Diablo 3 - 3.5M Sold in 24 hours
 

Blizzard announces Diablo III is the fastest selling PC title in history, with 3.5M sales in the first 24 hours, a further 1.6M in the following week - added to the 1.2M from the WoW Annual Pass, that makes 6.3M players. The press release says "sold", not "sell-in", so these appear to be end-user sales.
More information.

I don't believe it. Everyone knows that PC only games don't sell anymore.

Particularly hilarious, considering industry "experts" predicted 3.5 million sales by the end of the year; this explains (though, perhaps does not excuse) the server issues.

Well that cements the always on internet drm model. Now wait for everyone else to adopt it.

Only a few select companies will ever be able to get away with it. Everyone else will drop the always online model when customers don't buy their games.

Owned

It's given it a powerful momentum but it will take a few more games to cement it.

Much more for supplying side issues than demand side issues as it takes a refit of infrastructures to accommodate the system (blizzard has decades of experience with their battle.net network)
Maybe specialized suppliers will just jump into the wagon to offer video game studios the infrastructures to manage that. Maybe.

It shows though that a sizeable segment of customers do not care about those new terms and the consequences it has on their consumption habits. Enduring a leash and be told how to consume their leisure products do not bother 3.5 M consumers, quite a number of people when it is compared to other sales numbers on PC platform.

That is the big lesson. Not that this undeniable success will reduce the usual scrap you read about voting with your dollars or stuff like that, but it does not matter.

In this deal, the supplying side has decided what solution fits the best its own interests.

I feel special for not playing it now :smug:

Thank you Blizzard, those pirates kept crying about your DRM but they bought your game instead of pirating it anyway :D that does prove something!

And the buying side agreed.

It takes two to tango. Don't forget, Diablo 3 is a luxury product that you do not need in your life, that instantly hands the power to the buyer as they don't have to buy it if they're not happy with it. The sales show that the buyer has decided, and their voice, coming with dollars, actually has some sound behind it. Those who pirate games are shouting into a vacuum.

Why do I get the impression that a lot of people think Blizzard's always online feature was included to prevent piracy? The always online feature in Diablo 3 was NOT included to stop piracy. It was implemented to protect their auction house cash cow by preventing item hacking and cheating (which was what ruined online play in Diablo 2). Blizzard couldn't care less about piracy and they've gone on record stating that fighting piracy with DRM is a losing battle.

http://www.videogamer.com/pc/starcra…ew-2380-2.html

People WILL buy their games.

Seriously, does it matter ?

Which reason there was behind it ?

insert *manical laughter*

People will buy Blizzard's games because it's Blizzard and a lot of people out there consider their games to be multiplayer experiences anyway, so the always online drm will mean little to them. However, people won't buy single player games made by a John Doe company who've suddenly decided to implement an always online mode in their game. People put up with a lot of shit in Diablo 3 BECAUSE it's Diablo 3. Saying that the always online DRM will spread because of Diablo 3's success is jumping the gun quite a bit.

Yes, because it seems that not even Blizzard believe their DRM will prevent people from eventually pirating their game. So all this hooplah about Blizzard striking a blow against pirates is probably very premature. They've implemented the feature because they do believe this feature will stop item hacking, that is all.

Wrong, i didn't buy it

They could have made Diablo 3 single player playable offline in that case…. either way what you mentioned is just another positive thing about their always online solution. Yes the technology needs to mature a bit still, but I am sure in the future all games will be like that. You're right that people will not put up with that kind of unmature technology from a unknown company, however when someone like blizzard who have the power do it, they'll get the ball running and technology like that will become more and more mature. On top of that you have the entire achievements, talk and brag to your friends, connection to forums and other online portal service, as a huge benefit.

Regarding the article, no matter what a company do marketing will try to make it look good.

But are you a Diablo fan ?

The buying side. But I wrote the demand side. Which is different.

And they have agreed to what? Subsidizing a device that has no interest to them? No matter the quality of their network and the proficiency of their engineers, the absence of the device would have served a SP experience much better. They can reduce as much as they want the annoyance of the device, they wont reach zero which is the total achieved by the absence of device.

Blizzard are just subsiziding some jobs which have no reason to be from a SP perspective. This is how the buyers have made their dollars speak. Which dismisses the idea of voting with your dollars other than squandering them.

Which leads to the piracy bit. I suspect that actually pirats wont be bothered that much by it as they will have spare cash to buy the game through the other games they do not buy.

Players who are hurt in the process are primarly players who refuse to pay for unneeded work. They are the demand which is superceded by the supply side common best interests.

It is in the interest of any supply side to charge unneeded work. Thanks to the buyers, Blizzard has achieved that. And when the supply side is mostly composed with perpetual online requirement, the other segments of the demand side will be forced into a corner: either comply or not play.

That is when it goes off track. They somehow spot rather well the defaults of DRM and why allocating resources could lead to a dangerous slope. And they slipt by claiming cool features and content when actually, the efforts are focused on protecting a cash cow system.

And are you a pirate?

Because apparently, disagreeing with the online requirement has to come from pirats.

It is not possible it comes from people with different reasons like I dont know, being charged unneededly for work that has no interest to a SP.

Being forced in a security tax for a security issue that does not even concern you has to be the choice.

I suppose you believe everything politicians say too. I have no doubt that item hacking was 1 reason blizzard did this but item hacking is irrelevant on the single player side of things. To think that they haven't though of piracy at all in this decision is naive.

Items hacking is irrelevant in SP for a game developped without the auction house system.

I think to remember they somehow decrease or remove the possibility of modding items too.

Once you follow a certain direction in a developpment plan, it comes with consequences. One is that when you push to withdraw control from players, introducing a solution that could bring back control to the players might be counterproductive.