14 DAY TRIAL // Activision Blizzard has confirmed some new statistics for its most popular games, including World of Warcraft, which has now seen its number of total subscribers drop to just 7.7 million worldwide.
Activision Blizzard made a surprising announcement earlier today, confirming that it's now an independent company, after buying itself out from large multimedia conglomerate Vivendi.
Besides detailing the different ins and outs of the whole transaction, the big publisher also posted a few details about its most popular franchises owned separately by Activision, like Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 or SKylanders Giants, but also by Blizzard, like World of Warcraft or Diablo 3.
According to the official statement, World of Warcraft now has just 7.7 million subscribers, which continues the downwards trend experienced by the online game in recent years.
"For the quarter, Activision Blizzard was the #1 independent publisher in North America and Europe combined, including accessory packs and figures, with the #1 and #2 best-selling titles year-to-date– Skylanders Giants and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Additionally, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remained the world’s subscription-based MMORPG, ending the quarter with approximately 7.7 million subscribers."
The company HAS also posted the definition it uses for subscribers, which includes a variety of cases but also excludes a lot more, so check it out below.
"Subscriber Definition: World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers."
"The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules."
Considering Blizzard has recently confirmed that its Titan project, which was set to take over from World of Warcraft in terms of MMORPGs, was going to be reworked into a new experience, it seems that the studio is in dire straits.