Diablo 3 sells 6.3 million units in its first week

[QUOTE="sethman410"][QUOTE="Ravenshout"] It is special because the number is ONE-WEEK NUMBER.

It is special because it is an exclusive.

It is special because it doesn't include people who play the game in KOREAS at local internet cafes. (39% users play Diablo 3)

It is special because in Asia, the game is sold differently.

Mass Effect 3, a multiplatform, didn't sell 6million in a week. In fact, it is rare that an exclusive sells 6 million in a single week.

It will reach 10million easily, seeing that Diablo 2 sold 14-15 million during its lifetime.

GOD, what a misinformed person.

Next time, READ.

Ravenshout

Diablo 1 sold only around 2.5-3million copies.

I don't think so. If anything the online DRM deterred more people.

Diablo is popular enough to try this and get away with it, so we can't really tell.

Impressive. Most impressive. I wonder if this game will finally get me off Skyrim and get me hooked on Diablo.

[QUOTE="fire-dragon-90"]

And 20 million pirated the game

milannoir

Aaaaaand another idiot who can't read my OP and yet thinks he can make a clever reply.The point of this thread, is that I believe the reason this game sold so well is because it can't be pirated "correctly" right now. Cracks have been released, but are useless given the fact that part of the game is streamed directly from Blizzard's servers.

I didn't know that. If that is the case then yes it is a big deal that it sold so many copies so fast. Just the ability to slow down pirating is a big deal regarding the PC platform.

And 20 million pirated the game

fire-dragon-90

Yeah, great... i'll just wait for Torchlight 2 though.

CoD sells over that in 2 hours just saying :oops:

finalstar2007

No one cares just saying.

Yeah, great... i'll just wait for Torchlight 2 though.

[QUOTE="finalstar2007"]

CoD sells over that in 2 hours just saying :oops:

cfstar

No one cares just saying.

I was expecting something like 3~4 million in the first month. wow.

Let's see just how many games in their entire lifetime have sold more than Diablo III has on PC in just ONE WEEK (keep in mind this is a sequel to a game that had 60,000 online players a decade after its launch)

Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)

Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

Halo Reach (Xbox 360)

COD: MW3 (Xbox 360)

COD MW3 (PS3)

COD: Black Ops (Xbox 360)

COD: Black Ops (PS3)

COD: MW2 (Xbox 360)

COD: MW2 (PS3)

COD4: MW (Xbox 360)

That's a total of 10 games, 6 on 360 and 4 on PS3.

Bear in mind that we're comparing LIFETIME SALES vs ONE WEEK SALES across 2 platforms.

GTAIV 360, MGS4, Gears 1 and Gears 3 are ever so close to making that list.

Mozelleple112

That's not 10 games. You listed the same game 6 times.

Also, source?

Wow guys, if 6.3 million sales is absolutely nothing or 'garbage.' Then we should be calling most console exclusive sales figures worthless garbage.

You guys have serious issues with double standards.

I was expecting something like 3~4 million in the first month. wow.

padaporra

Blizzard's fanbase is larger than Bioware's fanbase (and worse).

If you think Bioware Social Network is full of trolls and whiny people, you haven't seen Bnet Forum just yet.

[QUOTE="cfstar"]

Yeah, great... i'll just wait for Torchlight 2 though.

[QUOTE="finalstar2007"]

CoD sells over that in 2 hours just saying :oops:

Ravenshout

No one cares just saying.

Torchlight 2 won't have retarded DRM.FACT.

[QUOTE="padaporra"]

I was expecting something like 3~4 million in the first month. wow.

Ravenshout

Blizzard's fanbase is larger than Bioware's fanbase (and worse).

If you think Bioware Social Network is full of trolls and whiny people, you haven't seen Bnet Forum just yet.

[QUOTE="Ravenshout"]

[QUOTE="padaporra"]

I was expecting something like 3~4 million in the first month. wow.

padaporra

Blizzard's fanbase is larger than Bioware's fanbase (and worse).

If you think Bioware Social Network is full of trolls and whiny people, you haven't seen Bnet Forum just yet.

Diablo 2 was more popular than Starcraft during its early day, so it's no suprise that Diablo 3 sold more than Sc2 in a week.

However, I doubt that Diablo 3 will have as much player retention as Starcraft 2. (Just like how Starcraft was ultimately longer-lasting than Diablo 2)

Regarding Mass Effect 3: before Diablo 3 came out, it was the biggest launch of the year and it is a multiplatform game that is popular.

And 20 million casuals pirated the casual game

fire-dragon-90

I'm not a Blizzard fan, from playing some of both Starcraft and Warcraft II (both good but not great), and they seem like a cocky arrogant company the last couples of years, especially compared to Valve and CD Projeckt. Always online requirements and absence of LAN support from their last two games seems pretty blatantly to disregard much of what is great about PC gaming (openness and autonomy). The fact that they are so popular and rich makes it harder to swallow.

