**OFFICIAL** Diablo 3 Thread

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JumBie

Golden Member
May 2, 2011
1,645
1
71
Out of curiosity, what type of server hardware is used?



Anyone?

While I have no specifics for Diablo 3, I do have some information regarding WoW servers.

To main*tain the server side of WoW, Bliz*zard requires:

• 20,000 computers

• 1.3 pita-bytes of storage

• 75,000 CPU cores


There is however no specific information revealed about the hardware its self. I guess from there, we only assume the server tech behind Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2.
 

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
He said "in sales" so that's a gross number not net.

Yeah. I guess I'm just trying to push that we really have no idea if Diablo III is nearly as much of a cash cow as expected. We could always speculate at the development costs of the game, but unless Blizzard releases hard facts through a press release or during a quarterly fiscal conference call, chances are we'll never know.

However, I don't think the game lost them any money.

EDIT:

There is however no specific information revealed about the hardware its self. I guess from there, we only assume the server tech behind Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2.

I would imagine that Diablo III is somewhere in between StarCraft II and WoW since SC2 should just be the hardware required for matchmaking and SC2-only chat (Battle.Net chat would use the same hardware regardless of the game). WoW has more in regard to servers since there are realms and there are separate divisions on each realm (EK, Kalimdor, Northrend, Outlands, etc.). Diablo III and WoW seem to share similar instance technology, so that aspect is probably similar.
 
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flexy

Diamond Member
Sep 28, 2001
8,464
155
106
While I have no specifics for Diablo 3, I do have some information regarding WoW servers.

To main*tain the server side of WoW, Bliz*zard requires:

• 20,000 computers

• 1.3 pita-bytes of storage

• 75,000 CPU cores


There is however no specific information revealed about the hardware its self. I guess from there, we only assume the server tech behind Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2.

Holy ####, i would've guest some "big server room" somewhere with maybe a few hundred servers somewhere - but THOSE numbers...i really have a hard time to believe this. 20.000 servers????
 

nyker96

Diamond Member
Apr 19, 2005
5,630
2
81
Holy ####, i would've guest some "big server room" somewhere with maybe a few hundred servers somewhere - but THOSE numbers...i really have a hard time to believe this. 20.000 servers????

those numbers are for WoW, I think D3 not as MMORPG might require less.
 

Grooveriding

Diamond Member
Dec 25, 2008
9,147
1,329
126
While I have no specifics for Diablo 3, I do have some information regarding WoW servers.

To main*tain the server side of WoW, Bliz*zard requires:

• 20,000 computers

• 1.3 pita-bytes of storage

• 75,000 CPU cores


There is however no specific information revealed about the hardware its self. I guess from there, we only assume the server tech behind Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2.


Those numbers are not making sense to me. 20,000 computers and 75,000 CPU cores ? I can guarantee you the WoW servers are all on server boards with dual CPUs = 8 cores, maybe 12 cores per server. So the computer vs CPU core math doesn't work out to me.

Someone correct me if I am off base here. Also 20,000 computers really seems far too many as well. I know the WoW servers are designed to handle 5000 players online at a time from what I have heard.
 

frowertr

Golden Member
Apr 17, 2010
1,372
41
91
Those numbers are not making sense to me. 20,000 computers and 75,000 CPU cores ? I can guarantee you the WoW servers are all on server boards with dual CPUs = 8 cores, maybe 12 cores per server. So the computer vs CPU core math doesn't work out to me.

Someone correct me if I am off base here. Also 20,000 computers really seems far too many as well. I know the WoW servers are designed to handle 5000 players online at a time from what I have heard.

Agreed. There is no way those numbers Jumbie quoted are correct. I'm sure there are large server farms scattered in a few locations around the world but not 20,000 computers worth.
 

waterjug

Senior member
Jan 21, 2012
930
0
76
They made $210M in opening day sales alone, $750M doesn't sound unreasonable...

bingo. And as you pointed out that was gross, not net. I doubt the game cost even a fraction of that to produce, given that it's largely a pile of shit.
 

