World of Warcraft a crippling success
I knew the launch of World of Warcraft would be successful, but this successful? With 200,000 new accounts created and 250,000 boxes sold on the day of release, the response to the latest MMORPG to enter this increasingly competitive arena has shocked even me about its widespread appeal. Stories of downed character creation servers, Blizzard adding an additional 34 game servers after launching with 41, queues to just play the game - it was sounding like a disaster. Yet the fans remained faithful to Blizzard, a beacon of truth and honesty. And it appears this kind of dedication pays off, as Blizzard announced a short extension for those that are currently on the free 30 day trial who have probably spent a good portion of their time waiting. Blizzard also reports that stores are having trouble keeping the game in stores - which doesn't surprise me given the protocol most specialty game shops use for major releases.
I have to give them credit for the way they handled the Beta program, but the reaction to the Open Beta should have told them a little something about what the climate would be like on launch day. Instead, I think they hamstrung themselves by arbitrarily closing off the Open Beta. You could assume more people would be interested in a free game, but you also have to assume that access to broadband is as pervasive as those with computers to play it on. As soon as hard media is available for purchase, you get everyone - especially those that felt they "missed out" on the Beta program. I mean all the way up to release the internet was saturated with hype and positive feedback about this game. There's a great discussion over at Terra Nova that speculates about World of Warcraft hitting the one million concurrent subscribers mark. A true accomplishment for a Western MMORPG, but it's tough to make those kinds of predictions so early in the release version's lifespan.
After essentially waiting in line for Steam to verify my store-bought copy of Half Life 2, I think I'm going to hold off on World of Warcraft until at least the Christmas break. That should give players some time to settle into playing schedules, and me time to catch up on this season's numerous releases.
beneath the spider's eye