And 20 million pirated the game

fire-dragon-90

[QUOTE="NaveedLife"]

One of the many who bought it (CE) day one. I would only ever play it online (just as I did D2 when I got internet) and have had quite a smooth time with it. LOVE the game and am addicted to it, as are my 5 (soon to be 6) buddies.

9.5/10 Is what I give it. It isn't absolutely perfect, but then again neither is Diablo II, which is tied with OoT as my favorite game ever made.

RyviusARC

I thought act 1 and 2 were appropriately difficult for normal, but then by the end of act 3 and act 4 I was astonished at how easy it was. I hoped it got harder, and it did :). I am currently in act 1 of hell.

And the best-selling game this year is on PC. Suck it, console peasants. Mass Eff-

I WILL DIRECT THIS PERSONALLY.

And the best-selling game this year is on PC. Suck it, console peasants. Mass Eff-

I WILL DIRECT THIS PERSONALLY.

DarkLink77

SW bets has assumed control. :twisted:

CoD sells over that in 2 hours just saying :oops:

finalstar2007

And 20 million pirated the game

fire-dragon-90

[QUOTE="DarkLink77"]

And the best-selling game this year is on PC. Suck it, console peasants. Mass Eff-

I WILL DIRECT THIS PERSONALLY.

FireSpirit117

SW bets has assumed control. :twisted:

[QUOTE="ispeakfact"]Pretty good. Just wonder the real number is after factoring out the pirates.lostrib

You are retarded

Pretty good. Just wonder the real number is after factoring out the pirates.ispeakfact

PC has no games so this is game was like god if your a pc gamer.

"PC gaming is dead!It would have sold 6.3 billion if it were a console exclusive!!!:cry:"

The consolites have been owned:cool:

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

[QUOTE="milannoir"]

Aaaaaand another idiot who can't read my OP and yet thinks he can make a clever reply.The point of this thread, is that I believe the reason this game sold so well is because it can't be pirated "correctly" right now. Cracks have been released, but are useless given the fact that part of the game is streamed directly from Blizzard's servers.

milannoir

However you have to remember that Diablo 3 was one of the most anticipated game of all time so there were already millions of people ready to buy regardless of the DRM. However, if you put that DRM on a less popular game there would definitely be major problems--ubisoft definitely caught a lot flack for their DRM. And to be honest DRM generally only hurts the honest user, not the pirate. In addition, the witcher 2 was DRM free and still managed to sell 1 million+ in 3 months i think, which was good for a small developer. In addition, the version that was mostly pirated was the DRM version.

Good points.

Overall I agree with you; only Blizzard at this point could get away with this. But now that they've opened Pandora's box, I believe we could see more of this.

However, I strongly disagree with your statement about "only hurting the honest user, not the pirate" in this case. The honest user was hurt, to a certain extent, but pirates are the major victims. When was the last time you saw a game released on PC, that wasn't cracked in a playable form after more than a week?

This is the reason why I made this thread. I'm not trying to impress anyone with the 6.3 million sales (I'm not the guy selling the game, you know); I'm just saying this is maybe a turning point for PC gaming : someone released a game that was overhyped, after a 12 years wait, and managed not to get pirated within 48 hours (or even before launch, as is sometimes the case). Im certain every single editor who's thinking about releasing a game on PC in the near future, is looking very closely at what Blizzard is doing with Diablo 3.

Ubisoft has 2 SP games that held off pc piracy for a long time one of the splinter cell games I recall took over a year to crack and assassin creed 2 took like a month and a half to crack neither of them had amazing sales on the pc. Ubisoft strick always online drm for there pc games since then hasn't resulted in increase sales the very opposite infact happened. Michael Pachter told Eurogamer that Ubisoft?s ?PC game sales are down 90% without a corresponding lift in console sales.? and ubisoft calims it was a success in dropping piracy rates but the given the large drop in pc sales without increased consoles sales it could very well be that people have simply stopped playing there games because of it. I know for me thats whats happened when it comes to ubisoft devloped games.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/opinion-ubisoft-piracy-and-the-death-of-reason/

If this shows anything it just how hugely popular blizzard diablo franchise is any other developer did always online drm there not going to magically sell millions of copies and as we seen with ubisoft it may very well lower sales and give them a negative reputation amongst pc gamers. If I was going to release a game on PC I'd do with as least obtrusive drm as possible generating negative press for my game because of drm what not be something I would want to do.

Ok, so there's no sticky anymore, and I haven't seen another recent thread about this. I'm sure it's been mentioned somewhere in SW already, but I just won't go read the nearly 200 pages of the official thread.

