Blizzard Prints Monies, buys phat lewtz

[MrHat]

IRVINE, Calif. - January 10, 2005 –Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that World of Warcraft® has sold through more than 600,000* units to customers in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. The fastest-growing massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has also shattered all previous concurrency records in North America, achieving over 200,000 simultaneous players during the holiday period.

"The public’s response to World of Warcraft has been simply amazing," said Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment. "We are very proud and excited to see such an overwhelming demand for the game, and we hope that the enthusiasm continues to build as we further enhance our online service."

Over this holiday season, demand for World of Warcraft was so great that retailers estimate that nearly all remaining supplies of the game sold out across North America, Australia, and New Zealand. To accommodate the increasing number of players eager to join World of Warcraft, Blizzard will be bringing several new servers online. After a short and successful testing period to ensure server stability, the company also plans to release additional units to retail outlets nationwide.

To support the growing population in World of Warcraft with regular content updates, Blizzard Entertainment is aggressively introducing new features on an ongoing basis. These updates will keep the game fresh and exciting, rewarding continuing subscribers with new experiences and enticing prospective players to join in even greater adventures.

Several features have already been introduced since the game's launch just over a month ago, and many more are planned for the lifetime of the game. In the near future, the promised Player-versus-Player (PvP) Battlegrounds, which will pit Alliance and Horde players against each other in a hotly-contested battlefield, as well as the PvP Reward System, will be revealed.

I wonder if they spent the money on the orphaned children in South Asia.

Or if they made life size night elf dolls that have the physical resemblance of Garner w/ Johanssen's mouth.

Mind you, this is w/out Korean and European sales.

[Ganon]

No Koreans?  Then who are the azshara bots that are on 24/7? ^_^

[Zane0]

Um, 1,000,000 subscribers doesn't look out of reach at all once they get the Euro version out.  That would make it the most popular western/european subscription MMO ever?

Very impressive; I wonder what effects this will have on the industry.

[schild]

People will aim even fucking lower.

[sidereal]

Several features have already been introduced since the game's launch just over a month ago

What. . uptime?

[Righ]

People will aim even fucking lower.

Good, because they need to get playable games out. Aiming high is laudable - until your fucking wax melts. See all those cancelled MMOGs? They aimed high. Bra-fucking-vo.

One iota beyond EQ1 was sufficient for WoW. I look forward to one more iota from the next contender in a couple of years. Between now and then, dozens of developers will claim to have moved forward two iotae, yet they will release unworkable games that are shite to play. By nature of being playable, WoW will survive longer than it should, and its successor will be unambitious but functional.

It was meant to be said with sarcasm. WoW...

[El Gallo]

1.5 million  is reachable once Europe and Korea have the game assuming even moderate retention rates.  I am pretty sure I read that the Korean beta had 300,000 simultaneous users at times.

[Alkiera]

Heh.  That does say 600,000 unit sales... Doesn't even check to see if they've bothered to log in.

And I wonder when that 200k online marker was reached... and how many of them were number 427(or whatever) in queue to log in.

Alkiera

[Toast]

I've still never seen a queue. My roommate hasn't either.

I know you love EQ2 and all that, but you're reaching here.

[Soukyan]

It does state unit sales and not subscriptions. So great sales, but subscriber numbers are still not validated anywhere by Blizzard.

[Sable Blaze]

I have yet to see a queue, but I sure see login server issues often enough. Of course, to be fair, WoW never fried a mobo of mine. That's a unique position EQ2 earned for itself.

I"m a denizen of Whisperwind server. It's normally "high" population. I can vouch for that. Some zones--like Stranglethorn Vale--resemble rush hour in Atlanta at peak hours.

The game seems plenty popular from where I sit.

[Dren]

So they only state box sales, so what?  They basically have sold everything they produced which more than pays off their development of the game.  Now, for the ongoing service?  Yeah, I think 200k+ will more than do that.  I'm guessing that their subscirptions are close to 500k myself, but that is pure guess work on my part.

