Comments on: Do People Not Understand The Number ‘One Million’? http://www.mmognation.com/2006/06/02/do-people-not-understand-the-number-one-million/ Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:06:51 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: Darniaq http://www.mmognation.com/2006/06/02/do-people-not-understand-the-number-one-million/comment-page-1/#comment-617 Darniaq Wed, 07 Jun 2006 00:16:24 +0000 http://www.mmognation.com/2006/06/02/do-people-not-understand-the-number-one-million/#comment-617 It's 6.5mil <i>subscribers</i>. That's still a huge freakin' number, but it's not that many <i>people</i>. Further, while it looks great on his charts, his charts have always been limited by the information he could actually get. As he should, he only lists what he can get some sort of verification on. Finally, the number of subscribers as reported is becoming a less relevant measure. It would be ideal if the whole industry would report all numbers the same way so us Day Traders could buy low and sell high. But <a href="http://www.darniaq.com/wordpress/2006/05/mmo-live/the-numbers-game/" rel="nofollow">I doubt that'll ever happen</a>. As such, companies will continually find new and interesting ways to report their own relevance. All this means that WoW is doing awesome, better than any other game reporting numbers in the same way. But it doesn't mean they've won. Between the very many unique elements Blizzard/VUG has, game systems that haven't been tried and the 50 million online gamers in the U.S. that <i><b>are not</b></i> playing WoW, there's a lot left to be tried and a bunch of companies that have no choice <i>but</i> to try because they can't hope to leverage a warchest nor reach as big as Vivendi's. It’s 6.5mil subscribers. That’s still a huge freakin’ number, but it’s not that many people.

Further, while it looks great on his charts, his charts have always been limited by the information he could actually get. As he should, he only lists what he can get some sort of verification on.

Finally, the number of subscribers as reported is becoming a less relevant measure. It would be ideal if the whole industry would report all numbers the same way so us Day Traders could buy low and sell high. But I doubt that’ll ever happen. As such, companies will continually find new and interesting ways to report their own relevance.

All this means that WoW is doing awesome, better than any other game reporting numbers in the same way. But it doesn’t mean they’ve won. Between the very many unique elements Blizzard/VUG has, game systems that haven’t been tried and the 50 million online gamers in the U.S. that are not playing WoW, there’s a lot left to be tried and a bunch of companies that have no choice but to try because they can’t hope to leverage a warchest nor reach as big as Vivendi’s.

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