Blizzard: WOW lost players to Conan

By Oli Welsh Published 1 August, 2008

They're coming back though, says Morhaime.

In a conference call with investors on Thursday, Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime credited Funcom's Age of Conan with a strong launch that stole players from his own MMO, World of Warcraft.

"Age of Conan released with some initial success a couple of months ago, and we did see some of our players leave to try the game," said Morhaime, as reported by Edge Online. Age of Conan garnered 700,000 accounts in its launch month.

"However, we've seen about 40 per cent of those players return to World of Warcraft," Morhaime added, backing up the anecdotal evidence that many Conan players didn't stick around long.

He reassured investors that WOW's constant content updates gave it a permanent head start over new rivals. "Any massively multiplayer online game that launches today isn't just competing with the amount and breadth of content that we launched with back in 2004," he said, perhaps moving to head off concerns about the imminent Warhammer Online launch.

He added that he expects more WOW players to return come the release of Wrath of the Lich King.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

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Comments (35) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 4 years ago

    I left WoW at the same time, but for LOTRO. I read in a comments thread Age of Conan is mostly instance based like Guild Wars, which I'd never, ever pay a sub for.

  • Phattso #2 4 years ago

    Yeah, that's a common misconception. AoC isn't like Guild Wars at all - plenty of proper MMO style quest zones chock full of real players.

    I've given Age of Conan a couple of months and, some annoyances aside, I've really enjoyed it. But it really does need a substantial update to hold the interest of most people, and smooth out the levelling process. With WAR and Lich King just around the corner that's big ask I think.

  • DFawkes #3 4 years ago

    Cheers for clearing it up Phattso. I still don't fancy Conan, but it certainly looks okay in videos. I just prefer a bit more, such as different races, but I could see people prefering not to have Trolls and Night Elfs running past :)

  • anomagnus #4 4 years ago

    I expect the WoW fanboys will be here in less than 15 minutes, claiming the ineviatble victory of WoW.

    Firstly, its not bad news. AoC was able to steal customers from WoW, and then hold on to the majority of them.

    Secondly, as more and more sophisticated MMO's come up, similar patterns will emerge. There is a huge pool of disaffected players in WoW, who are waiting for more and more options.

    In the end, LOTRO, AOC, and WAR will all take their own pool of players.

  • Eraysor #5 4 years ago

    I imagine WoW will lose even more subscribers when WAR comes out. They're probably going to lose me for a start :p

  • Phattso #6 4 years ago

    It was the combat and the setting that appealed to me. For sure it's a gimmick, but (like active reloading in Gears of War) it's a small change that makes a massive difference to the game.

    Every fight in Conan feels more visceral and enjoyable than my shot/spell rotation in WoW ever did. It made the levelling process far more enjoyable, and much less of a chore.

    But you do miss the polish of WoW after a while, especially in the realm of dungeon design and equipment. I think AoC has the makings of a phenomenal MMORPG, but probably came to the party a little late and slightly underdressed. :)

  • Pirotic #7 4 years ago

    War isn't shaping up too well unfortunately, got into the beta with my LE pre-order and ended up canceling the pre-order after a few hours of play. Conan held my attention for at least a couple of days before I gave up on it due to the bugs :p

  • otto #8 4 years ago

    And in other news, the Arctic told reporters that some of its birds had flown south for the winter, but most of them had come back now.

    Jeez Blizz...

  • Bleh #9 4 years ago

    I agree with Phattso. It has the feel to give a bit more than other mmo's but due to the lack of things it loose this feeling again. Wait a few months and hopefully it will be better.

    I really like those comments of WAR is going to loose player to WAR. Think they will feel disappointed. Properly the same what's happing now to AoC.

  • Koozer #10 4 years ago

    Pirotic, the open beta for Collector's Edition preorders isn't open yet.
    And you judge the game you probably haven't played entirely on a few hours, and complain about bugs in the beta?
    Let me make a wild guess here and say you play WoW.

  • Erinan #11 4 years ago

    Yeah, I wouldn't count on WAR either. And AoC is quite dull, boring and generic to me. Many things promised on paper, not many implemented in the end.

    And the heavy instanceing was the final blow. The whole game has been dying down pretty quickly after so much hype.

  • UncleLou #12 4 years ago

    Well, I quit WoW three years ago, but have an active AoC account.

    TAKE THAT, BLIZZ! :)

  • anomagnus #13 4 years ago

    pirotic is probably one of the usual wow fanboys who claim they have access to the beta and then bad mouth it.

    Generally, they're either a)full of shit or b)full of shit

    I find it strange that every games site that has played it has praised it, including this one. Yet somehow, this magic band of beta testers that pops on forums has a great insight into the game, where they can say it will fail, and WoW will always be the best

    Pirotics though will go down in history, able to write of an ENTIRE mmo based on a few hours of beta play.

