HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WORLD OF WARCRAFT
World of Warcraft is now five years old. That’s a long time to go without a shower, guys. Or sex. Or beating a game. Try GameFAQs.
It’s a pretty big achievement in gaming. EA can’t keep a Madden server running for more than a few years. Of course Counter Striker has been going long but the percentages of CS players who even paid for their copy of HL has been pretty slim. WoW has made more money for Activision Blizzard than Chinese workers buried under a dam.
The figures are staggering. Since November 2004 the following has happened:
- Valve- who released Half Life 2 around the same time have moved to episodic content. At the time of writing, HL2: Episodes 1 and 2 have been released. Episode 3 will be out eventually.
- A black man rules the world and he’s not the final boss in a Capcom videogame.
- MS released Windows Vista, Windows Vista, Office 2007 and the Xbox 360
- Nintendo regained market leadership in home consoles and Sony’s console is in third place worldwide (at least for now)
- Digital Delivery went from being a joke in a proctologist’s examination room to a reality in videogames.
- Wil Wright released Spore.
- Lair, Too Human, Dragon Age were released
- Warhammer Online, Hellgate London, Age of Conan have all been and gone.
- Battlefield games went from 1942 to Vietnam, to the present, then the future, the free to play and then back to 1943
- Call of Duty went from being a more casual gamer oriented PC only title to one of the biggest selling console game series
- You can download Beatles songs to play in a videogame.
- Star Wars is now a real cartoon without any actors involved
- Activision is the most hated company in videogames and the largest.
- Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon went from being realistic hardcore PC franchises into big selling console action title
Congrats to Blizzard and to all the millions of gold farmers who have prospered as a result.
