Blizzard, creator of the very popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) World of Warcraft, is looking to speed up the development of future expansions. This is due to an increase in what they call a subscriber churn, which is basically the loss of subscribers between each expansion. The loss of subscribers is due to experienced players beating expansions very quickly. “As our players have become more experienced playing World of Warcraft over many years, they have become much better and much faster at consuming content,” commented Blizzard president Michael Morhaime.
The only thing that worries gamers when they hear this news is whether or not this will mean a decrease in content for the expansions. If expansions are released quicker but with less content, the effect on subscribers might very well be the same as it is now. Blizzard has declined to answer this concern for now, only saying “we are looking at ways to speed up the development process.” The one thing they do see, though, is players coming back and playing again after each expansion and they have no reason to believe this will not continue.
[Source: GamaSutra]
[Images courtesy of: Blizzard]