EDUSAN

Golden Member
Apr 4, 2012
1,358
0
0
i found the weirdest ring ever...i couldnt find any ring similar... need a price check ASAP

lvl 62...
30 strenght
30 vitality
18% Magic Finding
42 arcane resistance
45 resistance to all
20% Crit damage
7% life

HOW MUCH CAN I ASK FOR THAT?
 

bonkers325

Lifer
Mar 9, 2000
13,076
1
0
i found the weirdest ring ever...i couldnt find any ring similar... need a price check ASAP

lvl 62...
30 strenght
30 vitality
18% Magic Finding
42 arcane resistance
45 resistance to all
20% Crit damage
7% life

HOW MUCH CAN I ASK FOR THAT?

it has all the right stats except the one that matters most - dps. it's not worth much unfortunately as you got a very low roll on str/vit...

but i'd probably put it up on the AH for 2-3 mil.
 

EDUSAN

Golden Member
Apr 4, 2012
1,358
0
0
oh too bad... the funny thing is that i tried looking for rings like that and i couldnt quite find a match...

i looked for arcane resist + resist to all + % life... only a couple rings at 5 mill but none of them had magic finding
then i looked for % Life + MF + Crit Dmage ... nothing
Resists + crit damage .... a couple

so i ended up thinking: if rings that are PART of mine are worth 4-5 mill...then mine should be like the sum of those... and well, there it is in the AH, lets see if it sells

I have another DH question...

Im using Bows.... i have a magic one (that does nothing) with 1100 DPS.
if i find a bow with lets say 850-900 dps but with a socket, should i change mine? (considering im gonna place a green gem)

i hate that the game doesnt make comparisons in the AH

Yesterday i bought a couple items...
a 190 dext belt
a 190 dext shoulder
a 170 dext with 2 +42 dext socket

i thought i was going to be able to do Act3... i couldnt go through the 1st elite pack :S fuck this game

now im at

30% Crit Chance
130% crit damage
1,78 attack speed
68k dps (without sharpshooter, should i always have this passive on? im always wondering if i should replace it with the one that makes me deal 20% more damage from a distance)

im starting to lose hope, i see my items and i dont see much space for improvement unless i start buying upgrades not for milliones but for hundreds millions each
maybe 100-200 more dext (in total), maybe 5-10% AS, maybe 50-80% more crit damage, maybe 5% more crit chance, but there is not much more...
and fuck rings, the prices of rings are hilarious...
 
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JJ650

Golden Member
Apr 16, 2000
1,959
0
76
oh too bad... the funny thing is that i tried looking for rings like that and i couldnt quite find a match...

i looked for arcane resist + resist to all + % life... only a couple rings at 5 mill but none of them had magic finding
then i looked for % Life + MF + Crit Dmage ... nothing
Resists + crit damage .... a couple

so i ended up thinking: if rings that are PART of mine are worth 4-5 mill...then mine should be like the sum of those... and well, there it is in the AH, lets see if it sells

I have another DH question...

Im using Bows.... i have a magic one (that does nothing) with 1100 DPS.
if i find a bow with lets say 850-900 dps but with a socket, should i change mine? (considering im gonna place a green gem)

i hate that the game doesnt make comparisons in the AH

Yesterday i bought a couple items...
a 190 dext belt
a 190 dext shoulder
a 170 dext with 2 +42 dext socket

i thought i was going to be able to do Act3... i couldnt go through the 1st elite pack :S fuck this game

now im at

30% Crit Chance
130% crit damage
1,78 attack speed
68k dps (without sharpshooter, should i always have this passive on? im always wondering if i should replace it with the one that makes me deal 20% more damage from a distance)

im starting to lose hope, i see my items and i dont see much space for improvement unless i start buying upgrades not for milliones but for hundreds millions each
maybe 100-200 more dext (in total), maybe 5-10% AS, maybe 50-80% more crit damage, maybe 5% more crit chance, but there is not much more...
and fuck rings, the prices of rings are hilarious...