    Well done that man. I suppose its like watching 30 secs of a film thats still in post production and saying i dont like it.

  • FunkyRenegade #14 4 years ago

    @Pirotic.
    Koozer's right, you can't have played the open beta, since it doesn't exist yet. But I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you have actually played in the closed beta (which I've been in for about 6 months now) and ask you what the hell you're talking about? If you'd played any game in beta before, which I'm going to assume you haven't, WAR is shaping up amazingly. There's an incredible lack of bugs for a relatively early build of the game, the gameplay is really fun and there's a great feeling of community on there with the PC's and things like that. Either you haven't played it, or you're thinking of a different gam

    Edit: Godawful grammar.
    Edited by 1 at 01/08/08 @ 12:54

  • Dizzy #15 4 years ago

    A lot of WAR beta players (I am one) are not so happy with the state of the game ATM. I understand why a lot of people dismiss it. Compared to WoW it is seriously lacking polish. Yes it is a beta... yes it will improve. But atm it is still a bit weak in many areas... I hope they can fix all that because I like some of the gameplay ideas (public quests).

  • Phattso #16 4 years ago

    Jesus - you WAR players are a defensive lot. :)

    I've been following its development with interest, and most of the previews have been pretty down on the game. It has only been very recently, once they made that change to the lighting in the game and let people loose on a couple of polished zones, that the tone of the previews has gone more positive.

    Still has a lot to do to convince me to try it out - Conan has a couple of hooks that were worth checking out, I struggle to see anything in WAR to do the same. Happy to be proven wrong when it's released, though. More MMO choice is a good thing.

  • paulf #17 4 years ago

    wow is bound to lose players because it is getting on a bit, and a lot of players have explored azeroth and outlands to death. However what i would say for new players it is still shed loads better than either AoC or Lotro - and that when the new expansion comes out the majority of people who left will be back for another fix (myself included)

  • Tyranix #18 4 years ago

    Opinions stated as facts masquerade as truth.

    It's about personal opinion. I played WoW for threeish years and have an incredible number of amazing memories, the game will always be special to me. However, I recently picked up Lord of the Rings online and love it, for very different reasons than I love World of Warcraft. I'm interested in Warhammer Online but I have very low hopes for it (EA beng a big part of that), and I will continue playing Lord of the Rings online until WOTLK comes out. We'll see if that can hold my interest.

  • hiddenranbir #19 4 years ago

    No-one is daring to be truly different from WoW which is exactly what they need to do if they really want to sustain a good amount of subs.

  • Darkjinxter #20 4 years ago

    Whether or not the punters left AoC for WoW, or LotRO or others is immaterial.
    The fact is they left AoC, which teach Funcom the lesson it needs to up the ante and fix it.

    Then I'll go back.

  • Orange #21 4 years ago

    It matches my experience that a fair few players left WoW to try Conan, but have now quit Conan and either gone back to WoW or are inbetween mmos like me.

    Conan was such a wasted opportunity, hideously unfinished on release and there's a fuckload of development needed to get it up to standard.

  • berelain #22 4 years ago

    Conan is so *nearly there* its painful. Its fun, it looks great, it has boundless potential. And its all ruined by ridiculous bugs that have plagued it since beta and, after 2 months, STILL haven't been fixed.

    I have been playing in the WAR beta, and enjoying it. Don;t really feel the need to say much more than that, NDA's and all, but i have it preordered and its staying that way.

    I did play WoW for 2 1/2 years from launch, and enjoyed it a lot, but it grew stale for me at the higher end with endless instance and rep grinding for that next purple drop.

    So for me, its back to LOTRO. Easily the most stable and bug-free MMO out there, and its so stunningly beautiful and such a fun place to be in- the community aspects are quite, quite divine- that I don't think I could ever stay away for long.

  • einstini15 #23 4 years ago

    I played WOW since June 2006. I like to raid. When conan came, i took a break to check it out.

    I am not going to tell you it sucked, it didn't. I liked the combat system. the professions system though a bit buggy, i knew would get better (and they were even more interesting cuz u can change things up). Also, the voiced over quests was a pleasant surprise.

    However, the voice overs stopped after lvl 20 and when I got to lvl 54, there wasnt as many quests as needed. I had to grind, a lot. So I went back to WOW.

    Sadly, this game was just not ready to ship. Suffered from NOT ENOUGH CONTENT, but also some minor and major bugs as well as not being polished at all. Maybe in another year, ill go back and it will be good. I certainly loved the plot and the idea behind it.

