I would also be interested to see the breakdown by region. D3 was a huge disappointment to me because of the lack of item difference. You basically find blue or yellow items with essentially the same stat variation and build composition and D2 was so much more. D3 has been wildly successful in game sales by pirating the name recognition and delivering a crappy game, and by the time D4 comes out in 20 years I won't be around to remember how bad the last game was.
Originally posted by sammandar It always never ceases to amaze me how we continue to judge the quality of a game by how many copies it sells. Just because something sells very well does not make it worth the purchase.
Agreed.
I include myself in the "sucker" category unfortunately. The game is pure garbage.
Correct me if I'm wrong (I am regularly), but weren't you bashing this game all the way back in beta? Why did you buy it?
If that is the case;
More often than not, people only have themselves to blame, but never do.
Diablo 3 was like the biggest con job ever with their RMAH and bad design mechanics. Sure alot played it at launch but i highly doubt 10 million of those sales are still playing after the bad taste it left in so many players.
blizz tried there best to get more person playing D3 and as such the Ah was born because it offers a path to least frustration from there messed up loot algorithm (which they themselves said its not good)..
RMAH is a tiny hinderance if any at all (who is gonna argue against the chance of making real money in a game)..
Torchlight 2 testing has been more fun & rewarding than D3 inferno mode.. Maybe blizz can look at that any try to copy there style and make D3 xpac fun...
Activision Blizzard has three central franchises: Call of Duty, Warcraft, and - now - Diablo.
The problem that the company has is that its impressive cashflow is almost entirely dependent on World of Warcraft. Without World of Warcraft, it will be lossing almost 60% of its earnings. Not even the behemoth (and flagging) franchise that is Call of Duty can keep up with the amount of money Blizzard makes through subscriptions in a year.
I disagree
Blizzard doubled their profits last year -- and it was not due to WOW subs
Call of Duty made them a boatload of cash
Activision Blizzard posts $1 billion profit in 2011
day, Activision Blizzard reported its fiscal 2011 earnings report, and the success of the first-person shooter franchise helped propel the company to record profits of $1.08 billion on revenues of $4.76 billion. That's a significant improvement over 2010, when profits were $418 million on revenues of $4.45 billion.
Blizzard doubled their profits, and it was not due to WoW subs, last year?
Then what was it due to?
Diablo 3 released this year, so it wasn't due to that. StarCraft 2 was considered a financial failure internally (a friend of mine who worked on their Mobile Apps team as a Producer told me that the atmosphere after SC2 released was near-palpable), and based on external figures it wasn't due to that.
So... how did they increase their financial earnings by double last year if not through WoW subs? You must be suggesting that their vanity pet sales through the Blizzard Store did that, if not WoW.
As a point, by "WoW subs" I am of course including expansion sales. Perhaps "WoW subs" is misleading. I should have said: "Activision Blizzard are reliant on World of Warcraft sales and subs".
I find people are going rough against this game. I am in the lot, I bough the game , i beat it to inferno act2, then I hated the act1 grinding and stopped played, I haven't logged since. BUT , I did spent over 90-100h on the game. I buy almost all the new game that releases and compared to a lot of them, I did play a lot. So it was worth my money.
I think everyone just over-hyped the game, it IS a good game because it managed to have me be enjoyed for 100hours, that is enough for me, even most of the RPG that I play on console doesnt even last me that long now..
I'm sad that the game is nothing compared to what I expected from Blizzard, but it's still a good game. Most of us probably spent 80+hours on the game, and we probably all reached inferno, so the game did "sort of" good at least..
I find people are going rough against this game. I am in the lot, I bough the game , i beat it to inferno act2, then I hated the act1 grinding and stopped played, I haven't logged since. BUT , I did spent over 90-100h on the game. I buy almost all the new game that releases and compared to a lot of them, I did play a lot. So it was worth my money.
I think everyone just over-hyped the game, it IS a good game because it managed to have me be enjoyed for 100hours, that is enough for me, even most of the RPG that I play on console doesnt even last me that long now..
I'm sad that the game is nothing compared to what I expected from Blizzard, but it's still a good game. Most of us probably spent 80+hours on the game, and we probably all reached inferno, so the game did "sort of" good at least..
Why shouldn't they go rough at it. Blizzard had the game for like 8+ years and this is what we got ? Pathetic is the word that comes to mind.
Originally posted by Souldrainer Diablo 3: 8 million copies to asian gold farmers. 2 million copies to gamers elsewhere. 500K people still playing. The hype machine is brilliant!
