Analyst: World of Warcraft to Get 1M More Subscribers

Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian sees no end to the near-monopoly held by Blizzard's World of Warcraft (PC). Moreover, EA Mythic's Warhammer Online, while successful, won't have any measurable effect on the 800-pound-gorilla of MMOs.

"We expect a net addition of ~1 million new subscribers to World of Warcraft over the next 12 months, driven in part by the launch of the expansion pack, as well as by ongoing growth of the game in China," wrote Sebastian in an investors' note reproduced on Edge. The game currently boasts 10.9 million subscribers.

"We do not expect [Warhammer Online to have] a significant negative impact in the near-term on World of Warcraft," commented Sebasian, adding, "[we] note that preorders of the upcoming [World of Warcraft] expansion pack rank as one of the best selling games on Amazon.com and other retail websites."

Sebastian refers to Wrath of the Lich King, which launches on November 13. At the time of writing, the unreleased Wrath of the Lich King sits atop the Amazon.com sales rankings.

Sebastian, or one of his colleagues, also attended last weekend's BlizzCon 08 and unsurprisingly found more Blizzard faithful than WAR converts: "Our conversations at BlizzCon suggest limited interest in [Warhammer Online] among core WoW users."