EA Earnings Call Tomorrow
Posted by: Nazgum On: May 04, 2009 at 04:51pm
One of the interesting things about EA buying Mythic is we get to see real subscription numbers every few months.  Unlike many smaller game companies, EA is a publicly traded company, and because of that, they divulge information about their earnings to their shareholders.

The last earnings call which took place earlier this year revealed Warhammer had "over 300k subscribers" at the time, which could in no way be spun as a positive.  By Mythic's own admission they were hoping to still be growing, and "to be successful" they wanted to be "north of 500k subscribers".  300k meant they had lost over 1/3 of the people who bought a retail box at launch, and were far below their mark.  Ouch.  Even worse, those numbers may have been high, as anyone who signed up for a six month subscription but lost interest and cancelled would still be considered among those.

Tomorrow is the next EA Earnings Call.  Predictions?  Personally, I'm thinking they will fare a little better off this time around.  Their trials seem to be getting some new blood into the game.  They've solved quite a few issues with the game and merged servers to make life easier for newcomers.  It's also been a few months since WoW's expansion so some of those folks will be getting bored.  And, as far as PvP MMOs, there isn't much competition out there for Mythic... yet anyways.

I'm gonna guess 350k.  I think Mythic continued to sink below their 300k mark but managed to turn things around a bit in the past couple months.  Wanna venture your guess?
6 Comments
5ab8fa4f2d6602c1d4bcfcaf7aede6c4
May 04, 2009
at 10:27pm
I really wonder if they'll count free trial accounts as "subscribers" tomorrow. To be honest? I'd say 275-300k. They have closed 40+ servers since the last call...
Fc1c46d1e9cf6adcfe1d954b6b0a98aa
May 04, 2009
at 11:26pm
I'd actually be surprised if they mention the subscriber levels at all. Though they are a public company, all they have to cop to is earnings, not subs. We'll see, I guess.
A2efddddd4a8ad7298d67aacb24ec5dd
Bladock
May 05, 2009
at 01:31am
250k. (Random guess.)
0e74bc09bab09a7c0b7394f78dd08533
Wichik
May 05, 2009
at 02:52am
Im not sure... Even though things feel great (at phoenix throne), cant really guess about the numbers. 250-350k... We've been having a lot of fun there, so long as we keep and improve on what we have we're fine.
44b86ef8d396dd196e5c06c4a8f938f8
May 05, 2009
at 04:54am
Imo the number of total subscribers went down..significantly below 300k.
5ab8fa4f2d6602c1d4bcfcaf7aede6c4
May 06, 2009
at 04:24pm
According to EA's investor call, WAR has over 300k subs. I assume this is less than 350k or 325k because they would have said we have over 350k or 325k.

Given that WAR launched in Russia while these numbers were calculated and had a viable Recruit-a-Friend and Free-Trial going on, it seems like these measures only kept them from going down in the hole even further.

I guess that's what happens when your endgame is plagued by horrid design and terrifying performance issues. Doh.
Leave a Comment
Name:
Email: (will not be published)
Website: (optional)
Spam Protection: (b1_ 23z _ 4_7 54_b 6)
Comment: