StarCraft II Releases Today; Analysts Shoot For 7 Million Sold This Year
It's been a long time coming, and we've been on the edges of our respective seats watching for news in the past, but the agonizing wait for StarCraft II is finally over. Last night at midnight, gamers worldwide started up their long road to Terran liberty in campaign mode--or jumped right into their qualifying matches for Blizzard's updated Battle.net ladders.
So, for a game whose first entry was twelve years ago, how does StarCraft II measure up? The original sold 11 million copies in its lifetime, which is impressive for a single release for any media. The projections for the sequel look very promising, however. As of earlier this week, VGChartz had counted up almost 800,000 preorders for the game, which beats out upcoming juggernauts like Madden, Halo, and Call of Duty. Activision-Blizzard are also feeling quite optimistic that StarCraft II will have some legs, as an analyst with Janco Partners estimates the game should sell 7 million copies this year alone.
While that does seem a touch high--the original was released in the heyday of PC gaming, and only reached 11 million sold after ten years--the advanced DRM offered by Battle.net and its Steam-like features may account for much of the optimism over this title. Since Blizzard required a unique Battle.net login just to vote on character designs last year, it's likely they have some pretty solid statistics about who all is interested in StarCraft II, and even LAN players will need unique copies. Interested parties also lined up worldwide, as many hundreds of stores held midnight launch events for the die-hard fans.
Did any of our dear readers make it out at midnight to experience Blizzard's latest opus as soon as possible? I know our forum crowd has quite a few upcoming Terran commanders, and gayjosh' StarCraft II thread is going strong with folks discussing the game and filling up their Battle.net Friendlists. If your affinity for RTS or campaign-based games is high--or if you just aim to see more gorgeous CG--then we'll look forward to seeing you online!
faePuck
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 27 July 2010
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: activision blizzard, forums, launch day, midnight launch, pc, sales estimates, starcraft 2, starcraft ii
I just spent literally all day playing this game, and I love it.
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