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A report by Superdata Research, and spotted by CVG, has shown that the once highly popular MMO World of Warcraft has had a massive…

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A report by Superdata Research, and spotted by CVG, has shown that the once highly popular MMO World of Warcraft has had a massive drop of revenue, 54% in fact, over the last seven months.

These figures are based off a supposed April revenue of $93m, which was once up to $204m just seven months ago. The report said the following:

In a market where players are increasingly used to – and spending money on – in-game items, the lack of microtransactions beyond pets and mounts looks like it’s starting to hurt.

What we generally see after a switch to free-to-play is an influx of new players and a spike in revenues, which, if the cards are played right, can be sustained.

The research does warn however that it could prove problematic to switch to free-to-play now, so many years after the original release of the game, saying that it would be “too much of a jolt.”

To switch entirely to F2P is currently too much of a jolt for WoW, and doesn’t make sense with the current metrics. For example, in order to have sustained the US revenues the game saw in 2011, it would have had to convert 53% of the total free-to-play audience in the US at the time.

However, there are now more F2P gamers in the country – and worldwide –so it’s becoming easier to capture this audience. But there’s also more competition.

With a dedicated player base and relatively stable MAUs, WoW would need a convergence of factors to make the switch beneficial. It looks like those factors are starting to stack up, but haven’t hit critical mass.

So are the masses finally moving away from the once popular MMO? I never really understood the appeal of the game to be honest and I’ve never even played the game. The free-to-play switch is an interesting one to say the least, it has worked out for companies such as Valve with Team Fortress 2and DOTA 2, but with a game as big as World of Warcraft would it be the right thing to do so late into the game’s life time?

Thanks, MCV UK!

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