43 replies to this topic

[overneathe]

Diablo III Has Sold Over 12 Million Copies
ActiBlizzard have published a press release for today's Conference Call and the numbers are in. You can read the full report here.

• Diablo III was the #1 best-selling PC game at retail, breaking PC game sales records with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide through December 31, 2012

• As of December 31, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with more than 9.6 million subscribers

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Diablo III Lectures on GDC 2013
Gamasutra has reported that Blizzard will be attending GDC 2013 and Jay Wilson will be giving a lecture on Diablo 3! Read below for the details.

Shout at the Devil: The Making of Diablo III
When building any game, but especially when it's a sequel to the beloved Diablo series, it's critical that you have a series of core design goals, or pillars, that you can use as a guide to making decisions and defining what you want the final vision of the game to accomplish. In this postmortem, we'll explore the pillars that guided Diablo III's development and how well we felt we accomplished each of them. We'll focus specifically on the ones we feel we struggled with and the game design lessons we learned during those struggles. Examples of specific challenges of living up to these values will be provided, prioritizing them against one another, and evaluating how well they were accomplished after Diablo III was released.

Takeaway
Attendees will receive insight into the value of defining the core design elements that will drive their game development. In addition, they will learn the importance of measuring their game against those values, and using that knowledge to iterate on the final product, both pre- and post-release.

Intended Audience
This talk is intended for a general audience, including those who are interested in game design as well as project leadership. Project leads of all levels will also gain the benefits of good lessons learned on driving and iterating a game's vision. The intention is for the talk to be general enough that specific knowledge of the Diablo series is not necessary, but such knowledge will be beneficial.

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Poll: Who's Your Favorite Diablo III Villain?
This week's poll asks which of all the bosses in Diablo 3 is your favorite.

Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

From cleaver-wielding brutes to gluttonous lieutenants to scandalous, araneidan concubines, Sanctuary's villains are as varied in appearance as they are in purpose.

But of the all the dastardly evil-doers your heroes must face in battle, who is your favorite? Put a different way: in your opinion, which of these malevolent miscreants do you think deserves the title "Best Bad Guy," and why?

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Witch Doctor Fan Art
This very awesome Witch Doctor fan piece was created by Deviant Art user Ziom05 and featured recently on Diablo's official Twitter account. Check out Ziom05's gallery for lots more very detailed art, including more creations with a Blizzard theme.

[Benegesserit]

[quote]
Diablo III was the #1 best-selling PC game at retail, breaking PC game sales records with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide through December 31, 2012

As of December 31, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with more than 9.6 million subscribers[/quote]

1) Why do they bother to bring up this number? The only number that matters is how sales continued after about a month from release. Before that everyone was picking this up under the understandable expectation that this game would have been good considering the franchise history.

2) Notice how they have to say "subcription-based"? Nearly all MMOs out there are NOT subscription-based. Congrats on being #1 in a nearly empty room Blizzard.

Edited by Benegesserit, 08 February 2013 - 04:33 AM.

[akmrgreen]

[quote name='Benegesserit' timestamp='1360298016' post='1125255']
[quote]
Diablo III was the #1 best-selling PC game at retail, breaking PC game sales records with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide through December 31, 2012

As of December 31, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with more than 9.6 million subscribers[/quote]

1) Why do they bother to bring up this number? The only number that matters is how sales continued after about a month from release. Before that everyone was picking this up under the understandable expectation that this game would have been good considering the franchise history.

2) Notice how they have to say "subcription-based"? Nearly all MMOs out there are NOT subscription-based. Congrats on being #1 in a nearly empty room Blizzard.
[/quote]

Hahahahaha, couldn't have said it better myself! >.<

[akmrgreen]

"In this postmortem, we'll explore the pillars that guided Diablo III's development and how well we felt we accomplished each of them."

When you build pillars you should use concrete, or another proven-to-wok material. This half complete, someone somewhere said would work just as good product has, tainted this franchise.

