Over at the World of WarCraft forums a member named Kitt has decided to raise his so-called "BS flag" on Blizzard's claim that they have reached a high of 8.5 million subscribers to its beloved MMORPG World of WarCraft. The ultimate point of his argument? Well, Kitt's doubts boil down to:
Sorry Blizz, I just can't quite fathom this claim...how can the company reach a milestone of 8.5 million subscribers when the value of the corporation's stock has been decreasing AND the server populations have been dwindling as well?
Kitt also notes Vivendi's dwindling stock price despite the Burning Crusade launch. Blizzard's official response to Kitt's doubts? Official Blizzard poster Drysc writes:
We raised the population cap for all realms with the release of the expansion, as there's more land mass to be filled the population that was considered the maximum to contain a healthy world could be raised. I can assure you we've hit new records in player population and averages for nightly concurrency, but with the higher caps you're not going to see all the warning signs that a ton of realms are bursting at the seams. At least not as much as you may have before.
Others in the forums have noted that given all of Vivendi's other assets, the WoW population might just be a drop in the bucket. Others have pointed out that they're probably counting every single subscription - active or inactive - that's why the figures they have are that high.
Others have even voiced support for Blizzard by saying that although Vivendi owns Blizzard, the later might be able to buy themselves out in a year or so.
