Analyst: Diablo III will sell 5 million copies in its first year

[lestatdark]

TruckOSaurus said:

Mad55 said:

TruckOSaurus said:

Mad55 said:
i think it will do like 2 or 3 million in its first year then 4 million total. i mean its sales haven't been that huge on past games I think.

You should do a little research...

i did neither one seemed to crack 5 million copies, but maybe i didn't research hard enough. 

I'll admit that the information is not as easily accessible as I thought. I had to use the WayBack Machine to retrieve an old 2008 Blizzard press release:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080701085213/http://www.blizzard.com/us/press/080628.html

About the Diablo Series
Launched at the end of 1996, the original Diablo helped popularize the action role-playing-game genre, earning widespread critical and commercial success. The game's sequel, Diablo II, shipped in 2000 to similar acclaim, winning several Game of the Year awards and at the time becoming the fastest-selling computer game ever. Diablo II's award-winning expansion set, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction^™, debuted in 2001, becoming Blizzard Entertainment's sixth-consecutive #1-selling game. To date, the franchise has sold more than 18.5 million copies worldwide.* Diablo's gothic horror theme has also inspired a number of licensed products, including novels and action figures.

From those 18.5 million copies, one would have to assume that the largest slice must be from both Diablo II and LOD sales, since the original Diablo is more of a Cult classic than a full fledged multi million seller. 

I'm expecting a huge impact by Diablo III given the level of expectation that it has created over the past 11 years. Whether the impact will be positive or negative we still have to see, but the lack of PVP at the release date is a bit of a personal let down. 

Anyway, my CE is already pre-ordered so I'm just waiting for May 15 .