A few years after being founded Blizzard's best selling game was Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, which only sold about 100,000 copies.That's obviously good, but how did they explode so rapidly after that? They became one of the most valuable developers in the world after like fifteen years.
I'm not reading all that.
>>720911071they had motivated workers who actually enjoyed what they did, if you read the warcraft diaries the whole company was basically pulling 60-80 hour work weeks for years with (mostly) a smile on their faces
>>720911224It's two lines of words
>>720911071Passion and vision. Didn't they start off porting SNES games so they could acquire the funds to make their dream game? Blizzard North or whatever their prior name was had a similar story, though they obviously got help from Blizzard.
>>720911071They released Diablo, warcraft 2, starcraft, Diablo 2, warcraft 3, and wow...
>>720911975Moreso just to get used to programming games in general but yes
>>720911071They kept ripping off games workshop until it stuck
>>720912229There is nothing wrong with making ripoffs if they're good
>>720911071>only sold about 100,000 copiesback then it was like 10 million today
>>720912594that's not how that works kekPokemon Red sold 60m units two years later
>>720912727and it was like 600 million todayif you sold 100k copies of your game in 1994 it was elden ring tier success that enabled you to make more games and then get a mcdonalds meal for $3 tootoday 100k sold copies barely covers the marketing costs, and thats with digital distribution only
>>720913801You have literally no idea what you're talking about kekInflation isn't a constant of the universe
>>720914105kek you're a nigger kekyou kek don't kek know kek what kek you're kek talking kek about kek
warcraft 3, starcraft 1 and diablo 2. Anything after that was subpar.
>>720914190https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kek_(mythology)
>>720911071imagine supporting a company that ridiculed a man who got assasinated in cold blood for just speaking
>>720915257Blizzard today is not nineties Blizzard
>>720911071>That's obviously good, but how did they explode so rapidly after that?Made passionate games and cinematics were masterpieces until women joined the company
>>720911071>That's obviously good, but how did they explode so rapidly after that?Warcraft 2 - 3 million copies soldDiablo - 2.5 millionStarcraft - 11 millionDiablo 2 - 4 millionWarcraft 3 - 3 millionWoW - 12 million subscribers, $9 billion in revenue
>>720915689Those numbers are historically inclusive so people who bought them in 2015 for a dollar count
>>720915860Fine. Warcraft 2 - 1 million copies sold within 1st year of releaseDiablo - 1 millionStarcraft - 1.5 millionDiablo 2 - 2.75 millionWarcraft 3 - 4.4 millionThose numbers are still impressive and show a large earning trajectory on their way to WoW which was a revenue juggernaut.
>>720916382Alright you're right that's still really impressive, and more impressive is the consistency. I think Blizzard's success really did largely source back to how trusted their brand was among the people who bought their games, can't think of another company like that right now.
Diablo 1/2 were very popularStarcraft/Brood Wars was/is THE gold standard in RTS. Arguably it kick started E-SportsWarcraft 3 and Frozen Throne were also very popularThen came WoW, by this point Blizzard was already considered a very popular dev who constantly put out good games. WoW Vanilla-Wrath was a cultural touchstone. It's hard to even explain how popular it was. Even Pokemania is not far enough. WoW was so insanely popular it got people into PC gaming, it got normies to play a MMORPG. It changed the way people think, before WoW "playing to the meta" was a very niche concept, By Cata people were obsessed with minmaxing. They were the Golden Child of the Industry. Most people loved them, the consumers loved them because of the constant great content. Investors loved them because the insane revenue of WoW.
>>720914105NTA, but gaming wasn't an epic mainstream hobby back then. It was literally just for giganerds. 100k copies is huge for that kind of audience, that's why it would be like 10 million copies today.
>>720917245I'd MAYBE agree it's like 500,000 copies today but it's not that insane of a disparity. Doom was the Elden Ring of the day and it still sold like 4,000,000 copies when it came out
>>720911071Blizzard was named in the Snowden NSA leak, it was always an industry puppet and literal federal assert It’s had the LITERAL ex-director of the CIA working for them
>>720917336Anon, most of the people didn't even know about the existence of video games in 1994. Not many people even had a computer in their houses. It's definitely more than 500k.
>>720911071Diablo 1 and 2 was a mini explosion and WoW becoming popular during an economic downturn was the real explosion. It was cheaper to play wow and socialize for $15/mo then it was to go out and do shit since money was tight.
>>720917551
>>720911224based dyslexic anon
>>720912139from star craft, diablo 2 and wc3 to wow there is a fucking huge leap
>>720911071it all came down to one man
>>720919001I've read that for most businesses that's kind of how it goes. You make a little money, then decent money, then as long as you keep going it just explodes, especially if investors get inolved
>>720919213idk who this is
>>720919001It's not THAT big of leap if you just consider Vanillas success and not how WoW became all consuming by BC and beyond
>>720911071What? Everything they released was a banger. Starcraft, Diablo, Warcraft 2/3, are you serious? After Diablo 2 and WoW, they were unstoppable.
They still had pretty smart people working with them, they produced the best looking CGI for a time
>>720914105There's probably 100x the gamers there are today than there were then, also their sales had more purchasing power
>>720919620The blizz activision "merger" started the destruction of blizz.
