How many more months or years before WG pulls the plug?

[Aethervox]

Let's all have our guesses/prognistications. I would cynicize, it's months considering how WoT & WoWS have been bent, folded & mutilated from the original offering. My guess is, maybe, two more years, three tops from this winter of our discontent 2024. I'm barely playing anymore, myself, & enjoying the vacation from WoWS that are becoming more common. WoT - I haven't played that barf for, at least, three years. Two games that had such promise killed by squeezing the goose one too many times for a golden egg. I think Victor Kisilyi had a deprived childhood - that's always where it starts.

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

25 minutes ago, Aethervox said:

Let's all have our guesses/prognistications. I would cynicize, it's months considering how WoT & WoWS have been bent, folded & mutilated from the original offering. My guess is, maybe, two more years, three tops from this winter of our discontent 2024. I'm barely playing anymore, myself, & enjoying the vacation from WoWS that are becoming more common. WoT - I haven't played that barf for, at least, three years. Two games that had such promise killed by squeezing the goose one too many times for a golden egg. I think Victor Kisilyi had a deprived childhood - that's always where it starts.

The real question is...when will we, individually, move on.

[clammboy]

I don't think the game is going anywhere soon but I'm getting close to moving on just not having fun anymore. The last couple years the game has kind of changed a lot and I am having trouble adapting it's not fun anymore for me.

Something has thrown the whole game out of whack even when I win it's not really fun anymore. I could sit here and cry about this or that but it's not going to change anything. So I guess I will take a break because the game has become more aggravating then fun for me. Maybe the upcoming changes will help. In the meantime I will read some history books, hang around here and watch the Superbowl this Sunday even though I hate both teams lol.   

  

Edited February 7 by clammboy

[Yedwy]

2 hours ago, Aethervox said:

Let's all have our guesses/prognistications. I would cynicize, it's months considering how WoT & WoWS have been bent, folded & mutilated from the original offering. My guess is, maybe, two more years, three tops from this winter of our discontent 2024. I'm barely playing anymore, myself, & enjoying the vacation from WoWS that are becoming more common. WoT - I haven't played that barf for, at least, three years. Two games that had such promise killed by squeezing the goose one too many times for a golden egg. I think Victor Kisilyi had a deprived childhood - that's always where it starts.

Before I would have bet on wows going belly up within this year however I no longer think it will actually, as it all stands to me it seems far more likely wows becomes the “new wowp” or rather even worse then wowp, dead player wise and just lingering on the back of wot servers as long as it goes on…

Edited February 7 by Yedwy

[Arcus_Aesopi]

Well, to be fair, I think I saw the first topic like this several years ago.

It will be individual choices... question is how long new players backfill.

More interesting to me is the emergence of fake player green bots... they make the co-op more like asymmetric, which I like... the balance sucks right now both on composition and era mismatching, but it's possible that the mess might hit a "fun" spot for a while.  I'll keep lurking around and playing occasionally to see what happens...  Real close to the 500 boat fleet and then we'll see if there's anything I want to actually do with them.

I hope sanity prevails at WG and some of the many suggestions from over the years get implemented.

As far as longevity of the game... it'll go as long as it turns even the slightest profit.   Squeeeeeeeeze!

[Snargfargle]

"Game is dead/dying" is a recurring discussion theme for all online games. The old WOWS forums are defunct but some of the very first posts on them, way back even before the game was out of the Beta, were saying that it would likely be dead in a year.

How can you tell if a game is truly dying?

1. No more game patches or several months between patches.

2. No more game-related events.

3. Official forums shut down and are replaced by fansites.

4. No sign of people purchasing additional items relates to the game.

5. A better game that fills the same niche is dropped by a competitor.

6. A promised update or expansion never seems to materialize.

7. A sharp decline in online player numbers or software sales.

Of all these, the forums shutting down is the only one I can see and WG seems to think that Discord is a "better" more "modern" replacement. Player numbers have declined since nobody is "locked down" in their homes anymore (we never were in my state but I hear that some of you were) but have been relatively stable over the lifespan of the game and were decidedly inflated during the lockdowns. I still see people playing quite a few ships the day after they drop too, when the only way to get them is to pay real money for them. I'd say that this game has at least five more years.

Edited February 7 by Snargfargle

[AdmiralMcintosh]

Considering World of Planes is still alive with bare minimum players i think its safe to say at least another five years of World of Warships maybe longer, now if it's worth playing after then i don't know.

[torino2dc]

World of Tanks is still going strong despite folks calling it a dead game since 2012...

[Wulf_Ace]

Dont think it will, wows has some bare minimum of players who love the game despite what they do to the game.

also, I have a feeling a lot of players are older, not younger, younger players like to change game more often then older ones.

I dont think it will die, maybe it get less players and less interes from developers to keep it alive but they wont kill it, there is still money to be milked from it.

Also one option is to make a new game, like what they have done with Project CW. Maybe modern warships or something.