[Catalept]

... err... Blizzard is terrible!

... just trying to fit in.

[stromchin]

[quote name='Benegesserit' timestamp='1360298016' post='1125255']

2) Notice how they have to say "subcription-based"? Nearly all MMOs out there are NOT subscription-based. Congrats on being #1 in a nearly empty room Blizzard.
[/quote]

tehre aren't that many precisely because WoW has destroyed them all.

[IgnatiusReilly]

I just find it shocking they didn't manage to please all 12 million customers.

Also: That's a lot.

Edited by IgnatiusReilly, 08 February 2013 - 06:20 AM.

[Fura]

[quote name='Benegesserit' timestamp='1360298016' post='1125255']
2) Notice how they have to say "subcription-based"? Nearly all MMOs out there are NOT subscription-based. Congrats on being #1 in a nearly empty room Blizzard.
[/quote]

As we like to say - "She is hottest girl in the town! Only problem is that she is the only girl in the town"

[UberMey]

they got a lot of money with a great title that users had to wait for 10 years ...

"Diablo III Has Sold Over 12 Million Copies" - Well, thats because PoE is f2p ..

Blizzard troll ... trying to make you believe that D3 was not fail, this news does not make me want to play it yet again...

[Huminator]

[quote name='Benegesserit' timestamp='1360298016' post='1125255']
[quote]
Diablo III was the #1 best-selling PC game at retail, breaking PC game sales records with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide through December 31, 2012

As of December 31, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with more than 9.6 million subscribers[/quote]

1) Why do they bother to bring up this number? The only number that matters is how sales continued after about a month from release. Before that everyone was picking this up under the understandable expectation that this game would have been good considering the franchise history.

2) Notice how they have to say "subcription-based"? Nearly all MMOs out there are NOT subscription-based. Congrats on being #1 in a nearly empty room Blizzard.
[/quote]
Why? Have it ever occured to you that 95% of the diablo fan base / players have had their game preordered? Which means sales a month after released would be a wrong indicating number.

And you know the reason for pretty every mmo being subscription free is due to the fact wow killed em.

[Zifnab]

[quote name='Benegesserit' timestamp='1360298016' post='1125255']
2) Notice how they have to say "subcription-based"? Nearly all MMOs out there are NOT subscription-based. Congrats on being #1 in a nearly empty room Blizzard.
[/quote]

Easy to be in a empty room when the door is booby trapped, the room is a minefield and if you survive there's the WoW firing squad waiting for you to shoot you in the face so you won't ever ever stand up again.

[Udarnik]

[quote name='Benegesserit' timestamp='1360298016' post='1125255']

2) Notice how they have to say "subcription-based"? Nearly all MMOs out there are NOT subscription-based. Congrats on being #1 in a nearly empty room Blizzard.
[/quote]

so you call a room with million upon million upon millon of dollars empty?

[Hubbl3]

[quote name='Benegesserit' timestamp='1360298016' post='1125255']
2) Notice how they have to say "subcription-based"? Nearly all MMOs out there are NOT subscription-based. Congrats on being #1 in a nearly empty room Blizzard.
[/quote]

Yeah, you're great at making arguments. Seriously.

[Freezard]

Diablo III has now passed StarCraft in sales and is tied with Half-Life 2 according to the Wikipedia list... that's legendary.

[XerXcho]

Jay Wilson giving lecture how to make a game What irony.

[st0rmie]

[quote name='Benegesserit' timestamp='1360298016' post='1125255']
[quote]
Diablo III was the #1 best-selling PC game at retail, breaking PC game sales records with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide through December 31, 2012[/quote]

1) Why do they bother to bring up this number? The only number that matters is how sales continued after about a month from release. Before that everyone was picking this up under the understandable expectation that this game would have been good considering the franchise history.[/quote]

As I recall, Diablo III sold 10 million copies in the initial release rush.

Which means it sold another 2 million copies [i]after[/i] that.

