Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
Do you think the SC2 business model will succeed enough to warrant Blizzard to continue producing RTS games instead of the WoW model that made them who they are today? SC2 just got delayed further which means more time paying staff on the game and more money into the project. This could happens to the next expansions further inflating the price of the franchise or Blizzard could rush the copy to shelves leaving us with a lower grade quality game. I'm hoping Blizzard isn't going to subizidze this with microtransactions or monthly subscription or something like "Battle.net gold, silver, bronze".
Then there's also the possibility that many fans won't want to buy into the next expansions. What will probably happen is that very few fans will buy into the 3rd expansion.
I just can't see Blizzard making another RTS to soon when there's something out there like WoW which is a cashcow
Re: Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
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Do you think the SC2 business model will succeed enough to warrant Blizzard to continue producing RTS games instead of the WoW model that made them who they are today?
Why would Blizzard stop making WoW stuff? This smacks of some ridiculous anti-WoW bias.
It's time to put this BS to rest: WoW isn't competing with SC2!!!!! Blizzard will make what the hell ever they want, and they will make it when the hell ever they want to.
That's what happens when every game you release sells like crazy.
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What will probably happen is that very few fans will buy into the 3rd expansion.
If you don't want to play multiplayer and don't like the story, this is possible. Otherwise, no.
Re: Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
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Originally Posted by
Hamshank
Do you think the SC2 business model will succeed enough to warrant Blizzard to continue producing RTS games instead of the WoW model that made them who they are today? SC2 just got delayed further which means more time paying staff on the game and more money into the project. This could happens to the next expansions further inflating the price of the franchise or Blizzard could rush the copy to shelves leaving us with a lower grade quality game. I'm hoping Blizzard isn't going to subizidze this with microtransactions or monthly subscription or something like "Battle.net gold, silver, bronze".
Then there's also the possibility that many fans won't want to buy into the next expansions. What will probably happen is that very few fans will buy into the 3rd expansion.
I just can't see Blizzard making another RTS to soon when there's something out there like WoW which is a cashcow
I doubt the expansions will have the same developement trouble because whats really holding the game back now is B.net. And I could care less if they did something extra with B.net, as long as I can play online for free its cool. Blizzards finances are fine, theyve been working on the game for 6 years. 2-4 more months wont kill them.
As far as buying the expansions, thats something only Blizzard has to worry about. Honestly, if WoW players can not only pay monthly fees, but buy 2-3 expansions for what I think is an average MMO, then people surely wont have a problem buying the SC2 trilogy. People only complain about that on the internet and the lack of LAN (not everyone, but most) because theyre cheap, and now they cant hack the game. But theyll turn around when the game comes out and be so happy with the first game theyll buy the expansions.
Also I agree with Nicol, the SC2 bussiness model and WoW bussiness model have nothing to do with eachother.
Re: Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
And they act like oh how expensive the stuff is then you see all of them got it without a problem as if they think it's supposed to sell for $19.99. Then these are the same guys that go out and buy $60 console games.
Re: Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
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Originally Posted by
Hamshank
Do you think the SC2 business model will succeed enough to warrant Blizzard to continue producing RTS games instead of the WoW model that made them who they are today?
I expect after StarCraft II and Diablo III come out, Blizzard might just do MMOs. They're a company, it makes sense to go toward the profit. However, Blizzard doesn't just make games for profits (there are three reasons to make games, and profit is only one of them), which is the only explanation I can see for how they can make Diablo III when WoW is still going strong.
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I'm hoping Blizzard isn't going to subizidze this with microtransactions or monthly subscription or something like "Battle.net gold, silver, bronze".
Battle.net will be free. Blizzard has repeatedly stated this. Paid DLC is more likely, not that Blizzard has said anything about that.
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Then there's also the possibility that many fans won't want to buy into the next expansions. What will probably happen is that very few fans will buy into the 3rd expansion.
Just like hardly anyone bought Brood War? Not likely. Some balance issue will crop up, and it'll only get fixed in an expansion, if worst comes to worse. Given that half of StarCraft I players don't even go on battle.net, but are instead playing StarCraft missions, I doubt Legacy of the Void could sell that badly. Not unless Wings of Liberty's campaign truly stunk.
