Monday during Activision Blizzard's first Quarter 2011 economic Results conference call, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime informed investors that the business is shooting to start the Diablo 3 Beta sometime in Q3 2011.

However the good news trailed a gloomier note that-- pursuing the release of Cataclysm-- subscriber levels of World of Warcraft have decreased faster than what was experienced with previous expansion releases. Does that imply PC gamers are finally getting bored with Blizzard's monster MMORPG? Not at all. In accordance with Morhaime, gamers have actually gotten better at consuming new content.

"As our gamers have turn out to be far more experienced playing World of Warcraft over many years, they have turn out to be much better and much faster at consuming content," he said. "And so I believe with Cataclysm they experienced been able to consume the content faster than with previous expansions, but that's why we're functioning on building far more content."

He admitted that the team required to be faster at delivering new content to players. "That's one of the reasons that we're seeking to decrease the quantity of time in-between expansions," he said, clarifying that the team was looking into ways of speeding up the improvement process after an individual asked once the decrease meant smaller expansions.

Buzz over the Cataclysm expansion propelled World of Warcraft subscriptions to an all-time high, exceeding twelve million as of October 2010. But now subscription numbers have dropped to the lowest it's been since December 2008, returning to "pre-Cataclysm levels from the West" (but far more like Lich King levels) with a mere 11.4 million subscribers. That's a loss of 600,000 subscribers at the least.

So especially where have all these gamers gone? Are they flocking to free-to-play MMORPGs that offer a comparable setting? Or have gamers reached a point especially where the only time they genuinely need to play is when a brand new expansion continues to be released? Is it time for Blizzard to open the doors to free-to-play gamers?

Right now Blizzard isn't ready to disclose any additional particulars about speeding up the improvement process, or what future expansions will contain. That said, we're betting a brand new expansion will be announced at Blizzcon 2011. Is this a good news for you? I hope so! Thank you!

source: www.wow-gold-team.com