Activision Blizzard's long-running cash cow World of Warcraft has been in a gradual decline for some time. But the loss of 1.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2013 may mark the beginning of the end for one of the industry's most popular and influential video game franchises.
The game publisher, which announced earningsWednesday, said WoW subscribers had dropped by 14 percent to 8.3 million in the first quarter. That's also down from an all-time high of 12 million active subscribers in 2010, PCGamer noted.
The massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) franchise, launched with the release of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans by Blizzard Entertainment in 1994, did receive a boost with the 2012 release of Mists of Pandaria, the gaming site noted. That title sold 2.7 million copies in its first week but otherwise "WoW has seen its numbers dwindle slowly but steadily" in recent years, PCGamer pointed out.
The bad news—the publisher expects the numbers to get even worse before they get better in the face of increased competition in the MMORPG space.
"Activision executives told analysts they expect Warcraft subscriber figures to dip further in coming months as the fantasy-action game continues to lose users to similar, free-to-play games,"Reuters reported.
CEO Bobby Kotick said in an interview that Activision plans to "invest significantly in the franchise and deliver new content to engage players," according to the news agency. Kotick also stressed that WoW is still by far "the No. 1 subscription-based MMORPG in the world,"Polygon noted.
"While we do believe further declines are likely, and we expect to have fewer subscribers a year than we do today, World of Warcraft remains one of the most successful franchises in the history of entertainment," Kotick was quoted as saying by the site.
Of course, WoW isn't Activision's only revenue-generator. Other franchises include the best-selling Call of Duty series and the game publisher reported "strong sales from Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm," PCGamer said.
Activision reported sales of $1.32 billion in its first quarter, up from $1.17 billion in the first quarter of 2012, and net income of $456 million, also an improvement on $384 million in the year-ago period.
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