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I just can't see Blizzard making another RTS to soon when there's something out there like WoW which is a cashcow
Ug.
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Originally Posted by Nicol Bolas
WoW isn't competing with SC2!!!!!
Yes it is; the competition is internal, however. Blizzard isn't so small anymore (much of it is just infrastructure to keep WoW going), but they still have limited resources. When they were working on the Burning Crusade's beta, they moved people off of StarCraft II for a while. People probably don't care, but one reason StarCraft: Ghost got canceled indefinitely postponed was because it kept losing resources to the other teams (WoW, StarCraft II, Diablo III).
Even now, WoW gets huge content patches every few months with lore, quests, art, and balance changes. Compare to the RTSes, that were lucky to get four maps a month and a few patches a year. I'd be delighted ... and incredibly surprised ... if StarCraft II got that kind of treatment.
From a strictly money-making point of view, it makes no sense to sell a product once to one group when you can sell another product twelve times a year to another group (even if those groups don't overlap). Blizzard could sell WoW DVDs for free and still make huge profits on WoW.
To answer the title question, sure, StarCraft II will succeed. It'll sell about 10 million copies, maybe more. It just doesn't look as good on the corporate balance sheet as 10 million WoW copies and 10 million accounts per month (a good fraction of which are paying $30 a month).
Re: Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
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Originally Posted by
Nicol Bolas
It's time to put this BS to rest: WoW isn't competing with SC2!!!!! Blizzard will make what the hell ever they want, and they will make it when the hell ever they want to.
That's a pretty short sighted statement. You bet your ass SC2 will compete with WoW. Sure they're different genres entirely, but it's safe to assume many people will abandon it in favor of a free SC2. In fact that game could very well be the incentive for people to finally quit the game which has been such a drain on their lives. Not everybody has time for multiple games as they get older, especially ones with ongoing fees in this economy.
Re: Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
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(a good fraction of which are paying $30 a month).
If they are, they're getting ripped off pretty badly. :P
The monthly fee started at 15$ (20 CDN) and it's gone down quite a bit since then. (They were talking about making it free? I think?)
Eh. StarCraft 2 won't compete much with WoW I don't think. It will as much as any video game does, but they're pretty different genres.
Re: Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
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Originally Posted by
Kimera757
It just doesn't look as good on the corporate balance sheet as 10 million WoW copies and 10 million accounts per month (a good fraction of which are paying $30 a month).
Since when are people paying $30 for a subscription to WoW?
Re: Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
This is a silly question.
Simply being a Blizzard game would be enough to net Starcraft 2 wild amounts of sales, making it a financial success.
Now add to that the fact that it is the sequel to Starcraft, one of the most successful competitive RTS in the past decade, and a solid candidate for best RTS ever, and it's pretty obvious that SC2 will sell a lot of copies.
If Dawn of War can sustain a community through however many freaking expansions it had, supported by a less wealthy and well known company than Blizzard, I have no doubt Starcraft 2 will remain wildly successful with each successive expansion.
People have been closely following Starcraft 2 since its announcement over 2 years ago, and are still anticipating its release even though beta and B.Net 2.0 details have yet to be released. Do you really doubt that SC2 will be a financial success?
Remember, all that has to happen for SC2 to be a success financially is for a ton of people to buy WoL when it first comes out, and for a significant portion of those people to buy the following expansions. It's more than a safe bet that will happen.
Re: Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?
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Originally Posted by
Kimera757
Yes it is; the competition is internal, however. Blizzard isn't so small anymore (much of it is just infrastructure to keep WoW going), but they still have limited resources. When they were working on the Burning Crusade's beta, they moved people off of StarCraft II for a while. People probably don't care, but one reason StarCraft: Ghost got canceled indefinitely postponed was because it kept losing resources to the other teams (WoW, StarCraft II, Diablo III).
Internal competition between WoW and SC2?? The cash cow of WoW is allowing Blizzard to take as many years as they need to make SC2 as great as possible.
WoW's success is a very good thing for SC and Diablo fans!
As for the original poster's question: the financial success of SC2 will be determined by how far they can take it as an E-Sport. With all games on B-Net, they will control all professional SC2 gaming all over the world. If SC2 breaks E-Sports into the mainstream then it could be making big money for many years after the final expansion.
