14 DAY TRIAL // How much interest can one video game release garner from analysts of the industry? A lot if we are talking about Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, the real time strategy title from Blizzard that was launched during last week. Various analysts have said that the game could sell more than 7 million units during this year, becoming one of the most successful PC based launches ever. And now Todd Greenwald, who is an analyst working for Signal Hill, says that a set of launch coordinates could actually make Starcraft II one of the most profitable titles ever launched by Blizzard and its partner company, Activision.
It's interesting to note that Starcraft II has going for it a set of circumstances that other publishers see as limitations when launching games of the PC. The real strategy title is launched on the PC, which means that there are no console hardware royalties that need to be paid. The game is also seeing a lot of sales coming through Battle.net, which means that the costs associated with disk manufacturing and retailer royalties are also eliminated. It also helps that Starcraft II was launched for the price of 60 dollars on the PC, the same asked by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 when it arrived during last fall.
Greenwals is saying that the game will lead to a strong showing from Activision Blizzard in this quarter, with sales of 5 to 6 million units very much a possibility by the end of the year. The analyst also says that “despite being in development for four to five years, there are not four to five years of development costs about to hit gross margin (as was the case for Take-Two’s Red Dead Redemption) - the vast majority of StarCraft II's development costs have already been expensed, which makes the margin impact of StarCraft II even more positive.”