Trion Worlds is betting the farm on a few MMOs like End of Nations and Defiance, but the first one to hit retail was Rift. Trion SVP of publishing David Reid revealed to Gamasutra that the game has sold-through 1 million units since its launch three months ago.
"We are on the verge of selling our 1 millionth unit of Rift," he said. "These [numbers represent] real people who have bought the client, installed it, paid for it and played the game.”
Reid even insinuated that Rift was responsible for the loss of subscriptions in Blizzard’s World of Warcraft recently.
"We're really pleased with what we're seeing. And beyond that, it was a pleasure to see that in the latest Activision Blizzard earnings call, they inquired about Rift when Blizzard announced that their subscriber numbers went from 12 million to 11.4 million. You can do some math... we know very well where those 600,000 people are," he quipped.
Retention has historically been a problem for MMOs, but Reid is confident that Rift can hold onto its users.
"I think that there is a pattern or history that you can see across other [MMOs]," said Reid. "...We have seen that when new games launch, people go and play them, then people go back to World of Warcraft. That has been historically true."
"I think it would be a mistake to look at past history as an indicator of future performance in this case. We know we have a very sticky game, we know we are getting a lot of success right now. ... If in fact the 600,000 players [Blizzard] lost came to Rift, I don't think they'll be getting those 600,000 people back as quick as they did from Aion, Conan, Warhammer and the like,” Reid challenged.
Those looking to try out the new title can look no further than the recently released free trial. (Disclaimer: I want my burning horse.)