Absolutely yes you should change it. That socket has a lot of added damage potential. You can add an amythest for LoH, extra dmg (with Ruby, but I wouldn't if I were you) or Emerald for crit damage punch. I would go for an emerald in the socket.
 
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darkewaffle

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2005
8,152
1
81
bingo. And as you pointed out that was gross, not net. I doubt the game cost even a fraction of that to produce, given that it's largely a pile of shit.

It's not even close to 750M.

Let's pretend 10M bought the game, which in actuality is a gross overestimate, the initial "rush" numbers were that about 6.3M people "had" D3 but about 1.2M of those were licensed through annual WoW subscriptions, so in theory it would depend how Blizzard balanced their books, but I doubt any of that counted to D3's revenue. Let's pretend that of the rest of the 3.7M, they were all bought at full price and each version obtained through WoW subscriptions are worth "half", which again is probably over estimating.

(8.8M * $60) + (1.2M * $30) = 528m + 36M = 564M

Now in this oh so optimistic scenario, they'd earn 564M simply from game sales, assuming every penny of the $60 comes back to Blizzard (again, probably unlikely). Which is still pretty far off from 750M, but what about the RMAH?

750M - 564M = 186M

The RMAH debuted on June 12th, which means in the ~7 weeks since then, Blizzard would have had to make about $26M per week. What does that mean? It means that every last player, on average, would have to make about 2-3 transactions per week on the RMAH, every week. That in itself is not so far-fetched.

But what else does it mean? In order for Blizzard to make 186M more out of the RMAH, then players would have to put at least 186M into the RMAH. This assumes that, on average, every last one of the ridiculously inflated 10M player count would have contributed $18.60 to it. Yes, even all the people that swear up and down they'd never use it.

Not only that, but it assumes that every dollar that goes into the RMAH never comes out. If you assume that even 20% of the cash that goes into it comes out of it into Paypal, then the average player input would rise to $23.25 each. If 50% of the cash that goes in comes out to paypal, then it soars up to $37.20. Each.


tldr: even if you assume D2 sold almost twice as many copies as it actually did and if you assume that every cent of the $60 MSRP goes back to Blizzard and if you assume that every single user put almost $20 into the RMAH and never took money out into Paypal, you would just reach 750M.
 

diesbudt

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2012
3,393
0
0
Absolutely yes you should change it. That socket has a lot of added damage potential. You can add an amythest for LoH, extra dmg (with Ruby, but I wouldn't if I were you) or Emerald for crit damage punch. I would go for an emerald in the socket.

Be wary though. 250 dps is a massive difference, especially after you factor in the Dex damage bonus. Which I wouldnt be surprised he was near 1500+%.

at 1500% that 200 dps becomes, 3700+ Dps loss. He would have to calculate (or just socket an item like that and equip it) how much that loss in dps and gain in crit damage would actually do to his overall dps.
 

EDUSAN

Golden Member
Apr 4, 2012
1,358
0
0
Be wary though. 250 dps is a massive difference, especially after you factor in the Dex damage bonus. Which I wouldnt be surprised he was near 1500+%.

at 1500% that 200 dps becomes, 3700+ Dps loss. He would have to calculate (or just socket an item like that and equip it) how much that loss in dps and gain in crit damage would actually do to his overall dps.

THIS...

i have 2k Dexterity
i hate having to make guesses about different items in this part of the game in which every item is 20mill gold (i have 8 mill). Buying to check to find out that its not good is so frustrating

I should be calculating that with 3700 base damage if i crit 1 hit every 3 (30% crit) how much extra damage would that crit have with 50-60% increased crit damage

fuck it haha

someone i can borrow a bow like that to test it? haha
 

diesbudt

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2012
3,393
0
0
It's not even close to 750M.

Let's pretend 10M bought the game, which in actuality is a gross overestimate, the initial "rush" numbers were that about 6.3M people "had" D3 but about 1.2M of those were licensed through annual WoW subscriptions, so in theory it would depend how Blizzard balanced their books, but I doubt any of that counted to D3's revenue. Let's pretend that of the rest of the 3.7M, they were all bought at full price and each version obtained through WoW subscriptions are worth "half", which again is probably over estimating.

