StarCraft II proves expensive for Blizzard

PC News | Big numbers for a big game.

With less than two weeks to go, Blizzard's first chapter in the StarCraft II trilogy, Wings of Liberty seems set to break some first day sales records on PC considering the immense hype surrounding it. This however may not be enough to break even with just how much money was put into the development of the game.

According to The Wall Street Journal, StarCraft II has cost over USD$100 Million for Blizzard to develop (this doesn't count marketing), which puts it up there with some of the most expensive games ever developed.

However, analysts expect that the game will sell an obscene amount of copies launch week and throughout the year, so Blizzard might break even pretty quickly after all. Besides, they have 11 million subscribers helping them out a little bit in their other game don't they?

StarCraft II Wings of Liberty is set to launch 27 July, and you can read up on our glowing preview of the Beta here.

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25 Comments

Cyph

1 year ago

I think they'll cover their costs in no time, and if it's anything like Blizzard's other releases, for decades to come. Their games just keep adding to their coffers.

Esposch

1 year ago

I give them 12 hours before they've broken even and are starting to make a profit.

Agent 042

1 year ago

i'd say they'll be fine. in the unlikely case they manage to not break even, there's always the two expansions (which will both probably sell as much, plus they'll be much cheaper to develop considering they only really need to work on about half the game).

grim-one

1 year ago

Since Diablo II and Starcraft I are both still on the store shelves (from games specialists to big dept stores), I'm pretty sure Blizzard aren't worried about making a loss.

Agent 042

1 year ago

grim-one wrote

Since Diablo II and Starcraft I are both still on the store shelves (from games specialists to big dept stores), I'm pretty sure Blizzard aren't worried about making a loss.

hell i still see copies of warcraft 2 in stores every once in a while. blizzard's games seem to keep selling for at least 10 years after release.

Lord Haart

1 year ago

I'm guessing that they are ALREADY making a profit just from preorders.

In fact, let's assume they only make $10 off each sale after marketing, distribution and 3rd party costs. That's only 10 million sales. So if everyone who plays WoW alone gets a copy, they make a 10% profit.

According to Wikipedia, Starcraft 1 sold 9.5 million copies between 1998-2008. Given that there are significantly more people who want to try the sequel, I'd say they're pretty safe unless the release has MAJOR issues.

Island_Wolf

1 year ago

There's always WoW for them if things goes wrong

shinhawk

1 year ago

Whatever, Blizzard. Doing some rough math, they only have to sell 1.6 million copies to break even. I bet it can sell that many worldwide in the first month and start profit within 2 or 3. People have been waiting for this game for years, so its going to fly off shelves. Just think about how much of it will sell in South Korea. That's going to be like an easy 500K sales right off the bat.

Frozencry

1 year ago

^I'm going to bet it'll break the previous PC sales records on first day. Iirc that was Wrath of the Lich King with approx 2.6-2.8 mil on launch.

As much as some people don't want to admit, StarCraft is arguably even bigger than WarCraft, as its legacy has been going strong with ONE game for over 12 years now. That and it's kind of what pushed Blizzard far into Space when it came to popularity.

Esposch

1 year ago

Denny wrote

pushed Blizzard far into Space

Please kill yourself.

light487

1 year ago

Blizzard publish their own stuff though right? So a lot of the sales money is going straight into their wallets.. don't see a problem to be honest.

Fetidchimp

1 year ago

sharing with the evil ones would be part of the contract i imagine.....

fullmetal_adam

1 year ago

I am curious as to whether that supposed development cost is only Wings of Liberty, or all 3 games. Either way, they would have the expensive technologies and what not done now. Also, that cost may include Battle.net development too.

grim-one

1 year ago

fullmetal_adam wrote

It'd be the foundation work for all 3, plus the campaign for Wings. Not sure if Bnet is a factor, I'm guessing it is.

The second and third games should cost far, far less than the first but make almost as much money.

LeonJ

1 year ago

Where did the money go? It's a RTS?

I'm actually worried there will be too much of single player in this game. I tend to tune out by the end of most RTS games and get bored.

Agent 042

1 year ago

LeonJ wrote

Where did the money go? It's a RTS?

I'm actually worried there will be too much of single player in this game. I tend to tune out by the end of most RTS games and get bored.

it's meant to be about the same length as the 3 campaigns from the first game put together, but with more variety in terms of missions (so not all destroy all enemy buildings to continue kinda stuff).

Frozencry

1 year ago

A lot of that money would be spent on the production pipelines behind the CG. A lot. There's supposed to be like 20 mins worth of CG in SC2 afaik, and that would cost a tonne to maintain and handle.

This and the CG modellers did a lot of work on in-game assets too, basically aiding in in-game cutscenes and overall look.

1 Week to go. *prepares cryosleep*

LeonJ

1 year ago

20 minutes?

Frozencry

1 year ago

Yes, I imagine it'll be laid out like how the original SC1 was. After every 3-4 major story missions, a CG cut-scene would pop-up showcasing the event etc. So I imagine this would be the same in execution.

LeonJ

1 year ago

But...only 20 minutes?

dloiscute

1 year ago

20 minutes per scene and/or chapter right?

Frozencry

1 year ago

I'm just going by what I think, there might be more so don't take my word for it. It's just an estimate!

That and you guys do realise how incredibly long the process of making 20 minutes worth of pixar-quality CG takes right? 20 minutes that are hand-animated as well (Blizzard are traditional and don't use mocap). I will honestly be amazed if there is 30-40 mins worth of pre-rendered cinematics, because that is a ridiculously insane amount of work.

LeonJ

1 year ago

Yeah I know, but 20 minutes TOTAL of CG for that amount of money, people and time does seem a bit ... small.

20 per chapter/scene, god yes. That is a lot, I see your point then and look forward to it.

Frozencry

1 year ago

Well I would estimate that 20 mins worth of CG would cost a few million. Maybe 10-15. This isn't much when you consider how much money goes into CG nowadays. This and people forget that the CG team at Blizzard isn't actually that big. They're about 20 strong, with ocassional extra help thrown in. The rest are all working on in-game assets. I think the list of names of the CG team are on one of my WoW making-of DVDs somewhere..I'll have to have a look again.

But yeah anyway; I agree, 20 mins per chapter would be mind-shatteringly awesome stuff. But I'm pretty confident that won't happen. My estimate is 20-30 mins tops worth of CG content in StarCraft II, and a lot of in-game cutscenes (which actually look really good.

But I think everyone can agree that it's the best damn CG in the gaming industry.

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StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

Pre-order or buy:
PALGN recommends: www.Play-Asia.com

Australian Release Date:
  27/07/2010 (Confirmed)
Publisher:
  Activision
Genre:
  RTS
Year Made:
  2007
Players:
  1
System Requirements:
Minimum Requirements:
â€¢Â Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
â€¢Â 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
â€¢Â 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
â€¢Â 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
â€¢Â 1024x768 minimum display resolution
â€¢Â Broadband connection

Read more...