Activision Blizzard downgrades stock due to Old Republic concerns

by Jeff Mattas, Nov 22, 2011 4:30pm PST

World of WarCraft has been perched high atop the massively-multiplayer throne for seven years now, but is about to get its first serious dose of competition when the Electronic Arts-published Star Wars: The Old Republic launches. While it's not really a shock to learn that some folks have already indicated that they'll be leaving Azeroth for a galaxy far, far away, a new survey indicates that World of WarCraft could shed anywhere between 900,000 and 1.6M players when the lightsabers start swinging.

According to Develop, a survey of nearly 400 online World of WarCraft customers indicated about 50% of them planned to purchase The Old Republic. In light of those results, Lazard Capital Markets downgraded Activision Blizzard's stock from 'buy' to 'neutral.'

However, it's worth noting that the very same survey indicated that 33% of WoW players said they'd re-subscribe to the game upon the release of the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. People love pandas.

The stock rating downgrade also follows the news that World of WarCraft's subscriber base is down about 800,000 users in recent months, as well as news that majority shareholder Vivendi "shed thirty million of its shares in Activision Blizzard, reducing its stake to 60 per cent," last week.

All this aside, World of WarCraft still has more than 10 million current subscribers.

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Jeff Mattas posted a new article, Activision Blizzard downgrades stock due to Old Republic concerns.

Activision Blizzard has downgraded its stock rating due to indications that many World of WarCraft subscribers

Nov 22, 2011 4:30pm PST

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Jeff Mattas posted a new article, Activision Blizzard downgrades stock due to Old Republic concerns.

Activision Blizzard has downgraded its stock rating due to indications that many World of WarCraft subscribers : Shacknews
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- Hah, bioware much be feeling good about this... : GoldfishInAJarOfPickles
- this is written like Activision downgraded themselves which makes no sense. : multisync
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  More like "Activision Blizzard downgrades stock due to Mists of Pandaria goofiness" amirite? : Dechter
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    yeah, people are running from a universe with anthropomorphic pandas to one with jar jar binks : kiddygrinder
    - lol!! : .ka`boom.zZz.
    - Well, unfortunately WoW did "jump the shark" when those Pandas came out, IMO. We have to wait and see ab... : oneandone11
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  Misleading title. : The Grolar Bear
  - Incorrect title. : excite_mike
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  200 players indicating they are purchasing TOR is enough to downgrade the stock? Wild. : slax0r
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    It is crazy because tons of people will buy SWTOR play for a month and return to WoW (and probably not ha... : TreMetal
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      Few years ago I would say the same. I would not be so sure now. I think people might stick to SWTOR fo... : Kamakiri
      
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      Shit, Skyrim is what has pulled me away from WoW. : Vincent Grayson
      
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      same but ive gone back already : bolneze
      
      sad story : spammehardo
      
      I haven't played even a minute of WoW since Skyrim came out, but I'll probably go back once 4.3 hits to s... : Vincent Grayson
      
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      Weren't people saying the same thing about Conan? And then Warhammer? : hoov1185
      
      SWTOR is better than either of those games. : rodneystubbs
      
      The difference? The genre actually brings players to the table. Well, that, and professional development.... : twhiting9275
  - Try 865,000 (as of Nov 12th): http://www.vgchartz.com/preorders.php : twhiting9275
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  meh... Wouldn't be the first time leagues of people left WoW (or at least said they would) for the 'shiny... : darthfusion
  - you all are a bunch of tro : erunn123
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  This news story is very : pigvomit
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    I totally agree, there is something about it that was very : .ka`boom.zZz.
    - you guys are just a bunch of : yoonix
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      I like the way that they : Agrona
      
      you are all a bunch of tro : erunn123
      
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      Seriously, they love the : Wolfanoz
      
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      I can't believe that they forgot that : shirif
      
      Don't worry, they'll make sure to : Ride-My-Rocket
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    i completely : bolneze
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      This is what happens when Shackers : c0ucheh
      
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      Guys, come : FlatlineDixay
      