I'm on Whisperwind too.  It is crowded, the major cities lag, and some hunting spots are crowded during primetime (I just move to a different one.)  I've never waited in queue and am still having a lot of fun.

From what I can tell, the majority of players that bought the game enjoy it too.  I can also tell, there are a lot of people that want to play but cant' because there are no more boxes to buy.  Supposedly Blizzard won't produce anymore until they fix their growing pains (server performance, etc.)  Seems reasonable, but shows the number will grow soon.

WoW has a lot of problems, but not as many as I've seen in MMOGs of the past.  But hey, everything seems really bad when you're not actually playing the game anymore or ever.  Ignorance with a splash of rumor is always a good thing.

[Nebu]

On a similar note... Anyone know how many copies of Deer Hunter were sold?

[Rasix]

On a similar note... Anyone know how many copies of Deer Hunter were sold?

How about the Sims?  Again, you haters are reaching.

[Nebu]

How about the Sims?  Again, you haters are reaching.

I'm not a "hater", I just don't get it.  

I don't get why WoW is so successful and that's why I drew the parallel to Deer Hunter... I don't get that either.  Maybe it's the fact that what I consider "fun" lies outside the mainstream.  I'm guessing that's the same thing that drew me to these forums in the first place.

[geldonyetich]

My brother's been trying to get his mitts on a copy of WoW lately.  It's just like the blurb says above: Everybody's sold out.   Though more copies are expected some time this week (today?)

[Samprimary]

I'm not a "hater", I just don't get it.  

Assisted Care Living for the mentally non-autonomous is entertainment now, is all.

[Sobelius]

On a similar note... Anyone know how many copies of Deer Hunter were sold?

I'm actually wondering how DAOC is faring...and whether anyone bought Catacombs...wasn't enough to lure me back:

content: WoW or EQ2
graphics: EQ2
PvP: Guild Wars (possibly WoW depending on what's implemented)

not much in Catacombs was different or engaging enough to warrant picking it up. When I want different I play CoH...

[Viin]

With the talk of the deer hunter crap I decided to take a look...

According to the press release for Deer Hunter 2005:

[Deer Hunter Franchise is] The best-selling PC hunting franchise since 1997, Deer Hunter games have sold nearly four million units in the U.S.*

2005 - 1997 = 8 years

4,000,000 / 8 = 500,000 per year, average

Maximum price per unit: $20
(Current price for Deer Hunter 2005)

Average price per unit: $10
(Deer Hunter 2004 for $10)

Guestimating income per year ...
Guestimate 1/2 sold at full price: $10,000,000
Guestimate 1/2 sold at average price: $5,000,000

10,000,000 + 5,000,000 = $15,000,000 per year


Now, number of WoW units sold: 600,000 (in what, 2 months?)

Maximum price per unit: $75
(Collectors edition)

Average price per unit: $50
(Normal edition)

Guestimate 1/5 at maximum: $9,375,000
Guestimate 4/5 at average: $24,000,000
... Year to Date

Guestimate doubling number of units sold in additional 10 months..
600,000 * $50 = $30,000,000

24,000,000 + 9,375,000 + 30,000,000 = $63,375,000 per year


And that's just unit sales. Wow. I should make a game.

(Note: This was just an exercise, no conclusions were meant to be drawn by this post. Not all considerations considered - such as development costs (Deer Hunter: $100, WoW: $30Mil) - and is not meant to do anything other than make someone cry Fanboi! and shoot from the hip).

[Paelos]

Yeah when you look at gross numbers games can look great. Then you look at the insanity that is development costs, loan fees, and investor returns. You might get a nice car out of the deal, and the headache of a lifetime.

[jpark]

I live in a small "city" with a population of a 150K.  Checked my computer store yesterday and they have been sold out of WoW for the past 5 weeks.  EQ2 on there other hand - is discounted on their shelves.

[NiX]

Been sold out of WoW for 3 weeks now in my store and there's no sign of a return. It will come back eventually, but something tells me Blizz may be limiting it so they can fix the problems at hand before more invade their game.

