WAR marches into retail with 1.5 million

by Kyle Horner Sep 16th 2008 at 6:45AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Launches, Warhammer Online, News items

Mythic Entertainment has announced that 1.5 million units of Warhammer Online have been shipped to retail worldwide. The game is also EA's most pre-ordered PC title to date. It's been said these kinds of numbers would be required for the game to be considered a success. Of course, shipping 1.5 million copies to retailers and selling them are two different things. Which isn't to say we don't think the game will sell well, especially if the head start is any indication. It's just that hard numbers are still a few weeks away.

With Wrath of the Lich King coming out just around the corner, we're pretty certain that there's going be a numbers battle in the minds of MMO gamers throughout the next several months. We have to admit, it's going to be a little interesting to watch the sales of both WAR, Wrath and Mines of Moria. Our hope is that they all do well, because all of them are great titles.

Tags: breaking, ea, electronic-arts, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, mines-of-moria, mythic, mythic-entertainment, pre-order, pre-orders, war, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wow, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

george said on 6:59AM 9-16-2008

Awesome! All of the people that hate WAR (from age of conan) can go screw themselves! They can play AOC all they want, or until the stupid game dies! :D

WAR is amazing, check out some of my videos!

25 minute video of some of the PVE content:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/265029.html

RVR action:
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/265062.html

More RVR content:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZGEjSXwa2c

WOOT! WAR RULEZ! =)

recursive said on 7:05AM 9-16-2008

These numbers sound about alright, didn't AoC ship a million as well? Not actual sales though, but assuming Mythic's retention will be a bit better they'll probably do nicely enough, if they can keep things moving content-wise (hard just after launch, but Arthas is coming).

Moria.. poor Moria. But LotRO has it's whole own loyal fanbase I guess, should be fine. Just wish the other two didn't have me booked for the next few months so I could try it out.

MeowCat said on 9:59AM 9-16-2008

Half the fun of this is watching how big releases like WAR will influence other games. I quit LOTRO over a month ago in preparation for WAR and have been MMO free since. Sadly, my computer dies and I am waiting for a new rig! Yippie...but I will miss the first couple days of play.

I say LOTRO takes a solid hit but the loyal base will keep it going.

WoW will dip significantly until Litch King and then I don't know. I suppose it may matter how good WAR is at that point.

Hot$auce_Magik said on 8:43AM 9-16-2008

I was dead set on buying wrath, probably since It was announced. But after seeing and hearing about war...I'm strangely not interested in wrath anymore. I may pick it up at some point, but I just don't think WoW is fun anymore.

WAR has peaked my interest and I'll be giving it my full attention for a while. I may not be able to go back to WoW after the improvements WAR has made to the tried and true formula.

Leshrac said on 12:16PM 9-16-2008

I was a hardcore WoW fanboy for 4 years, most of those 4 years I was paying for up to 5 subs for me, my family and my sons friend (whose parents claimed the $15 was too high, and my son wanted to play with him). Anyway..........I'm not even going to pre-order WotLK, and I've purchased every Blizzard game ever made, I've bought all of the CEs for WoW, I attended 2 Blizzcons too.

Bottom line - WoW is played, we played the WotLK beta and its just more of the same shit. Grind, grind.............grind - grind for better gear to get better gear to raid so you can grind to get better gear, grind rep with some new faction to get items so you can grind some dungeon.............to get better gear so you can grind Arena to get better gear.

WAR doesn't break any new ground, the RvR stuff is fairly unique but the PVE in WAR reminds me of PVE combat in EverQuest 1999. But, the game FEELS fresh, and I haven't been able to say that about WoW in 2+ years.

ScytheNoire said on 2:21PM 9-16-2008

WAR is the evolution of the MMO as we know it. It fixes some of the major issues with WoW and adds a huge pile of fun. I can honestly say, in all my years of playing an MMO, none have been as fun as WAR. City of Heroes at launch is close, because of cool powers, mostly travel, but WAR is the most fun I've had in any MMO ever.

Fr0ntline said on 11:23AM 11-18-2008

i have played wow for about 4 years ..around the 3rd year it got really dull and repetitive becasue all i could do was wait for the guild to raid so i can hope something drops for me and then hope to win win it...

i havent played in the WAR beta but it looks like a new game with new ideas and like i said...its a NEW game ... theres nothing like the feeling u get when you are in a new game where you are not to sure about anything in the game

Jess said on 9:12PM 9-18-2008

To those saying LOTRO will take a hit from WAR's launch, think again. The major battle (if any) will be between WoW and WAR, because they share the same target base..... not LOTRO. LOTRO and its player base will be on the side watching and eating popcorn with its subscriber base intact. Why? Most LOTRO subscribers are either fanatical Tolkien nuts, lifetime subscribers, people sick of WoW or non-PvPers. Or all of the above. The LOTRO forums are silent when it ocmes to Lich King or WAR talk. The talk is all about Moria, and rightly so!