Blizzard giving away Diablo 3 for free to WoW subscribers for a 1 year commitment.

[Jadak]

15 dollars a month, for 12 months comes out to $180. If we assume Diablo 3 will be 60 bucks like most games are nowadays, you could buy 3 Diablo 3 games for that.

It's been a few years since I looked, so maybe it's been raised since, but last I saw the 6 month subscription worked out to about $13.00 a month, and if that price still holds up I'd imagine an annual pass will be similar or less, maybe closer to $150.

That aside, what's your point? Obviously it's not going to be cheaper than just buying Diablo 3, but if you're likely to play WoW at least semi-regularly for the next year anyways, it would be a pretty sweet deal.

 

[shrekfan246]

Informative Snip

Thank you for telling me this, I've had an active subscription for a little over four years now (helpful hint, you don't have to actually play every single day, even if it might sound like a waste of $15 a month if you don't) so another year isn't too much to ask in exchange for a free dungeon-crawler and in-game mount, plus beta access (which I rarely actually use) to the next expansion.

 

[galdon2004]

15 dollars a month, for 12 months comes out to $180. If we assume Diablo 3 will be 60 bucks like most games are nowadays, you could buy 3 Diablo 3 games for that.

It's been a few years since I looked, so maybe it's been raised since, but last I saw the 6 month subscription worked out to about $13.00 a month, and if that price still holds up I'd imagine an annual pass will be similar or less, maybe closer to $150.

That aside, what's your point? Obviously it's not going to be cheaper than just buying Diablo 3, but if you're likely to play WoW at least semi-regularly for the next year anyways, it would be a pretty sweet deal.

my point is, if you were going to be leaving the game, free Diablo 3 to stay isn't a bargain.

 

[dave1004]

I just can't play WoW. It's so mind-numbingly boring that it makes me want to cry. And b**ch please, don't give me none of that "Endgame" crap. Hell, Runescape is more fun than freakin' world of grind.

They should have made Warcraft 4 instead of this crappy MMO. Let it die, and let Guild Wars (Or whatever it's called) rise. I won't be playing that either, mind you...I tend not to like MMO's.

 

[Sean951]

I just can't play WoW. It's so mind-numbingly boring that it makes me want to cry. And b**ch please, don't give me none of that "Endgame" crap. Hell, Runescape is more fun than freakin' world of grind.

They should have made Warcraft 4 instead of this crappy MMO. Let it die, and let Guild Wars (Or whatever it's called) rise. I won't be playing that either, mind you...I tend not to like MMO's.

So crappy it's the best selling PC game of all time, lol.

 

[Xanthious]

15 dollars a month, for 12 months comes out to $180. If we assume Diablo 3 will be 60 bucks like most games are nowadays, you could buy 3 Diablo 3 games for that.

It's been a few years since I looked, so maybe it's been raised since, but last I saw the 6 month subscription worked out to about $13.00 a month, and if that price still holds up I'd imagine an annual pass will be similar or less, maybe closer to $150.

That aside, what's your point? Obviously it's not going to be cheaper than just buying Diablo 3, but if you're likely to play WoW at least semi-regularly for the next year anyways, it would be a pretty sweet deal.

my point is, if you were going to be leaving the game, free Diablo 3 to stay isn't a bargain.

I think the people this promotion will appeal most fall into two groups. The longterm WoW players that have been around forever and were going to be around for another year regardless. To those people this is Blizz giving them a free copy of Diablo 3, beta access, and an in game mount for absolutely nothing.

Then there is the group I personally fall in to. The group that is largely soured on Cataclysm and are on the fence about taking a break but really like what they see with the new expansion. To me personally the free copy of Diablo 3 and the the guaranteed beta access is the nudge that puts me over on the side of sticking around vs taking a break. I know in my guild alone there were quite a few people that had been debating whether to take a break or not but as of last night almost all of them decided to stick around for the free stuff.

