Director of production John Hight told P2Pah at BlizzConline that the WoW Classic community WoW Classic is "as large" as the current WoW community, but John Hight declined to WoTLK Gold reveal any particulars about the numbers when pressed. But what is clear is WoW Classic will be a massive success, and it's changed how Blizzard as a studio thinks about it's ongoing expansion and maintenance.
World of Warcraft Classic: Burning Crusade Full Presentation
"It certainly was a surprise to us. When we released Classic we were not sure whether this would be a huge deal or not. We were thinking"Our fans' core are bound to be thrilled with this, so let's create this for them.' But then, it became a whole large group made up of WoW players. It was as large as our current WoW community. We were shocked," Hight said. "We realizing, 'Oh godsh we're supporting two communities. How can we achieve that?'"
"And so, I think part of that is adjusting to this ... We have a dedicated team for Classic however, the main World of Warcraft team is responsible for the support of Classic," he said. "It's entertaining in a sense since there are two sets of content are available in the world and keeps people entertained. I'm glad that it's part of you WoW subscription. We have members who are avid gamers and play every game."
When asked to clarify the "as large" phrase, Hight declined to give specific numbers, however Hight was confident that Blizzard stands out in the MMO community thanks to Classic.
"Suffice this to state that I'm pretty sure that we hold records for the two most popular MMOs on Earth. It's an impressive community. Much bigger than we thought that it would be," he said.
Hight acknowledged the existence of a variation in regions between the player base for WoW Classic along with modern WoW while pointing out the players' presence in China is significantly larger in comparison to what Blizzard believed. He also said that Blizzard believes WoW Classic will have similar numbers of players to modern WoW in China, but the game has succeeded in appealing to buy WoTLK Gold players there and also at attracting new players who've never played WoW and prefer to experience the Classic experience.