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Burning Crusade Breaks Records
Brenics
Member RarePosts: 1,939
The news is out: World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade sold 2.4 million copies in North America in the first 24 hours alone. That's a sales record that shatters anything previous. To give you some context, the original World of Warcraft game had previously held the 24-hour sales record... by moving 240,000 copies. These days, a PC game that sells a million units is considered a successful product -- so the response to Burning Crusade so far is what we in the industry would describe as crotch-kickingly phenominal.
Star Citizen – The Extinction Level Event
4/13/15 > ELE has been updated look for 16-04-13.
http://www.dereksmart.org/2016/04/star-citizen-the-ele/
Enjoy and know the truth always comes to light!
Comments
You do realize that North America is not the world and that Europe is a different continent? I will just assume you mean Worldwide.
That is almost an unbelievable number. I would think preorders would have to account for much of that? Either way thats just crazy. Out of 3.5mil players that dont live in China, 2.4mil bought the game day 1? Something tells me that WoW is going to have 10mil subs next month. My grandparents are 80yrs old, if this game gets any more popular, it will suck them in also? I really dont see how its able to get so many people really.
Do the math. Ugh.
Blizzard is pulling in somewhere between 1-2 BILLION dollars per year just in monthly access fees. That's BILLION people, not million. Depending on what rates other countries actually pay to play.
2.4 million copies times $30 (If they got $30 per copy when the US retail price was $40) and I'm sure they averaged atleast $30 per copy. That equals 72 million bucks in the first 24 hours of their expansion release.
This is absolutely SICK. The money they are raking in off of this game is mind boggling and earth shattering. I know that there are lots of things that afford more money, but for one god damned game!?? This is just utterly ridiculous... and incredible at the same time.
I've always liked David and Goliath. I'm so rooting for David in this battle of the mmos today. I like WOW... for what it is, and for nothing more. Is it deserving of this insane amount of money being thrown at it world-wide?? I don't think so. It should be very successful, sure. I'm so rooting for ANY company to come in and take this golden belt away from Blizzard now. No, I don't want SOE or EA to get it either. Some relatively small company to get in on this action is my biggest wish. Some company like Mythic was before they were bought out by EA.
Yes, I understand that Blizzard is bringing in millions of potential customers into the mmorpg business with this earth shattering success. But they are growing into a bohemeth monster. If this keeps up, in a few years, Blizzard will be so rich, they will be putting SUV's (Sport Utility Vehicles) out in our car lots. I can see it now... Introducing the all new 2012 Blizzard "Warcraft" SUV for only $39,995 with a whopping 340 HP under the hood and 18 MPG! Heh.
Other mmo companys deserve a bigger slice of the pie then they are getting now. The challenge is there. Now who will it be? Who will rise to even give Blizzard half a challenge? It should be interesting.
- Zaxx
wow, i hope it wont have too much of a 'ghost town' feel to it.
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MMORPG's I've Played: World of Warcraft: 10/10 - Rappelz: 7/10 - Ragnarok Online: 8/10 - DnD Online: 2/10 - Runescape: 6/10 - LotR Online: 5/10 - Anarchy Online: 7/10 - CoV: 8/10 - Rohan Online: 8/10 - Guild Wars: 7/10 - Flyff: 8/10 - Warhammer Online: 8/10
My HARDCORE Story
Who really cares how many copies it has sold? Is your life this dull to keep up with this type of news? And 10 million players? Well, let me see here.. Apparently, some new basketball online game has 32 million. And that is just beta alone. People honestly need to start talking about new things. The WoW topic has seriously become old. (I expect flames from you types).. And trust me, with the arrival of new mmo's coming in the next year or so, I'm pretty sure WoW is going to be a thing of the past. Oh, and for you fools that spent the $70 bucks on the collectors edition, you are sad, very sad people. No expansion is worth this type of money ever. Oh well, My opinion.. Onto better topics.
Y'all need to look into the future a bit. These numbers, while today seem very high, are going to be dwarfed in 5 to 10 years.
Kudos to the Blizzard crew for brining more attention to this industry. Online interactive games are the future of entertainment...let's just hope we get more diversity, that way we can hope for a few exceptional gems.
That is just so disturbing. but, it makes sense. WoW brings MMOs to the masses. For the very reasons many of us serious gamers hate it, it's perfect for those who aren't that into gaming, as well as all sorts of gamers who just aren't that picky, and like it for its popularity.
