Interesting facts about how the game's huge success has surprised Blizzard.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/techn ... rr.html?th
I like this part:
Most of the senior people at Blizzard seem to agree on the moment they realized that World of Warcraft had taken on a life of its own.
It was in the evening, right before the game was formally released on Nov. 23. Blizzard had arranged for producers and designers to sign copies of the game at midnight at a hangar-size Fry's Electronics outlet in Fountain Valley, not far from Blizzard's base in Irvine, 40 miles south of Los Angeles. The company had set up a similar signing for an earlier strategy game, Warcraft III, and about 700 people showed up. Planning optimistically, the company had about 2,500 copies of World of Warcraft on hand.
"So I planned to roll over there around 11 p.m., and as I tried to get off the freeway I look over and I see this gigantic, dark, surging mass around Fry's, and I'm like, 'What in the world is that?' " said Paul Sams, 34, Blizzard's senior vice president for business operations. It turned out that the pulsing was more than 5,000 people.
"The cars were backed up on the off-ramp," he said. "I parked like a mile away, and when I get there the line is looped around the building, and then looped around the parking lot. It was like a football tailgate, with the R.V.'s and barbecues in the lot and everything."
Current numbers:
It was 4:33 p.m. Thursday, and 263,863 people were reaching through cyberspace to explore the sprawling World of Warcraft.
It appears that World of Warcraft is on a pace to generate at least $200 million in subscription revenue this year, in addition to more than $50 million in retail sales.
Wish they had public stock. I would buy some now.
[WoW] Newspaper Article
Moderators: LawBeefaroni, Arcanis, $iljanus
-
\/\/olverine
- Posts: 263
- Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:43 pm
- Location: Cali
-
noxiousdog
- Posts: 24627
- Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:27 pm
- Contact:
Re: [WoW] Newspaper Article
They do. Vivendi UniversalTorfish wrote:
Wish they had public stock. I would buy some now.
Black Lives Matter
"To wield Grond, the mighty hammer of the Federal Government, is to be intoxicated with power beyond what you and I can reckon (though I figure we can ball park it pretty good with computers and maths). Need to tunnel through a mountain? Grond. Kill a mighty ogre? Grond. Hangnail? Grond. Spider? Grond (actually, that's a legit use, moreso than the rest)." - Peacedog
"To wield Grond, the mighty hammer of the Federal Government, is to be intoxicated with power beyond what you and I can reckon (though I figure we can ball park it pretty good with computers and maths). Need to tunnel through a mountain? Grond. Kill a mighty ogre? Grond. Hangnail? Grond. Spider? Grond (actually, that's a legit use, moreso than the rest)." - Peacedog
-
Reed
- Posts: 100
- Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 5:14 pm
- Contact:
Re: [WoW] Newspaper Article
Well, not really, since Blizzard is just a small part of VU. With that you're mostly buying into tv/movies, music and telecom.noxiousdog wrote:They do. Vivendi UniversalTorfish wrote:
Wish they had public stock. I would buy some now.