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WoW Kills Another WoW Killer
By Mike

It seems that the walls of World of Warcraft are impenetrable as yet another hyped MMO is broken against them, I'm of course speaking of Age of Conan. Age of Conan was probably the most hyped MMO in the last few years and while the hype helped AoC to break sales records, it didn't last long. Age of Conan became the fasted selling MMO of all time, shipping 1 million units by June and Funcom stated it had 700,000 accounts by June 30th.

While off to a good start in terms of sales, the game itself did not start off so well. Across any MMO gaming site you'll read about player complaints and gamers leaving AoC due to the many issues. While Funcom has not released any figures since June 30th, it is rumored that about 1/2 of the player base has left the game. Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime also recently mentioned that "40% of the World of Warcraft subscribers that left for Age of Conan have since returned".

Although the walls of WOW still stand strong, like all great world powers they must eventually fall. In an article at GamePlayer.com.au, they write about the recent "Recruit-a-Friend" campaign as a sign that subscription numbers are falling and Blizzard is looking for ways to bolster them until the release of Wrath of the Lich King. I myself made a prediction back in May stating that WoW would reach its peak this summer and then start to decline.

It seems that with every new big MMO, WoW is slowly starting to feel the pinch. With Warhammer Online on the horizon and a few other MMOs (Huxley, The Chronicles of Spellborn) before the years end, can WoW continue it's growth? I'm sticking with my earlier statment and say no, it can't.

Also, this article is not to say that AoC is a failure, I'm merely stating that AoC did not live up to the hype and is little to no threat to the WoW empire.  

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