Blizzard Hoped to Sell 1 Million WoW Copies

Here's something not everyone expected to hear: former Blizzard North employee, who is now CEO of Flagship Studios, Bill Roper, sat down with CVG this weekend, revealing that Blizzard had modest expectations as far as sales figures for WoW went. The man talked of a 1-million-copies-landmark which Blizzard Entertainment was hoping to reach. Just so everyone's on the same level here, official WoW servers currently host over 9 million subscribers.

"I remember a meeting at Blizzard where we were hoping we'd be able to sell a million copies of the game," said Roper. "You have to remember, that the most successful American MMORPG at that time was EverQuest with about 500,000 players. It would have been impossible to predict that World of Warcraft would take off as a cultural phenomenon like it did, but those are the kind of surprises that you like to get in life."

Roper packed his Blizzard bags back in 2003, before the game's progress could even hint at such amazing profits. He claims he doesn't regret leaving the company before the WoW could take off: "As for regrets, I could never regret starting Flagship and Ping0 and building what we have here. The string of games I worked on at Blizzard makes me proud", he told CVG. "And while World of Warcraft was perhaps the one that eclipsed them all, its success was also built upon the work we all did over the years on the reputation of Blizzard and Warcraft as a universe. I am glad that the game has done what it has because it is good for the industry as a whole."

Inspiring words, you have to admit. But really now, how can someone say they don't regret not cashing in on one of the most profitable projects the video games industry has ever seen? Well, actually anyone can say it. Whether Roper really feels this way or not is a different matter altogether.