ldoublee

February 18th, 2010 at 4:31 PM ^

been out of the video games for awhile with a 1-year old and all. However, every time I think of Starcraft 2, it astounds me to think how ridiculously successful it was, and yet I was playing it 12 years ago when I was high school and college...and it's taken 12 f'n years for them to come out with the sequel. The amount of money that Blizzard leaves on the table is unreal. If the people who ran my company ran that one, there would be heads rolling.

ldoublee

February 18th, 2010 at 4:42 PM ^

Never heard of it...so you're reply is that a company that basically has its own printing press that makes money in the basement simply can't find time to work on 2 things at once? I'm glad pharmaceutical companies aren't run like this...

dococ23

February 18th, 2010 at 5:12 PM ^

blizzard has been successful for this exact strategy. while other companies in the industry have been failing to provide high quality games, relatively bug-free, because of the perceived need to push games out fast, Blizzard has always taken its time with its games - so not only is the product better, but they're able to maintain a high level of demand when the games are released. They've also been working on other stuff too, like Diablo III. They've chosen to focus on WoW for the past decade or so and I think they've done well for it.

I don't work for Blizzard or anything but they (and to a lesser extent Rockstar) are the one of the only major companies that I think get this right. EA, if they didn't have such a monopoly on every sport, would probably suffer more because their games are always filled with bugs.

enlightenedbum

February 18th, 2010 at 5:16 PM ^

Blizzard traditionally has two development teams: Blizzard proper, which makes the RTS and what used to be Blizzard North and makes Diablo stuff.

WoW kind of throws everything out though as MMOs are hugely ambitious and take a ton of time to develop, and then the hardware/patching issues after release. It was probably the company's one focus from six months after Frozen Throne was released until maybe The Burning Crusade's release date.

Now of course, they've hired a ton of people, and they have three projects going. Third WoW expansion pack, SC2 (which has been in development for a couple years), and Diablo 3 (again: couple years). Also, rumor has it, they have a successor to WoW in development but that's never quite been confirmed.

Of course, the other thing to note is that so many people still play (and buy) Starcraft that they didn't need to make a new one.

joeyb

February 18th, 2010 at 6:27 PM ^

Another thing that the others have mentioned is that you don't want competing games. You want to be releasing one hit as another has surpassed its peak. If they are making enough money from WOW (7.5 million active accounts * $13/month/account = $97,500,000/month, not to mention sales of the games), then why would they want to release the game and interrupt that. You wait until people are ready to move onto something else and you give them that something else.

CRex

February 18th, 2010 at 4:44 PM ^

Yeah, WoW has like 11.5 million active players, with an account costing 15 dollars a month.

11.5 million * 15/month * 12 months = 2.070 billion a year. That MMPORG has a bigger footprint than the econ of a number of countries in this world.

octal9

February 19th, 2010 at 3:11 PM ^

Not to take away from WoW's success (in fact, I'm still paying for two accounts), but their subscriptions have dropped quite a bit. The fact that there are MMOs that would kill to have the kind of subscription base WoW has *lost* simply speaks to its successes.

Additionally, not all subs are 15/month. Some are substantially lower (*if* I'm not mistaken, some of the Asian countries pay about 8/month).

Hannibal.

February 19th, 2010 at 3:24 PM ^

I think it's even less than that. The subscription model is different.

You know what's funny is that Activision/Blizzard has shown an operating loss the last two years. They sold about 9 trillion copies of Modern Warfare 2 and then there's WoW. On top of that, they still sell lots of copies of Warcraft III and the original Starcraft. Where the fuck is all that money going?

octal9

February 19th, 2010 at 3:27 PM ^

making up for almost all of the other crap Activision puts out. It's kind of like OSU's sports dept.

This is also why I think they'll keep WoW running as much as they realistically can until their next MMO - each expansion will pull some subscribers back, not to mention the instant boost they'll get from a $60 release.

The amount of infrastructure that they had to purchase for that game must have been insane though - there's no way they came close to imagining that type of success...

Hannibal.

February 19th, 2010 at 3:12 PM ^

The reason why they take so long is because Blizzard obsessively-compulsively refines and tweaks their games until they consider them to be perfect. They are the ultimate "when it's done" developer. Both Starcraft 2 and Diablo III were in development for years before they were announced. Starcraft 2 actually had videos shown off for it three years ago. Usually when you see gameplay videos, the game is coming in less than a year.

switch26

February 18th, 2010 at 4:34 PM ^

I didn't get in on the closed beta, but prob will on the open.. How'd you get lucky enough to get in on the closed? Usually you gotta get lucky as hell to get in on CLosed beta's from Blizzard

Big_G

February 18th, 2010 at 4:38 PM ^

Looks like I will have to check my email to see if I was lucky enough to get in. Just saw that the latest "estimate" (read:Guess) by Best Buy has this gem coming out in June of this year. We'll have to see.

WMUgoblue

February 18th, 2010 at 4:43 PM ^

Yes, its suppose to release in June, but after the Beta they are going to realize that they have 6 more months of bux fixes. Blizz never seems to drop their new games on the original release date. I would love it to drop early summer, but it just seems unlikely to me. By the way the battle.net looks much smoother than it used to be.

Big_G

February 18th, 2010 at 6:30 PM ^

I agree that the release date in June is just a guess by Best Buy. I wouldn't have a Blizzard game any other way. Probably why they consistently hit homeruns with games, they take their time rather than adhere to some timeline. Get it right before getting it right out there and patch it later (I'm looking at you EA...).

CRex

February 18th, 2010 at 4:41 PM ^

My girlfriend has the Beta and I think she's still playing it (lazy grad students). I'll check when I swap out the food IV tonight. I think her brother had it too, I heard a lot of screaming in Korean last night, so I assume the brother is the better of the two.

switch26

February 18th, 2010 at 4:43 PM ^

Well i know you had to of owned old copies of blizzard games and enter the cd key's on their site to get in. I was surprised when no one in a big group of people i play with didn't get in. boo

karpodiem

February 18th, 2010 at 8:00 PM ^

if anyone wants to, you know, reward me for capping and posting a significant number of Michigan football games on mgovideo, by letting me play a game or two on their account...

That would be awesomeeeeee.

jb5O4

February 18th, 2010 at 8:18 PM ^

We landed men on the moon in 8 years. A company should be able to get a game out bug free in a timely manner. BTW I love the Protoss. Which race do yall prefer?

octal9

February 19th, 2010 at 3:07 PM ^

dark swarm completely negates all of that. Combine it with an ultralisk or two and just an absolute swarm of zerglings and that D is toast.

Personally I'll take zerg just about any day. The balance of the game is built so well though that there's no clearly superior race; it's great.

octal9

February 19th, 2010 at 3:05 PM ^

Everyone I know seems to have an invite. Meanwhile, I'm left out in the cold. And it's a miserable, rainy cold.

I'll just have to wait until I get my job there and not have to worry about getting beta invites.

Hannibal.

February 19th, 2010 at 3:15 PM ^

I'm surprised more people aren't upset that they are splitting up the three campaigns into three games. They say that each game will have the content of a full one, but you won't get to experience two of the sides in a single player setting for a long time. Since the single player game helps teach newbies how to play each side, the multiplayer will be imbalanced until all three campaigns come out. Which campaign comes out first? I forget.