Pretty much this, would be great to know how many of the 10 mill are from the Asian Market, probably 80% or more like it is in WoW.
As far i am concerned this game is nothing but a RMT money making scam, with rigged loot tables to encourage spending real money. It was just the most exspensive pc game i ever bought 60 euro, pc games have rarely been over 30 ever. Never touching a blizzard product again.
The Juggernauts Activision Blizzard confirmed a widely-held belief in revealing that Call of Duty: Black Ops was the best-selling title across all platforms in the US and Europe for the first three quarters of 2011. The publisher didn’t supply numbers, but Ubisoft did – Black Ops has moved 15 million units, about three times as many as its closest competitor, Just Dance 2.
Black Ops players have logged over 2.8 billion hours of online play. In terms of player numbers, Black Ops pulled 29% more unique users in its first eleven months than Modern Warfare 2.
Hirshberg noted that over 20 million Call of Duty map packs have been sold, and that taken collectively, Call of Duty map packs are the third best selling title of 2011 so far.
..
World of Warcraft subscriptions also took a hit, dropping by around 800,000 to 10.3 million. Morhaime said most of the losses were in “the East”, but said World of Warcraft remains the most popular online game in China and the most popular subscription MMO in the world.
Originally posted by sammandar It always never ceases to amaze me how we continue to judge the quality of a game by how many copies it sells. Just because something sells very well does not make it worth the purchase.
Agreed.
I include myself in the "sucker" category unfortunately. The game is pure garbage.
Correct me if I'm wrong (I am regularly), but weren't you bashing this game all the way back in beta? Why did you buy it?
Like I said, I'm in the "sucker" category. I loved D2 so much that I went stupid and bought the game even though I knew it was crap. I've played D2 for thousands of hours over the years, by far more than any other game, so even though I knew the game sucked from beta I played the sucker role perfectly.
Hard lesson learned and I'm getting to the point of hating games in general. The majority of current developers are idiots and have no clue how to make a good game, all they care about is money.
Blizzard can take a flying leap for all I care. A once great and respected company in my book has now turned to crap.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Dont forget people, its a Business, and its succesfull! Its made good returns on investments for blizzard and is still making more. All to often , we as gamers, forget gaming is a business about making money, not about who makes they best games, thou both of those should be together, they seldom are.
Originally posted by sammandar It always never ceases to amaze me how we continue to judge the quality of a game by how many copies it sells. Just because something sells very well does not make it worth the purchase.
Its a crazy mixed bag of a game.
It actually gets the gameplay right. But misses everywhere else.
But as I always say - gameplay is most important piece of the game. If you have that, all else can be repaired or improved.
So goes with D3. It can actually still be a great game if Blizzard makes some changes.
Question is : do they want to ? Or are they just content with 10 million copies sold , and leave it at that ?
Originally posted by k-damage Yes, yes. But how many did stay ... ?
Diablo 3 is not a MMO, it is a Multiplayer game.
Its job was to sell boxes not subscriptions, and it did
Good on Blizzard, huge success.................crap game though
Yet, when you have a good reputation, people buys everything (me included).
Not so sure about the next tme though..................
What part of the game was "crap" ?
Movement?
Combat?
UI?
Class diversity?
Graphics?
Too easy? Too hard?
How many hours did you play before you came to your conclusion that it was a crap game?
Was it a crap game before you came to this conclusion?
What did you think of the game before it became a crap game?
Did you come to this conclusion on your own, or was it from reading other people's comments and complaints?
For me:
Movement: standard ARPG style.
Combat: standard:
UI: standard
Class diversity: below par. Titan Quest did it better.
Graphics: Ok. Titan Quest did as good a job.
Difficulty: Ok.
However, none of the above actually pins down why Diablo 3 was a let down for me personally.
For me, it was the fact that the content quantity and quality was lacking. The second and third acts ended way too soon, and the game relies on players doing the harder modes to take them to top level.
Originally posted by sammandar It always never ceases to amaze me how we continue to judge the quality of a game by how many copies it sells. Just because something sells very well does not make it worth the purchase.
Question is : do they want to ? Or are they just content with 10 million copies sold , and leave it at that ?
I believe their post-release patch history answers that one.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
Originally posted by sammandar It always never ceases to amaze me how we continue to judge the quality of a game by how many copies it sells. Just because something sells very well does not make it worth the purchase.
Its a crazy mixed bag of a game.
