Out of the 8 million worldwide World of Warcraft (WoW) players, 2.4 million picked up the PC game at launch (Blizzard shipped 4 million), out of the 5,000 stores that were open for the midnight launch, an HMV store in London, UK, outdid them all with over 3,000 people lining up! To be more exact on those numbers:
* In America 1.2 million of the 2 million WoW players bought Burning Crusade the first day it went on sale on January 16th last week.
* In Europe 1.1 million of the 1.5 million WoW MMORPG players bought the expansion pack.
Blizzard said 1.7 million players logged into the Burning Crusade within 24 hours of its release, with one French gamer hitting the new level cap of 70 within 28 hours…
Blizzard also talked about the WoW movie & a new MMO…
Also interesting is that at the above mentioned London launch of the Burning Crusade there was talk about Blizzard’s next MMO by vice president of development Itzik Ben Bassat. Not only did he drop hints last week about the RTS Starcraft 2, but he’s been quoted as saying:
“When we announce our next MMORPG it’s not going to be another World of Warcraft — we’re not a company that tends to tread the same ground,” he told British film magazine Empire. “It’ll be something innovative and new that really brings entertainment to another level.” American Blizzard reps declined to expand on Bassat’s comments, although the fact that the company began hiring real-time strategy developers last summer might offer a clue.
Oh and he talked about the World of Warcraft feature film as well! Bassat had precious little grist for the rumor mill surrounding the forthcoming World of Warcraft movie. “Hollywood has its own pace but we’re working as hard as we can to push it forwards,” he told the mag. “Bringing Warcraft to the movies is the next step for us, we want to let people bring World of Warcraft into other aspects of their lives. After all, we’re competing for people’s entertainment time, whether it’s listening to music, watching TV, or going to the cinema.”