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they've got WoW. where are you getting these numbers? so long as there are 12 million players on WoW Blizzard isn't going anywhere.
if I'm Blizzard my real worry is the transition from WoW to Titan.
WoL was a good game. I bitch about it a lot and I think there's stuff that Blizzard could do better. However, to my knowledge WoL is the best RTS-to-date (other than BW).
Obviously BW is pretty tough to top (or impossible depending on your target audience). I'm not a micro-based player so War3 didn't suit me. I wouldn't fault people putting War3 and WoL neck-and-neck. I'll say I found a lot more enjoyment with WoL than WC3.
Anyway, Blizzard made some hiring and firing changes and I think that the company is working to try and gain momentum. I'm a huge fan of the SC2 Galaxy Editor because it lets me create awesome stuff. So I'm hoping one goal with Heart is to make the GE more user-friendly.
I dunno. I had a little bit of a backlash against Blizzard because they stopped churning out the titles. Looking at Blizzard's production cycle from the WC2 era onward to the WC3 era, and comparing that phase of the company's development against the productivity after WC3, I've been pretty disappointed. I guess part of this is the nature of the gaming industry. It's become more difficult to make games with the 3D revolution and gaming in general becoming more involved and complex.
TBH if we didn't have BW as a benchmark I think a lot of people would think of SC2 as a godsend. However, there are still a lot of features that could be improved where SC2 is concerned.
Monetarily, though, I think the success of future installments of SC2 are less important in the realm of game sales and more important in regenerating the company's reputation. I also think it's essential that there be some serious movements in the D3 group, because D3 failed to live up to Blizzard's standards. SC2 and D3 have been Blizzard's two major recent titles, and D3 is a flop. SC2 is a good game with a lot of potential; and of course Heart will determine the future of the SC2 line.
D3 needs to be taken apart and remade (hopefully with a different game engine); that's a story for another time though.
Anyway, Blizzard's future and monetary solvency will be a function of the next-gen MMO. That, in turn, is probably going to be a function of Blizzard's reputation (salvaging D3 and improving SC2). And of course the quality of the Titan project itself.
SC2 is a project that could go one way or another. If SC2 improves with a focus on top-level competitive play, then it's possible that SC2 could be the world's premiere ESPORT. SC2 certainly has the potential. The more influence SC2 acquires as an ESPORT, the better the launch potential for future Blizzard titles. Also, the longevity of SC2 will be a direct function of the game's success as an ESPORT. When I have time I hope to write some more about what I think would improve SC2 in terms of making the game a better spectator sport and competitive game.
edit: so no, I don't think Blizzard is failing all that hard. Yes, D3 was a bust, but so what? SC2 is a success, and Blizzard has WoW. So the company's not in any danger. If I'm Blizzard I don't start worrying unless Titan is a bust. Blizzard has a lot of pull with the MMO community from WoW's success, so they've got a good chance of a strong Titan launch.
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Zurich15306 Posts
HotS is coming out in March. Is is only the most natural and sensible thing to lower prices for WoL now. It really has nothing to do with "failing".
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D3 was terrible and deserved to fail. WoL has been out for years now. Other games after this amount of time would probably be up for $10 on Steam or something.
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The reason the are dropping their pants on WoL is because people who want to play HotS will also have to buy WoL and the two together will be the price of a full game. Blizzard is far from failing. i do get the feeling that HotS will sell more than WoL however.
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On November 21 2012 20:47 Mazaire wrote: The reason the are dropping their pants on WoL is because people who want to play HotS will also have to buy WoL and the two together will be the price of a full game. Blizzard is far from failing. i do get the feeling that HotS will sell more than WoL however.
explain me how an expansion which will require WoL to be played will be sold more than WoL.
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Guess I have to agree. Its marketing stuff.
I did a little research and most of other games have similar prices too.
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I just found out...this discount pricing is due to the US Black Friday sale period. They're dropping prices on all their games until November 26th.
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On November 21 2012 20:47 Mazaire wrote: The reason the are dropping their pants on WoL is because people who want to play HotS will also have to buy WoL and the two together will be the price of a full game. Blizzard is far from failing. i do get the feeling that HotS will sell more than WoL however.
Not to mention, the game has been out for a couple years now, and the general trend is games drop in prices. However they won't sell that many copies either because people who want to play sc 2 likely already have it. It is not like they put ads on tv for the game like they do for Black ops and halo. Heck, seeing ads for black ops 2 all day while watching football on sunday before it came out made me go out and buy it after college.
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People have a really crazy view on Blizzard and what failure is. D3 sold 6.8 million in the first week of sales. That is more than the first week of Halo 4, which sold 3.8 million. Unless Halo 4 is a failure,(which it is not), then people have warped sense of reality based on their own impressions and to much time on TL. None moves PC games like Blizzard, period. You will be hard pressed to find anyone with similar numbers making games only for the PC.
All of these sales are year end, holiday sales which have nothing to do with Blizzard. If anything, retailers are looking to dump stock on items that are not moving.
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On November 22 2012 02:19 Plansix wrote:
All of these sales are year end, holiday sales which have nothing to do with Blizzard. If anything, retailers are looking to dump stock on items that are not moving.
This.
a lot of my friends were calling Diablo 3 a "massive failure" because Toys R Us was selling the game for $10. What they didn't realize is that the company was liquidating all of their PC games, which meant MW3, Skyrim, SC2 and a few other PC games were also being sold for extremely low prices.
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They are failing hard when it comes to the quality of games, that's for sure. Unfortunately, everyone will buy the turd that is hots and Blizzard will keep shitting dem turds out.
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Blizzard are still making a disgusting amount of money. It's not even funny.
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On November 22 2012 15:42 Animzor wrote: They are failing hard when it comes to the quality of games, that's for sure. Unfortunately, everyone will buy the turd that is hots and Blizzard will keep shitting dem turds out.
Ah a sc2 hater who has no idea what he's talking about. Just because you don't find their recent games fun doesn't mean their games are shit.
sc2 is a good game, one of the best if not the best rts made in the past few years. D3 wasn't as great but it wasn't awful like you think.
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On November 22 2012 17:06 blade55555 wrote:sc2 is a good game, one of the best if not the best rts made in the past few years.
Well, personally I disagree with that. There are a few games in the past 5 years or so that have brought much more to the table than SC2 has. All SC2 has going for it are the number of dollars thrown into eSprouts and the hype that that has generated.
Not to mention the terminal decline the RTS genre seems to be in. Excuse me but I'd rather play more interesting games like WiC or DoW2. 1997 wants its game back!
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On November 21 2012 21:00 sAsImre wrote:Show nested quote +On November 21 2012 20:47 Mazaire wrote: The reason the are dropping their pants on WoL is because people who want to play HotS will also have to buy WoL and the two together will be the price of a full game. Blizzard is far from failing. i do get the feeling that HotS will sell more than WoL however. explain me how an expansion which will require WoL to be played will be sold more than WoL.
He means that compared to the amount of copies of WoL sold right now, HotS will sell more since people will get WoL just to play HotS.
My friend for example doesn't have WoL yet but wants to pick up SC when Swarm comes out, so this trend is good for him since he needs to only shell out sixty bucks for both games.
I'd say it's a pretty good deal. What does that amount to, 49 campaign missions now? WoL's story wasn't too bad and had a decent amount of replayability and hopefully Swarm's impresses. Add in all the good stuff they keep promising us in the expansion and it's definitely worth the money to get both for either casual or seasoned RTS player.
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