StarCraft II cost $100 million to develop
By Wilson • Jul 20th, 2010 • Category: Industry News, software
- Photo: Stock.Xchng
We’re getting really excited about StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. With each passing the day, the painful twelve-year wait to the sequel to one of the greatest PC games of all time will sooner be over. And according to the Wall Street Journal Activision Blizzard has spared no expense developing the title, with reports indicating it has cost over $100 million to develop. Yes, to develop only – this excludes marketing and promotions costs.
A fairly safe bet
Given that the first StarCraft, now released over 12 years ago, has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of the highest selling PC games of all time, it is a safe bet that Activision Blizzard will recoup this money. South Korea, the spiritual home of StarCraft, alone is likely to take the company a long way towards turning a profit with Wings of Liberty.
The title has been in development since 2003, but was officially announced only in 2007.
A second reason StarCraft II, as a whole, is likely to make heaps of money is because Activision Blizzard has split the sequel into three parts. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, followed by quasi-sequel/expansion packs Heart of Swarm and Legacy of the Void. Long story short, Activision Blizzard has cleverly split a very expensive to develop product into three manageable chunks, while charging their customers three times. Good business.
Seven pillars of opportunity
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick described StarCraft II as one of the company’s seven pillars of opportunity, meaning it has the potential to bring in operating profit of between $500 million and $1 billion. The other six pillars of opportunity for Activision Blizzard are Guitar Hero, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Diablo, a new MMO Blizzard are working on, and the new IP by famed Halo developer Bungie. For those keeping score, Blizzard, who are developing Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, have four titles out of the seven. Crown jewel, huh?
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty releases 27 July for Mac and PC and we strongly advise you to pre-order your copy now.
Tags for this article: Activision Blizzard, pc games, PC Gaming, StarCraft II, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