(8.8M * $60) + (1.2M * $30) = 528m + 36M = 564M

Now in this oh so optimistic scenario, they'd earn 564M simply from game sales, assuming every penny of the $60 comes back to Blizzard (again, probably unlikely). Which is still pretty far off from 750M, but what about the RMAH?

750M - 564M = 186M

The RMAH debuted on June 12th, which means in the ~7 weeks since then, Blizzard would have had to make about $26M per week. What does that mean? It means that every last player, on average, would have to make about 2-3 transactions per week on the RMAH, every week. That in itself is not so far-fetched.

But what else does it mean? In order for Blizzard to make 186M more out of the RMAH, then players would have to put at least 186M into the RMAH. This assumes that, on average, every last one of the ridiculously inflated 10M player count would have contributed $18.60 to it. Yes, even all the people that swear up and down they'd never use it.

Not only that, but it assumes that every dollar that goes into the RMAH never comes out. If you assume that even 20% of the cash that goes into it comes out of it into Paypal, then the average player input would rise to $23.25 each. If 50% of the cash that goes in comes out to paypal, then it soars up to $37.20. Each.


tldr: even if you assume D2 sold almost twice as many copies as it actually did and if you assume that every cent of the $60 MSRP goes back to Blizzard and if you assume that every single user put almost $20 into the RMAH and never took money out into Paypal, you would just reach 750M.


Very possible point. However, D3 was given for free if a year subscription. Not half off. So technically, anyone devoted enough to WoW didn't spend an extra cent for it, (and technically got a better $/mo deal for the WoW subscription)

Also whatever value they truly did earn from D3 + RMAH, remember is all revenue. You have to subtract costs: ongoing server upkeep costs, advertisement costs, wages, and so on.

This game made them money, that is no doubt, but I think people would be fairly surprised if they were to actually announce the profit of D3. I bet it isn't near as high as people think/hope. I'd guess at most for D3 the profit was no more than 5%, (which in business terms is pretty good, I know. My company cheers at a 3% profit)
 

waterjug

Senior member
Jan 21, 2012
930
0
76
don't forget a lot of copies of D3 were those deluxe ones that cost more. I stand by my post. D3's a cash cow. Revenue is Revenue, and they didn't put a lot into this game.
 

diesbudt

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2012
3,393
0
0
don't forget a lot of copies of D3 were those deluxe ones that cost more. I stand by my post. D3's a cash cow. Revenue is Revenue, and they didn't put a lot into this game.


Actually they did. It takes programmers a lot more time than people give them credit for in games, and there is a lot of things in this game, some good some not so much, but that is an opinion. Some games take years from starting idea to release. And the whole time working on adding/changing things.

JUST because you do not like what was put in the game, or not liking the game itself, or the direction you wanted to game to go means in no way they didn't put a lot into this game.

If you said "They didn't put a lot I liked into this game" your sentence would be correct. Otherwise you are using your opinion as a fact, which is incorrect.

Also your definition of cash cow is...? If it was that they made money, well of course that is true. Many companys make money off their games, that is the point of business. If companies didn't they would cave as they wouldn't be able to fund future projects. However, 750M is absurdly high and incorrect even when using the math. Especially what Dark posted giving an optimistic math guess, and it wasn't close to 750M. Secondly Revenue means NOTHING to most companies. All that matters is profit, and if the design worked how can they reuse it (look at CoD for that one).

A company can have $1,000,000,000.00 Revenue ($1 billion) But if costs to make that were $1,100,000,000.00. The company lost $100,000,000.00 from that product they made. So revenue is a meaningless number, sure if its SOOO high, it sounds better to report because cost is normally almost as high making the profit numbers seem more, meh.

And if you didn't know: Profit = Revenue - Costs - Operating costs

and costs include but are not limited to:

Wages (This includes administration, CEO/COO/CFO and activision personel)
Waste material
Energy to power devices used to get job done
Advertisements
Stores that will shelf their product
Defunct objects
etc.
 
