When it comes to MMOs, World of Warcraft has been the big name in the market for the best part of two decades. But before it became the gaming juggernaut it is today, expectations for the game were, in relative terms, pretty modest to say the least.
In an interview in Retro Gamer issue 266, former Blizzard and WoW developer Bo Bell spoke about the expectations for the game, with some fairly low numbers on the table before the game's later explosion in popularity. "At the time EverQuest was pulling in something like $500,000 per month," Bo begins. "We said things like we could see WoW easily hitting that, maybe even $800k. Or how about $1,000,000? We had a good laugh about that one, but we all kind of thought maybe it could do that for real."
In today's terms, an MMO making $1m per month is, of course, nothing particularly impressive, but in the wider gaming landscape that WoW launched into, it was certainly nothing to be sniffed at. In that context, it makes WoW's record-smashing rise to the top all the more impressive, with the game's 1 million plus subscribers turning over $15m per month for Blizzard at the start of 2005—mere months after the game launched in November 2004.
Since those early days, WoW has cemented itself as the undisputed king of the MMO market and is now celebrating its 20th anniversary. And while many fans are somewhat negative about the current state of the game, the game continues to have an estimated 7 million plus subscribers. Not too shabby for a game that initially didn't dare to dream beyond a few tens of thousands.
