Next time EA announces number of subs...

For all we know, a kayote could be a walrus.

Seriously though.

It's pretty reasonable to assume that ToR isn't making EA anywhere near the kind of money that WoW is making Actiblizz.

I don't think many people would try to argue that.

But that's my point (and "inexplicit" is exactly the right word, by the way). EA doesn't have to out right lie to get in trouble. All they need to do is stretch the truth just far enough, or even tell what someone feels is not even near half the truth. At that point, they run the risk of someone who is an investor getting on the phone to their lawyer. Would EA win? Probably. But they would be wasting money in doing so, when they wouldn't have to by doing something as simple as not reporting free trial or the free-to-play players as "active subscriptions."

what this guy said.

Of course the next report will show more subs.

Isn't it a cooncidence that the free trials are coming out soon? I can bet they'll be using those numbers in their report.

I didn't realize best buy sales tell you whether a game is good or not

LOL. EA has armies of attorneys. Probably a huge team of them responsible solely for twisting and spinning their reports and press releases in order to make things seem as rosy as possible. Things will be worded in such a way as to be able to include free trials in sub numbers without explicitly saying so in order to inflate those numbers and make their flagship MMO title appear to be doing better than it is.

The fact that you keep sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting that this won't happen suggest that you are either incredibly naive or you are a mindless Bioware/EA fanboy zealot. My money is on the latter.

Legally, in an investor meeting--

1. First EA needs to define who or what they include in their active sub number.
2. They need to report the correct number based on their definition.

NOTE: The definition in part one is company's own. I.E. EA and Blizzard may define "active sub" completely differently. It's entirely upto them.

But in either case, the reported number must match their own definition. They are legally bound not to twist the truth. (they can change the definition, but not falsify the numbers).

lol, I never said they did. Its a very safe bet thats not the case especially when you consider all other income WoW makes with through other venues but the point is ... we still dont know. And we definitely dont know if the difference is exactly proportional to the difference in subs. Ninja edit: For a game thats makes over 10 times the cash that all other MMO's makes they sure as hell dont pump out content much faster. Definitely not 10 times faster. So its also safe to assume most of that extra profit is going elsewhere rather then back in the game.

P.S. I am indeed a Walrus!

This is accurate, except that analysts on the call will immediately demand the actual number of paying subscribers, along with other hard numbers they'll want explained. They're very interested in EA's digital revenue since that's supposed to be a big growth-driver for the company.

And if management dodges the follow-up questions, well it won't go well for them. I'd be surprised if things were so bad that they tried to redefine what an active account was since the last time they reported on that in April.

Absolutely. And that's why EA investor report will be so interesting this time.