I knew MMOs would catch on eventually. I mean really catch on. I just never predicted it'd be Blizzard that pulled it off. I thought it'd be EA with TSO (before TSO turned out to be horrible) or something like that.
So, as MMOs become mass market entertainment, I wonder what'll become of the genre. It's possible that rather than being crushed beneath the wheels of mediocrity, the floodgates will bring all sorts of new directions and ideas, taken more seriously than ever before. Maybe in a few years, as the idea really sinks into the mass consumer consciousness, MMOs will actually start to become dramatically different from one another, as a wider variety of people decide to try thier hand at making them, and technology makes it easier than ever to do so.
Just maybe...
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
you definitly do not care, but this IS a mmorpg site and burning crusade IS a mmorpg product and it WAS the latest released one at that.
Would we be having this conversation if there was "Vanguard" or "Age of Conan" in the title? i do not think so. Then, why this hare for a mmorpg product and what results it did? people are curious to know what this new expansion did, be them wow players or not.
As for the CE, do your math. Normal expansion: 35 Euro + Soundtrack 10 Euro + Art book 25 euros + behind the scenes DVD 10 euros + extras (no price) = 80 euros plus.
consider most of these items are limited in numbers (the original art book and dvd are out of stock at the moment) and you see how is not so crazy at all to spend money on this CE. it is also massive, the size of a old Family bible and full of extra goodies.
So, yeah, if you do not care about art books, soundtracks, exclusive dvd, collectable card game, in-game pets, mouse pads or other stuff, i can see how you do not care, but do not think for a moment the CE buyer didn't got their money worth, because they did. sad people? not at all, just interested in more than the game.
have a nice day
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
so many on warcrack
Nope, they pull in about half a billion. Remember, they make almost nothing from a Chinese account and only get part of the revenue from game card sales.
Thats still a *very* impressive number, right up there with American Idol for earning. But, its not as far beyond other games as some people Imagine. EQ1 has pulled in more then $1 billion over the years and that was almost all from the North American market.
The interesting thing to me is that these first day sales were nearly an even split between Europe and North America despite the fact that NA is supposed to have considerably more subscribers in NA. To me this supports something Ive been saying for a while, WoW is losing its luster with the MMO savvy gamers in North America.
*Making a game that is as accessible as WoW is in terms of (a) system specs and requirements, (b) platforms (Mac and Windows release simultaneously), and (c) UI that is end-user oriented, intuitive and easy to learn and use for non-geeks.
*Making a game that allows for a lot of casual play, a lot of solo play, while retaining elements for more hard-core gamers.
*Making a game that revolves around quests and storylines and not self-directed grinding or sandbox (while I like sandbox games, the verdict is in that many more people like direction in games, they like to be entertained by a storyline).
Basically this means not following the advice of most of the people on this forum, because many folks here are more sophisticated gamers who want something else, something more in-depth, more self-directed and so forth. I think that the main takeaway of WoW is that there is a huge market for this kind of MMO: one that is aimed at casual, everday joe gamers, and not at the hardcore elite gaming enthusiasts -- and that's what Blizzard has demonstrated with WoW.
I do think that the message is clear enough to the rest of the industry, but interestingly enough we do not see it being replicated much. I think that the reason for that is that it's one thing to try to make a game that fits the above criteria, and it's quite another to pull it off like Blizzard has and does. It's apparently very hard for the geeks who design games to make them accessible to non-geeks the way that Blizzard's geeks have -- what's much more common is for game designer geeks to make games that appeal to other gaming geeks, which is a much smaller market than can be reached for a game aimed at a broader audience, and designed for that audience and not gaming geeks. I think the main challenge is that many game developers have a hard time pulling off what Blizzard did as well as Blizzard did. Just to take one relatively unimportant example, Blizzard remains the only developer to release simultaneously on Mac and Windows platforms -- while everyone else just shrugs their shoulders at this, Blizzard has gotten a lot of subs from Mac users that other gaming companies just throw away in the garbage pail. The Mac issue is relatively unimportant in itself because it's a small number of folks, but the underlying philosophy and approach is very revealing: Blizzard wants to make its product as appealing to as many people as possible, and a lot of other game designers want games that are aimed at elite gaming geeks with superpowered rigs. As long as there is that dichotomy, don't expect another developer to achieve anything like the success that Blizzard has with WoW.