Which means it sold more copies than most games manage to sell [i]at all[/i] even after (a) all the jonesing fans had picked up their copy at launch, and (b) the noisy whining minority had spilled epic floods of tears telling everyone how much they hated it.

[CasmX]

[quote]As I recall, Diablo III sold 10 million copies in the initial release rush.[/quote]

Close. They sold 3.5 mil copies in the first 24 hours. 6.3 mil copies in the first week, including those from the WoW annual pass. By July they were up to 10 mil. So, From July to December 2012, they managed to sell an additional 2 million copies.

That being said, that's actually pretty respectable numbers. I know that a lot of people rant and rave about D3 being a disappointment, but I recall leveling my first character from 1-60 with my friends and I honestly couldn't remember a time I had as much fun playing a game. It wasn't until Inferno (and the messy state it was in at the time) that the game lost it's appeal. Since those times, a lot of my personal issues have been fixed, Inferno being a pretty substantial one (I mean, some elite packs being harder than most bosses? come on).

Now most of my friends no longer play the game, and I don't play it nearly as much as I used to, but I can still log in for a couple hours here and there and enjoy a decent game session every now and then, which is pretty much how I played D2 back in the day. Not only that, but the game seems to be getting better (or getting fixed, however you want to look at it) with every patch they release. As long as that remains true, I can see D3 continuing to sell. However, Blizzard can't stop with the improvements / *fixes*.

Also, I personally am looking forward to the prospect of the first expansion. Try to remember Diablo 2 and what it was before LoD came out. LoD added quite a bit to the game that kept players coming back for more and I expect more from D3's expansion, especially given the state of the game when it first launched. Expectations are going to be running even higher than normal and could very much make or break what remains of the Diablo franchise.

Again though, assuming Blizzard can do it right (and they've been doing a good job so far with every patch), Diablo will continue to sell extremely well.

[Raise]

give me a graphic showing number of loggings in...

all the people i know that bought the game already stopped playing (including myself obviosuly)

pd: those numbers on WoW are just amazing after so many years, that's a fact, forget about empty rooms as someone said.

[Erixxxx]

[quote name='Benegesserit' timestamp='1360298016' post='1125255']
[quote]
Diablo III was the #1 best-selling PC game at retail, breaking PC game sales records with more than 12 million copies sold worldwide through December 31, 2012

As of December 31, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with more than 9.6 million subscribers[/quote]

1) Why do they bother to bring up this number? The only number that matters is how sales continued after about a month from release. Before that everyone was picking this up under the understandable expectation that this game would have been good considering the franchise history.

2) Notice how they have to say "subcription-based"? Nearly all MMOs out there are NOT subscription-based. Congrats on being #1 in a nearly empty room Blizzard.
[/quote]

It's an investor's call, not a call to please/aggrevate/whatever gamers who want to hate on the games every chance they get. I suggest you look up such terms before you try to be cool on the internet. You make yourself look dumber than you most likely are.

[wedgeski]

[quote name='CasmX']Again though, assuming Blizzard can do it right (and they've been doing a good job so far with every patch), Diablo will continue to sell extremely well.[/quote]
That's well-said. The hysteria surrounding Diablo 3's "failure" is entirely out of proportion with the quality of the game which was objectively excellent out of the gate. Several hundred hours have been happily spent between amongst my circle of friends levelling multiple characters. I'll be pre-ordering 2 x expac, one for me, one for my wife, as soon as it's announced.

If I could have, I would have changed two things about the game as it was at launch: more exciting itemisation, by which I mean adding whacky procs and other bits of random fun which were less about the numbers and more about the spectacle, and less re-treading of the same ground as Diablo 2, in terms of locations and themes. That's about it though. In terms of stomping over ten-thousand demons and killing Diablo, it delivered mightily.

Perhaps Inferno was broken, I don't know, and I don't really care. It's not what I play for. It's a minority that plays on the cutting edge of the farming game, but it's right and proper that Blizzard have fixed/are fixing the situation.