then come back here and post when you are all grown up.

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They are probalbly counting every single different subscription. Like old perma banned ones, canceled ones, new ones from the perma banned peeps, renewed canceled ones..you get the pic..if 200k people renew thier canceled ones = 400k...perma banned ones buying new accounts = who the hell knows how many more new ones added to the total.

Edit to say not to mention lots of people for some reason or the other, have more then one account. That's why they said "Subscriptions" not "real live people playing".

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That would be extremely stupid and easy to track. They are counting "subscriptions" because it's a nice, easy, and accurate way to say "active, paying accounts."

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Kind of like Taco Bell being owned by Pepsi Co...that sort of thing.

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Just to fix your facts Taco Bell is owned by Yum! it spun off from Pepsi in 1997.

*cough* Sierra *cough*

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It's not propaganda silly. The reasons there aren't maxed out queues, is because of the server transfers. Which you should be happy about, you think people liked waiting? And people make more alts as the BC started. Also, it's very high maintance, and the guys downstairs bought way too many robot night elves for themselfs = /

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Ummm, no...and allow to explain the lack of logic in your statement. Assuming there in fact WAS an increase in server transfers; (which no doubt there probably was!) that is equal to $25 bucks for each transfer. There had to be A LOT of server transfers to alleviate all the queues in the month of January, which in turn is equal to an increase in revenue. We are nearing the end of the first quarter of 2007 and I don't see it forecasted such a phenomenal increase in revenue. ;)

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They are probalbly counting every single different subscription. Like old perma banned ones, canceled ones, new ones from the perma banned peeps, renewed canceled ones..you get the pic..

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Yeah, that's why their statement specifically says they're only counting ACTIVE SUBSCRIPTIONS. Read before making an idiot of yourself.

Anyway, on to the OP... Vivindi has been suffering financial troubles for years now. Since before WoW even launched. They dumped a bunch of their holdings during late WoW beta. Some people were paranoid that they'd dump Blizzard... Right now, I figure Blizzard's the only thing keeping them afloat.

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Asia (mostly China) accounts for about 3/4 of WoW subscriptions actually.

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More like 4/5. Since most of the US accounts are owned by Chinese Farmers.

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Okay, last week Blizzard claims to have reached 8.5 million subcribers...

Well, after some analysis, I don't quite understand how this claim is even possible. And here are my reasons:

First off, Blizzard has a parent company named Vivendi...and like most corporations, it holds a multitude of subsidiary corporations. Kind of like Taco Bell being owned by Pepsi Co...that sort of thing.

At any rate, as a share holder of Vivendi, I obviously pay close attention to the value of the corporation's stocks. And let me tell you...the value of the stock has been doing nothing but going down since the middle of January. Coincidence? Highly unlikely, considering January was the release of the Burning Crusade. So, why the downward spiral in the corporation's stocks? I'll leave that question open for discussion.

Secondly, I have been closely monitoring the realm status...and it's been quite dissappointing as well. A week before and after the launch of the burning crusade; about 60% of the realms were max/queued. Now, I believe i've only seen ONE server max/queued over the past couple weeks.

Finally, according to Vivendi's fourth quarter financial statements for 2006, they showed a DECREASE in revenues. (I understand Vivendi owns many other corporations that could have accounted for this, but coupled with the other facts...it just doesn't seem likely, but who knows...)

Sorry Blizz, I just can't quite fathom this claim...how can the company reach a milestone of 8.5 million subscribers when the value of the corporation's stock has been decreasing AND the server populations have been dwindling as well?

Could it be some sort of marketing propaganda to get more subscribers as well as publicity? (Any publicity is good publicity) (King David used this tactic: he outright told the people of Israel the phenomenal amount of monetary contribution for the temple...when the people heard the amount of money, people got excited and gave even more money!)

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0/10

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Asia (mostly China) accounts for about 3/4 of WoW subscriptions actually.

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Which still makes them bigger in the US than any other MMO out there. :p

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<snip>At any rate, as a share holder of Vivendi, I obviously pay close attention to the value of the corporation's stocks. And let me tell you...the value of the stock has been doing nothing but going down since the middle of January.<snip>

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You've got to look a little further into the long-term. Vivendi's stock has been going down (slightly) since January, but it's been steadily increasing since mid-2002.

http://www.vivendi.com/corp/en/home/share_price.php?page=france&sym2=&dRange=dres%3DWeek%26dcnt%3D20%26dperiod%3DQTRS&image1.x=22&image1.y=10