WoW loses 1.3 million players in 3 months

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All is not well in Azeroth.

Approximately 1.3 million subscribers have left World of Warcraft’s fantasy universe in the past three months, Activision-Blizzard reported in an earnings call Wednesday.

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And it’s not likely to get much better for the company. Kotick painted a pretty rough picture for the remainder of 2013.
"While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter," he told investors. "The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy."
Though he didn’t name names, it’s clear Kotick is concerned with EA’s Battlefield 4, expected to be one of the year’s biggest sellers and a direct competitor to Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts. The company's lucrative Skylanders franchise is also expecting a test later this year in the form of Disney Infinity, a toy/game hybrid based on Disney's myriad potent properties.

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