As Hall said in one of his videos, he worked two years of overtime on StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. And the entire game ended up making less money for Blizzard than a single mount in World of Warcraft.
A $15 microtransaction horse made more money than StarCraft 2, Hall said.
It is unclear which mount he referred to specifically, but given the release date of Wings of Liberty (July 27, 2010), this is likely the infamous Celestial Steed aka the Sparkle Pony, which was introduced in April 2010.
The mount, however, cost $25 at launch, not $15, but it definitely caused a stir (and controversy) within the WoW community. Within just three hours of its release, the Celestial Steed generated a 140,000 queue, resulting in revenue of millions of dollars. Not to mention all the money the mount has made since then.
Thats the whole meme, dude, Hall said. Youre wondering why these companies do microtransactions? Because dipshits keep buying all of them.
StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty sold 1.5 million copies in its first two days, surpassing the 6 million mark by the end of 2012. In 2017, Blizzard made WoL free-to-play, and the games lifetime revenue remains undisclosed (as with Celestial Steed).
RTS will never dieWhen was the last new big game released?