All good demons go to... um... sequel? - Diablo 3 Announced

LMN8R · 2012-05-23T11:12:33.000Z

That has little to nothing to do with it. The simple notion that Diablo 3 would only sell 500,000 copies throughout 2013 is stupid enough, but any idiot would know that 3.5 million was completely low-balling it for 2012.

charmtrap · 2012-05-23T11:13:02.000Z

Starlight:

Won’t help. It’s tricking the Blizzard /server/ once they’re in your game.

Except that Blizzard has explicitly denied that it’s happening, so…

Starlight · 2012-05-23T11:20:01.000Z

charmtrap:

Except that Blizzard has explicitly denied that it’s happening, so…

Well yes, they would.

I’m looking at a housemate’s PC now, and I’m DARN sure that he doesn’t have a trojan or keylogger on it, and he uses an authenticator. And yet, shortly after someone joined his game…

rowe33 · 2012-05-23T11:20:04.000Z

LMN8R:

Awesome that an amazing game sold so well.

You know what’s funnier?

some analysts thought it would only sell 3.5 million this year, and maybe another half-million next year

They’ve already nearly-doubled that in a week.

I wonder how many thousands of units were sold to gold farmers though, in anticipation of the RMAH. No monthly fee and only a $60/head buy-in? Profit!

ArmandoPenblade · 2012-05-23T11:21:21.000Z

LMN8R:

That has little to nothing to do with it. The simple notion that Diablo 3 would only sell 500,000 copies throughout 2013 is stupid enough, but any idiot would know that 3.5 million was completely low-balling it for 2012.

No kidding. I recall SC and D2 battlechests hitting top 10 lists years after their release. Blizzard’s second only to Nintendo when it comes to long-tail sales. D3’s gonna be raking in cash at or near $60 until the sun burns out.

charmtrap · 2012-05-23T11:29:02.000Z

Starlight:

I’m looking at a housemate’s PC now, and I’m DARN sure that he doesn’t have a trojan or keylogger on it

So is everyone else who gets hacked, but key loggers don’t tend to announce themselves.

JM1 · 2012-05-23T11:32:21.000Z

Key loggers also tend to be pretty easy to find if you’re actively looking for them.

LMN8R · 2012-05-23T11:33:18.000Z

What’s crazy is that if you add the 3.5 million sales to the 1.2 million WoW annual subscribers, it matches the 4.7 million that Modern Warfare 2 sold in the same first-24 hours. Black Ops and Modern Warfare 3 sold a lot more in 24 hours, at 5.6 and 6.5 respectively, but Diablo’s sales are particularly noteworthy for two important reasons:

Activision/Blizzard gets more revenue per copy from Diablo 3 than they do from Call of Duty, since they cost the same price, but there’s no console royalty fees. That’s ignoring the even bigger cut they get thanks to direct-sales from digital distribution.
Call of Duty sales are across 5+ different platforms (360, PS3, PC, Wii, DS, etc.) while Diablo 3 is just one one platform, or arguably two (PC/Mac)

Starlight · 2012-05-23T11:44:31.000Z

charmtrap:

So is everyone else who gets hacked, but key loggers don’t tend to announce themselves.

No, as in I’ve just checked for them. With several different utilities.

charmtrap · 2012-05-23T11:51:47.000Z

Well, alright. But they got in somehow…he has a keylogger or maybe he’s sharing a password with another site that got hacked and he’s not running an authenticator. Whatever.

The idea that Blizzard, who has been running online games for 15 years now, would outright say “that’s not happening” if it was or they weren’t sure is pretty farfetched. Their game is going to be a huge success either way…why would they deliberately expose themselves to trouble when they don’t have to.

Starlight · 2012-05-23T11:56:27.000Z

Ah, so it HAS to be his fault because of <reason x> to do with him.

I’ve already said he uses an authenticator. And the password won’t do you a bit of good without one, at that end (But he uses a password vault and random passwords).

Can’t possibly be that the multiple reports, from technically knowledgeable people, that it’s not to do with local compromises could be wrong. Blizzard have a fairly poor record on this…

Misguided · 2012-05-23T12:03:34.000Z

To clarify, Blizzard hasn’t stated that there aren’t intrusions, what they have stated is that they have not identified any that we’re not achieved through traditional methods nor any cases where an authenticator was in use. So, if that turns out to be true in this case, it would be a big deal.

Hanacker · 2012-05-23T12:24:56.000Z

charmtrap:

The idea that Blizzard, who has been running online games for 15 years now, would outright say “that’s not happening” if it was or they weren’t sure is pretty farfetched. Their game is going to be a huge success either way…why would they deliberately expose themselves to trouble when they don’t have to.

How many companies who’ve lost their password databases to hackers have immediately admitted it? How long did Sony take to let people know that PSN was compromised? Blizzard outright saying “that’s not happening” even if they suspected it was isn’t farfetched at all.

stusser · 2012-05-23T12:30:58.000Z

LMN8R:

Call of Duty sales are across 5+ different platforms (360, PS3, PC, Wii, DS, etc.) while Diablo 3 is just one one platform, or arguably two (PC/Mac)

Exactly. PC gaming isn’t dead. It’s just been largely abandoned.

Starlight · 2012-05-23T12:43:46.000Z

Oh, is that what you call a market which is outstripping console gaming again this year.

(AAA | the market)

nomaar · 2012-05-23T12:48:03.000Z

Stridergg:

IMO Blizzard didn’t think through this whole AH thing and its impact on D1/D2 formula. The game that is mostly about gambling and waiting for random drops kind of loses its main driver when you can just go on the AH and buy those drops for next to nothing.

Trading and bartering were a big, big part of the D1 and D2 formula. It obviously wasn’t to the level of D3’s auction house, but if you really wanted good gear at high levels in D2, you had to do some trading and purchasing either through the trade chat or the various trading forums. I didn’t know a lot of D2 players who relied solely on drops for equipment.

stusser · 2012-05-23T12:49:44.000Z

You’re free to count shitty facebook garbage if you want. I don’t.

“Core” PC gaming is primarily served by console ports, usually poor ones. Diablo3 proves that the market exists and is hungry for great titles.

StGabe · 2012-05-23T13:07:05.000Z

nomaar:

Trading and bartering were a big, big part of the D1 and D2 formula. It obviously wasn’t to the level of D3’s auction house, but if you really wanted good gear at high levels in D2, you had to do some trading and purchasing either through the trade chat or the various trading forums. I didn’t know a lot of D2 players who relied solely on drops for equipment.

I spent almost as much time trolling D2 trade forums as I did actually playing. So yep. The AH just streamlines things quite a bit.

Starlight · 2012-05-23T13:10:42.000Z

stusser:

You’re free to count shitty facebook garbage if you want. I don’t.

Ah, so you’re only counting a subset of PC gaming, ignoring casual gaming, ARG’s, MMO’s, indy games, digital sales…

JM1 · 2012-05-23T13:13:52.000Z

Please do not Dawn Falcon this thread, Dawn Falcon.