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Warcraft subs drop, but sales up for Blizzard

WoW Starter Edition has significantly increased account creations, says Morhaime

World of Warcraft maker Blizzard has seen another drop in subscriptions for the second quarter, but year-on-year sales in the first half of 2011 have increased.

According to CEO Mike Morhaime, Warcraft had 11.1 million subscribers during the period, although since then the company has launched expansion pack Cataclysm in China.

"In terms of subscriber growth around the world, what I would say is what we have seen is that subscribership tends to be seasonal and driven by content updates, and so as we're heading further away from an expansions launch, it's normal to see some declines, where the team is currently working on our largest content update since Cataclysm and that will hit later this year," offered Morhaime in a call to investors.

As well as a Portuguese version of the game for Brazil, Blizzard has also announced the Starter Edition of Warcraft, which allows users to play up to level 20 for free, with Morhaime stating that "we've seen a significant increase in new account creations."

Speaking on Diablo III, Morhaime said that the beta is still due to go live in the third quarter, but he would not be drawn on a release date for the game, although he's hopeful of a release this year.

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Matt Martin

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Matt Martin joined GamesIndustry in 2006 and was made editor of the site in 2008. With over ten years experience in journalism, he has written for multiple trade, consumer, contract and business-to-business publications in the games, retail and technology sectors.

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