IRVINE, Calif. July 8 - While the rest of the MMO space has adopted the free-to-play model, Blizzard remained steadfast in its monthly subscription monetization method, but after 9 years of dominance, the critically acclaimed studio may be faltering in its convictions.
According to a forum post from community manager Zarhym, Blizzard is considering the adoption of implementing an in game store to its 2004 released World of Warcraft.
"We are currently exploring the possibility of adding a way for players in certain regions to make purchases directly within the game," Zarhym's post reads. "As part of this process, elements related to this will be appearing on the PTR. We’ll provide additional updates on our plans as development progresses."
The official admittance from Zarhym comes in response to discoveries made by patch 5.4 dataminers, one of which is the Enduring Elixir of Wisdom, a potion that comes from an "In Game Store" that grants the consumer a buff increasing the experience gained from killing monsters and completing quests by 100%.
Activision Blizzard announced that subscribership for World of Warcraft had fallen by 1.3m during the first three months of 2013 during its Q1 2013 earnings report. Although the MMO had, at the time of the report, over 8 million subscribers, the loss of 1.3m is still a worrisome figure for the aging cash cow. It should also be noted that the majority of the decline comes "mainly from the East", suggesting that the "certain regions" mentioned in Zarhym's post will be accommodating to those losses.
SOURCE: World of Warcraft forums
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