>>720920629Not really
>>720911071There were other big videogame companies at the time who were also great (id for example) but Blizzard was able to grow so fast because it caught the attention of a big investor (before it merged with activision) who brought in marketing and production methods from other entertainment industries
>>720921756Very interestingThat was Vivendi right?
>>720922142I believe so, and that helped them too, but there was also a bizz guy in particular who joined early helped blizzard make it big but I don't remember his name
>>720923232biz*
There's no better indicator of Blizzard's brand loyalty than the fact that Warren Buffet invested in it
>>720911071They managed to work incredibly long hours because they had a steady supply of big titty interns tied up in their basement providing them the breastmilk they needed.
>>720911071They made games that were easy to learn and hard to master. Easy to get into but had enough depth that actual nerds and smart people could feel clever by minmaxing their gameplay. They took time to polish the game as much as possible and didnt have release dates set years in advance, the meme around them at the time was "we will release it when we are ready" and when fans would ask when they would say "soon" and "soon-tm" was a fan meme people would say to poke fun at blizzards PR/marketing team for being so vagueZoomers will have a hard time understanding this but at the time blizzard was LITERALLY the best developer for isometric-arpg, RTS games, and eventually MMOs. Every single person who played video games had at least 1 copy of diablo, warcraft, or starcraft. They were like the nintendo or sony of PC games and their games made most other games look like cheap phone game tier knock offs.
>DUUUUUUDE REMEMBER THE GOLDEN YEARS OF BLIZZARD?????>OMGGGGGG GOLDEN YEARS HOLY FUCK I MISS THE GOLDEN YEARSHOLY SHIT SHUT THE FUCK UP. BLIZZTARDS ARE THE MOST ANNOYING FUCKING FAGGOTS IN GAMINGOut of my 30 years of gaming I never once heard from other gaming studios obsess about MUUUH GOLDEN YEARS as much as blizztards. Do crapcum, sega and konami fags do it? No they just play and talk about their games instead of obsessing about a time where they were doing wellBlizztards really have nothing to talk about except obsess about the decade where blizzard made 4 good games. They will stop and remind you that these games exist instead of playing or talking about them because theyve only BEEN playing them for over 2 fucking decades instead of moving the fuck onYes even I had to witness a dozen of my favourite gaming studios go to shit and die. I just dont cry about it daily like the pathetic faggot blizztards arekill yourselves
>>720921729billions more people play games now then in the 90s.
>>720926221I literally just find it fascinating from a business perspective, that kind of growth and consistency isn't something you're seeing out of Toby Fox or Team Cherry or anything
>>720926221
>>720926494phone gamesThe PC game market is consistent
>>720926579
>>720926769If you can't see that the phone game market is completely distinct I can't help youRE4R sold less than 5,000 copies on iPhone
>>720911071>They became one of the most valuable developers in the world after like fifteen years.Watch the history of blizzard documentaryGuess what religion the founder is? You cant make this up, its that simple
>>720917407I thought that was just when WoW blew up? The feds wanted hands on control of a new type of media that reached a lot of people in a way that they weren't in complete control of, so they used some corporate maneuvering to get their own people in the companyThe Anders Breivik thing was especially big because he had wow chatlogs talking about the evils of immigration. Was a big thing that made feds the world over want to start monitoring any game with a chatroom and a big playerbase.
>>720911071There's literally a book about Blizzard out right now. I'm currently reading it. It's called "Play Nice" maybe try that.
>>720926828No one needs help from a grown man who lives with his mom
>>720927676Shut the fuck up Schreier you dirty fucking rat Jew
>>720927473>Guess what religion the founder is?MIKE MORHAIME WAS JEWISH??? Say it aint so..
>>720927676Sounds interesting
>>720911071>JewsThread
>>720911071>That's obviously good, but how did they explode so rapidly after that?Right people at the right time making the right game. Back then, RTS was big because games were played by nerds, not normalfaggots. RTS was as big back then as mobas were in the 2010's and battle royale was in the later 10's and early 20's. I think only FPS games were as big as RTS back then. Mind you, this was only because video games were seen as . . what they are, which is games, not some sort of "art" projects for failed writers and movie directors which they are today.Step1: make good RTS gameStep2: use said RTS IP as a springboard and turn it into a mmorpg before social media was a thing <--- this is the lightning in a bottle even blizzard talks aboutStep3: get normalfaggot attention with your casualized mmoThe rest is history. If you've paid attention to any projects which have been made since then, you'll notice that they were either competent but nothing to write home about, mediocre or simply forgettable. I didn't mention Diablo because i never cared much about it, but rest assured Diablo was as big or bigger than Warcraft ever was. Starcraft was a phenomenon mainly in Asia. Blizzard is what it is today because a bunch of nerds thought half naked purple women riding tigers and green skinned hulks wielding axes were cool. When they forgot what the audience likes, so did the audience forget them.If i'd were to guess as to why it was Blizzard and not anyone else, it's because they were actual gamers who made games they wanted to play. As they aged, so did their tastes and once they got a taste of money it was over, that's back in the Activision acquisition days. At the end of the day, it's about the company culture first and foremost. You can't replace people, you just can't, and if you're a rat faced coin counter type, you don't know when you have gold and only realize you flushed it down the toilet post facto.
