It seems that game sales have really
kicked off across all gaming genres. The latest recipient of the public's love and money
was World of Warcraft.
Launched Tuesday, November 23rd, the company's
subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) sold-through to
consumers an estimated 250,000 copies of the game. At retailers across the country, players
lined up for blocks at midnight to purchase the game, which sold out in many stores
nationwide after only one day on store shelves.
In just the first day alone, over
200,000 players created World of Warcraft accounts, and over 100,000 were already playing
the game concurrently as of 5:00 p.m. PST on Tuesday. The account-creation and
concurrent-user populations are both record numbers for a MMORPG on its first day of launch,
making World of Warcraft the fastest-growing online game in history. World of Warcraft is
expected to continue to shatter records and achieve a record-setting week-one population in
the days ahead. With dozens of World of Warcraft servers already filled to capacity,
Blizzard is deploying additional servers rapidly to match the growing player base.
We
had a lot of confidence in World of Warcraft, but the success on day one far exceeded our
expectations, said Mike Morhaime, president of Blizzard Entertainment. We are extremely
happy that players are enjoying our game, and we are doing everything we can to meet the
demand and maintain a fun and smooth game experience for everyone playing.
Retailers
across North America, including Wal-Mart, EB, GameStop, and others are reporting that
hundreds of their stores have sold out of World of Warcraft due to the demand. If consumers
have not yet purchased their copy of World of Warcraft, they are advised to call ahead to
make sure their store has copies still in stock.
Blizzard Entertainment and its
retail partners are expecting all remaining supplies of World of Warcraft to sell out soon.
Meanwhile, the company is working diligently to increase server capacity to accommodate the
growing number of players connecting to the game. As the additional servers are brought
online and proven stable, additional copies of World of Warcraft will be made available at
retail. Blizzard will announce the availability of those additional games as soon as they
are on retail shelves.
j/k . well i got at last
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