Warcraft million players to go home to suck gold encounter "Waterloo"

From last June to the present, "World of Warcraft" has been easy to master nearly 10 months of time. But today's World of Warcraft appears to have suffered a "Waterloo" in the domestic market, compared with its eye-catching performance in the Nineth city. The number of active people continued to fall, stocks fell, profits fell, it seems netease in the agent "World of Warcraft" after become a heavy "baggage." One player exclaimed: "Endless expeditions bring us endless anticipation." "And this sentence if by NetEase, perhaps will become:" Endless expedition, bring us endless distress. ”

Millions of players go home

Client, ID generator, server proxy account, point card, traditional input Method ... This is the player Zhao is ready to enter the "World of Warcraft" Taiwan Server (hereinafter referred to as "Taiwan Service") prepared for everything. Although "World of Warcraft" (Wrath of the Lich King) closer to the domestic players, but how small Zhao also in the original mainland server can not live. "Today's version has been playing for nearly 1.5 of the time, all the content can experience the basic experience of the game." In order to allow themselves to continue to play the driving force, only choose to go to the Taiwan service. I originally in the game of the vast number of friends have to go to Taiwan, and has a certain status, this time to ' take refuge ' they can better experience the content of the game, there is a point is to accompany friends. "Xiao Zhao's words said millions of" defected to "Taiwan to serve the voice of the player. According to incomplete statistics, since last June, nearly millions of players have chosen to login to Europe and the United States, "World of Warcraft" server or Taiwan service for gaming experience. The number is now growing at a rate of nearly thousand a day. and the Taiwan Service and European service even to stop the role of the game to establish, IP and other technical means to organize a large number of players into the influx.

The popularity of the Taiwan service and the slightly deserted mainland server has become a clear contrast. According to the "World of Warcraft" professional statistics website nga World of Warcraft Database display: In more than 300 groups of servers in the mainland, the number of active players less than 1500 people's servers reached 45 groups, accounting for 15% of the total server, "Ghost clothing" (the game in the proportion of the two camps seriously unbalanced) as many as 30 groups, accounting for 10%. It is worth mentioning that, compared to the most glorious period of 2007, the astronomical figure of more than 10,000 active players has become an undeniable "myth", now the most players "Ice wind gang" server has only 5,836 players, compared with the previous decline of 50%, and "World of Warcraft" Most of the server's active population shrank by more than 50%.

Tirade "World of Warcraft" China "Waterloo"

"Have to say, NetEase agent" World of Warcraft "after encountering a ' Waterloo '. Game critic Wang Yaokun said, "The World of Warcraft ' Waterloo ' from 600,000, 70%, 30%, 1064718 of these 4 sets of numbers can be drawn." ”

600,000 per month 600,000 RMB maintenance equipment

According to Blizzard Entertainment, the current global Wow server about 20,000, the cost of maintaining these servers every day is 136,000 dollars, the equivalent of a new Audi R8 sports car. In accordance with this proportion of computing, netease agent of "World of Warcraft" has more than 300 groups of servers, monthly maintenance costs nearly 600,000 yuan, equivalent to selling 24,000 cards a month to be flat, and this has not been counted on labor costs.

70% 70% players leave the game before level 10

Blizzard CEO Maik Mo Huaimi on the company's quarterly earnings call on the issue of "World of Warcraft" player growth, "we originally expected a large number of users in the holiday will enter the World of Warcraft, but we are wrong, we launched the experience account only 30% of players to play more than 10 levels, 70% Players left the game before level 10.

"1.5 of the ' expedition ' makes everyone too familiar with the game of World of Warcraft, and it's hard to retain players without the freshness of the game content." Second, "World of Warcraft" unique G-group culture so that the original must rely on the player's own game content gradually in-depth experience in order to get a certain virtual property settings become completely disappeared. A good set of equipment with the hands of the hundreds of yuan can be exchanged, those who want to experience the game of the player ' must take more RMB consumption to experience the game ' environment deeply hates and finally chose to give up "World of Warcraft." Now a game account with less than 30 hours to 70, in the cost of 30,000-40,000 game gold (about 500 yuan) will be able to exchange one of the best equipment. "Wang Yaokun slightly feel helpless to say:" and the majority of players are not easy to get out of this 500 yuan of money. ”

30%-year stock down 30%

Nasdaq-listed netease in the United States in the last six months can be described as a "quick drop" movement. Because of fear of "World of Warcraft" operating in China at any time, Wall Street investors have been selling the shares of NetEase, so that NetEase shares plunged. It is reported that the "Warcraft" turmoil dragged down, NetEase shares from September last year to early February this year, has fallen 30%.

1064718 active players with only 1,064,718 left

Reporters from the NGA World of Warcraft Database February 25, a "World of Warcraft" census activity, learned that the current "World of Warcraft" active players only 1,064,718. It's a far cry from the 5 million people the other media have been reporting. In this respect, a person in the industry said that 5 million people refer to the number of game accounts registered, the real agent to bring wealth or a game of active players. According to the figures of 1,064,718 active players, NetEase's gains in World of Warcraft are roughly 160 million to 180 million yuan, a figure that is far from the 220 million yuan in the Nineth City of World of Warcraft.

Wow is hard to play "King of Gold"

February 25, NetEase released its 2009 fourth quarter financial report, the normal operation of a quarter of the "World of Warcraft" performance reflects the "Gold King" of the Power, successful help NetEase will increase the game business income to 1.1 billion yuan. Although the figure is well above the level of 673 million yuan in the same period last year, the net profit is not so satisfying. Data show that NetEase quarter profit of only 572 million yuan, and the same period last year, the index is 576 million yuan.

NetEase explained in the report, because of "World of Warcraft" low gross margin, the company's gross margin in the fourth quarter from the same period last year 88% down to 70.8%, the main reason is related to royalties, fees and technical advisory services fees. At the same time, NetEase CFO Chai Anwood said the next few quarters will maintain gross margin at this level.

"Despite the good results of NetEase's game revenue in the quarter, but NetEase 70% of the income from the very popular" Dream West Tour "game, and the new line of" World II "is a much more people's attention to the game," wow "compared to the previous two games has undoubtedly become a ' drag '. "The Wrath of the Lich King must be put online as soon as possible to make the World of Warcraft a real ' suck gold '," Wang Yaokun said.