[Itwastuesday]

Whenever paying customers leave. Seeing how many early access ships always show up, I'd wager not anytime soon. 

[Admiral_Karasu]

The real threat is, I think, if WG finds a more lucrative way to use the concept, bigger profits with smaller overheads. They could then again bring up their excuse about 'aging server architecture' to shut down the game servers and move WoWS exclusively to a smartphone platform, the kind of excuses and a... 'Richard move' ( @Verblonde ) they pulled with the official World of Warships forums and Discord.

[Type_93]

8 hours ago, Aethervox said:

Let's all have our guesses/prognistications. I would cynicize, it's months considering how WoT & WoWS have been bent, folded & mutilated from the original offering. My guess is, maybe, two more years, three tops from this winter of our discontent 2024. I'm barely playing anymore, myself, & enjoying the vacation from WoWS that are becoming more common. WoT - I haven't played that barf for, at least, three years. Two games that had such promise killed by squeezing the goose one too many times for a golden egg. I think Victor Kisilyi had a deprived childhood - that's always where it starts.

Player gets mad at the game not catering to their specific wants, claims game is crap and will die. 

[Snargfargle]

PC sales themselves have declined over the past 15 years as mobile devices have taken over the market. However, for the ultimate gaming experience, powerful gaming PCs still are where it's at. While WOWS can be run on a potato, at least on lower graphics setting, the COVID spike in PC sales was likely the result of cooped-up children wanting to play the latest games and parents buying them new PCs upon which to do so. Of course since the average gamer is something like 31 years old, it was likely that "for the kids" was simply a good excuse for parents to get themselves their own gaming PC.

Image source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263393/global-pc-shipments-since-1st-quarter-2009-by-vendor/

Edited February 7 by Snargfargle

[Ensign Cthulhu]

9 hours ago, Aethervox said:

I think Victor Kisilyi had a deprived childhood

Considering where he lives, it's quite possible that he did. Think about why.

[desmo_2]

9 hours ago, Aethervox said:

Let's all have our guesses/prognistications. I would cynicize, it's months considering how WoT & WoWS have been bent, folded & mutilated from the original offering. My guess is, maybe, two more years, three tops from this winter of our discontent 2024. I'm barely playing anymore, myself, & enjoying the vacation from WoWS that are becoming more common. WoT - I haven't played that barf for, at least, three years. Two games that had such promise killed by squeezing the goose one too many times for a golden egg. I think Victor Kisilyi had a deprived childhood - that's always where it starts.

I started playing in Open Beta in 2015.

In 2016 players began the "game is dying" rant.  Each new change brought new cries of doom.

As a veteran player, you may well be growing weary of this game.  All games lose their luster if you play them long enough.  That doesn't mean the game itself is dying...it just means it may have to continue on without you (or me).

Which it will.

[Admiral_Karasu]

As long as we keep these guys happy, there's less to worry about. Everybody go check out the fantastic offerings in the Premium shop. Chop chop.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

1 hour ago, desmo_2 said:

I started playing in Open Beta in 2015.

In 2016 players began the "game is dying" rant.  Each new change brought new cries of doom.

I still remember a post on the old forums which went something like "WOWS has just seen its third anniversary, but if it doesn't change its ways I doubt it'll see a fourth."

I'm a member of a brand-specific camera forum which has had doomsayers crying about "the death of Pentax" for about twelve years now. Well, it turns out that Pentax is the last man standing in the field of single-lens reflex cameras and is on the verge of reintroducing film camera production, beginning with a new-design instant on which to re-cut its teeth before considering a new film SLR. I'm used to hearing "it's dying" and I'm used to the doomsayers being wrong.

And if they're right? Well, I know right away which game I'll be streaming from then on, so I'm covered. 

[Verblonde]

11 hours ago, Aethervox said:

guesses/prognistications

As others have mentioned, we've had 'the end is nigh' threads on fora for both WOWS and WOT for as long as I've been paying attention to said fora. I think both games are a viable commercial proposition for several more years at least, even if the player numbers drop off. I don't think it's an accident that a bit more attention has been paid recently to PvE modes, and the bots' control systems.

For me, the core mode of the game (Randoms) became non-viable with the advent of submarines; however, I'm still here (and buying stuff, ludicrously), as the 'other' modes provide me with plenty of worthwhile enjoyment. A few years ago, I probably couldn't have imagined not playing Randoms, but things change, and here we are. The question is, I suspect, as the game changes, do you bail entirely, or find a new way to enjoy it?

As long as reasonable volumes of customers tend towards the latter, I think it likely the game will stick around.

I might be more worried about WOT than WOWS: besides there being a new 'moderns' game in development, WOT doesn't have the well-developed PvE modes that WOWS does, perhaps making it more vulnerable to any significant drops in player numbers over time?

[Taylor3006]

1 hour ago, desmo_2 said:

I started playing in Open Beta in 2015.

In 2016 players began the "game is dying" rant.  Each new change brought new cries of doom.

