Can the Starcraft 2 Franchise succeed financially?

[RODTHEGOD]

SC2 will sell and make a profit. Is there really any question to it?

[Nicol Bolas]

I expect after StarCraft II and Diablo III come out, Blizzard might just do MMOs.

No way. Blizzard is pushing the eSports angle of SC2 hard. They wouldn't be doing that unless they thought they could profit by it.

Their goal with SC2 is to run SC2 tournaments. Tournament sponsers, selling the rights to TV stations, that sort of thing. If they can replicate a portion of the Korean success of SC1 in the rest of the world, SC2 tournaments will be very lucrative for them.

When they were working on the Burning Crusade's beta, they moved people off of StarCraft II for a while.

Yes. And you'll notice that they haven't announced a new WoW expansion. Maybe that's because the people working on it were absorbed into D3 and SC2.

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).

That makes no sense. Ghost was being developed outside of Blizzard. It couldn't possibly lose resources to other teams when they're being developed by another company.

Sure they're different genres entirely, but it's safe to assume many people will abandon it in favor of a free SC2.

That's highly unlikely. The kind of gameplay that the casual WoW player likes (to the extent that they like WoW gameplay at all instead of just socializing) is nothing like SC2. Even casual SC2.

[Kimera757]

That makes no sense. Ghost was being developed outside of Blizzard. It couldn't possibly lose resources to other teams when they're being developed by another company.

Blizzard bought Swingin' Ape.

And see Mike Morhaime say the same thing here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=AU&h...&v=2ka9Cy06N28

[Xyvik]

Yes. And you'll notice that they haven't announced a new WoW expansion. Maybe that's because the people working on it were absorbed into D3 and SC2.

I will fully expect you to eat your words and grovel appropriately when the new WoW expansion is announced at BlizzCon.

SC2 will sell millions, but it won't sell as much as WoW. Maybe they'll do what they should have done instead of WoW and make an MMO based on StarCraft...? Who knows.

[Aldrius]

Who knows how SC2 will sell. Blizzard seems to be trying to get EVERYONE to play this game.

[The_Blade]

Actually WoW will face a, more direct, conflict with the new MMO Blizzard is making in probably 5 years.

Starcraft for sure will take ppl from WoW and it will sell tons of copies, but it won't produce as much money as wow did. Still, ppl we have to take into consideration that WoW is falling slowler than a regular game. If we speak about money there will be a point in which the new MMO will pay for WoW's servers, rather than wow itself.

[Hamshank]

Not only is WoW competing with SC2 internally it's also competing with WoW in how much money the franchise can produce. Just as a Panasonic toaster oven isn't competing with a Panasonic Television if the Television is a really good market for them they may stop making toaster ovens if they don't perform as well. Will SC2 make as much and as long as a sustainable profit as WoW? I think that's answerable now, no. People are paying the same price to play WoW monthly as they were 4 years ago. SC2 will make profit early on but it will dwindle out later. Blizzard is not stupid and it will try and pull some extra money out of it. I'm hoping that's only with expansions which is enough to bother a lot of people -- but we'll see.

By the third game you have to realize the engine isn't going to be as cool. (You realize the engine isn't top of the line right now) The third expansion will be released somewhere around 2012-2013. How's the technology going to look then compared to up and coming RTS that are just being developed now. Is the story hook and killer gameplay going to keep all of the customers? No, people will move away to newer and "hotter" games.

[Aldrius]

People are paying the same price to play WoW monthly as they were 4 years ago.

No, they're not.

How's the technology going to look then compared to up and coming RTS that are just being developed now. Is the story hook and killer gameplay going to keep all of the customers? No, people will move away to newer and "hotter" games.

There's no telling whether it'll be popular or not. We first need to see how successful WoL is. If it's VERY successful, and starts getting people playing who don't normally play Strategy games, then it very well could be extraordinarily successful. If it doesn't, then the third expansion is almost guaranteed to still be successful.

[Nicol Bolas]

Blizzard is not stupid and it will try and pull some extra money out of it. I'm hoping that's only with expansions which is enough to bother a lot of people

Blizzard did not make the trilogy just to "pull some extra money" from SC2.

Will SC2 make as much and as long as a sustainable profit as WoW? I think that's answerable now, no.

SC2 was never going to make the kind of profit that WoW does. That's not why Blizzard decided to make it.

How's the technology going to look then compared to up and coming RTS that are just being developed now. Is the story hook and killer gameplay going to keep all of the customers? No, people will move away to newer and "hotter" games.

First, the technology that powers WoW is the same technology that powered WC3, and nobody seems to mind.

Second, if this were true, all games would be MMOs. And yet, somehow, non-MMO games keep getting released, year in and year out.

Lastly, a single human being only has so many gaming hours in the day. An MMO sucks up a lot of gaming hours. A single human being can only play one MMO effectively at any one stretch of time. Because of that, the MMO audience is really fixed; the success of one MMO takes away from another.

Compare to games of a more finite length. The success of one doesn't necessarily hurt another unless they're released around the same time.

[SaharaDrac]

I just wanna say: I audibly LOL'd at the title of this thread.