Warhammer Online still profitable, has "tens of thousands" trying it monthly

BioWare Mythic has said Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning remains profitable, and is not going the way of the Dodo anytime soon.

In September 2008, WAR had sold 1.2 million copies and had 800K registered users, which dropped to 750K a month later, and then to 300K the following month, a number which remained steady into May 2009. However, soon after, servers were reduced in order to consolidate the player population leading some to believe the MMO was having troubles.

According to BioWare Mythic, that's not the case, as "tens of thousands of players" join WAR each month thanks to its Endless Trial promotion allowing players to play for free.

"We're coming up to two years since the game was released," BioWare Mythic general manager Eugene Evans told Eurogamer. "We're still running it. The game is profitable. We have a team that's engaged in it. We're seeing a great response from the community as they rediscover the game.

"When we launched we were up against the biggest competitor in the business, and arguably one of the biggest franchises in our business, with World of Warcraft. That was a huge challenge.

"We're far from giving up on the game. Here we are two years later, and despite all the naysayers we continue to improve. These games are not defined by the product you have at launch. They're defined by what you do with the game and how you respond to the community.

"We were able to present a new trial experience that gave people the time to discover what was great about the game. They weren't worried about trying to discover that in 10 or 14 days. We're still getting tens of thousands of people a month coming through trying that experience."

Producer Carrie Gouskos has another theroy as to why player numbers dropped so dramatically: the the team tried to do too much at once.

"Maybe we attempted too much early on, making sure the player versus environment experience was as meaningful as the realm versus realm experience," she said.

"Right now, everything we're doing and where we're going and what the path of the game is, is focused on RVR. We know that's our strength. That's what our players who are playing right now want. And that's something we have a pretty good handle on.

"We know our strengths and we're playing up to those as best we can."

Mythic was folded into BioWare and renamed BioWare Mythic last month with BioWare games still remaining its own entity.

WAR's update 1.3.6 is expected soon and includes the return of its popular Wild Hunt Live Event.