Starcraft cost 100+ million

[thedeparted]

Game developers at Blizzard Entertainment have been putting the finishing touches on “Starcraft II,” a sequel to a science-fiction strategy game that was first released 12 years ago.

Although videogame sales are in a slump, expectations for “Starcraft II” are high. Blizzard’s parent company, Activision Blizzard (ATVI), has spent more than $100 million developing the computer-based game.

Analysts expect it will sell several million units globally this year, giving a profit boost to Activision’s bottom line.

“There is no shortage of consumers for ‘Starcraft’,” Activision Chief Executive Bobby Kotick said in an interview last month. “For a game that is more than 10 years old, there’s millions of people still playing it.”



lots of money but they'll make it back in no time

[Ilyich Valken]

Oh yeah. They'll probably make that if not more within the first week or so of SC2's release, easily. The only thing that pisses me off is that Activision and that jackhole Kotick will find some way to make money out of screwing people over.

[EpsilonX]

Hopefully my computer can run this, lol.

When do the Protoss and Zerg games come out?

[thedeparted]

Oh yeah. They'll probably make that if not more within the first week or so of SC2's release, easily. The only thing that pisses me off is that Activision and that jackhole Kotick will find some way to make money out of screwing people over.

what is battlenet? cause people on neogaf were mentioning that to recoup costs as well

[Ilyich Valken]

what is battlenet? cause people on neogaf were mentioning that to recoup costs as well

Battle.net is the severs that Blizzard has up for Diablo 2 (I'm not sure if they're used for Starcraft or anything else) but they are entirely free, at least last I knew. But as I said, Kotick will try and stiff the consumer somehow, the money hungry bastard he is.

[BocReaper]

Battle net is the current set up they use for their online stuff. The RealID system (fail as it shows real names) is an update to it to make battle.net expand to all their games so you can chat across them. As for SC II, Im totally getting it. I've been waiting 12 years for this.

[EpsilonX]

Battle.net is the severs that Blizzard has up for Diablo 2 (I'm not sure if they're used for Starcraft or anything else) but they are entirely free, at least last I knew. But as I said, Kotick will try and stiff the consumer somehow, the money hungry bastard he is.

it works for diablo 2, warcraft 3, starcraft, and diablo 1 as well.

[BobTD]

what is battlenet? cause people on neogaf were mentioning that to recoup costs as well

Battle.net is not only the name they used for the online servers for games that are still supported today such as Diablo, Diablo2, Starcraft, and warcraft (and it should be noted that they did a good job maintaining these over the last decade) but what its really about is this:

The new and improved Battle.net is their attempt to plug into the largest pool of untaped gamers ever conceived. China. Who currently has no copyright laws protecting games. This essentially means that any game not heavily tied to a main server (such as an MMO, more specifically micro transactions MMO type game) is pirated and no legit copies are sold.

China is a large chunck of the world population, and people mostly play bootlegged games there. The new Battle.net is most likely a server system that will be complicated enough to prevent most others from providing hacked servers for some time to come. With enough progressive unlocks and embedded social networking to keep players tied to the legit system.

The original Starcrafts popularity in asia/southeast asia is astounding. Entire tv channels and millions of fans devoted to it. Blockbuster doesn't sum it up. But its rampant success has not turned a profit for blizzard. Its to easily bootlegged with more then enough tech support for entire nations to play on pirate servers.

Essentially, whats at stake for blizzard is doubling their mountain of gold more then a few times over. They are already wealthier than many small nations after so many years of 11 million+ people paying $15 monthly. But if the new battle.net gets people to buy authentic product in the video game black market empire, they win the game.

[EpsilonX]

and how do they plan to go about that? require you to pay to play?

[BobTD]

and how do they plan to go about that? require you to pay to play?

No thats the model most game are moving away from. The games are most likely going to feature achievements and all kinds of profile awards to keep people tied to the legit system. Its not an MMO so it cant use a micro transaction system, but if any company wants to see its games sell legit they need a gameplan. Blizzards was to have a multi game profile for its future games all tied to its new and hopefully very secure blizzard.net setup.

[brad ltd]

isit actualy worth it ? iv neva played it

[Kenoi]

daaang, 100 million? thats crazy...

I bet the this game is just endless pages of programming code... thats probably why its so expensive to make. Especially the graphics. I thought I was playing Red dead redemption for a moment... (cut scene somewhere in the beginning)

[woodrolf]

u r right.they make a pile of money thru game

[ViciousGamer04]

They could make that back in a week or two. That's actually much lower then I thought it would be.

[LemonRising]

No doubt they'll be making it back. And I can't wait to get it myself.

I like the idea of the new battle.net system. Haven't used it yet but I imagine its good****. And its gotta be if they want the blackmarket crowd hahaa

[Raoul]

Buying Starcraft 2 is really worth it the game is awesome and the graphics looks really very beautiful I am happy I bought this game.;-)