I was checking Wikipedia to see what Diablo 2 sold. It only claims 4 million, but that's from <a href="http://www.gamesfirst.com/articles/diablo2_sales.htm">a press release about a year after the game came out</a>. I know Blizzard games tend to have nice catalog sales; do we know anything more recent than that?
For a bit of franchise history, I note that lower in the same press release they say the first Diablo hit 2.5 million.
@apujanata, Ah I see, that's not quite as bad then, though expectations are pretty high given the price is approaching the total subscriber base of WoW.
@Kentor, Diabloe 3 PC Stock is for World wide (GLS) sales, not just US sales. So, you need to add together NPD + Japan (Famitsu or M-Create) + Europe (Gfk + Charttrack) to get the "correct" value of GLS stock. And that GLS is Global Lifetime Sales, so it is not just "current" sales #.
I was referring to your "At the current price, you guys are expecting Diablo 3 North American sales to beat the lifetime", which is incorrect. You are correct in stating that NPD only track US.
@Kentor, When we talk about PC games, don't forget to include German market, in addition to North American.
Personally, I don't have confidence in shorting or buying NOW, since my estimate is around 8M - 10 M worldwide. Diablo 2 has lots of following, so I dare not short it.
At the current price, you guys are expecting Diablo 3 North American sales to beat the lifetime sales of: Starcraft Half-life Myst Diablo 2 Half-life 2 Warcraft 3
@lstormy10, I am aware of that, and I believe Blizzard will not want Diablo III on 360 if they are not able to have any of the user created maps available because it would create a huge segmentation of 360 and PC players, which is exactly what they're primarily concerned about. PS3 is much more open for user created content & mods. 360 is only more open for Live multiplayer with PC. If they are able to get multiplayer with PS3 vs PC users, they will have little problem allowing the user created content on PS3, so no segmentation.
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For a bit of franchise history, I note that lower in the same press release they say the first Diablo hit 2.5 million.