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Starcraft II could generate $350M in sales this year

Game maker Blizzard Entertainment is preparing to release the much anticipated StarCraft II on July 27, and many gamers are salivating over the title, which is a sequel to the hit real-time strategy sci-fi game that came out more than a decade ago. Importantly for parent company Activision Blizzard, investors may be salivating too. The game cost a lot to develop, but less than the reported $100 million reported by the Wall Street Journal. Blizzard should more than make up for its costs with very healthy sales.

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey said today that he’s expecting the game to sell at least 7 million units during this fiscal year for Activision Blizzard, which would result in sales of over $350 million. Hickey said that would also generate “an estimated $171 million in operating profit (assuming a 45% operating margin).” Moreover, Hickey believes that around 70 percent or more of the StarCraft II sales will happen during the Q3 period, resulting in about $245 million in sales. See Industry Gamers for  more.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.