Diablo 3 Expansion Plans, StarCraft 2 Update
Blizzard is pushing to release Heart of the Swarm in the first half of 2013.
On Wednesday Activision Blizzard released better-than-expected third quarter 2012 financial results (pdf), reporting that the company delivered record GAAP net revenues of $841 million, as compared with $754 million for the third quarter of 2011. Even more, net revenues from digital channels represented 51-percent (GAAP) and 57-percent (non-GAAP) of the company's net revenues in that quarter alone.
"Our performance was driven by the launch of Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria and continued sales of its top-selling PC game, Diablo III, as well as Activision Publishing’s new entertainment property, Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure, and sales of titles in the Call of Duty franchise," said Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick.
Kotick said that based on digital and retail sales in North America and Europe, Diablo III has become the top-selling game overall, selling in excess of 10 million copies. But he also added that the company will be cautious about 2013 given "a continuingly challenged global economy, the ongoing console transition and very difficult year-over-year comparables due to Blizzard’s record-shattering Diablo III sales in 2012."
Later during a conference call Wednesday afternoon, CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed that an expansion pack for the popular action-RPG PC game is in the works, but he wouldn't provide an expected release window. It's quite possible that the company is shooting for a summer release in order to keep the revenue equal or better than 2012's numbers, but that may be pushed back until the second installment of StarCraft II is released.
On that note, Blizzard head Mike Morhaime told investors during the conference call that the the company is pushing to release the second installment to StarCraft II, Heart of the Swarm, during the first half of 2013. This new addition will reportedly add new social features, multiplayer progression, and several other improvements.
"We expect that over the long-term, we will maintain our leadership position as the world’s leading interactive entertainment company and continue to provide strong returns to our shareholders by delivering great games to audiences around the world," Kotick added.
During the financial results, Kotick also revealed that Mists of Pandaria sold through approximately 2.7 million copies in its first week of availability. The number of World of Warcraft subscribers has also (naturally) increased to more than ten million, up from the 9.1 million reported at the end of 2Q12 in August.
I wont be buying either expansion and I have a feeling I'm not alone; particularly concerning Diablo 3.
I wont be buying either expansion and I have a feeling I'm not alone; particularly concerning Diablo 3.
That's fairly bad however. 500 MP games means 2000 people in a game at any given time. If they sold 10 Million copies, this means they're running only 2 hundredths of a percent (0.02%) of their total sales and the way D3 was setup, they were s'posed to be making revenues from the RMAH. If only 2k people are playing at any given time, that's pretty damn lackluster.
And lets face it, Bretik wasn't far off the mark when he said that the present Blizzard people would end up failing. If only 0.02% of the total sales are still playing regularly after 6 months, and you compare that to the number of people that played Diablo and Diablo 2 up till recently, that's abyssmal with what the new team has done compared to the old team (that are now all over the place between Arena Net for GW and GW 2, Runic for TL and TL2, and even those that created Hellgate: London which ultimately failed as well).
I want to know where do you get that "better" drop because I'm getting &hity drop all the time every-time even with the NV at 5...I think that finishing D3 22 times and not getting a single set item or items that I can actually use is ridiculous. All the items I have I had to buy and that is the major issue with D3. Enough said.
SC2 is great and I still play it today since release. Cant wait for the swam.
It means the expansion will be out by next summer. The old excellence-1st regime is gone, replaced by greedy corporate types that won't tolerate a late release. These guys are all in for their stockholders......look for another release next May-June that players will pay to beta test AGAIN.
The number he's referring to indicates how many open games there are, games with less than 4 players in them. Once a game reaches 4 players, it's removed from the count. Considering whenever I open a game to the public it fills about instantly, 500 open games seems like it means a whole lot of people are playing the game. Also, that number only shows open games for your current region.
That's only taking public games into account, the vast majority of players play solo or with friends.
Shame on a for-profit company for making money? Ha Ha Ha Ha... funniest thing i read all week. Thanks Bro, you just made my day