nailbat.us

Probably the worst thing I have done to my productivity at work in the past month or two is add wow-insider to my google reader subscription queue. The reason is that they have some very interesting blogs... Some I expect and some that surprise me.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/04/22/the-l ... 0-k-annua/

This falls into the latter category. The blog is about blizzard's latest share holder report. It has some interesting tidbits.

My favorite was how blizzard counts WoW subscribers
1) Current subscribed accounts
2) New accounts in their included first month
3) Internet Game room accounts who have logged in within the last 30 days (?)

This is pretty straight forward counting. They don't count suspended accounts. They don't count everyone who ever had an account. They don't count trial accounts. They only count real paid accounts.

I'm not exactly sure what that 3rd one is though. I know there are stores that have banks of computers with computer games installed. So if you want to have a lan party but don't want to gather the hardware together, you can pay like $N/hr. Maybe WoW accounts on those machines. I do not know.

Another interesting tidbit: In 2008/2009 WoW was 97-98% of Blizzards revenue. In 2010 WoW was 89% of Blizzards revenue. This means SC2 was a big deal.

In any case, it's short and worth a read.

tethealla wrote:Probably the worst thing I have done to my productivity at work in the past month or two is add wow-insider to my google reader subscription queue. The reason is that they have some very interesting blogs... Some I expect and some that surprise me.

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/04/22/the-l ... 0-k-annua/

This falls into the latter category. The blog is about blizzard's latest share holder report. It has some interesting tidbits.

My favorite was how blizzard counts WoW subscribers
1) Current subscribed accounts
2) New accounts in their included first month
3) Internet Game room accounts who have logged in within the last 30 days (?)

This is pretty straight forward counting. They don't count suspended accounts. They don't count everyone who ever had an account. They don't count trial accounts. They only count real paid accounts.

I'm not exactly sure what that 3rd one is though. I know there are stores that have banks of computers with computer games installed. So if you want to have a lan party but don't want to gather the hardware together, you can pay like $N/hr. Maybe WoW accounts on those machines. I do not know.

Another interesting tidbit: In 2008/2009 WoW was 97-98% of Blizzards revenue. In 2010 WoW was 89% of Blizzards revenue. This means SC2 was a big deal.

In any case, it's short and worth a read.

Internet Game Rooms are big business in Korea and Taiwan. As I understand it, it's a separate license that allows the IGR to pay a flat fee for a certain number of players against a single WoW license. The players then pay the IGR on a per use or per hour or per day or whatever basis, rather than paying Blizzard. It's a common business model for pay-as-you-play in that region.