The SF-MMO WildStar appears in the quarterly report from NCSoft. This allows conclusions to be drawn about the sales figures. Between 400,000 and 600,000 units are estimated to have been sold.
The quarterly report from NCSoft has been intriguing for the MMO sector for a long time, as they have an important western title in their portfolio with Guild Wars 2 and lead one of the dominant MMO titles in the east with Blade & Soul. This April/May/June quarter was even more exciting, as a triple-A MMO was released in the west with WildStar. And WildStar players, former players, and interested observers naturally want to know how the game is performing.
The answer: Not that great, but not terrible either. The budget figures do not allow for a precise number to be calculated because the game was sold at various prices; it was more expensive in the Steel Edition and significantly cheaper during discount promotions than the standard price. WildStar is estimated to have sold between 400,000 and 600,000 units – a figure just under 500,000 is the most commonly heard number in the calculations.
How this figure should be interpreted and how it affects the future of WildStar surely depends largely on how many of the buyers also subscribed and how many players Carbine had counted on in their plans.
With sales of 400,000 to 600,000 units, the game is certainly not a flop, but the feedback from fans on social media and forums is sobering. One wonders what Carbine could have done differently. Whether it’s the marketing that prevented the title from selling better, the season, or the lack of a ‘big name’ behind the product. With a Meta-Critic score of 82%, the game stands well, but it was already noticeable that fewer critics discussed the game compared to the previously released competitor The Elder Scrolls Online.
Looking towards the release date of “Warlords of Draenor,” the World of Warcraft expansion, whose announcement is scheduled for later Thursday evening, some are looking anxiously to the future. Since WildStar was targeting former World of Warcraft players, it was already assumed that the start of Warlords of Draenor would leave Nexus even emptier.
