You’d think that the combination of BILLIONS from WoW and the recently announced $100 for Starcraft 2 will make Blizzard sit comfortably on its huge pile of cash.
Think again. They are now thinking of “monetizing” the new version of Battle.net.
Initially, I thought “oh, we had banner ads in battle.net before, no problem”. Here’s from the horse’s mouth (Rob Pardo interview):
So Julian Wilson told us that you guys are looking monetize Battle.Net in some way. Is that right?
Wow, that’s an evil way of putting it. Julian’s turning into a business guy on me. Here’s the way I would put it. We’re definitely not looking at turning Diablo into a subscription based game…
With Battle.Net we’re definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money… I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren’t core to the game experience, they’re really just optional things that some people want.
OK, that’s a relief: Diablo 3 isn’t a subscription game; changing your name to GobbleCoque is going to cost $29.
However, I still get a bit suspicious of Blizzard’s “innovation” when it comes to pricing. After Starcraft 2 is split into three separate games we need to purchase separately, I wonder if Diablo 3 is going to be the same way.
Purchase Acts I and II for $49 and then shell more money for Acts III, IV and V which are entirely optional. Optional in the sense you option OUT of all the end-game bosses, equipment, etc.
Tags: battle.net, Blizzard, blizzcon, diablo, diablo 3, starcraft
I read almost all your posts, because I am eager to find out news about D3, but this one pissed me off a bit. Why do you make a drama out of it? SC2 are NOT 3 games. There is a game with 2 expansions, just like other games, and of course you pay for each of them if you want to.
And don’t make assumptions just for the hell of it. I bet that some of your readers are actually gonna believe that D3 act 1&2 will cost $49, and are gonna make them so mad that the will be split in 2. You gon’t know that, nobody said anything about it, and you are already assuming this, and you are a bit pissed off.
And where the hell have you heard that SC2 will cost around $40 each? Another assumptions? They haven’t annouced a release date, there are only rumours, and you come up with stupid ideas.
Good games cost. Best games cost even more. And as they said, only extra stuff is gonna cost. So I don’t get it why did you get so stupid mad.
Regards.
I’m going to agree with Andrei on this, you’ve dramatized this a bit.
Diablo 3, including online play on Battle.Net is going to be a once off cost of buying the original game. If you decide you want to change your name or do a region transfer, your going to have to pay a little extra for that.
You left out an important part of that quote where he says that it involves actual manual labour/development on their part to do these things, which is a good reason to charge for these additional services.
The rest of the quote:
“It takes us some development work to do it, so it makes sense to charge for it. We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you’ll have to pay extra.”
As for the decision to split Starcraft II up, any talk on that is basically speculation. One of the few things thats known about it is that each piece will focus on a particular race, with 30+ campaign levels each.
Blizzard has not let us down yet, and even though the SC II split may seem horrible idea, they may pull it off in just the right way.
We could only really say for sure if this is truly a foul move when release day comes.
Andrei, Sean, thanks for writing… One of your main points is that it’s ALL speculation at this point. And you’re right of course.
However, keep in mind, I was right back in 2006 when I first “speculated” that a Diablo 3 is in the making.
Things have changed a GREAT deal at Blizzard since they merged with Activision. It’s quite simple really – now their stocks are traded in the open market.
So you’ll see a lot more “premium” features, subscription plans and expansions. So say HELLO to Starcraft 2009, Starcraft 2010 and so on, in true EA fashion.
Depends really how you see it.
Let’s say that they will release the game with all the 3 large campaigns in one “single-game”. The time to develop all the campagins will delay very much the release? Will a fan like that? I’m not sure.
Plus, was there an official statement that you can’t play skirmish/online/custom games with any race if you don’t have all 3 packs? I never heard of that. In other words, as far as I know, you only get the campaings in addition (+ some additional possible features that come with every decent extension).
On the other hand, you might be right about the fusion between the 2 companies. Activision could have played a role in this, and I guess … this is what they do. They don’t interfere with the development of the game, but they might have a word to say about the distribution of the game.
All the best.
I had to say, this is probably one reason why sites loses viewers… don’t be opnionated in your wrtings.. you have to remember that the public are reading this and that not all will agree with you, and most will be offended or pissed off by your conceited speculations. Who the hell speculates about games? Damn, just wait for it to come out and then cry about if it doesn’t satisfy you..
I don’t like to read bad rumors and bad speculations, speaking for almost everyone, because it pisses me off when people put thier anger into their writing and let everyone read it.
….
Read here about the TRILOGY (scroll down a bit):
http://www.starcraft2.com/faq.xml
It is proven fact that SCII will be 3 parts. And, show me a game OR expansion that costs less than $40 bucks nowadays and it’s probly a peice of shit. So yes, we are getting screwed a bit. And I wouldn’t doubt one moment that they’ll eventually charge for something stupid on battle.net, just because we all know blizzard is getting quite broke off of WoW *rolls eyes*
Quality and continued development come at a price. I will be estatic if and when blizzard decides to continue on with D3 and write code for an expansion. I will shell out the money and buy it. This will be w/o question or hesitation. I will admit that your comments got me hot under the collar and your accusations were poorly thought out.
Perpetual development costs money. Be excited that this game won’t be thrown in the closet and forgotten about after it’s created. We will be getting new content with the ability to ‘carry over’ our original toon in D3 into the expansion.
BTW: I was in college when D1 came out and was a person who waited at walmart at midnight when D2 came out. I have been waiting and speculating for nearly a decade for this d@mn game. Please don’t pizz off your readers by throwing in your bs opinions. They’re not appreciated. Stick with the facts.
PS: Blizzard, I have $40 a year to give you for a yearly expansion. Please continue the good work.
i dont now what to say i just know that i’m in love whit that game ….so get on!!