WOW has been around for years. People are naturally going to stick with what they know, ESPECIALLY when the economy goes bad. WAR is a totally new title, and for people to drop their money in an economic crisis on a totally new game is very hard.

Oh, and there are other games besides WOW, pal. Just because they're numbers have not been drastically affected doesn't mean the rest of the industry isn't hurting. EA and Mythic did have to lay off a ton of people because the corporation needed downsizing after all the banks closed.

Stop viewing this through the prism of what things were last year, or even 6 months ago. For a new title like WAR to still have 300K people playing, in this economy, and post-Liche King is quite good. Lots of people canceled subscriptions to games because they lost their jobs and needed to tighten their belts, and if they kept one subscription around, it was likely WOW.

Why? Because it has been around for years, and has over 10 years of hardcore game fanatics to pool from. Titles like WAR don't have that.

"Why is the economy singling out WAR?"

Devil's Advocate: because WAR is, at it's heart, a game with some nice ideas, but poorly implemented. It's the sort of game that people might play as a second-choice MMO when they're a bit bored of their first choice, but it's simply not good enough to ever appeal to the mass market as a first-choice MMO.

And when times are tough, it's the second account that goes. The first-choice MMO is still unbelievable value for money and the cheapest fun you can have during a recession.