When Blizzard announced that it would reveal its next expansion for World of Warcraft at Gamescom only nine months after the release of Warlords of Draenor many could tell that something just wasn't right. This is a game that has always had expansion reveals at BlizzCon in November, allowing each chapter of the game to live out a reasonable amount of time before sharing what's next. Not this time.
If theres any company that could handle the financial hit of switching its MMO from a subscription model to a B2P model, its Blizzard. World of Warcraft is far from the companys only source of income (and likely isnt even its most profitable anymore), and the good faith that Blizzard garnered from nixing the subscription cost would go a long way towards sustaining World of Warcrafts continued survivability.
World of Warcraft's rough year is getting even worse. Activision Blizzard revealed during their earnings call today that they lost 1.5 million subscribers in the past quarter.
