Trion: Rift caused WOW subs dip

By John Bedford Published 8 June, 2011

Dev bold as game nears millionth sale.

Trion has cheekily claimed to "know very well" where World of Warcraft lost 600,000 subscribers to.

Trion senior VP of publishing David Reid made the comment to Gamasutra as his game Rift nears its one millionth sale.

"We're really pleased with what we're seeing," he said. "And beyond that, it was a pleasure to see that in the latest Activision Blizzard earnings call, they inquired about Rift when Blizzard announced that their subscriber numbers went from 12 million to 11.4 million.

"You can do some math... We know very well where those 600,000 people are."

Rift's 1 million milestone refres to copies sold, not games shipped to shops or how many people subscribe to the MMO.

Rift currently prepares itself for new patch 1.3, entitled Waves of Madness. It's coming on 22nd June.

Full details are still under wraps, but we know Patch 1.3 introduces free character transfers for players struggling on low population servers. Each character will be eligible for a free transfer once every seven days, and be able to pick from a number of servers.

No restrictions will be placed on players wishing to transfer from the safer, player-versus-environment servers to player-versus-player servers. More details on the transfer system can be found at Trion's website

Picture of John.

About John Bedford

John is an MMO specialist with a particular passion for Eve Online. He once nearly went paragliding.

Read more articles from John by visiting the John Bedford archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • hippyjump #1 12 months ago

    bunch of sad fucks, they know nothing about those 600k players.
    Maybe a portion of them moved to rift, but for how long?
    The majority of those 600K was just burned out on wow and can't blame em.
    I suggest trion stop making idiotic statements like this and that they go continue stealign everything from wow.
    And no, i don't play wow anymore so i'm one of those 600K and i don't play rift.
    Suck it trion, in a few months you'll be merging and closing servers.

  • paulf #2 12 months ago

    the rift mechanic is nice but the questing is dull, I'm stuck at level 32 ish feeling no draw to play, shame because for a while it seemed like something special

  • MaxiSleep #3 12 months ago

    Blizzard actually managed it all on their own with the botch job that was cataclysm

  • superfurry #4 12 months ago

    I can only speak for myself and what was previously my WoW guild. There were 52 of us in WoW and 38 of us made the move lock, stock and barrell to Rift.

    Now many of us - myself included - would probably have left WoW regardless because of the way the game has gone. However it's nice to have a ready made new home waiting.

  • Zozzilla #5 12 months ago

    I think a lot of subs were lost when they nerfed every single bit of meaningful content and made it so easy even the most mentally challenged people could do it. It's no longer a big achievement to down ANY raid boss because the week after, its difficulty has been stripped down and everyone and their mother has the highest level gear.

  • login_name #6 12 months ago

    Trion have done a good job with Rift but they best not get used to feeling so smug, I have a feeling it won't last long.

    Rift is an enjoyable but highly repetitive experience.

  • Xensor #7 12 months ago

    Played the trial of Rift, my conclusion? A highly polished WoW clone with one novel twist stolen from WAR. Fun but ultimately not different enough. And certainly not the reason i've finally cancelled my WoW subs, Blizz managed that themselves.

  • mumblyjoe #8 12 months ago

    WoW subs always dip when a new mmo comes out, nothing new about that.

  • Stratix #9 12 months ago

    Me and most of my clan are part of that 600k, and not one of us plays Rift. Hmm...

  • TheRealBadabing #10 12 months ago

    Technically, a mosquito hitting the windscreen of an 18-wheeler will slow it down too. Not going to notice though, are we?

  • Softie2k #11 12 months ago

    Most delusional comment ever.

  • Saint_of_Killers #12 12 months ago

    So what is actually wrong with Cata? Some say the raids are too hard and that's why people left but here I read they're too easy (that and any old scrub can get their hands on leet gear xD)? I just play solo and I've loved it. The reworked Steppes and Gorge quests were a laugh (as were other zones), I just wish I could switch off the accelerated XP gains (on the heirloom gear and from handing in Qs) as I'm in no rush to get to 85 (again).

  • Ezzekhiel #13 12 months ago

    EG please replace LotR Online by Rift in the featured MMO section of the MMO Homepage :) It'd look more serious !

  • brod #14 12 months ago

    They should be scared shitless of those 600k going back to WoW in 2 weeks when the Firelands patch hits.

  • KanePaws #15 12 months ago

    "You can do some math... We know very well where those 600,000 people are."
    "Patch 1.3 introduces free character transfers for players struggling on low population servers"

  • CaptainTrips #16 12 months ago

    What strikes me the most about this article isn't Trion's claims, but their complete lack of class. Whenever someone at Blizzard is asked about a product that a rival dev is working on, they are always respectful and complimentary about both the developers, and the product itself.

