Wrath is Fastest Selling Game

[pr2thej]

From gamepro.com


"Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft(r)'s second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King(tm), has sold more than 2.8 million copies in its first 24 hours of availability*, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. This eclipses the previous record of nearly 2.4 million copies sold in 24 hours, set in January 2007 by Blizzard's first World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade(r). Wrath of the Lich King was simultaneously released in North America, Europe, Chile, Argentina, and Russia on November 13; Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand on November 14; and South Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on November 18.

In celebration of the launch, more than 15,000 stores throughout the world had their doors open at midnight to welcome thousands of expectant players. Several of these locations were attended by Blizzard Entertainment representatives, who met players and signed copies of the game.

"We're grateful for the incredible support that players around the world have continued to show for World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Wrath of the Lich King contains some of the best content we've created for the game so far, and we look forward to seeing even more players log in to experience it in the days ahead."

"After a single day of availability, Wrath of the Lich King is already the bestselling PC game of 2008 at GameStop and ranks as one of our top-selling products so far this year," said Bob McKenzie, GameStop's senior vice president of merchandising. "In keeping with the tradition established by their previous releases, Blizzard Entertainment has again created a product that not only reflects their high standards of quality but is clearly an instant hit with gamers around the country."

Prior to the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft's subscriber population had grown to more than 11 million players, further strengthening its position as the world's most popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game. More information about the new expansion can be found at the official Wrath of the Lich King website: www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath"


Will it beat Fallout 3's 4.7m in one week?
Does it even count as its an expantion pack?
How many of those 11m accounts are multiboxers / suspended / trial ?!!

 

[BigMac]

Will it beat Fallout 3's 4.7m in one week?
Does it even count as its an expantion pack?
How many of those 11m accounts are multiboxers / suspended / trial ?!!

And you think someone from Blizzard will come in here and answer your questions? You're asking things only Blizzard knows (and will not likely share with the rest of the world. Your second question is ill-defined. Does it count as what? a game? It counts as a sale, that's for sure. What it accounts for in terms of income, is even bigger because what it really is intended to do is to keep a significant portion of the 11m accounts playing, and hopefully draw in some new blood as well.

 

[pr2thej]

Well, i dont expect the weeks facts from Blizz...Day 1 sales figures haven't even been out 24 hours. I was trying to stimulate some discussion on the fastest selling title of the year.
I expect Wrath to outdo Fallout 3, but only marginally.

I also dont expect Blizz to release the make up of their 11m accounts, but its always an interesting discussion.
Personally i am confortable in saying 60% are unique active users - based on experiences playing the game.

Sure, it's an ill-defined. Yep its a sale.
To explain - what is a better achievement. Selling 4.7m of a full release title or the same volume of an xpac.
I believe the full title is a bigger achievement as it takes more work for that single event. Once you have a game up and running like WoW, releasing an xpac is perhaps half the work involved in making a new title.
Marketing is pretty much autonomous. Game mechanics are in place, as are the engines required. You can even predict incomes very accurately and as such know how much of a financial risk to take in development.

I always think of such things when i see a crummy xpac like the latest SIMS rehash pounding the sales figures of quality games like Crysis.

 

[llama_man]

quality games-engine adverts like Crysis.

Fixed. From what I hear, Crisis is good to look at, but not much depth of gameplay.

 

[pr2thej]

Im heading for that many U-turns m head is in danger of unscrewing!

Crysis > Sims, its a shame the sales figures do not reflect as such.

Also the suit rocks.

 

[BigMac]

Fixed. From what I hear, Crisis is good to look at, but not much depth of gameplay.

Personally (and I've said this before) I disagree (and I played it myself). The problem with Crysis is unbalanced gameplay, but if you can restrain yourself and try the stealth approach (without cloaking), Crysis can be a lot of fun.

 

[emp]

Personally (and I've said this before) I disagree (and I played it myself). The problem with Crysis is unbalanced gameplay, but if you can restrain yourself and try the stealth approach (without cloaking), Crysis can be a lot of fun.

