This magnificent horse illustrates why games are priced at $70 USD, yet game publishers still sell virtual items for real money.

Buzz

Ngày cập nhật gần nhất: 1/5/2026

Last night, Jason Hall, a key figure in developing Blizzard games like Diablo 3, StarCraft II, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch, went live to reminisce about his time at Blizzard Entertainment. One crucial segment of his talk shed light on why games now sell for $60, $70 USD, while many game companies maintain virtual stores, selling in-game equipment for real currency to maximize profit.

In a nutshell, Hall asserted that this phenomenon persists simply because there are still gamers willing to purchase virtual goods within the game.

For instance, the renowned horse named Celestial Steed featured on the cover, sold for $15 in the MMORPG World of Warcraft. The initial version of Celestial Steed debuted in April 2010. Upon its release, according to Hall, this horse's skin wasn't priced at $15, but rather a hefty $25. At that time, forums gathering World of Warcraft players worldwide were filled with heated comments directed at Blizzard. Even now, it remains the same, no different from before. However, the internet's outrage stands in stark contrast to the financial success that the virtual horse brought to Blizzard.

Just within 3 hours of sales launch, 140 thousand people queued up to purchase the Celestial Steed skin, multiplying by the $25 price at launch, equivalent to a revenue of $3.5 million in just under 1/3 of a day.

And what about Jason Hall's project? He claimed to have put in continuous overtime for 2 years to meet the release deadline of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. Yet, the total revenue of Wings of Liberty falls short of the amount generated by a single item in a game, namely the seven-color horse skin brought in for the game company.

In reality, StarCraft II was far from a flop. Just two months after its release in July 2010, Wings of Liberty sold over 3 million copies. By the end of 2012, this figure reached 6 million copies. As of the end of 2017, the entire StarCraft franchise generated $1 billion in revenue for Blizzard. This goes to show how a beautiful in-game item for many players can become a monstrous money-making machine.

Similarly, despite being free with an in-game virtual store, Diablo Immortal raked in $50 million in revenue for Blizzard within its first month of release. Diablo IV also features an in-game virtual marketplace, albeit with less success. To sum up, where there's demand, there's supply, and instead of fuming over greedy game companies, gamers always have the choice not to spend money on virtual items.

According to Techspot

Mytour's content is for customer care and travel encouragement only, and we are not responsible.

For errors or inappropriate content, please contact us at: [email protected]