  • TitusCrow #24 4 years ago

    i was a big r.e howard fan and had pre- ordered conan for early access, was pretty excited about it. some mmo background - i was a obsessive wow playerin the begining ( hardcore raid guild server 1st's naxx and we opened the AQ gates and had a Cthun 1st. ) when TBC came out i saw my chance to get out of the raid grind/ cycle so i lveled to 70 and then did the instances, got attuned to the 1st 10 man raid and did it once then quit.
    i had lots of good memories and and fun times from the game but i went back to my 1st love of fps' and rts games and waited for conan.
    i built a new pc for it coming out and was confident that it would run pretty well, the year before i had tried LOTRO on relase and it was full of bugs ( for me at least ) i think this was a lot to do with my early adoption to vista and my new 8800gtx being 2 months old with crap drivers too. so with regret i gave this up and waited.
    in the interim i cracked one day and went back to wow for 5 hardcore months of gearing and so on getting once more into the raid team for the BT and start of the Sunwell leaving 2 weeks before conan's release.
    i really hoped conan would be the one, the new contender for mmo goodness - it didnt have to beat wow ( low sys requirments and style of world etc would of course make the numbers smaller than wow would have access too )
    however i thought that for myself and maybe 1-2 million others it could have a real shot, the game was a real system hog but with a few adjustments i got a happy medium of looks and frame rate. The 1st 20 levels were great fun bugs and all it was such a well filled out lush enviroment and such a change combat wise to lotro wow etc, then.. you get out of tortage and the wtf moment hits you.
    You quickly realise that they never had time to finish the game, the lighting is less done the questgivers dont speak ( something that adds such a lot you dont even realise it till its gone ) the instancing really begins to grate when u find the world is a bunch of big rooms that you have to get to the edge of to go to the next one..to do the same to go to the next one quests are totaly broken stats on items dont work AT ALL! and patches seem to be random swings that allways make it a 50/50 chance if they solve one thing they will make one thing worse, in short - they fucked it! they had a chance to have an amazing game and for the sake of i think 6-10 months more money and dev time they lost a chance to be a real contender nearly 4 years dev time down the tubes for the last part of polish that would have made conan like the 1st twenty levels all the way through.

    i am currently looking forward to WAR and hopefull from articles and the cuts they made that they want to put this one out ready and not do a funcom.. cause if they do i know WotlK is coming come nov/jan and you know blizz dont release stuff till it shines whatever else they can sometimes be guilty of

    eek - longest comment i ever wrote :o

  • einstini15 #25 4 years ago

    @ TitusCrow

    Yea, everything you said. I thought that conan would be a fun change, and in addition to what I already said, the everything is instanced is way annoying but i put that in the same category as really bad UI, which hopefully they will fix.
    Edited by 1 at 02/08/08 @ 07:58

  • makeamazing #26 4 years ago

    This is always the big challenge for games companies... keep spending money developing an MMO or ship it, and then hope people join it as they can add further fixes and content. You cant continue to make an MMO indefinately, so at some point you have to decide to stop adding polish or features and release it.

    I peronsally joined the WOW club late, at least 12 months after release as i wanted to try something different (I knew about it before then but wasnt that bothered). Really enjoyed it and there was lots for me to do... especially as i was too busy to play lots and lots like some serious MMO players.

    So its difficult for MMO makers because there will be a large core of players who can level up really fast, and get bored very quickly. I think WAR is going to struggle, and until games companies can find better ways to either design or create MMO's you will find they will be released before they are ready and need lots of work to make them better and have more things to do. For this reason I'm not really the type of person to buy an MMO on release day.

  • ZuluHero #27 4 years ago

    @pirotic

    how did you get in? i've had my CE preorder box sitting in front of me for a while now but when ever i go to the site it says "watch this space" :S

    And as another kick in the teeth i've been on the closed beta waiting list for what must be getting on for a year now! :(

  • Dodobird #28 4 years ago

    I remember jumping ship from FFXI after a couple of years for the sake of WoW. It's funny looking at the MMOs that are out on the market now; a lot of people don't realize just how many choices they have compared to a few years ago.

    Blizzard picked the perfect time to release a really good MMO. The choices were pretty much EQ, FFXI, or WoW. It's no wonder that WoW exploded like it did, bugged as it was at release. And yeah, maybe it was a little further along at release than Conan is now, but you bet that people would be complaining across the internet if something of that quality was released today.

  • Wyrm #29 4 years ago

    With the crap going round about Conan at the moment I don't think Blizzard need to even consider it's existence.

  • Sildur #30 4 years ago

    WoW fanboy here * puts hand up * ... Sorry fellas. Having played both LOTRO and AoC and enjoyed both in different ways.... I still see WoW as a far and vastly superior game largely in terms on gameplay, but just generally all around. Even though the qualiy of the graphical engine is not brilliant anymore, what they do with it is astounding, as is the polished and complete feel of the game as a whole.

    WoW simply still is a cut above all the rest and really shows up the bad points of all the other MMOs out there.

