The most recent expansion for World of WarCraft, Mists of Pandaria, is not living up to the lofty sales expectations that previous releases have set for the MMO from Blizzard. According to recent reports from games industry analysts, the launch of the expansion is seeing far fewer copies of the game being sold.
Analyzing the retail sales and adjusting these figures for a rise in digital consumption, analysts at Lazard Capital believe that Mists of Pandaria is trending way behind previous WoW releases. Reception to the Panda themed expansion pack was lukewarm at best when the new content was revealed at BlizzCon in 2011. Since Cataclysm’s release back in 2010, the subscription based MMO has been losing subscribers on a quarterly basis as reported by Activision.
A rise in free-to-play titles is likely having an impact on World of Warcraft’s bottom line, but its by far still the most popular subscription based game on the market today. World of Warcraft originally launched its subscription based MMO all the way back in 2004.
Published: Sep 28, 2012 09:23 am