I find that number interesting, for a very specific reason : I'm a PC gamer, but I've never been a great fan of Blizzard games. I enjoyed both Warcraft and Starcraft when they first released, and missed out on Diablo. Since then, I've never felt the urge to purchase another Blizzard game.

Nevertheless, I'm one of the six million people who bought this game, and I have to say that I'm actually surprised in a positive way. I've spent half of my play time messing around with friends in multiplayer, and haven't suffered connectivity issues (apart from the server maintenance last sunday).

The reason I made this thread, is to talk about piracy and the way many other PC gamers dismiss it, and hate on companies enforcing brutal DRMs like Blizzard did with this game.

Isn't it shocking that the two fastest selling PC games ever, beyond their intrinsic qualities, happen to also be games that are very hard to enjoy illegally? I'm asking this because I'm one of the PC gamers that actually acknowledge that piracy is a real issue for this otherwise fantastic gaming platform, and I think Diablo 3, for better or worse, is going to convince many developers/editors that online-only and aggressive DRMs are the only way to go once you become a major actor.

I'm very admirative and respectful of CDProjekt Red's position regarding DRM, but I also think they chose to act this way because they didn't have the resources in the first place to do like Blizzard.

So, SW, what do you think (besides "lol PC gamerz are teh pirates lol")?

milannoir

No.

Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 don't have "aggressive DRM". Online only is the way those games are meant to be played.

This isn't true for all games. Therefore your conclusion is not coherent.

[QUOTE="milannoir"]

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

However you have to remember that Diablo 3 was one of the most anticipated game of all time so there were already millions of people ready to buy regardless of the DRM. However, if you put that DRM on a less popular game there would definitely be major problems--ubisoft definitely caught a lot flack for their DRM. And to be honest DRM generally only hurts the honest user, not the pirate. In addition, the witcher 2 was DRM free and still managed to sell 1 million+ in 3 months i think, which was good for a small developer. In addition, the version that was mostly pirated was the DRM version.

DJ_Headshot

Good points.

Overall I agree with you; only Blizzard at this point could get away with this. But now that they've opened Pandora's box, I believe we could see more of this.

However, I strongly disagree with your statement about "only hurting the honest user, not the pirate" in this case. The honest user was hurt, to a certain extent, but pirates are the major victims. When was the last time you saw a game released on PC, that wasn't cracked in a playable form after more than a week?

This is the reason why I made this thread. I'm not trying to impress anyone with the 6.3 million sales (I'm not the guy selling the game, you know); I'm just saying this is maybe a turning point for PC gaming : someone released a game that was overhyped, after a 12 years wait, and managed not to get pirated within 48 hours (or even before launch, as is sometimes the case). Im certain every single editor who's thinking about releasing a game on PC in the near future, is looking very closely at what Blizzard is doing with Diablo 3.

Ubisoft has 2 SP games that held off pc piracy for a long time one of the splinter cell games I recall took over a year to crack and assassin creed 2 took like a month and a half to crack neither of them had amazing sales on the pc. Ubisoft strick always online drm for there pc games since then hasn't resulted in increase sales the very opposite infact happened. Michael Pachter told Eurogamer that Ubisoft?s ?PC game sales are down 90% without a corresponding lift in console sales.? and ubisoft calims it was a success in dropping piracy rates but the given the large drop in pc sales without increased consoles sales it could very well be that people have simply stopped playing there games because of it. I know for me thats whats happened when it comes to ubisoft devloped games.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/opinion-ubisoft-piracy-and-the-death-of-reason/

If this shows anything it just how hugely popular blizzard diablo franchise is any other developer did always online drm there not going to magically sell millions of copies and as we seen with ubisoft it may very well lower sales and give them a negative reputation amongst pc gamers. If I was going to release a game on PC I'd do with as least obtrusive drm as possible generating negative press for my game because of drm what not be something I would want to do.

No wonder, Ubisoft destroyed all their decent PC franchises with horrible, half assed, sometimes completely broken, casualized, CODified sequels. And when they inevitably flop, they quickly drop support and move onto the next game.

You could definitely have a point about the piracy issue, and how the DRM may have contributed greatly to its sales since possible pirates had no choice other than to buy it, but at the same time, Diablo is, well, Diablo, and not many PC games have that kind of popularity.

Millions of fans had been waiting nearly 12 years for a sequel to one of the best games ever made, and all of the hype that Blizzard generated for the game, not to mention just the selling power that the Blizzard name alone has these days, could also have contributed an immense amount to the first week sales.

Again though, there could definitely be a lot of truth to what you're saying. Like it or not, DRM does reduce (or even eliminate) the options that pirates have, and that means more money for developers. If that means more awesome games, I'm okay with it (Well, most of it. Some DRM is crazy!).

