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World of Warcraft Shatters Sales Records

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thats-a-whole-lotta-xp dept.

Mightydos writes " An interesting article was posted on Blizzard.com today... They say World of Warcraft® has sold through more than 600,000* units to customers in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. The fastest-growing massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has also shattered all previous concurrency records in North America, achieving over 200,000 simultaneous players during the holiday period. "

14 of 526 comments (clear)

  1. Zerg rush. by 1019 · · Score: 2, Informative

    "...has also shattered all previous concurrency records in North America, achieving over 200,000 simultaneous players during the holiday period..."

    All of them hacking and slashing mindlessly their way through Diab^H^H^H^H World of Warcraft.

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    shame on us / for all we have done / and all we ever were / just zeroes and ones
  2. Re:Unbelievable by JPriest · · Score: 2, Informative

    Counter strike is not a MMORPG

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    Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
  3. Re:One of my pet peeves by funny-jack · · Score: 4, Informative

    I hate to say it--wait, no, I don't. RTFA:

    *Based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners in North America.

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    You probably shouldn't click this.
  4. Re:Anyone know by bay43270 · · Score: 4, Informative

    How this compares to the sales or HL2 or Doom3?

    A quick google search shows that Halo 2 sold 2.38 million units in its first 24 hours

  5. A friendly reminder. by Sheetrock · · Score: 4, Informative

    Have we forgotten already? Money talks, you know.

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    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




  6. Re:Shattered records by kwerle · · Score: 3, Informative

    Worth noting that EQ2 was released just a few weeks before. An established brand that already did MMO, and that it was the most popular one for some time. So, yes, it is worth noting.

  7. Been playing it on linux for almost a month... by Shazow · · Score: 4, Informative
    I've been playing it on linux for almost a month, using WineX. Works great. It crashes occasionally but I'm betting that's my videocard's drivers' fault (ATI victim here). Otherwise, no lag what-so-ever.

    Highly recommended.

    - shazow

    1. Re:Been playing it on linux for almost a month... by Aadain2001 · · Score: 2, Informative

      For me (Linux, Cedega, and WoW user) I was easily able to install and run WoW with Cedega on Fedora Core 3. Needed to make a few changes to my system to get good performance, but it's pretty easy to do. The installation program will error out at the very end of installation, but that didn't effect the game at all.

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      Space for rent, inquire within
    2. Re:Been playing it on linux for almost a month... by PierceLabs · · Score: 2, Informative

      And Mac users too. There is also a problem that Blizzard won't acknowledge where upon accepting quests the client/server pair send packets that reset cable/dsl modems disconnecting you from the internet.

    3. Re:Been playing it on linux for almost a month... by Aadain2001 · · Score: 2, Informative
      Basic stuff you have to do to run Windows games under FC3: turn off prelinking (easy), turn on legacy VA memory layout (easy) and disable exec-shield (easy).

      The other changes were like using version 6111 of the nvidia drivers instead of 6629 (performance issues), enabling SBA and Fast Writes, etc, all to improve card performance (which benifits all games!). Also had to use openGL instead of D3D rendering in the game (adding -opengl switch to launcher) to increase FPS again.

      There is only really one bug with WoW under Cedega and openGL: you can't have the minimap open when you go into a building or dungeon. The screen goes blank when you do and you have to kill the game at the command line. You can bypass this by running the game in D3D, but then it runs slower. I choose to just remember to close my minimap before going into buildings or dungeons.

      --
      Space for rent, inquire within
    4. Re:Been playing it on linux for almost a month... by Shazow · · Score: 2, Informative

      I installed it from under linux. No real trouble.

      - shazow

  8. Wait for the longevity though... by NeedleSurfer · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've been playin the game constantly recently, I'm hooked, totaly but there are several flaws that will make me stop playing soon, I feel it.

    1-Each and every map has a quest serie that goes a little something like this: get a lady ingredient for a pie, find a guys tools, ((kill x monsters of this type, bring x items of this type) x 6), kill the Bosses (3), go in far away land to retrieve item or give item to someone -- repeat

    2-Although common to uncommon mineral (I can't speak for other ressources yet) is fair and balanced considering the amount needed to construct items as your profession evolve, the uncommon to rare ratio is ultimately ridiculous. It took me 3 days to get 6 silver ore which were needed by countless recipes of which the effect is totaly disproportionnal of the work you put in finding the ressources for its construction.

    3-The profession and skills and talent system is extremely unrewarding, it take so much time to get 1% bonus in two-hand weapon damage, very ridiculous, by the time you can build a bomb that does x damage it barely removes a hint on the health bar of the creature it targets and so on...

    All in all what makes this game exquisite isnt the gameplay in itself, the single move battle system and capacity to walk trough others are perfect example of that, but the sheer pleasure that you have in discovering the lands and realizing missions with others, plus the game is very well designed as far as encouraging people to be nice and helpfull to one another and just that is worth a lot in my opinion. It won't keep me paying for more than 1-2 maybe 3 month though, so I don't believe the game longevity will be that impressive.

  9. Guild Wars by twoes00 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I gave WoW a try during its final open beta and liked it just enough... However, once the Guild Wars world preview event came along, I was instantly hooked! I played the GW E3 Event and enjoyed it, but the WPE really displayed the game's potential. Not only is it free of monthly charges, but it takes away the whole "grinding" concept of MMORPGs. Its quite difficult to describe it, but it seems like the most (dare I say) innovating games of the year. www.guildwars.com

  10. Re:So I should expect patches now? by llefler · · Score: 3, Informative

    Everytime I mention bugs or lag, I get told that they don't exist. This is from the fanbois of course, you get no response from Blizzard. The bugs must not exist.

    Having played since launch, I've had the pleasure of experiencing all the problems. Fortunately, I picked one of the servers added a couple days after launch, so despite having a high population, I haven't seen a queue since November. Even so, bugs that require you to log out before you can stand up and needing to travel through IF from time to time has got me wondering if I shouldn't just stop playing for a few months. I moved my subscription back to monthly, and I think if at least some of the smaller (but extremely annoying, like mining) bugs aren't fixed, I'll just unsubscribe for a while. I have plenty of work I can do around the house to keep busy...

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    It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. -- Harry Truman