It actually gets the gameplay right. But misses everywhere else.
But as I always say - gameplay is most important piece of the game. If you have that, all else can be repaired or improved.
So goes with D3. It can actually still be a great game if Blizzard makes some changes.
Question is : do they want to ? Or are they just content with 10 million copies sold , and leave it at that ?
As is always the case with Blizzard, they are lazy and will only just do enough work to make a profit, and no more. They don't like to over-exert themselves if they don't have to.
This is why WoW has plodded along in terms of development and yet, still continues to dominate. And until a competitor actually manages to do a decent job of an MMO, Blizzard will not actually try to be innovative or evolutionary is any way.
Blizzards moto: "If it ain't broke: don't fix it."
I bought it, I bought starcraft2 as well, skyrim, swtor. Skyrim is the best game out of those four even though its singleplayer, I currently play wow, getting ready to jump ship to GW2, I'm on my last leg I think when it comes to new releases, they are just dissapointing. Burnt on D3, burnt on starcraft, burnt on swtor. I just hope GW2 is fun, I'm not even thinking about what blizz will have next, they have one good game wow, the other two not so good. All these overhyped titles and dissapointments have made me gun shy on buying any game anymore except wow expansions.
For me, it was the fact that the content quantity and quality was lacking. The second and third acts ended way too soon, and the game relies on players doing the harder modes to take them to top level.
I agree the 3rd and 4th Acts were too short. Especially Act 4.
However, I disagree that the content quality was lacking, but that is a matter of personal opinion. I liked the cheesy story, the cut-scenes, and pretty much everything about the gameplay itself.
As for content quantity, perhaps I play slow, but it took me anywhere from 25 to 30 hours on normal difficulty to beat the game. I was level 32 or 33 on each class I played through. I did all optional dungeons and fully cleared each map. I also did not buy anything off the AH.
If what I did was how the gameplay was supposed to be, then I think that is plenty of content (25-30 hours) for a single playthrough.
Diablo 3 released this year, so it wasn't due to that. StarCraft 2 was considered a financial failure internally (a friend of mine who worked on their Mobile Apps team as a Producer told me that the atmosphere after SC2 released was near-palpable), and based on external figures it wasn't due to that.
Wait, Starcraft 2 was a financial failure? I didn't know that. Got any links?
Comments
If that is the case;
More often than not, people only have themselves to blame, but never do.
Grim Dawn, the next great action rpg!
http://www.grimdawn.com/
blizz tried there best to get more person playing D3 and as such the Ah was born because it offers a path to least frustration from there messed up loot algorithm (which they themselves said its not good)..
RMAH is a tiny hinderance if any at all (who is gonna argue against the chance of making real money in a game)..
Torchlight 2 testing has been more fun & rewarding than D3 inferno mode.. Maybe blizz can look at that any try to copy there style and make D3 xpac fun...
Blizzard doubled their profits, and it was not due to WoW subs, last year?
Then what was it due to?
Diablo 3 released this year, so it wasn't due to that. StarCraft 2 was considered a financial failure internally (a friend of mine who worked on their Mobile Apps team as a Producer told me that the atmosphere after SC2 released was near-palpable), and based on external figures it wasn't due to that.
So... how did they increase their financial earnings by double last year if not through WoW subs? You must be suggesting that their vanity pet sales through the Blizzard Store did that, if not WoW.
As a point, by "WoW subs" I am of course including expansion sales. Perhaps "WoW subs" is misleading. I should have said: "Activision Blizzard are reliant on World of Warcraft sales and subs".
Anyway... you were saying?
I find people are going rough against this game. I am in the lot, I bough the game , i beat it to inferno act2, then I hated the act1 grinding and stopped played, I haven't logged since. BUT , I did spent over 90-100h on the game. I buy almost all the new game that releases and compared to a lot of them, I did play a lot. So it was worth my money.
I think everyone just over-hyped the game, it IS a good game because it managed to have me be enjoyed for 100hours, that is enough for me, even most of the RPG that I play on console doesnt even last me that long now..
I'm sad that the game is nothing compared to what I expected from Blizzard, but it's still a good game. Most of us probably spent 80+hours on the game, and we probably all reached inferno, so the game did "sort of" good at least..
Diablo 3 is not a MMO, it is a Multiplayer game.
Its job was to sell boxes not subscriptions, and it did
Good on Blizzard, huge success.................crap game though
Yet, when you have a good reputation, people buys everything (me included).