      Done. : TheNiXXeD
  - Progress all over the site, some stuff you cant even : EricZBA
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    OK this subthread is getting really : dpgagnon
    - no kidding. wt : beastrabban
  - what is going : wurt
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  Geez, these analysts would jump on anything. A survey of 400 out of 10 million is cause to downgrade? Ar... : zeorhymer
  - It's not just because of the survey. : mobab
- Meh, gimme guild wars 2. : furiouschuck
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  lol they aren't going to lose much. the beta is atrocious : JohnnyRey
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    "atrocious"? really? c'mon. i'm glad i didn't let you people get to me before i got to try it. : waxthirteen
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      Have you played it? It's laughable : JohnnyRey
      
      yes i have >:( : waxthirteen
      
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      What's laughable about it? It's pretty much WoW with voices, and if you're expecting some great revolutio... : skinlab133
      
      I thought it was awesome. It takes alot of the best elements of WoW and Bioware games. While WAR and A... : silverback1138
      
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      Uhh... No, it's not. It's just like WoW with better storytelling. I wasn't hugely and overly impressed, b... : ramshot
      
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      Ok but you have to take into account that people have been burning out on WoW for quite a while. Saying i... : TheNiXXeD
      
      I've been burned out on WoW for years. Quit playing regularly about 2 years ago, picked up an expansion o... : twhiting9275
      
      I haven't seriously played an MMO since EQ, yet TOR grabbed me right away. At least in my case, that's fa... : ColoradoCNC
      
      people I've talked to say it's convinced them to purchase on day 1 : randomnull
      
      Yup MassEffect mixed with KOTOR and WoW is a terrible game. Let me guess GW2 is going to stomp it? You ... : HL3dsx
  - Riiiight You go ahead and stick with your kiddy-pandas then : twhiting9275
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  I think there's something to this. It's unlikely that Blizzard will get MoP out before 9-12 months from n... : jwnin
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    Blizzard isn't so foolish to let Dragon Soul be out for 9+ months. They'll at least drop a single boss ra... : the_burd
    - I agree with you ,but I don't think that did much for the end of Cataclysm. : jwnin
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      from what i hear they're trying to speed up content, i can't see them managing it tho, blizz is not good ... : kiddygrinder
      
      True - the only reason to go to Ruby Sanctum was because everything else was freeloot by the time this ra... : Lukiopimp
- It's not going to be that good, you tools. It's just gonna be WoW with star wars skins. Everything that... : Rape.Farm
- I can't see leaving one MMO just to play another. The stranglehold WoW has had on my evenings for the pas... : the_burd
- i think their overreacting, how many "wow killers" have there been before? : bolneze
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  Blizzard wants them to succeed, to bring more people into the MMO market, so when Titan gets released, th... : sreyes22
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    stela? : sneakyalmond
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      y'all gonna git adrienne'd : synapse19
      
      Hide yo' kisd, hide yo' wvies : Dong Patrol
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    wow opened up the mmo market, this new mmo wont do shit. i predict the same cycle. they launch, a bunch o... : theWhite
  - That isn't going to happen the way Blizzard sees it. They're already shedding their WoW player base so th... : Bensam123
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  While OR looks good, it's definitely not a game changer in terms of bringing new and refreshing ideas to ... : Bensam123
  - HOnestly, while GW2 looks sweet, I don't think that's going to do anything. Personally, I see TOR giving... : silverback1138
  - I'm worried about GW2, theres so much PvP focus that the PvE crowd is going to get screwed. Historically... : HL3dsx
- Who cares? ATVI has been static for almost three years now. There are much better stocks out there to put... : athmpsn
- ToR doesn't have Chuck Norris on their side. They loose. : Lukiopimp
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  Shouldn't this story headline be worded, "Activision Blizzard stock downgraded"? It wasn't Activision Bl... : the archvile
  - Yeah... kinda hard wording : Shyssiryxius
  - doh, didn't see your post : fishbone
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    Nor was the analyst's primary concern TOR. : givemesnacks
    - Very true The analyst pointed out that they've been steadily losing clients for years, good point. : twhiting9275
- payback for what they did to SWG. : beastrabban
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  Blizzard should make a MMO in space because then every expansion they can just add a planet, aka a whole ... : action figure
  - I think if they could get away with that they would - but spacefaring doesn't exactly mesh with the WoW u : beastrabban
  - But they can (didn't they?!) do the same thing using portals to "new" worlds. sorry, I haven't played : dedgecko
- World of Diablo! : burningpantsman
- Er, shouldn't that read "Activision Blizzard stock downgraded due to Old Republic concerns" ? : fishbone

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