So apparently this unknown company called Blizzard took a chance on a risky title called… I forget the name… I think it was Diablo III… and shocked everyone on the entire planet by breaking sales records like crazygonuts.
I kid. Blizzard is so good at breaking sales records that nobody’s surprised. As the parrot in Aladdin said: I may have a heart attack and die from being not surprised.
Having only a week behind it, Diablo III has already torpedoed through 6.3 million purchases — 3.5 million of which were in the first 24 hours, thus making it the fastest-selling PC game ever. As if that’s not enough, there’s an additional 1.2 million players who received Diablo III as a freebie for signing up for World of Warcraft’s Annual Pass promotion, which put 4.7 million people around the world in front of their computers ready to fight evil on day one. What’s more, that figure of 6.3 million doesn’t even include the players in Korean Internet game rooms where Diablo III is the top-played game (North Americans may not be aware that gaming cafés, or “bangs” as they’re known in Korea, are a pretty big deal).
Here’s Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime expressing his profound disappointment in the pathetic sales and bleating about how he promises to do better next time:
“We’re definitely thrilled that so many people around the world were excited to pick up their copy of Diablo III and jump in the moment it went live,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We also regret that our preparations were not enough to ensure everyone had a seamless experience when they did so. I want to reaffirm our commitment to make sure the millions of Diablo III players out there have a great experience with the game moving forward, and I also want to thank them for their ongoing support.”
Those preparations of which he speaks are in reference to the server problems Blizzard had when Diablo III hit the streets. To put it briefly, Diablo III ended up loading Blizzard’s Battle.net servers to create the same result one sees when a steam roller drives over a pudding cup. Apparently problems still persist, but Blizzard has dealt with the worst of it and is likely to get things under control before too long.
Still on the fence about Diablo III? Treat yourself to the Macgasm review and hear what we had to say about it.
