Anyone have the launch numbers for WoW?

500-600k seems to be small for as high profile a game this is.

The system specs are kinda steep. I would be a confirmed CE pre-order if my current crappy laptop could play the game (its not even close). It cant and unless I get a miraculous cash injection over the next 2-3 months I wont be building a box that can play these types of games.

Another preorder question. If you preorder at a brick and mortar do you still get in 3 days early?

Not sure, but I think it was the word of mouth thing that quickly got it rolling and brought WoW crippling to it's knees. So If the word of mouth spreads on this at launch I would expect severe performance issues and long, long queues. Why only plan for 500-600k I wonder?

WoW for me was that free stress test they did about 2-3 weeks before release that was the clincher. It was long enough to give you a huge taste of the game and then they took it away from you 1-2 weeks leading into the release that you started getting itchy to play it. Pretty sure they sold out 1-2 weeks into the release because of the growing fever and it being right before Xmas.

edit:

Random numbers from google from a forum. So 500-600k sounds just about right. Remember though WoW had a very spread release between NA, Europe and the World.

I think everyone may be overestimating the potential popularity of this game.

Version 23.0 of the MMORPG subscription charts:

http://www.mmogchart.com/charts/

For mainstream western games, if you throw out WoW, the current subscription leader is Eve Online with almost 250,000 subs. City of Heroes peaked at 200,000 subs, SWG peaked at 300,000 subs, DAOC at 250,000, EQ2 at 325,000. These were all mega-titles with at least as much pomp and curcumstance as AoC. Heck, LOTRO with perhaps the biggest IP of all and reasonably good word of mouth, peaked at only 200,000 subs. To suggest that the game will hit the floor running with a half-million subs is probably unrealistic.

Blizzard has a big name and an even bigger IP with Warcraft. If word of mouth is great, I still wouldn't supspect that the number of subs will ramp up as quickly as WoW. The buzz for WoW was huge, with the NDA lifted a few months befor launch and countless gushing reviews flooding the internet. I still haven't seen a single hands-on review of this game and it just went gold.

My guess is 200,000 subs at launch.

It will be interesting to see how well AoC does do upon release and in the first six months or so. If for no other reason than to stimilate a fairly stagnant genre.

What Blizzard has done is nothing short of remarkable, really. They offer us a relatively simple game, a bit short on challenge but otherwise beautifully done, and we have given it exalted status. People would honestly rather run Karazhan for the 58th week in a row than try a new title. Reminds me of my grandfather who wanted to eat steak, canned corn, and mashed potatoes every single night. Granted, he made some good steaks, but what's wrong with a taste of pasta, seafood, or white meat every now and then? A lot of WoW players are like that. "Try something new?!?" They gasp. "Oh, you must mean waiting 7 months for the expansion pack. Don't scare me like that, man!"

I'd like to see some fresh thinking and new properties brought to MMORPGs. I hope AoC can do that for us. Even the die-hard WoW Player would benefit if someone else came along and took even a modest bite out of that pie. Blizzard could use some healthy competition to ensure that they don't become stagnant themselves.

Oh it has completely stagnated I agree.. and I still play 15 year old games because I think they are still fun.

Not only is it stagnant but they are concentrating on Arena PvP and raid content. This is tried and true method but not in the slightest earth shaking.

I have the following configuration - will I be able to play this or do I need to bump up my timeline on buying a new PC?

AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 2.4 GHz, 2 Megs of RAM and an ATI X1950 Pro

Thanks
Spy

Not to mention a double-post...

The wall of goodwill the pvp-beta built around me has rebuked your sarcastic assualt!

As far as I know the genre is one big rolling ball of beta through it's lifetime

The MSRP is 60
but they said in the release it will be less.

Where did you order from?

You should get an email with a link to create your account with funcom or log into your exsisting account.

that email will contain a code that you can validate your account for the 3 day early head start access.

on may 14th ? (i think) you can begin to download the client and then on may 17th roll out and log in.

If you bought brick and mortor i would talk to them and ask them how you are going to get in but it should be similar process.