    Honestly, I'm a 31 year old mature gamer - this "MMO War" bullshit doesn't do anything for me, in the same way that I couldn't give a fuck about the PS3 Vs XBox fanboy arguments. Let your game stand on it's own merits and earn respect and reputation the same way Blizzard did - by being the best.

  • ircaddicts #17 12 months ago

    That 600k is only the start of wows slide down to eventually being closed. When GW2 and SWTOR come out expect it to get MUCH fatser.

  • Megacore #18 12 months ago

    I agree that Rifts biggest weakness is the dull and uninspired quests...

    Stuck on lvl 42.. havent played for weeks.

  • Flipper79 #19 12 months ago

    @Saint_of_Killers

    Could you not just remove the heirloom gear when you're questing? It's not like the quests are so hard you need the very best gear.

  • nodrick #20 12 months ago

    Get to 50 ... plenty to do if you want it.

  • Meglivorn #21 12 months ago

    Well they only know max. 599 995 becouse at least 5 of us never went to Rift ( I tried the open beta, and was enough).

  • daftshadow #22 12 months ago

    In turn, I have seen quite a few former Rift subers leaving the game and going back to other MMOs such as LOTRO. I can see further sub MMOs hurting when Age of Conan release it's free-to-play hybrid version later this Summer.

  • riseer #23 12 months ago

    I gave up on WoW because it go way to ez, and honestly got tired of dealing with kids on a ego trip.Rift is a better game it needs more content i like the soul system as well.

  • dutzan #24 12 months ago

    If many of those subscribing to Rift are coming from WoW then maybe the trion guy should be concerned a bit. Cause a part of them are in a migratory mood just searching for a new mainstream high profile mmo to get into. Rift might do the trick for now, but what about later? WoW can afford to loose 600k subbers but can Rift say that when a couple of other high profile mmos (SWOTOR, maybe Guild Wars2) release later this year?

  • makeamazing #25 12 months ago

    Well they only know max. 599 995 becouse at least 5 of us never went to Rift ( I tried the open beta, and was enough).

    Well you can add me to that also, i cancelled my sub but havent signed up to any more MMO's, just aint got time.

  • levitate #26 12 months ago

    There are too many MMOs on the market these days and I'm sure those 600k didn't leave WoW just for RIFT. In my case I put more time into EVE Online instead or just making the time for RL stuff I wouldn't have done if it was raid night.

  • craziii #27 12 months ago

    if they have 1 mil subs that would be something. selling 1 mil after all this time? kinda sad. even age of connan sold faster than this, so did warhammer.

  • Averice #28 12 months ago

    I grinded all the way to 50 in Rift. And yes, it was a grind starting around level 26 and it lasted until level 50.

    Sadly warfronts are pretty broken. I mean, part of the reason I left WoW was because how out of control strong healers were, and then it was even worse in Rift. They nerfed healers a bit, but then they killed melee specs completely and it really feels like they have even less clue than Activision when it comes to balancing for PvP. Honestly, WoW PvP feels decently balanced atm.

    My sub won't run out for rift for 2 more months, but I haven't logged in for 3 weeks or so. It would have probably been better if I had a guild or something, or joined a guild for that matter, but I'm not looking for a game where I have to be part of a guild to have fun.

  • Sutorcen #29 12 months ago

    You really would like that to be true Trion. Wouldn't you? I don't know where you get your info but our server has been dying for over a month now. So Trion focus on making the game viable rather than just a quick cash in for your next project and stop using WoW to gain publicity.

  • Sutorcen #30 12 months ago

    You really would like that to be true Trion. Wouldn't you? I don't know where you get your info but our server has been dying for over a month now. So Trion focus on making the game viable rather than just a quick cash in for your next project and stop using WoW to gain publicity.

  • Carlit088 #31 12 months ago

    if they "know very well", back it up with real figures of current subscription levels

  • clearbelt01 #32 11 months ago

    This isnt a war rift is just going finishing them off they took the best that the mmo word had to offer and made it pretty. Dont be so angry just because your comp wont handle the system req. and did i read the quests are repetitive .. if you play an mmo for the quests well im sorry sir you fail. Wow clone lol wow is a clone

    improvments over other mmos crafting system, skill trees,rifts take the farm out of collecting mats,grafix and new raid machanics not one new instance and raid but a world of them,a new story, and new things to discover

    ... bottom line staying with wow is like staying with a fat chick cause she has good credit