I could be wrong.

[Nebu]

Been sold out of WoW for 3 weeks now in my store and there's no sign of a return. It will come back eventually, but something tells me Blizz may be limiting it so they can fix the problems at hand before more invade their game.

I could be wrong.

Come to Colorado... TONS of them on the shelves.  The silly people around here must be skiing instead.  Go figure.

[Jayce]

Come to Colorado... TONS of them on the shelves.  The silly people around here must be skiing instead.  Go figure.

Doesn't that involve that place called... "outside" or something?

With the big yellow disc?

[DarkDryad]

No problem getting it in Ga either or SC. Anyone wants me to grab em a copy send me some bills and its yers.

[Paelos]

The internet sent me mine.

[Jayce]

Anyone in the NYC area know of a place that has them?  I have some friends who are looking.  I figure if there is any place that would have them, it would be the NYC/New Jersey/CT/Mass megalopolis.

[daveNYC]

Anyone in the NYC area know of a place that has them?  I have some friends who are looking.  I figure if there is any place that would have them, it would be the NYC/New Jersey/CT/Mass megalopolis.

I got mine about a week and a half ago.  EB, Gamestop, Best Buy, and J&R all have info on their websites as to whether a specific store has it in stock.  That's how I got mine.

The stores in Manhattan seem to have sold out more often than the ones in Queens and Brooklyn.  NJ would be a good bet too.

[HaemishM]

A buddy of mine who used to two-box EQ is now looking around town for a second box of WoW and can't find it at the bigger places like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, FWIW.

Yeah, 600k unit sales doesn't list subscribers, but that's still a damn good sell-through. Hell, if half of those end up being more than 3-month subscribers, they'll still beat SWG's best reported numbers.

[trias_e]

Maybe they should take all of that "phat lewtz" and use it to fix their fucking servers.

[HaemishM]

Now you're just talking crazy talk.

[Fabricated]

I wonder when the subscriptions will level out, and eventually shake out as newer games come out and WoW's gloss wears off.

I mean, a slow-ass casual player like myself managed to level the "worst" class (warrior) up to 34 from release to now.

[trias_e]

It all depends on the quality and lasting appeal of the battlegrounds, raids, and expansions.

Of, and if they stop being greedy and actually spend some of the money they bring in, that might help too.

[sinij]

People will aim even fucking lower.

Can't agree more. Popularity of WoW will lower standard even more than popularity of EQ. Game economy, ambitious PvP, dynamic content?

As a side note it also shows that brand name is very important – despite numerous fuckups Blizzard had with previous game their name is what made WoW popular. That and game released with fair amount of content, reasonably balanced and without serious stability issues.

So what made WoW so popular – in my book it is a) Brand Name and Reputation b) OK launch c) Content d) Lack of serious fun-breaking flaws. Longevity of WoW will entirely depend on how fast they add content.

Lets compare it to SB and see where it failed. It had horrible reputation and no brand name, it had horrible launch with tons of game stopping bugs, has no content to speak of and was seriously flawed by making recovering from city-loss nearly impossible early-on.

So how say SB could make it? Nothing you could do about reputation – open PvP games will always have a ‘grifer’ stigma attached to them due to rampant idiocy of most carebears so you won’t be appealing to any non-mmorpg players. Launch should have been stable – there is simply no excuse for amount of sb.exe and server lag that happened there. In my book stability issues is what lost SB most of its subscribers they had at start. Content – SB could use quest and crafting system, grind in SB is simply not fun and outright poorly done. Last but not least SB was flawed from start – developers introduced number of untested changes right before the release and as a result made defeat almost unrecoverable state.


Anyone cares to write up AC2, CoH, EQ2 or DAoC?

[trias_e]

How can you really go any lower though?  WoW is polished EQ with nonstop micro-achievement (at least through the grind).  What else can you do?

Certainly WoW could be the next model of success to be copied for a few years, but I really doubt that it will have as much of an impact as EQ did on the MMOG industry.