 

[funksobeefy]

I would have jumped on this in a heart beat, but then they released the trailer for Mists of Pandoria and I decided to delete WoW of my computer entirely.

 

[Jadak]

snip

my point is, if you were going to be leaving the game, free Diablo 3 to stay isn't a bargain.

That's not a point, ff you were going to be leaving the game, why would you be considering this anyways? Paying even more to get something free along with something you don't want doesn't make any sense, regardless of the price .

 

[Sean951]

I just can't play WoW. It's so mind-numbingly boring that it makes me want to cry. And b**ch please, don't give me none of that "Endgame" crap. Hell, Runescape is more fun than freakin' world of grind.

They should have made Warcraft 4 instead of this crappy MMO. Let it die, and let Guild Wars (Or whatever it's called) rise. I won't be playing that either, mind you...I tend not to like MMO's.

So crappy it's the best selling PC game of all time, lol.

If popular equals good, that Avatar ould be the best movie of all time, and Harry Potter would be superiour to the books and novels of George Orwell and H. P. Lovecraft.

I would argue more, but the examples you gave are of books and a movie that will be remembered just as long as Orwell and Lovecraft. They may not be on the same level, but Harry Potter is definitely an easier read than Lovecraft and will be remembered for some time.

As much as I love the works of Lovecraft, I think he gets too much credit online. He's definitely in my top 10, but so are the Harry Potter books. They were some of the longest books I had read when they came out, and I've read them more than any other books except for those about Middle Earth.

 

[Sewer Rat]

What this says to me is that WoW is currently on life support. I'm not really involved with the goings on of WoW anymore, but from what I've heard the general concensus about Cat is that it dumbed down and really added nothing to the game. I was slightly tempted to go for this considering for a time I did enjoy WoW... But then I remembered my brief time back in Azeroth on the 7 day free promotion and the fact that I had lost interest after 3 months when I played it... SO frankly no blizzard, I shall not be adding to your attempts to keep your dying cash cow relevant.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

So crappy it's the best selling PC game of all time, lol.

I though that was The Sims?

Meh, anyhoo Blizzard are putting a lot of faith in that disgusting real money auction house it seems or Blizzard simply have no faith in Wow any more and are expecting a lot of people to quit before or during the next expansion.


Point is, Blizzard must really be shitting themselves about SWTOR.

 

[Amnestic]

The Annual Pass is basically telling you you can't cancel your subscription for a year. In return you get a 'free' Digital copy of Diablo 3, an armoured Pegasus Mount come patch 4.3 (Tyrael's Charger) and guaranteed beta access to Mists of Pandaria.

Genius plan by Blizzard really. Some might even call it diabolical.

I'm not interested since beta and mounts don't interest me and I plan to get the Diablo 3 collector's edition for an actual, physical copy. It's a good offer from Blizzard for current WoW players and may be enough to entice older players who were debating renewing into doing so.

Point is, Blizzard must really be shitting themselves about SWTOR.

Just like they were shitting themselves over WAR.

And LOTRO.

And DDO.

And...and...and...

I've heard it all before. WoW's subscriber base could halve itself and I'm pretty sure it'd still be the most popular subscription-based MMO on the market.

 

[hensethe1]

Yes, it must be the death of WoW. Not Blizzard guaranteeing themselves customers for a year or showing loyal customer how much they appreciate their long time loyalty, but just the death of WoW.

I also doubt they are expecting to make much money off the Diablo auction house. I think they only get $.05 per listing and 5% of the selling price?

But if there are millions of auctions each week(day?), it becomes quite a bit, don't it

 

[eventhorizon525]

Blizzard is still clearly worried about WoW. If they had confidence in WoW staying relevant for many players after D3 is out, they wouldn't have made this offer (assuming many players weren't on the verge of quitting or taking a hiatus for D3, they could have just kept D3 separate and get an extra $60 on top of the sub). However, they aren't doing this, and are throwing even more goodies in the "please keep paying" category. Economically it makes sense, if you take into account that Blizzard feels they need to (heavily) entice people to stick with their subscription.

