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World of Warcraft: The Bruning Crusade Breaks Sales Records
GFulls
Member Posts: 478
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade breaks PC Games sales record.
Blizzard Entertainment® today announced that World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade has broken the day-one sales record to become the fastest-selling PC game ever in North America and Europe, with a worldwide total of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in the first 24 hours of availability. The Burning Crusade, the first expansion set for World of Warcraft, was simultaneously released in North America, Europe, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia on January 16, and on January 17 in Australia and New Zealand.
Blizzard had supplied more than 4 million game boxes to retailers worldwide, and more than 5,000 stores throughout the world had their doors open at midnight to welcome thousands of expectant players.
Day-one sales totals on both continents were similar, with an estimated total of nearly 1.2 million copies sold on the first day in North America and an estimated total of more than 1.1 million copies sold in Europe within the first 24 hours of launch.* By the end of the first day of availability on both continents, a total of more than 1.7 million players had already logged in and upgraded World of Warcraft to play The Burning Crusade.
"The Burning Crusade has already exceeded even our most ambitious expectations," said Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're pleased that so many players are eager to see all of the new content that the expansion has to offer, and we look forward to seeing everyone online as additional players continue to upgrade in the days ahead."
Retailers are continuing to report sustained demand, so if players have not yet purchased their copy of The Burning Crusade, they are advised to call ahead to make sure their store has copies on hand. Additional shipments of the expansion have been routed to retailers to help maintain stock levels.
"The immediate popularity of The Burning Crusade once again shows that Blizzard consistently delivers what gamers want," said Robert McKenzie, senior vice president of merchandising at GameStop Corp. "In addition to setting a new day-one PC-game sales record at our GameStop and EB Games stores, the expansion garnered more online pre-orders than any other PC game in our company's history."
Prior to the launch of The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft was played by more than 8 million players around the world -- with more than 2 million on North American realms and more than 1.5 million on European realms -- making it the most successful subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game in PC-gaming history.
Read more here.
Comments
Retired from WoW
Rebellion - 60 Warlock || Kalaa - 60 Warrior
Littlerebel - 60 Hunter || Albie - 60 Shaman
Played: Erm, a lot more.
besides... 5.6 million wow players didn't buy the expansion I guess
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Being able to get level 70 in no time? Whats the point of the raised level cap then? Why not just add more tedious dungeons and gear grinds?
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
They make SOE look as if they know what they are doing.People already hitting 70?
Blizzard has duped you guys again.They are the new SOE.
What is your physical limit?
/sigh at the wow haterz
Have played:
UO, WOW, COH/V, EQ2
Currently playing:
Age of Conan (EU)
You guys are the most biased people ive ever seen.
First off I didnt buy the expansion and proably wont because I am now bored of wow. That doesnt mean it isnt a good game and the expansion has better/more content than any of SOE's expansions. BTW that 2.4 million copies was in one day so im sure the other 6 million will be sold eventually.
Personally im glad they sold so many copies. People are starting to get into MMOs and games in general because of WoW. Now we might get some other high quality MMOs instead of the piece of crap games we have been getting.
Absolutely. I believe it doesnt matter how many expansions it has to make in one year. I dont want to play a game like Everquest that throws out expansions every month. That's just way too much in my opinion. But...anyways im getting off topic.
Quality over quantity indeed. The amount of expansion packs that are released for the game does not judge anything about the current game.
In my opinion.
I got a feeling they'll pick up the other 5.6 million when the game is released to the rest of the world.
Suprised you would want your child touched by the game.
Interesting.
I was thinking "The Burning Crusade" would beat "The Bruning Crusade".
I sure was wrong.
I think the news article should have more accurately read:
"In an attempt to put the slightest ounce of 'fun' and 'excitement' back into the game, Blizzard announced that it sold over 2.4 million copies of its new Burning Crusade expansion to millions of desperate players across North America in just the first 24 hours of sales. 'The immediate popularity of The Burning Crusade once again shows that Blizzard consistently delivers what gamers want.' And then strips any hope that they once had of rekindling the lost spirit of their first playing experiences. Yes, it is indeed a true testament to the power of World of Warcraft... and its almost mindblowing ability to make players feel like they have to buy this game."
People seem to be ignoring one major point.
A MMORPG just broke the 1-day sale records for ANY computer games. A MMORPG!
Would anyone have thought it possible back in the days of UO or EQ? Until two years ago anyone who even suggested a MMORPG could do something like that would have been laughed off the Forums.
MMORPGs have finally entered the real gaming market. Regardless of what you think about WoW (And I'm not saying the game is perfect, far from it) Blizzard has finally made the gaming world take MMORPGs seriously rather than having the genre be constantly ignored as some niche market.
Frankly, it's past time MMORPGs evolved. For too long they've been the private little playthings of elitists, now they're opening up to all gamers everywhere.
