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Activision Blizzard’s MMORPG giant continues decline, loses another 600,000 in last quarter.

The World of Warcraft is continuing its contraction. In announcing the plan to buy its independence back from Vivendi in the form of $5.83 billion worth of shares, Activision Blizzard also revealed that as of the end of its second quarter (three months ended June 30), World of Warcraft was down to roughly 7.7 million subscribers.

That total is still enough to make the game easily the biggest subscription-based MMORPG in the world, but it represents a loss of 600,000 players over the quarter. After the launch of World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria last September provided a short-lived boost to the user base, Blizzard has seen the game lose more than 2.3 million subscribers. When it peaked in 2010, World of Warcraft commanded a subscriber base of more than 12 million players.

As World of Warcraft numbers ebb, the need for Activision Blizzard to produce a successor to its 2004 MMORPG megahit becomes more pressing. In May, reports emerged that the intended follow-up, code-named Titan, had hit development difficulties. As a result, Blizzard was hitting the reset button on the game’s development, pushing a launch out to 2016 at the earliest. The company confirmed it had reallocated resources away from Titan, but noted that it had never announced any sort of release window for the game.

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zombi-u-box

ZombiU is a first person shooter game for the Nintendo Wii U console. The game takes place in London in 2012, where humanity has been hit by a virus that turns people into zombies. ZombiU is based on the survival horror gameplay mechanics, where the player is tasked with missions fighting through hordes of zombies. Players will control a series of “survivors” in ZombiU, where they can switch from one to another as they are killed by zombies, where the objective is to survive as long as possible to clear the level. The game will include a series of different levels, ranging from tight indoor areas, to large open spaces in demolished cities and towns.

ZombiU features

ZombiU will make use of the new Wii U GamePad controller, and will use the tablet screen as the survival kit, where players stash their weapons, med packs, items, and more. The game will also features a unique death mechanic that puts the survivor into the body of a different survivor each time, and lets them recover equipment and weapons. ZombiU will also be fully playable using the Wii U pro controller, which doesn’t feature a tablet screen and is suited for old fashioned first person shooter gameplay.