Nope, they pull in about half a billion. Remember, they make almost nothing from a Chinese account and only get part of the revenue from game card sales.
That’s still a *very* impressive number, right up there with American Idol for earning. But, it’s not as far beyond other games as some people Imagine. EQ1 has pulled in more then $1 billion over the years and that was almost all from the North American market.
The interesting thing to me is that these first day sales were nearly an even split between Europe and North America despite the fact that NA is supposed to have considerably more subscribers in NA. To me this supports something I’ve been saying for a while, WoW is losing it’s luster with the MMO savvy gamers in North America.
Or, in Europe gaming is a more socially accepted activity, so camping out the local gaming store isnt as socially crippiling.On the other side, It was pretty fun in my home town. I was waiting in line with a friend, and we met some really cool people. Some really creepy people too, but most of them were pretty normal looking people, and normal acting.
I dont think WoW is really losing anything in NA considering they are having to make a whole stack of new relms, and some of the old realms are filling up so fast they are threating to split I think 20ish realms. Its still growing fast.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...
No game store find this suprising.
See, they where surprise with EQ about this, they know what to expect when an expansion come out, they know it is a sudden rush and then....nothing.
WoW is just bigger than EQ, same massive instant sells for the expansions, than if it is like EQ, you should experience a near-death no sells after the initial rush is passed. Expansions and games don't follow the same selling rules. Expansions they sell massively, at the start and then it stall (unless it is a stand alone game, which isn't the case of BC).
If Blizzard has 3.5 millions subscribtions in NA and Europe; 2.4 millions sold boxes mean that still up to 1.1 million are to be sold in the near future and then it should quiet down to nearly nothing. I have no idea about China so I won't speak about what will happen there.
Personnally, what surprise me, it is the hundred of unsold boxes at Future Shop. Considering they sell new release up to $20 lower than EBgames. The LEFT BEHIND game sold at $29.99 at Future Shop and at $49.99 at EBgames, $20 for a single game...who are the thieves?
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Well thing is that basketball game isn't even a true mmo at all. Think there's 1 on 1, 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 type games you play. While it is a online game it's not an mmo. Also as far as I can tell it's 100% free with an item mall.
As for all the other mmo's coming out, I highly doubt any of them will even put a scratch on WoW. EQ was what 5 years old before a game came out that knocked it off it's throne? Vanguard feels like a EQ remake and the character models are crap. LoTRO seems to be good but it's not gonna hurt WoW. Conan I have no idea but will be sursprised if it does half as good as WoW. I'm sure sooner or later a new mmo will come out that truely knocks WoW off it's throne, my guess is another 3-5 years.
These numbers almost certainly include pre-orders which dont require any camping out.
In the year before TBC new NA realms were not that common, and the queues for the older ones disappeared. TBC certainly brought back a lot of people who had left, but these are people who got bored and left the first time around. I really dont see anything in TBC that is going to bring them back for the long term.
This could actually create problems as Blizzard was splitting servers to accommodate players that are not that likely to stick around for more then a few months. IMO, once they hit 70 and exhaust the readily available content most will retire again leaving many of these split servers with half the population they went into TBC with.
I used to play WoW, don't anymore. Didn't buy the expansion. However I just wanted to say:
"crotch-kickingly phenominal" <----- lol
And yes, 2.4 million is an astounding number.
"Because it's easier to nitpick something than to be constructive." -roach5000
These numbers almost certainly include pre-orders which don’t require any camping out.
In the year before TBC new NA realms were not that common, and the queues for the older ones disappeared. TBC certainly brought back a lot of people who had left, but these are people who got bored and left the first time around. I really don’t see anything in TBC that is going to bring them back for the long term.
This could actually create problems as Blizzard was splitting servers to accommodate players that are not that likely to stick around for more then a few months. IMO, once they hit 70 and exhaust the readily available content most will retire again leaving many of these split servers with half the population they went into TBC with.
I really dont forsee this being a problem. With all the changes made to endgame content, their should be more than enough to adress previous players problems an renew their interest in the game. Then again that is just personal opinion.
That being said Blizzard would not split the servers unless they were sure they had to . Its a huge deal seperating people could potentially lead to a lot of pissed of customers who can no longer group with their friends, co-workers or siblings.
I dont think they would jump to conclutions and split if they were worried about a mass exodus 2-3 months down the road.
after 6 or so years, I had to change it a little...