Square-Enix Confirms Layoffs, Denies Impact on MMOs

There was an update in the GW2 forums that has said blah blah blah number of accounts were banned = whatever percent of the population which worked out to be about 4 million. and it was a couple weeks old at that point.
also they had to stop selling digital copies for most of sept/oct because the servers were overloaded.

dunno how many WoW players are still around but, my guild is very active and all members from our start are still playing. we're in the 8th or 9th or so ranked server in NA.

Originally Posted by Bert

There was an update in the GW2 forums that has said blah blah blah number of accounts were banned = whatever percent of the population which worked out to be about 4 million. and it was a couple weeks old at that point.

I suspect this is characters rather than players, in that case. Sounds about right - an average of two characters per player.

Ok, I know that great products can come to exist purely based on rational business motivated decision making. You can calculate and use formulas and figure out the best possible way to make money and to create a product that will be successful. I know that's possible. Yes.

But I genuinely believe that great products come to fruition better when it's a labor of love. When the people involved are purposeful and set out to create something they're proud of and that they believe in. As opposed to the general, "Oh trout, we need to fix this fast because we need to make a profit NOW" feeling that I get from FFXIV. And this is a feeling I've had about the project since the beginning. It never really felt like a project that came about because a bunch of people had some really great ideas and they wanted to make it come to life. From the get go it felt like they wanted to push hard and fast to make money asap. As opposed to, "We have an awesome idea for a game, and I think people would love it" it always seemed more like, "What kind of game can we make that can make us some money?"

I do think that the original failure of the game has crippled the title to the point where ARR will never be a big success. I think ARR will do mildly well and maybe save SE financially. But nothing more than that.

I hope this is a good kick in the butt for SE. They need some more inspiration in the work that they do.

I feel badly for the people laid off right before Christmas.

Originally Posted by Ouch!

The other question is how many of those people from WoW have actually canceled their accounts and stopped playing?

Me.

The real question is how many of the million+ RIFT players went back to WoW after they dropped out or instead to one of the other countless options out there today. Then you can ask how many of the millions of GW2 players cancelled their subscriptions.

It never really felt like a project that came about because a bunch of people had some really great ideas and they wanted to make it come to life. From the get go it felt like they wanted to push hard and fast to make money asap. As opposed to, "We have an awesome idea for a game, and I think people would love it" it always seemed more like, "What kind of game can we make that can make us some money?"

This is the mindset behind so many games and products today and I just wish it wasn't the case.

My point was more that as of just a few months ago, World of Warcraft had over ten million active subscribers, and Mists of Pandaria has been one of their most successful expansions. I'm just not ready to call a subscription model dead on arrival when there's still that many people still engaged in it. Some might argue that WoW is an anomaly because it's the only MMORPG to have that level of success, but that argument ignores the fact that even free-to-play model games aren't bringing that juggernaut down.