Is WoW about to die? I doubt it will ever truly be dead until Blizzard pulls the plug on its servers. There are too many people very addicted to it after playing it for what, over 6-7 years? Its population will probably move off in sections to other MMOs, or in a larger quantity to Blizzard's next MMO (Project Titan or w/e it is currently being called in development, where no real details can be found within a mile).

 

[Sean951]

Yes, it must be the death of WoW. Not Blizzard guaranteeing themselves customers for a year or showing loyal customer how much they appreciate their long time loyalty, but just the death of WoW.

I also doubt they are expecting to make much money off the Diablo auction house. I think they only get $.05 per listing and 5% of the selling price?

But if there are millions of auctions each week(day?), it becomes quite a bit, don't it

Do you think more than a few hundred would be sold per week? I don't. I don't think you will ever have more than 1,000 auctions up at a time unless the game is far more popular than I think it will be.

I would argue more, but the examples you gave are of books and a movie that will be remembered just as long as Orwell and Lovecraft. They may not be on the same level, but Harry Potter is definitely an easier read than Lovecraft and will be remembered for some time.

As much as I love the works of Lovecraft, I think he gets too much credit online. He's definitely in my top 10, but so are the Harry Potter books. They were some of the longest books I had read when they came out, and I've read them more than any other books except for those about Middle Earth.

Avatar will certainly not be remembered for long, peopel have already stopepd talking too much about it. It was a bland forgettable movie that will only be known for something until some movie have better effects and/or make more money.

And Harry Potter are books for teenagers with massive plotholes, they're certainly not deep in any way. They aren't bad books, and are great as a first step to convince your child to read a rather long book, but on the level as Lovecraft? I think not.

Avatar wasn't a great movie, but it will be remembered for it's special effects, which were honestly the best I can remember seeing.

To be fair, I never said Rowling was on the level with Lovecraft, just that they were very big in the literary world and will be remembered as one of the best novel series aimed at teens. I'm fairly well read and have been for some time, but Lovecraft still isn't a walk in the park.

 

[galdon2004]

snip

my point is, if you were going to be leaving the game, free Diablo 3 to stay isn't a bargain.

That's not a point, ff you were going to be leaving the game, why would you be considering this anyways? Paying even more to get something free along with something you don't want doesn't make any sense, regardless of the price .

My post was replying though to the OP who was saying that this looked like an attempt to stop people from leaving the game.

 

[Wuvlycuddles]

Just like they were shitting themselves over WAR.

And LOTRO.

And DDO.

And...and...and...

I've heard it all before. WoW's subscriber base could halve itself and I'm pretty sure it'd still be the most popular subscription-based MMO on the market.

Yes, exactly. None of those games even came close to WoWs subscriber count, neither did Rift and neither will SWTOR, but it all adds up doesn't it?

Blizzard will lose some subbers to SWTOR, that much is an irrefutable fact. Can't say for sure just how many and it probably won't be anywhere near even half of what WoW has, but Blizzard are clearly attempting some damage control and that to me seems like an act of a company who feels threatened.

 

[Sean951]

Just like they were shitting themselves over WAR.

And LOTRO.

And DDO.

And...and...and...

I've heard it all before. WoW's subscriber base could halve itself and I'm pretty sure it'd still be the most popular subscription-based MMO on the market.

Yes, exactly. None of those games even came close to WoWs subscriber count, neither did Rift and neither will SWTOR, but it all adds up doesn't it?

Blizzard will lose some subbers to SWTOR, that much is an irrefutable fact. Can't say for sure just how many and it probably won't be anywhere near even half of what WoW has, but Blizzard are clearly attempting some damage control and that to me seems like an act of a company who feels threatened.

The subscriber count is still 11 million. Even if they lost 2 million to SWOTOR, which would be incredible, they still have at least 9 million subscribers.