 PSX Extreme (press release) |
Call of Duty sales soar, Activision stock drops
Examiner.com The reason behind this drop can be traced back to a decline in the company's other major gaming franchise, World of Warcraft, which has lost 1.1 million subscribers since the end of March. In the last quarter alone, the game's subscribers went from … Activision Boosts Projections, New CoD Confirmed For 2012 |
The new Guardian Cub, the pet you can buy with real-world currency and exchange for in-game gold, has been available for sale on most realms’ Auction Houses for a good 24 hours now. And early reports are looking very favorable for Blizzard; it is now significantly cheaper to buy gold through Blizzard than through one of the less-reputable, third-party Chinese gold sellers.
The price of the Guardian Cub varies wildly by server — a function of supply and demand. An impromptu Twitter survey suggests that the pet is currently selling for between 6,000 gold and 40,000 gold in game, depending on server size, competition, and a number of other factors. Most realms are currently seeing prices just north of 10,000 gold.
Certainly, the final page of the Guardian Cub saga has yet to be written, and prices will be extraordinarily volatile in the next few days, weeks, and months. Still, even at a conservative exchange rate of for a 10,000-gold pet, players can get a far better (and safer!) deal buying gold through Blizzard via the Guardian Cub than dealing with a gold seller. The difference is stark — the same amount of gold may cost you or through a third-party site. And even then, you have no guarantee of getting your gold, no guarantee that your account won’t be compromised, and no guarantee that your purchase isn’t supporting forced labor and account theft.
Will the Guardian Cub kill off third-party gold sales? Probably not, at least on its own. Interest in this new pet simply cannot be sustained long term. But if the last 24 hours of trading on the in-game Auction House are any indication, Blizzard just fired a shot into a multi-billion-dollar gray market.
Continue reading Guardian Cub taking a bite out of third-party gold sales
Filed under: News items, Economy
Guardian Cub taking a bite out of third-party gold sales originally appeared on WoW Insider on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Why Strong Sales of "Battlefield 3" Is a Bullish Sign for "Call of Duty"
Minyanville.com And more importantly, how will it impact Activision's World of Warcraft franchise, which has been suffering from subscriber defections over the past year? A further drop in WoW subs could hit sentiment in a way that more than offsets the continued … |
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No, Heavy Rain Developer Hasn't 'Lost' a Penny to Used Game Sales
PCWorld (blog) Publishers are also entitled to complicate reselling by giving games unique activation codes (think MMORPGs like World of Warcraft). If customers don't like the fact that they can't resell a digital or code-locked game, they don't have to buy it. … |
 Reuters |
Activision Blizzard sales, earnings helped by a handful of games
Los Angeles Times Strong sales of supplemental online content for Call of Duty: Black Ops as well as the popularity of two Blizzard Entertainment titles — World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and Star Craft II: Wings of Liberty — propelled a 19% jump in revenue and a 53% leap … Activision Reports Higher Profit, Outlook On Strong Game Sales Activision Blizzard posts .15 billion quarter Activision Blizzard Announces Better-Than-Expected Second Quarter 2011 … |
The first round of tickets for BlizzCon 2011 are sold out. Would-be convention goers snagged up the tickets quickly, as predicted, and queues reached into the 12,000-15,000 range. BlizzCon tickets will go on sale once more on Wednesday May 25 at 7pm PST (10pm EST).
Here are some fun BlizzCon ticket facts:
Did you get the number of tickets you needed? Are you ready for BlizzCon? I got my tickets, and cannot wait to see everyone in October at the annual WoW Insider reader meetup party.
Filed under: BlizzCon
BlizzCon 2011: Round one of ticket sales are sold out originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 21 May 2011 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
 Forbes (blog) |
Activision's Profit Jumps 32%, Driven by Digital Sales
Wall Street Journal Activision Blizzard Inc.'s first-quarter profit jumped 32%, driven by digital sales and the videogame publisher's "Call of Duty" and "World of Warcraft" franchises. Chief Executive Robert Kotick said digital content represented a … Activision Blizzard Announces Record First Quarter Financial Results Activision reports higher 1Q earnings, revenue Ahead of the Bell: Activision Blizzard |
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Valve Won't Provide Steam Sales Data: Should We Care?
PCWorld The annual ones that paint PC retail as a desert with one or two oases (World of Warcraft, The Sims), too. “The idea of a chart is old,” Steam business director Jason Holtman told MCV. “It came from people trying to aggregate disaggregated information. … |
 BBC News |
Report: MMO 'Gold Farmers' Make Up 75% Of Global Virtual Goods Sales
Gamasutra Western players have limited time to collect resources in popular MMOs such as World of Warcraft, and therefore are increasingly turning to other players to supply them with gear and items at a price. The report says that the supply chain for these … Virtual Sales Prompting Development of Poorer Nations Virtual sales provide aid to poorer nations |
BBC News |
Virtual sales aid poorer nations
BBC News Popular online games such as Lineage and World of Warcraft revolve around the gear that players gather to outfit their characters. Better equipment makes characters more powerful. Some of that equipment can be found on monsters, as well as being bought … |