+1 thank you, I believe the reason why I always found Crysis and Warhead fun to play was because since the demo was released I decided I wouldn't use the cloak, and I had A TON of fun with SP (More so than with other games). It forces you to rely on other abilities (twitch reflexes, accuracy, quick thinking, nanosuit special skills) to compensate for the overly easy cloak-gameplay. I never really enjoyed absolute stealth camouflage in games, it made things too easy (Metal Gear series comes to mind). I encourage anyone to try playing without the cloak, it's a lot more fun than you realize.

I don't mind aliens in the game, but Crysis really didn't do much for me after the spaceship, however Warhead pulled the whole alien part a thousand times better than the original did.

 

[rennervision]

Will it beat Fallout 3's 4.7m in one week?

Are those Fallout 3 figures exclusively for the PC though? I thought that was the combined total for all platforms.

 

[rasmasyean]

Will it beat Fallout 3's 4.7m in one week?
Does it even count as its an expantion pack?
How many of those 11m accounts are multiboxers / suspended / trial ?!!

Fallout 3 is not an MMO and doesn't generate the amount of money as a subscription service based game which kind of puts it in a different class for you to compare the 2.

I think breaking a record with an ExP is actually more notable than with an original. It shows that it not only grows, but players can't wait to get their hands on it even after 4 years.

If you look at that 11m news article, it's for "currently active subscribers". "Multiboxers" are a rare breed. Mostly all people you would ever meet who plays WoW have 1 account, like any other game. The exception is EVE Online, because many people use both "money making characters", and "fighting characters" because of the way they arrange the skill system.

quality games like Crysis.

Steady on there.

Crysis has good graphics, but I think that's about it.

Multiplayer is better with COD4 from most people I hear.

 

[malveaux]

Lol,

Less lines at places in town I want to go to at night, as they're all not clogging and stinking up the nice theaters and restaurants or billiard/pool halls because they're busy raiding and rolling their new shammies and rets past 70.

Thanks blizz!

Very best,

 

[rasmasyean]

Lol,

Less lines at places in town I want to go to at night, as they're all not clogging and stinking up the nice theaters and restaurants or billiard/pool halls because they're busy raiding and rolling their new shammies and rets past 70.

Thanks blizz!

Very best,

I would figure this kind of destroys the economy. I mean WoW is dirt cheap for the amount of time you spend on it vs. other forms of entertainment. Maybe WoW has something to do with the economic crisis.

 

[delsaber]

I would figure this kind of destroys the economy. I mean WoW is dirt cheap for the amount of time you spend on it vs. other forms of entertainment. Maybe WoW has something to do with the economic crisis.

it certainly changed things for me.

Got rid of my xbox 360, wii and all other console (expect dreamcast cos no one wanted it!) because i wasnt playign them anymore. Any titles i bought just didnt last long at all and worke dout bad £ per gaming hour.

I dont understand why people queued for days for it. i ordered it from gameplay on the 7th and got it delivered to my door on the 12th. Then saw the "manic" queues on the new of nutters queueing for two/three days! insane!

Awsome game and so far a very enjoyable expansion.

I would estimate the "unique" amount of users to be around the 80% mark. Id say 1 in 5 players i know have two active accounts.

Ive no doubt this expasnion will break records over the next few weeks/months so just a matter of sitting tight and seeing (while leveling ofc, nearly 75!!).

catch ya in northrend

 

[pr2thej]

Why would you ever want to get rid of your Dreamcast you insane person.

I still have 3!

 

[delsaber]

cos its taking up room and i sold powerstone 2 which im really regreatting. i loved tht game!

 

[Scynte]

There where queues in the states?? I ordered mine prob around the beginnning of the year cause the shop had a discount if you ordered it then... When i went to get it there was no line what-so-ever.

Then again I'm from Aus and I guess we just arn't as hardcore as you guys

 

[delsaber]

dunno about states but in UK where im from there where queues apparantly . ordered mine online and got straight away. dont think id ever queue up for a game

 

[pr2thej]

Think the London queue was of 2000 people, dressed up. It was on the news, some of the costumes were very creative.

Manchester had another few hundred as well, and Leeds from what i know. Thats just from people who queued who speak to me.
In my home town, i think there was a tramp and a pigeon camping the local HMV. I cant be sure the tramp was trying to eat the pigeon though.

 

[delsaber]

lol. think ive seen him online. trampguy001 right?

 

[llama_man]

Yeah, he's in the P1g30n_Munch3r clan.