How Much Did Blizzard Spend On StarCraft II?
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty may top the chart as "most expensive game to develop."
So how much did it cost Blizzard to develop StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty over the last seven years? According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, the company has already dumped over $100 million into the highly-anticipated sci-fi RTS game, possibly making it one of the most expensive titles to date.
But the number shouldn't be surprising. Blizzard president Mike Morhaine said back in 2007--during the game's official unveiling--that the company really didn't have a budget to begin with. It seemed that an abundance of funds were on standby. "We'll spend as much time and resources as we need to make this game great," he said at the time.
Both Blizzard and analysts predict that consumers will quickly make up for the costs. "There is no shortage of consumers for StarCraft," said Kotick. "For a game that is more than ten years old, there's millions of people still playing it."
As for the analysts, they predict that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty could sell five million units during its first year of release. We predict that the number will be even greater.
As it stands, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will beat out the development budget set aside for Grand Theft Auto IV--an alleged 100 million. Red Dead Redemption was also said to rack in a development cost of $100 million.
Kotick didn't specify whether Battle.net was part of the $100 million spent on the StarCraft II project.
clearly this is going to be one of the best games in the genre and will be worth the money. I don't know why people complain that's it is 3 separate parts. It will be so much game content.
I wish people would understand what they read. Starcraft 2 is releasing with FULL multiplayer and editor capabilities along with a campaign that makes the original tremble. Why is there two more EXPANSIONS after it for the respective other races? So that each race gets a full story, a massive experience. If you just play multiplayer(as i know many do), then you won't have to buy the other installments.
Its like the difference between Warcraft III and its Frozen Throne expansion, little difference in that the campaigns simply focus on one race each with the others getting cameo missions.
Not going to buy it im afraid lack of lan play and stupid idea to split the game and monitise it even more, 1 lot of development money for 3 games then they will probably start charging for maps, Bobby Kotick biggest software destroyer on the planet, only worried about monitising the whole game experience they better not do this with diablo 3, ill seriously head hunt the guy.
so when the cracked LAN comes out your going to buy the game and then download the crack, or just not going to buy the game? weak.....
Blizzard use to be a great company, ever since Activision partnered with them, their game marketing and design has been all about maximum profits at the cost of game quality.
I'm not feeding the greed machine.
starcraft2 FAQ
The expansion sets will add new content to each race for use in multiplayer matches. This could include additions such as new units, abilities, and structures, along with new maps and Battle.net updates.
If I buy StarCraft II but don't buy any of the expansion sets, will I still be able to play online?
Yes. This will work similarly to Warcraft III and the original StarCraft, which maintained separate online gaming lobbies and ladders for expansion set players and players with the base Warcraft III or StarCraft.
Yes what you are getting is potentially a much more fulfilled single player experience, yet as of this time if you are serious about multi player you will have to buy each expansion and because Blizzard now requires their permission first before a SC2 tournament is held and the lack of lan the user will have to use their own account which they have all expansion to be able to compete in the tournament.
And there are three factions in Warcraft III so following your logic there would have to have been two expansions.
(P.S. They were doing fine before partnering with Activision)
Same mate, no LAN no LOVE~
PC game for 60 bucks is a lot for me
to the haters on multiple expantions... all blizzard games have expantions and so far they have at least to me been more than worth the money in entertainment value out of the box. i really don't think it'd be much different even if activition wasn't involved.
as for no lan... whiel this sucks i bet there will be cracks and i'll probably be installing this myself if it happens but until then its not goign to be that rediculous to stay connected to internet to lan. i mean i can play starcraft the origional on battlenet right now over a 3g phone connection tethered to a old laptop with 1 bar without lag so i think that part is seriously being blown out of proportion
Of course, if they don't make back their $100 mill (for some unforeseen reason, most likely involving Activision upper management), will they blame their own stupidity or piracy? "If only we had taken out the single player campaign, and forced everyone to play multiplayer on Battle.Net, we could have saved the company".
probably more than that but corporations have to justify the cost of everything they do, hence the hefty $60 price tag on this game which I will not pay. I'd pay 29 for it.