Cataclysm fastest selling PC game ever

[Eri]

PARIS, France. -- December 13, 2010 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm?, the third expansion for the critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), sold through more than 3.3 million copies as of its first 24 hours of release*, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. This milestone eclipses the previous record of more than 2.8 million copies sold in 24 hours, set in November 2008 by Blizzard?s second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King®.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm was simultaneously released in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia, Australia, and New Zealand on December 7, and became available in Korea and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on December 9. More than 10,000 stores throughout the world opened their doors at midnight to welcome players who wanted to be among the first to obtain a copy of the expansion. In addition, more than 15,000 players attended official launch events hosted by Blizzard and key retail partners in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the region of Taiwan.

?We had to bring Azeroth to the brink of destruction in Cataclysm, but the result was our best expansion yet,? said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. ?We want to thank all of our new, existing, and returning players throughout the world for their incredible enthusiasm and support, and we look forward to hearing what they think about all the new content.?

http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/press/pressreleases.html?101213

And some people said WoW is dying?

 

[Vrach]

You mean a game with a subscription method and ~12 million subscribers that's been out of content for the past 6 months or so sold an expansion pretty much necessary to keep playing the game that incidentally promised to end all of the game's problems and more?

Sorry mate, but by no stretch of imagination is this news. And I don't really think anyone ever said WoW is dying, merely that it is getting very, very stale and quite shit. As for WoW's death, wait another few years, we've got plenty of upcoming MMOs. At this point, WoW pretty much monopolizes the MMO market because there's nothing else of decent quality out there. But you've got SW: TOR, Guild Wars 2, Tera online and a lot of other MMOs coming. If any of them succeed, you'll see WoW "dying" quickly (or well, just dropping off the huge skyscraper that is it's foothold on the MMO market at the moment), although I believe that Blizzard is fully prepared for that at this point, hence them working on another MMO already.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

How can it be the fastest selling PC game ever when it's not a game but an expansion (and not even a stand alone expansion which can be counted as a game)?

 

[Eri]

You mean a game with a subscription method and ~12 million subscribers that's been out of content for the past 6 months or so sold an expansion pretty much necessary to keep playing the game that incidentally promised to end all of the game's problems and more?

Sorry mate, but by no stretch of imagination is this news. And I don't really think anyone ever said WoW is dying, merely that it is getting very, very stale and quite shit. As for WoW's death, wait another few years, we've got plenty of upcoming MMOs. At this point, WoW pretty much monopolizes the MMO market because there's nothing else of decent quality out there. But you've got SW: TOR, Guild Wars 2, Tera online and a lot of other MMOs coming. If any of them succeed, you'll see WoW "dying" quickly (or well, just dropping off the huge skyscraper that is it's foothold on the MMO market at the moment), although I believe that Blizzard is fully prepared for that at this point, hence them working on another MMO already.

Even on the official forums you'd find tons of people saying WoW is on its last legs and dying.

How can it be the fastest selling PC game ever when it's not a game but an expansion (and not even a stand alone expansion which can be counted as a game)?

It has more than enough content to be considered a game.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Rightfully Cataclysm could be considered an utterly different game than WoW and its previous two expansions. Considering how heavily the entire game was overhauled with sweeping system changes and map reconstruction, and how all but the 80-85 content plus things like azeroth flying, archaeology, and the new races are available to players who don't upgrade their accounts.

Cataclysm is less an expansion and more World of Warcraft 2: The Grinding Continues. So yeah, I don't see how they can call it the fastest selling PC game since a vast majority of its content is available with a base vanilla WoW subscription type and all you're really paying for with Cata is the account upgrade.

 

[Chibz]

Actually, celebrating a WoW expansion pack being the fastest selling PC game ever is like... Well...

Celebrating that although the foxes got into the hen house and ate all your hens, at least they didn't rape your wife.

 

[Siyano_v1legacy]

WoW dieing? not even in 10 years
Hell look at EQ 1 I think they still have a fair amount of subscriber and the game is like 10 years old
All the change they did was well done and smooth and very well accepted

 

[Geekosaurus]

Can it be classed as a game?