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ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
While I have no specifics for Diablo 3, I do have some information regarding WoW servers.

To main*tain the server side of WoW, Bliz*zard requires:

• 20,000 computers

• 1.3 pita-bytes of storage

• 75,000 CPU cores


There is however no specific information revealed about the hardware its self. I guess from there, we only assume the server tech behind Diablo 3, and Starcraft 2.

Are you just guessing, throwing a number out of thing air? Because that seems like WAY too much.
 

diesbudt

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2012
3,393
0
0
Are you just guessing, throwing a number out of thing air? Because that seems like WAY too much.

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/11/25/wows-back-end-10-data-centers-75000-cores/

I didn't post the original message about those numbers, but I found this when I looked it up on my own.

For those that can't click the link:

Blizzard hosts its gaming infrastructure with AT&T, which provides data center space, network monitoring and management. AT&T, which has been supporting Blizzard for nine years, doesn’t provide a lot of details on Blizzard’s infrastructure. But Blizzard’s Allen Brack and Frank Pearce provided some details at the recent Game Developer’s Conference in Austin. Here are some data points:

  • Blizzard Online Network Services run in 10 data centers around the world, including facilities in Washington, California, Texas, Massachusetts, France, Germany, Sweden, South Korea, China, and Taiwan.
  • Blizzard uses 20,000 systems and 1.3 petabytes of storage to power its gaming operations.
  • WoW’s infrastructure includes 13,250 server blades, 75,000 CPU cores, and 112.5 terabytes of blade RAM.
  • The Blizzard network is managed by a staff of 68 people.
  • The company’s gaming infrastructure is monitored from a global network operating center (GNOC), which like many NOCs, features televisions tuned to the weather stations to track potential uptime threats across its data center footprint.
 
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diesbudt

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2012
3,393
0
0
It's not even close to 750M.

Let's pretend 10M bought the game, which in actuality is a gross overestimate, the initial "rush" numbers were that about 6.3M people "had" D3 but about 1.2M of those were licensed through annual WoW subscriptions, so in theory it would depend how Blizzard balanced their books, but I doubt any of that counted to D3's revenue. Let's pretend that of the rest of the 3.7M, they were all bought at full price and each version obtained through WoW subscriptions are worth "half", which again is probably over estimating.

(8.8M * $60) + (1.2M * $30) = 528m + 36M = 564M

Now in this oh so optimistic scenario, they'd earn 564M simply from game sales, assuming every penny of the $60 comes back to Blizzard (again, probably unlikely). Which is still pretty far off from 750M, but what about the RMAH?

750M - 564M = 186M

The RMAH debuted on June 12th, which means in the ~7 weeks since then, Blizzard would have had to make about $26M per week. What does that mean? It means that every last player, on average, would have to make about 2-3 transactions per week on the RMAH, every week. That in itself is not so far-fetched.

But what else does it mean? In order for Blizzard to make 186M more out of the RMAH, then players would have to put at least 186M into the RMAH. This assumes that, on average, every last one of the ridiculously inflated 10M player count would have contributed $18.60 to it. Yes, even all the people that swear up and down they'd never use it.

Not only that, but it assumes that every dollar that goes into the RMAH never comes out. If you assume that even 20% of the cash that goes into it comes out of it into Paypal, then the average player input would rise to $23.25 each. If 50% of the cash that goes in comes out to paypal, then it soars up to $37.20. Each.


tldr: even if you assume D2 sold almost twice as many copies as it actually did and if you assume that every cent of the $60 MSRP goes back to Blizzard and if you assume that every single user put almost $20 into the RMAH and never took money out into Paypal, you would just reach 750M.


http://www.statisticbrain.com/blizzard-entertainment-statistics/

Link for Blizzard revenue as of July 20th, best record to date.

401.2 million Revenue from D3 sales. (give a +/- 10% from error in reporting) so at most 450 million revenue from the game itself
 
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