developer Blizzard has admitted that the behemoth MMO's recent drop in monthly player subscriptions is, in part, down to the launch of rival MMOlate last year.Electronic Arts launchedin December last year, and the game quickly brought in 1 million players within three days . EA said last month that the game now has over 1.7 million subscribers , and has sold more than 2 million units worldwide.Meanwhile, Blizzard'shas been losing subscribers steadily -- at last count in November, the game had 10.3 million players , down from 11.1 million just three months prior to that.In an interview with Eurogamer, seniorproducer John Lagrave said that the game's recent drop in subscriber numbers "has to at least be attributable" to the release of, although he did not divulge updated subscriber numbers."We certainly do look at [whereplayers go], and we have a very smart bunch of guys who do our analytics for us," he explained."Of course people are trying-- our development team are trying! I'm one of the few people who's still playing it actually, but yeah we've seen a dip in subs."He continued, "It certainly has to at least be attributable to," but added that "it's also attributable to people who want to wait and getexpansion pack due for release later this year], so it's not surprising."Gamasutra has contacted Blizzard to clarify whethersubscription numbers have dropped since the release of