World of Warcraft subscribers are leaving, Activision warns
Subscribers to the online adventure game World of Warcraft have dropped dramatically this year, publisher Activision Blizzard has said.
The company said 14% of users left the game between January and March - a fall of 1.3 million.
The majority of lost users were in the East, despite the company making efforts to appeal to those markets, with recent upgrades.
Activision told investors to expect subscriber figures to dip further.
Shares in the publisher fell by about 5% on Wednesday, following the news.
The California-based company blamed the rise of free-to-play games.
Uncertainty around new consoles due from Microsoft and Sony - and the "very slow start" of Nintendo's newest offering, the Wii U - had contributed to what will be a challenging 2013 for the company as a whole, chief executive Bobby Kotick said.
Martial arts pandas
He told investors on Wednesday: "It's important to note that the nature of online games has changed, and with the environment becoming far more competitive.
"To address this, we're working to release new content more frequently to keep our players engaged longer and make it easier for lapsed players to come back into the game."
"It is coming under pressure on several fronts - subscription-based online gaming is losing ground to micro-transactions and hybrid-monetisation models."
World of Warcraft's subscriber numbers were as high as 12 million in 2010.
In October 2012, 10 million gamers were signed up - a figure boosted by the release of Mists of Pandaria, an expansion pack that sold 2.7 million copies in its first week.
That title, which featured a new "continent" on the game inhabited by martial-arts-skilled pandas, was targeted at the Asian market.
The push reaped initial rewards - user numbers swelled to more than one million in China - but the figures made public on Wednesday suggested the spike was short-lived.
"This is no surprise," Mr Bailey added.
"China is a very advanced and fiercely competitive market for online gaming, that, as well as offering greater direct competition to World of Warcraft, is also experiencing its own shifts in terms of business models and devices."
