Mythic "super proud" of WAR subs

By Oli Welsh Published 5 February, 2009

Fall was "expected", numbers growing again.

In a live interview with Eurogamer readers, Warhammer Online's executive producer Jeff Hickman has stood by the game's subscription numbers.

EA's recent financial report put the game's subs total at 300,000 at the end of 2008 - quite a tumble from the 750,000 players the game claimed in its first month.

"We are super proud of our subscription numbers," Hickman said.

"We expected a hit from our competitors' launch, and the economy is tough right now," he added - presumably referring to the launch of second World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King in Novmber last year, two months after Warhammer Online hit the shelves.

"But our subs are growing, especially as we see people return from 'That Other Game'," Hickman said.

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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.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (16) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • butler` #1 3 years ago

    i'd be super pissed if my subs halved after a few months on the shelf tbh.

  • Orange #2 3 years ago

    Very difficult to come back from a poor launch, can't think of any mmos which lost so many and became more than niche.

    Kotor is on the way, then there are games like Diablo 3 and Dragon Age which will pull players away.

  • MrAtheist #3 3 years ago

    I know no one expects them to come out and be brutally honest, but come on... "super proud"?

    Exclusive footage from Mythic HQ!

  • makeamazing #4 3 years ago

    Actually these guys are moving quickly. You might think 300,000 is not alot but as long as they can keep those numbers and release different language versions (Russian and Korean) I think you will see WAR grow quite nicely and will be pretty successful.

  • thisisatempaccount #5 3 years ago

    300,000 - if that's a stable figure - will sustain an MMO and generate profit, if the likes of CoX, SWG and FFXI were anything to go by. The idea that this was going to be a WoW killer almost seems comical now, though. One more victim of hype, I'm afraid.

  • kestral #6 3 years ago

    Well it's definately in the top half of MMORPGs. You got to stay positive, with regular improvements it has a lot of potential.

  • Nikalai88 #7 3 years ago

    Always felt Mythic was a bit arrogant with thinking one million subs in one year and three million high in its lifetime. Who knows though maybe they will reach that. But if numbers have grown what prevents them from stating that?

  • MrChuckles #8 3 years ago

    I re-subbed last night, had stopped due to the huge number of console games that came out from September till December. Now that's over, back to WAR...

  • ShadyBat #9 3 years ago

    300.000 is a complete and utter failure and disaster. The games you compared to and thought were great with 300kish subscribers didn't also have the enormous and immense cost of development that WAR did. Mark Jacobs has previously been quoted as saying if they didn't open new servers within 6 weeks of launch it was a failure. He also once stated any MMORPG which closes servers and merges serves is a failure.

    WAR did both within 2 months of launch.

  • DFawkes #10 3 years ago

    300,000 people x 8.99 sub = £ 2,697,000 a month of non-failure. No wonder he's happy, it might not be the match for WoW they hoped, but that's enough to ensure a few servers for those of use that enjoy it.

  • iokthemonkey #11 3 years ago

    I think what's harmed WAR's figures more than anything else is the bullish attitudes of "we'll have 500,000 subscribers minimum and we'll grow every week."

    300,000 isn't WoW's 11 million.

    But it's certainly on-parr with pretty much every other non-WoW Western game. CoH has managed for over four years on 150,000 or so subscribers so to say 300,000 is a failure is silly. It's just that Mythic overhyped themselves and set their projections too high. If they'd said "we expect to be at 250,000" everybody would be congratulating them right now.

  • levitate #12 3 years ago

    I'm not resubbing this game until it's worth playing. Which, unfortunaly, it isn't right now.

  • Krelle #13 3 years ago

    When you compare WAR to gams like CoH, you have to take into the equation that WAR is an MMO with a massive budget.
    CoH might roll on 150.000 players, but that doesnt make the same figures true for WAR.

    WAR probably need to cover development costs with alot of their monthly income before they can even think about a number that would keep the servers up and players happy.

    I dont know how Mythic is incorperated in EA, but Mythic going bankrupt, or EA closing Mythic, is not totally unlikely with the business climat we have today. Unless things starts to improve, that is.

  • iokthemonkey #14 3 years ago

    Krelle: Every other Western MMO that isn't WoW does about 150-300K subscribers.

    The point I was making is that CoH not only survived for four years on that user base but also continued to add expansions and content that put some "paid" expansions to shame.

    They're pulling in about 3-4 million dollars a month from subscriptions. Despite what they might tell you - and unless Mythic all sit on gold thrones and eat swans for dinner - they've probably already covered the development costs. The game launched, what, six months ago? So that's a minimum of 18 million in subs alone. It sold, what, 800,000 copies? So there's at least another $60 million (conservative estimate.)

    So to date they've netted over $70 million.

    Granted, there's server costs, etc but that's still more than enough to cover the development costs and keep the project going.

  • Krelle #15 3 years ago

    iokthemonkey

    I think you gravely overestimate how much money one makes of games, and underestimate costs to keep things kickin. That said, I wasnt really directing my comment to you, even thou it did look like it, admittedly.

    If i just go by what ive heard and pull a number out of my ass, 1.000.000 sold copies and 300.000 regular subscribers for about 12 months would be what it takes to break even for a high profile game like WAR.

    EDIT: Also, I agree with you that they need to loose the attitude.
    Edited by 1 at 06/02/09 @ 13:25

  • iokthemonkey #16 3 years ago

    I think you gravely overestimate how much money one makes of games, and underestimate costs to keep things kickin.

    ----

    I work in "the biz" so trust me, I know... :)

    Granted, I did forget (hey, it's Friday!) to factor in the retailer's cut on the sale, but even so - according to an article on Massively - WAR netted between $50 - 150 million... I know a lot of people buy into that comment about "an MMO costs $100 million" to develop but really that's not true...

    WAR probably is in profit now. It's just a matter of how MUCH profit it's making compared to expectations.

    As I say, 300,000 is a very respectable number of subscribers.

  • wowgoldpaladin #17 3 years ago

    Though we all know that there's an economic crisis going on, it's good to know that MMORPG industry doesn't seem affected. It's one of my greatest diversion, but I'd still stick with playing WoW though it sucks to grind wow gold all the time.