Geez so many haters on both sides. To be honest they are both good, well polished games that have grown better with age. I recently moved back to WoW from EQ2, not because EQ2 is bad or I hate the new expansion, but simply because I ran out of new things to do, and I am not really too keen on repeating the same content over and over, I wouldnt do it in a single player game so I dont see the point of paying monthly to do it in a MMO.
EQ2 expansions are huge, the new one in particular probably has more in it than the new WoW one. And to be fair they are released every 6-12 months, hardly a monthly affair, not to mention that every live update usually adds a ton of content. WoW seems to add far less, which hasnt bothered me yet since I havent even come close to seeing everything. They both have good qualities, I dont really see what the point of trolling one or the other does... it wont make the game you currently play more fun.
I guess I could be called fickle, but I dont really see the point to the fierce MMO loyalty that is rife amongst the community. I play games until they stop being fun, if they then release an expansion which makes it fun again for a while I will go back.
I would love to see a log in poll within the game that asked people if they bought the expansion because they can't live without raiding content or if its primarily due to added casual / leveling content. I would like Blizzard to aknowledge and accept the possibility that the direction they have taken with end game content is more than a bit unfair to a significant portion of their player base. Every MMO I've played, including EQ, EQ2, CoH, CoV, AO, DAoC, SWG and FFXI have taken one or more in game polls to determine what it is that the majority of their players really want out of the game. Why is Blizzard so adamant about ignoring this venue in order to end this heated debate within its community? Perhaps its fear or arrogance or maybe they just don't give a damn? As long as it makes good money, they could care less about actually improving the game. It seems to me they are a bit lazy and are willing to settle for the status quo as long as they make decent profits.
Expansions in most MMO's have always sold well in relation to the size of their player base. The fact hat WoW has over 8 million players world wide does not make the expansion's sales numbers seem that incredible or surprising.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
It certain didn't come as a surprise to see Blizzard once bragging about how many people buy their overly hyped game nor did they waste any time. It's so predictable how this company acts. Yet, many of the players who brought this expansion either aren't satisfied or feel it's just a lot more of the same and nothing new.
Of course they've had a wide population for WoW, they're in just about every country there is. Their game has a very long reach and its because of this that many people have checked out the game. And not because the game is all that, because it isn't. Just about any decent game who would happen to be in as many countries would also boast a large population in players.
Yes, there are many players who like the game, but yes, there are just about as many who have tried it and don't like it. So they hit 7-8 million according to them but not all are currently subscibed as some would have you believe. This expansion they so overly hyped and who took so long to emerge is nothing new, it's just more of the same with new coloring, nothing more, nothing less.
O'yeah, the less part is in the pockets of all those who brought into it.
You win this thread. This isn't about hating Blizzard or WoW or blathering on about how superior one game is to another. MMOs are on the up and up, and we (as MMO players) should be happy about this.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
WoW is far from a great game. it is little more than an asian grindfest with different packaging. It is reasonably bug free compared to its siblings, but it has nothing new to offer to the genre and in fact the vast majority of the quests we see in wow are the exact same things many of us were doing 20 years ago in games like Bard's Tale and Wizardry.
Congrats to blizzard although their numbers seem to be changing like the wind
http://www.speedtest.net/result/7300033012
That point you think people are ignoring is the point that i find very scary indeed, why you might ask, well to be honost its because now people really think that WOW is a true mmorpg wich will ruin it for future REAL !! mmorpg games. WOW is a very succesfull and fun online game, but really not a real mmorpg, a MMO okay no problem with it. But seriously people tend to believe that it is a mmorpg and when they set foot inside a real mmorpg they think it sucks because they do not get spooned there and actualy need to find things out for themself.
Once again this is not a bash at WOW cause it is and will continue to be a awesome "online game"
. And afcourse it is sold very well , it would be stupid if it would not sell well, wanna know why?......because WOW is a game REALLY !! really everyone can play, you do not have to have any game experiance to understand that game,and that simplisity is why WOW is so succesfull (and afcourse their very professional way of marketing don't say it anoying cause thats the whole concept of marketing), Someone else said this somewhere on this forum, WOW is like McDonalds and most people over the world like a easy snack every now and then 
btw i bought the expension, installed it played for about 10 minutes but couldn't go on as i am more for the reall mmorpg game, think most even tho they hate SOE i think its still the company that "tries" atleast to stay close to true mmorpg, Vanguard is the biggest example at the moment
So anyone can tell us how big is that new content?
Before WoW was around, the market, especially in the west was stale, and there was no competition. There were just games that appealed to one player or another, most companies could get away with releasing crap, or sub-par games, because they could rely the fact there wasn't much better than they offered to steal their player market. When Lineage2 cme out, a lot of people thought that game was going to be untouchable, I love the game, but then WoW came along, and for people like me who were still experiancing the market WoW basically blew Lineage2 and many other games out of the water.
Markets need competition, and Blizzard have proven the MMORPG is a pretty lucrative market, and pretty much thrown the gauntlet down to the world.