  • TitusCrow #31 4 years ago

    I happend to be reading the Aoc forums yesterday and there still seems to be lots of unhappy people there saying stuff like - "last month for me" and "giving this 1 more to see what they do" and "damit why o why did i put my sub on 6 monthly etc..

    I did the same but after 3 weeks changed it to 1 month and at the end of the re-newal period changed it to cancelled, i just kind of new it was not going to give me what i wanted and id rather remember the real hyperboria from my conan books.

    I think the market has changed massivly since 2004, now the success of wow has created a change in the Zeitgeist, in the very fabric of the mmo player composition. The goal posts have been shifted and a certain set of working features and expected content is taken for granted now right out the box. Is it fair? almost certainly not but thats the way we evolve, i think there can be no greater testement to a individual games success, that in the fact that it almost changes the expectations of the baseline for quality for a generation of gamers.
    CoH did it for RTS games, WOW did it for MMO's and i think perhaps CoD4 has done it with the persistant upgrade system for that game ( if they made that deep and much longer and made it MMO like maybe wow would have a contender :) ) oh and valve do it a bit every time they try i guess :)
    I think this is the problem now, we are in a post-WOW landscape and games companies are still expecting the kind of savy crowd of mmo players who played ultima and everquest 1, who are educated and forgiving about the problems these games have inherant in the make up of them. The problem is this crowd of old timer, old school, hardcore mmo player was never that massive even back in the day, mmo's back then were really underground, you really were a geek if you played back then, you had to be, they were grindy and hardcore by nature and about as welcoming to a new player as a chair covered in nails!
    Accessability wasnt one of the watchwords banded about back then, I do not use geek as an insult ( i should talk im writing a damn essay on a forum at 6:30am :) ) but you had to put in real hard work and dedication to learn the sometimes esoteric workings of the games back then.
    This meant if you got in to any depth you had a certain kind of enquiring nature and dedication to your personality, a breadth of understanding and an ability to see beyond what something was to what they were trying to make it.. and if you were there back then you are at least 35 now *smiles* this is not the average age of most of the people who play WOW at the moment i think, as many would testify if they have been on any hidious daytime pug runs of late :p
    So what am i getting at *looks blank* err.. well basically this: to compete with WOW in todays market with all the new players brought into the genre through the super accessable polished blizzard game you need to match like with like. I think that EA /mythic has learned this through the gestation period of WAR ( and maybe by looking at FUNCOM ) and this gives me a lot of hope that they will be the 1st company to take blizzard on in there own back yard ( the non geek casual mm0 player who play's 10-15 hours a week and expects this sh1t! to work!! ) the questions still to be answered are i guess - have they polished it enough? are the system requirements low enough? and will Wotlk bring everyone back to wow anyway because of the deep investment they have in the char's they have played for maybe 2 years at this point, or will WAR have had time to invest them in that world to keep a hold on them?
    I guess only time will tell, ill be there on opening day to play WAR and i cant wait - but i also got Wotlk on pre- order and tbh the thought of my gnome warrior weilding 2 cataclysms edge's and having 2 builds set up is nearly to much for me :) i want both games to succede, WAR to go over 3 mil in 4 months and WOW to correct all the niggling problems it has had and be great.

    One things for sure now, in this post WOW age if you want a seat at the big boys MMO table, you will have to put the kind of dev cycle into a game and the kind of resorces into it, that will be tantamount to saying you are betting the company on its success, well if you arent one of 4-5 massive companies with deep deep pockets, oh and i think two of them allready are at that table :) I salute the next company brave enough to try this venture.

    sorry to ramble on

    ps - valve now they should make an mmo :D
    Edited by 2 at 03/08/08 @ 07:05

  • SleepyMagpie #32 4 years ago

    Ok, well, that was a bit rambling, Titus Crow - I read some of it, but do yourself a favor and break it up into paragraphs next time.

    About Conan: A hear/read a lot that Conan is so "nearly there it hurts".

    No. AoC is not nearly there. Yes, it does have the standard almost game-breaking bugs that should have been ironed out, yes it is severely lacking in content, and the economy is broken.

    These things could have been fixed, even though it is brazenly arrogant on Funcom's part to expect subscribers to accept a state of the game that should have been left at beta.

    And where is the promised DX10 support?!!

    But the thing that got me packing, and cancelling my subscription, was the combat system. It is not fun. It is new only on the surface. Combos are not consequently reproducable, and generally the whole system is FUBAR.

    It should never have made it out of prototyping. Now it's in, they'll never remove it, and I'm never coming back.

  • craziii #33 4 years ago

    titus, I actually read your jumbled post, and it is very informative. thx for the info. guess I was right not to take a chance with it.

  • 7creature #34 4 years ago

    TitusCrow: Great posts!

  • TitusCrow #35 4 years ago

    thanks man! and sorry for the dicey punctuation when i go on a stream of ideas i guess it goes out the window :)