12 years after the original launch, Blizzard throws on market Starcraft II Wings of Liberty. How much more until Diablo III?

Cristina Blanaru Marketing, Media

12 years after the original launch of Starcraft II in 1998, a game that sold 11 millions copies, Blizzard launched on the market, on July 27th, Starcraft II – Wings of Liberty, the first expansion of the game.

According to information available on the press worldwide, there were around 800,000 copies pre-ordered for the game and VGChartz estimates that physical retail sales in the Americas alone in week one will be of more than one million units.

The expansion was released worldwide and the game is also available for digital download via Blizzard’s Battle.net. According to estimates, total worldwide week one sales will be of over three million copies, with a significant number of copies to be brought in South Korea, where the original game sold over 5 million copies. By the end of the year, analysts think there will be 10-12 million copies of Starcraft sold, both retail and digital.

The solo campaign in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty picks up the saga from StarCraft: Brood War, being centered on marshal-turned-rebel-leader Jim Raynor. Players can play 29-mission campaign.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is commercialized for a standard price of $59.99.

Blizzard is launching also a special Collector’s Edition package, available only in retail stores for $99.99, that includes the game, “The Art of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty” – a book featuring artwork from the game, an exclusive 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor’s dog tag (preloaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War(R) expansion set), a behind-the-scenes DVD with developer interviews, cinematics with director’s commentary and others, the official StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD (14 epic tracks from the game along with exclusive bonus tracks), StarCraft comic book issue #0 – a prequel to the comic series, A World of Warcraft(R) mini Thor in-game pet that can be applied to all World of Warcraft characters on a single Battle.net account, exclusive Battle.net downloadable content.

Known for blockbuster hits such as World of Warcraft, Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo series, Blizzard Entertainment, for couple years part of Activision Blizzard, is developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games.