"[World of] Warcraft has peaked," said Jack Sorenson, head of development at THQ. THQ, the gaming studio currently developing the sci-fi themed MMO Warhammer 40k, is not planning to take on Blizzard's phenomenal MMORPG, but instead intends to compete with it when World of Warcraft enters its downward slope. He added:

However long it takes World of Warcraft to go through its cycle there will always be people on it, probably always be millions of people on it, but does it keep at that peak? And I think that, I wish I could see the numbers, but my guess is that it probably already has peaked - but it's still a great business. Who wouldn't want that?

Sorenson said that there is still no known release date for the game, aside from THQ CEO Brian Farell's announcement that the game is "still a couple of years out." However, he wanted to emphasize that they are doing their best to make sure Warhammer 40k turn out to be a title worthy of competing with the likes of World of Warcraft.

Did World of Warcraft indeed reach its peak? While we don't have an exact answer to the question, what we do know is that it already passed the 10 million subscriber mark last January, and may possibly be on its way to the next milestone.