Starcraft II Sells 1.5 Million in Just Two Days
Blizzard is launching an onslaught of Zergs, Protoss, and Terrans to computer gamers. The gaming software company reported today that its long-awaited, highly-anticipated sci-fi strategy game Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty have sold more than 1 million copies worldwide during the first 24 hours, and 1.5 million after two days of launch.
The company claimed that Starcraft II has become the best-selling PC game of the year, and also the quickest-selling strategy of all time. It announced that the game was "fastest-selling PC game since Blizzard launched World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King."
Wrath of the Lich King, the second expansion to the popular World of Warcraft (WoW) multiplayer game, sold 2.8 million copies during launch day in November 2008. The first expansion, launched in January 2007, sold more than 2.4 million copies.
But this pales in comparison to Activision, parent company of Blizzard, launching its biggest hit Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on multiple gaming platforms to sell 4.7 million on the first day debut, dubbing it the “largest entertainment launch ever”.
Starcraft II now faces huge expectations both to gamers and industry analysts, with the latter predicting that the game will top 6.5 million copies before 2010 is over.
Wings of Liberty, Blizzard’s first stand-alone game since World of Warcraft launched in 2004, features the Terran or human faction through a single player campaign with 29 missions. The multiplayer mode lets gamers fight against the other factions: the hive-like Zerg or the high-tech Protoss alien races.
Already Blizzard Entertainment is in development of two expansion games featuring the Protoss (Legacy of the Void), and the Zerg (Heart of the Swarm).