Not so sure about the next tme though..................
Why shouldn't they go rough at it. Blizzard had the game for like 8+ years and this is what we got ? Pathetic is the word that comes to mind.
Grim Dawn, the next great action rpg!
http://www.grimdawn.com/
Pretty much this, would be great to know how many of the 10 mill are from the Asian Market, probably 80% or more like it is in WoW.
you probably didnt even read the article -- Call of Duty was the reason for the booming success ActivBlizzard had last year
a reminder from Q3 2011, increased Profits announced, WOW loses subs
http://www.vg247.com/2011/11/08/activision-blizzard-q3-digital-revenue-up-25-ytd/
The Juggernauts
Activision Blizzard confirmed a widely-held belief in revealing that Call of Duty: Black Ops was the best-selling title across all platforms in the US and Europe for the first three quarters of 2011. The publisher didn’t supply numbers, but Ubisoft did – Black Ops has moved 15 million units, about three times as many as its closest competitor, Just Dance 2.
Black Ops players have logged over 2.8 billion hours of online play. In terms of player numbers, Black Ops pulled 29% more unique users in its first eleven months than Modern Warfare 2.
Hirshberg noted that over 20 million Call of Duty map packs have been sold, and that taken collectively, Call of Duty map packs are the third best selling title of 2011 so far.
..
World of Warcraft subscriptions also took a hit, dropping by around 800,000 to 10.3 million. Morhaime said most of the losses were in “the East”, but said World of Warcraft remains the most popular online game in China and the most popular subscription MMO in the world.
EQ2 fan sites
Like I said, I'm in the "sucker" category. I loved D2 so much that I went stupid and bought the game even though I knew it was crap. I've played D2 for thousands of hours over the years, by far more than any other game, so even though I knew the game sucked from beta I played the sucker role perfectly.
Hard lesson learned and I'm getting to the point of hating games in general. The majority of current developers are idiots and have no clue how to make a good game, all they care about is money.
Blizzard can take a flying leap for all I care. A once great and respected company in my book has now turned to crap.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
What part of the game was "crap" ?
Movement?
Combat?
UI?
Class diversity?
Graphics?
Too easy? Too hard?
How many hours did you play before you came to your conclusion that it was a crap game?
Was it a crap game before you came to this conclusion?
What did you think of the game before it became a crap game?
Did you come to this conclusion on your own, or was it from reading other people's comments and complaints?
Anyone have a link for actual copies sold?
Might be difficult with ppls buying through bnet though.
a link is in the ops post
http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=697761
doubt you will find a better source than that
EQ2 fan sites
Its a crazy mixed bag of a game.
It actually gets the gameplay right. But misses everywhere else.
But as I always say - gameplay is most important piece of the game. If you have that, all else can be repaired or improved.
So goes with D3. It can actually still be a great game if Blizzard makes some changes.
Question is : do they want to ? Or are they just content with 10 million copies sold , and leave it at that ?
For me:
Movement: standard ARPG style.
Combat: standard:
UI: standard
Class diversity: below par. Titan Quest did it better.
Graphics: Ok. Titan Quest did as good a job.
Difficulty: Ok.
However, none of the above actually pins down why Diablo 3 was a let down for me personally.
For me, it was the fact that the content quantity and quality was lacking. The second and third acts ended way too soon, and the game relies on players doing the harder modes to take them to top level.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
I believe their post-release patch history answers that one.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
As is always the case with Blizzard, they are lazy and will only just do enough work to make a profit, and no more. They don't like to over-exert themselves if they don't have to.
This is why WoW has plodded along in terms of development and yet, still continues to dominate. And until a competitor actually manages to do a decent job of an MMO, Blizzard will not actually try to be innovative or evolutionary is any way.
Blizzards moto: "If it ain't broke: don't fix it."
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
I agree the 3rd and 4th Acts were too short. Especially Act 4.
However, I disagree that the content quality was lacking, but that is a matter of personal opinion. I liked the cheesy story, the cut-scenes, and pretty much everything about the gameplay itself.
As for content quantity, perhaps I play slow, but it took me anywhere from 25 to 30 hours on normal difficulty to beat the game. I was level 32 or 33 on each class I played through. I did all optional dungeons and fully cleared each map. I also did not buy anything off the AH.
If what I did was how the gameplay was supposed to be, then I think that is plenty of content (25-30 hours) for a single playthrough.
Wait, Starcraft 2 was a financial failure? I didn't know that. Got any links?