The number of players of the mmog World of Warcraft shows a slight decrease. Blizzard hopes to turn the tide with a Portuguese edition. The developer hopes primarily to take advantage of the economic growth in Brazil, lwa.
“The Brazilian economy during the recession, performed well in comparison with the rest of the world,” said Blizzard director Michael Morhaime against investors in Activision Blizzard. “We already have some Brazilian players that the English version of World of Warcraft, but we think that the market with a Portuguese version is much larger.” The director did not when that version should appear.
Morhaime had to their investors admit that the number of players in the last quarter fell to 11.1 million. It is the second quarter in a row that the membership decreases: three months ago, it appeared that the membership of 12 million to 11.4 million was dropped. The director said that he was not surprised at the decline. Cataclysm, the latest expansion of the game, is already half a year in the shop: “Now the release of Cataclysm a little further behind us, it is normal to have a slight relapse.” Morhaime believes the current players satisfied, however, to be able to keep up with new content for the game: there would be ‘major new raids and dungeons’ to arrive. Morhaime thinks that the membership in China can still grow.
The director further said to be very satisfied about the Starter Edition of World of Warcraft, an extended version of the demo that no time limit is unknown. The release of the free Starter Edition, a month ago, for a strong increase in the number of new members of the mmog provided. It is according to Morhaime, however, still too early to say how many of these members will migrate to a paid account.