Seán Bulger
Warhammer Online will be closing 63 servers in the near future after witnessing their population drop from 750,000 subscribers at launch to 300,000 subscribers currently. 43 of the servers will be North American/Oceanic servers, while the remaining 20 will be European servers.
While this may seem like bleak news, and given that I’ve heard EA considers Warhammer Online a failure, a drop in population after an MMO launch is far from unheard of – in fact, unless you are WoW or the oddity that is EVE Online, it is expected. Compared to Age of Conan, which held similarly high numbers, but dropped to under 100,000 subscribers, Warhammer is actually doing rather well, and is one of the most popular Western MMOs out there. Yet, while WAR has no reason to close down shop entirely, merging servers together is sensible on a community standpoint.
In the end, though, I am also not surprised at the large drop in subscribers, beyond the norm of it always happening. While Warhammer has plenty going for it, even with the focus on PvP, it still only feels so different from every other mainstream MMO. There was only so much innovation in the game, and suffice to say, that isn’t what MMOs need to do to get high numbers and retain them.
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