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Blizzard MMOG revenues flat, delays StarCraft II game

August 5th, 2009, 1:50 pm by

Blizzardvision, the companyBlizzardvision (that’s Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment’s parent company, Activision Blizzard Inc.) said today that it did better than it thought it would during its latest quarter.

The company cited World of Warcraft as one of a small handful of games credited for the second quarter’s “overperformance,” even as the company financials showed Blizzard’s successful World of Warcraft revenues were roughly flat though still a big chunk of Blizzardvision’s revenues.

“During a challenging economic climate, Activision Blizzard grew its quarterly North American and European market share,” Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, said in a statement.

But the big news is that Blizzard delayed the launch of StarCraft II to 2010. Kotick said that this is to coincicde with launch of new Battle.net online gaming service, which is expected to launch early next year. StarCraft, for non-Blizzard fans, is not a massively multiplayer game. But gamers will be able to play a handful of other players online via Battlenet, a service that first launched in 1996.

Mike Morhaime, Blizzard’s CEO, elaborated further during Wednesday’s conference call with the game developer’s usual mantra: “We must get the games right before we release them,” he said, offering no apologies.

As many know, Blizzard has delayed games in the past, including the original Diablo in 1996. Diablo missed the Christmas shopping season and came out on the last day of that year. It’s gone on to sell millions and the company is now working on Diablo 3.    

Blizzard itself issued a press release on the StarCraft II delay about 30 minutes after the corporate earnings release came out:

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Posted in: Activision Blizzard • Latest game news • Star Craft • • • • • • | 2 Comments »

Blizzard delays StarCraft II launch to 2010

August 5th, 2009, 12:24 pm by

Activision + Blizzard = BlizzardvisionBlizzardvision (aka Activision Blizzard Inc.) made it through another quarter. Its financial results are forthcoming as I go through this.

But spotted immediately in the press release: “As we prepare for next year, we have moved the expected release dates for two games, Activision Publishing’s Singularity and Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II, into 2010,” said Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard.

So much for a nice Christmas …

More on Blizzardvision’s earnings coming this afternoon …

Posted in: Activision Blizzard • Star Craft • • • | 2 Comments »

WoW stuck at 11.5 million subscribers; Blizz focused on StarCraft, Diablo

May 7th, 2009, 2:50 pm by

Activision + Blizzard = BlizzardvisionSo, some players have apparently moved on from WoW’s “Wrath of the Lich King.”

In Blizzardvision’s quarterly earnings call today, Blizzard’s CEO Mike Morhaime said that “11.5 million continued to play Warcraft, which is a significant increase from the same time last year.” 

But 11.5 million is the same number of people who were playing the game in December, a month after the “Lich King” update launched.

Still, the game is adding new players all the time. “Lich King” was the top-selling PC game in the U.S. in the first three months of 2009, according to market researcher The NPD Group. Then again, it is Blizzard Entertainment. NPD also reported that six of the top 10 games in March were made by the Irvine game developer.

Rank Top-selling PC Games in March 2009 (U.S.)
2 World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Expansion Pack
5 World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
6 World Of Warcraft
9 World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
12 Starcraft: Battle Chest
20 Diablo Battle Chest
  Source: The NPD Group

What Blizzard is really concentrating on now is StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3, two games building on original titles from eight and 11 years ago. Both games were still in the top 20 PC games sold in March (see chart on right), Morhaime said.

“We had a strong March quarter despite the weak economy. This highlights the strong longevity of the games.

StarCraft 2 will begin an external beta test this summer, which “will signal the final stretch of development,” Morhaime said.

Also, a revamped Battle.net will be tested, offering new tools to make it easier for players to communicate with one another between games and manage all their Blizzard games with one login. 

Blizzard’s contribution to Blizzardvision’s revenues (actually ActivisionBlizzard, but we know who’s more important) were mostly in the MMORPG category, which brought in $314 million during the quarter. Comparable results weren’t available since Activision and Blizzard didn’t merge until July 2008.

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Posted in: Activision Blizzard • The Business • • • • • • • | 4 Comments »

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