Gotta love when you get killed by lag in your single player game...yay DRM!

Gotta love when you get killed by lag in your single player game...yay DRM!

Jynxzor

If you were better you'd kill the mobs before the spike kicked in and/or be able to get beat on for a couple seconds without dying ChupacabraIII

[QUOTE="milannoir"]

[QUOTE="lostrib"]

Ubisoft has 2 SP games that held off pc piracy for a long time one of the splinter cell games I recall took over a year to crack and assassin creed 2 took like a month and a half to crack neither of them had amazing sales on the pc. Ubisoft strick always online drm for there pc games since then hasn't resulted in increase sales the very opposite infact happened. Michael Pachter told Eurogamer that Ubisoft?s ?PC game sales are down 90% without a corresponding lift in console sales.? and ubisoft calims it was a success in dropping piracy rates but the given the large drop in pc sales without increased consoles sales it could very well be that people have simply stopped playing there games because of it. I know for me thats whats happened when it comes to ubisoft devloped games.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/10/07/opinion-ubisoft-piracy-and-the-death-of-reason/

If this shows anything it just how hugely popular blizzard diablo franchise is any other developer did always online drm there not going to magically sell millions of copies and as we seen with ubisoft it may very well lower sales and give them a negative reputation amongst pc gamers. If I was going to release a game on PC I'd do with as least obtrusive drm as possible generating negative press for my game because of drm what not be something I would want to do.

DJ_Headshot

Regarding Ubisoft's sales on PC, I blame the quality of their games at least as much as the DRM. Moreover, those are multiplatform games that catered more to the console players.

[QUOTE="GD1551"]

Are people reading this guy's post or only the thread title? And yes I agree TC this sets a very bad precedent in the long run.

Chris_Williams

Of course the popularity of the game and the advertising played a part. But are you really claiming that if D3 had been easily obtainable in an illegal version from day one, the sales would have been at the same level? I personnally don't believe it for a second. Sales would have been good, but not so good.

Moreover, my reasoning being dumb or not is irrelevant here. What matters is what devs and editors will think. apparently most of them complain about piracy on the PC platform, and work hard to fight it. So the example of an (as of yet) un-piratable game breaking sales records on PC will, according to me, have consequences.

I mean, it's pretty obvious that recently the proportion of PC exclusives that are either MMOs or F2P has increased. We could now see the proportion of "online-only" games increase accordingly following D3's success.

And 20 million pirated the game

fire-dragon-90

You are leaving out information that suits your thoughts though.
The DRM is causing a fuss, and people really wanted to play the game.
There is no way for us to know what it would have sold without always on, I would expect that it would have sold just as much.

I also don't see why sales would influence what developers/publishers think.
When it comes to piracy and second hand sales and anything else potentially standing in the way of more money, they already made up their mind. The thinker thinks what the prover proves. They will make of it what they want to see. If D3 didn't sell much then 'PC gaming is dead' or 'pirates found a way around it hurting the company for x zillion credits' or 'Torchlight 2 released around the same date' but the DRM would never be blamed.

Game is addictive as f***. Can't stop playing ...:)

Diablo III's release has me very depressed about the current state of PC gaming and very skeptical about its future. This DRM has been an incredible headache and it's disheartening to see an otherwise very competently made piece of software marred so much by such means. The only thing I'm happy about is the fact that it probably has had a significant impact on piracy and has increased sales. Unfortunately, that is coming at the cost of not only gamer's freedoms but it's compromising the integrity of the game itself, which is the worst possible outcome. These sales are only going to send the message that this is acceptable (I regret my money is part of that message), and IMO if all PC games continue down this path PC gaming will be ruined and truly dead.

I probably won't play anymore if the issues that are impacting Diablo III become the norm. However, if developers can make it so that there are literally NO server issues or make them exceedingly rare, and can make game-play indistinguishable from if there were no DRM at all, I won't like it, but will be able to live with it as a necessary sacrifice needed to combat the scum known as pirates. But if continual log-in problems, server dropouts, lag spikes, stuttering, broken game modes, hacking and incomplete features become the norm, I'm gone. Which would make me very sad because I love this platform more than any other. I'm very, VERY worried Company of Heroes 2 is going to go this route as it's one of my favorite PC game series ever. Seeing how Diablo III's DRM has turned out, I just cannot support such a practice and will never again.

[QUOTE="Jynxzor"]

Gotta love when you get killed by lag in your single player game...yay DRM!

ChupacabraIII

[QUOTE="ChupacabraIII"][QUOTE="Jynxzor"]

Gotta love when you get killed by lag in your single player game...yay DRM!

Lethalhazard

PC has no games so this is game was like god if your a pc gamer.

KBFloYd