As a veteran player, you may well be growing weary of this game.  All games lose their luster if you play them long enough.  That doesn't mean the game itself is dying...it just means it may have to continue on without you (or me).

Which it will.

Well a couple of those rants were not far off the mark. We lost large swaths of our player base with the CV rework, the CC rework, and to a lesser extent, the addition of subs. I honestly quit paying attention to numbers around the time they were introduced. Not sure what happened to the numbers when the forums closed but I expect there was probably a good number who left then. 

Playing for me now is more a habit than anything else. I prefer to play other games, spending my free time and money with other titles. I had to laugh at myself because a year or so ago, if I got free premium time, I would make good use of it and play quite a bit. Now I am thrilled to get it because instead of playing 3 or 4 co-op matches to get a crate, I only have to play one before I can go do something I enjoy doing. 

I do agree the game will go on without many of us. We only have to look at Planes to see how long Wargaming will keep a product going long after most of their players have left. 

[Admiral_Karasu]

WG hasn't lost me either, though I can't blame them for trying bloody hard to do it. However, I'm playing significantly less, and especially dramatically fewer random battles than what was the case for, well... seven or eight years or so. I began to play noticeably less after they butchered the captain skills, and with the introduction of the shoddily implemented subs in the game (yes, you knew to wait for me to say that!), there was that single biggest drop in my player activity in all these years.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

5 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

the 'other' modes provide me with plenty of worthwhile enjoyment.

This is the key. I got burned out of regular randoms in 2018, after less than 12 months of playing, but then directives came along and offered co-op players an "in" to the major events, and I've been a co-op main with occasional bursts of Randoms enthusiasm/occasional necessity-driven play ever since. Without that, I would have gone permanently down to low tiers and would probably have two million XP on the Ishizuchi by now. 

8 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

as the game changes, do you bail entirely, or find a new way to enjoy it?

See above. I'm still enjoying it. There are games I've been playing for longer, but this is the one I've enjoyed the most. 

Productive as it was for me, 2023 burned me out a bit (that's on me as there was quite a lot of commander promotion involved) but I've crunched the numbers on the lines I want to have finished before Anniversary this year and found that I can do it all with a quite minimal level of play. If I get a second wind, well... it'll get done quicker, won't it? 😈

[desmo_2]

There are plenty of morons in Random and those who blame others for their mistakes are common.  However, Random still provides me with the unknown outcome that I can't get in Co-op or Operations.  I might suck one game, and I might shine in another.  Carrying a reluctant team to a win is very satisfying.  Since I don't fret about the inevitable losses, those don't ruin my enjoyment. 

Random is still where I enjoy this game the most.

Edited February 7 by desmo_2

[HogHammer]

8 hours ago, AdmiralMcintosh said:

Considering World of Planes is still alive with bare minimum players i think its safe to say at least another five years of World of Warships maybe longer, now if it's worth playing after then i don't know.

 

5 hours ago, torino2dc said:

World of Tanks is still going strong despite folks calling it a dead game since 2012...

^^^THIS^^^

This game is far from heading to the digital trash bin.

(1)  You don't invest developer time in a dying game.  This year, we are about to see, beginning with this update, many changes to game mechanics.  It's long overdue, yes, but it is happening and will continue throughout 2024.  So buckle up!

(2)  This is a niche game that caters to a certain segment of the gamer population.  In other words, you will always have players.  Heck, Steel Ocean kept their servers running with perhaps a dozen players online.  We have a very, very long way to reach those numbers. This game may outlive many of us here playing today.

(3)  Additional development by WG with a current project (CW).  I would assume, like most companies, WG would be looking to expand not only their presence in tank battle gameplay (bringing in new players) but also the intention of players migrating to a newer game over time.  Perhaps, when that is done, a focus is placed on WoWs 2.0 (post-WW2), which makes sense from a normal evolution of the game.  The WW2 era's transition to a more Cold War-type gameplay would bring in a whole different generation of game players.  This actually makes a lot of sense for WG.

So, I don't look at it as doom and gloom.  I don't know of anyone here in all these discussions as totally "WG can do no wrong camp."  Some may perceive that, but I know factually, they do have issues, perhaps just not as many or as broad-based or vocal as some.   The player base still supports the game regardless of money spent, time they play, or complaints they may have.  Some drop out, while others begin to play for the first time.

The game is not dying.  

[ArIskandir]

Considering WoT replacement is in the works, I don't think unrealistic to say WoT has its days numbered... I think unlikely WG would keep both products. 

And that new evolution of WoT showcase the current design shift happening on WoWS... The "thinking man's action game" is progressively moving to being a more shallow arcade shooter with the typical tropes of modern F2P games. The target audience is aiming some 20 years lower.  

WoWS will likely linger as long as it turns some profit and its own Gen Z replacement is released.

[Taylor3006]

1 minute ago, ArIskandir said:

WoWS will likely linger as long as it turns some profit and its own Gen Z replacement is released.

Wargaming's upcoming "player rework"?