StarCraft II predicted to sell 4 million copies after launch

[Justin]

Any gamers worth their salt could tell you that StarCraft II will be big. As one of the most anticipated games in recent history, Blizzard's pending launch of SC2 is expected to bring in an insane amount of sales, so much that Activision Blizzard's stock has stumbled this month after rumors surfaced of a possible delay until 2010.

Meanwhile, one analyst is predicting that at least four million individual copies will make their way into gamers hands within the first few months of its release, whenever that happens of course. Basing his figure on the success of the original World of Warcraft beta and the popularity of the StarCraft franchise, four million in the short term seems plausible.

The original StarCraft has sold over 11 million copies in the eleven years it has been available. Yet unsurprisingly World of Warcraft still holds the crown as Blizzard's best seller by far with 11.5 million current subscribers, no small feat for a game that was originally released in late 2004 and has received two very successful expansion packs.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/35643-starcraft-ii-predicted-to-sell-4-million-copies-after-launch.html

 

[LinkedKube]

Its a good game, I'm sure many are looking forward to it. 4 million copies upon release is kind of pushing expectations me thinks.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

That would depend on how much longer it is going to be until they release the game.

 

[Burty117]

and if they really have got rid of LAN support

 

[Guest]

i imagine the game will be downloaded millions of times, as for paying for it.....

 

[Burty117]

yeah I guess, or at least some kind of mod so you can use it for LAN's?

 

[Xecutor]

The game is known to Blizzard fans and non-blizz fans as well. Considering that we have 11 million WoW users who, in most likelihood, will switch to SC2 instantly, 4 million is not far-fetched, and might even be understated.

 

[LinkedKube]

what % of WoW players are children, or early teens, from what I know, the bulk of SC players are older, 4m is still hard to think of, especially because of the LAN issue.

 

[Darknezz22]

yea and wow has 11.5m subscribers..or seperate accounts. When i played i had 2 seperate accounts and so did a lot of other people. But anways...they said 4 mil in the first few months. So they have time to build up a player base

 

[Guest]

I'm not a huge Starcraft fan (more into Command & Conquer), but I'll be buying this as it looks like they're not trying to reinvent the IP and stay true to what made it a great game back then (except no LAN support *rage*). Plus, it'll be Starcraft in big, nice resolution!

 

[tengeta]

The LAN support removal and the reasoning behind it are the reasons I won't be buying this game. Not to mention, are they still serious about having to spend $150 just to get the entire campaign? I don't care if I can play all 3 races at the start online, I don't think thats how a game should EVER be made, period.

Ever since WoW, Blizzard has been complete crap. Between Guitar Hero and WoW they have all they money they will ever need, so the chance of them ever making a decent game again without bending your bank account over in the process is long gone.

 

[Relic]

Guest said:
I'm not a huge Starcraft fan (more into Command & Conquer), but I'll be buying this as it looks like they're not trying to reinvent the IP and stay true to what made it a great game back then (except no LAN support *rage*). Plus, it'll be Starcraft in big, nice resolution!

Agreed, while no LAN is the most irritating thing they are at least sticking to a lot of fundamentals of the game. Unlike EA with CNC (which I' enjoy more) with its all in one units and needing to be online for even single player .

Either way 4million in sales for this in the first few months doesn't seem improbable at all.

 

[Relic]

tengeta said:
The LAN support removal and the reasoning behind it are the reasons I won't be buying this game. Not to mention, are they still serious about having to spend $150 just to get the entire campaign? I don't care if I can play all 3 races at the start online, I don't think thats how a game should EVER be made, period.

Ever since WoW, Blizzard has been complete crap. Between Guitar Hero and WoW they have all they money they will ever need, so the chance of them ever making a decent game again without bending your bank account over in the process is long gone.

Are you sure about the price tag tengeta? I was under the impression that the two additional race campaigns would be considered expansions and not stand alone. While the SCII FAQ doesn't specify price the 150 figure I always thought was a over the top. If this ends up being the true cost I'm a little disappointed even if its 90 epic campaign missions for it all.

I do agree with ya thou that Activision-Blizzard is trying to get every penny it can outta ya. I always thought it was more so driven by Activision rather then Blizzard. /shrug

 

[Xecutor]

This game in total may get released in 3 instalments over a few years... Even if you were to pay $50 a-piece (which imo will not happen), you're still spreading the cost over 3 -5 years. That's like buying a new game a year, on average. What's all the worry about? You regularly buy crapware from the store every year. Why not invest in a worthwile game once in a while (or in this case: 3 "whiles")?

 

[Guest]

well... no LAN no money...

 

[Xecutor]

Guest said:
well... no LAN no money...

Explain ...

Even without LAN, SC BW is extremely popular and is still earning Blizzard revenue. There will be no LAN in SC2, but there will be full support for leagues and tournament-play to a much greater extent. LAN is really a minor part of the SC2 community. The majority of SC BW players play on bnet. With bnet 2.0 revamping the old one, I expect more people to flock to it than the other way round.

I see only pluses for Blizzard by removing LAN support:

- Less piracy
- More dedicated bnet 2.0 gaming (and essentially more gamers)
- LAN isn't a must. Everyone has the internet today; hence all LAN-like games can be on bnet.

This is one aspect of the story. What ppl don't realize too is that Blizzard is also focussing the game on campaign and storyline building to a far greater extent than ANY game EVER has. Whoever doesn't want to play SC2 are entitled not to. There is every good reason TO play it. What I have cited are just scratching the surface of what this game will bring to the world. SC2 is a revolution in the making.

 

[Guest]

If there really will be a further delay of the release of StarCraft 2, at least that gives us more time to get more signatures on the SC2 LAN petition, currently over 93,000 signatures. I have no idea if Blizzard gives a hoot about an online petition, no matter how many signatures it has, but I still signed it. Head on over and sign it too, maybe we can get over 100,000. http://www.petitiononline.com/LANSC2/ or just Google the obvious keywords.

 

[Guest]

I think 4 million is a very low estimate. Probably more like 4 million the first day of release. I think blizzard will sell at least ten million first quarter.

 

[Guest]

i thought WoW/SC sold a lot more than 11million copies each..i guess thats a lot for a game but when I played SC w/my brother we bought at least 4 copies of the original and a few copies of BW ourselves...stupid lost/scratched cds (and 1 or 2 were purposely broken to fight the addiction lol). maybe lots of pirated versions? i would think starcraft 2...probably the most anticipated game ever...will sell that many its first year...maybe wrong tho

 

[Guest]

There are minuses to not having LAN.

1. You have to pay for every extra copy that you want for your other computers to accomodate brothers, relatives, casual fans, house guests, and people who don't play regularly.

2. Sometimes you just want to have a friendly game without having to be online.

3. Your internet goes down (quite often if you have a horrible ISP such as Time Warner Cable)

 

[Guest]

4 million will be easy for them. I'm actually thinking that's too small of a number @glenn_gutierrez

 

[Guest]

i don;t see a problem with no lan, playing over b.net is the same, unless you are using dialup or your internet is hooked up through a fisher price modem, then your in real ****.
secondly blizzard did this for one reason, there are a lot of piracy out there, virtual lan applications are everywhere nowadays that allows you to play multiplayer without connecting to b.net or steam or whatever. one example of such application is garena, you see games like left4dead and **** up there and everyone there are just playing over virtual lan, which i personally think that its ridiculous. if you like the game buy it and show some support.