Pachter: StarCraft II will "quickly" sell 4-5 million

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has chorused Cowen’s Doug Creutz on predicted StarCraft II sales, saying the imminent PC RTS will move a quick 5 million units and could eventually outsell the original StarCraft.

Speaking on his latest GTTV show in response to a question as to whether the game can survive in a console driven market, Pachter said:

“There is a huge niche market of PC gamers and we know for sure from games like World of Warcraft that there are at least 12 million of them. If you look at the original Starcraft they are up to 9 million units sold and there are still 3 millions players online daily.

“So, on Starcraft II I think that they will sell around 4-5 million units quickly and I think that they will sell 9-10 million units eventually. I think the game will have a very long online multiplayer life."

Pachter added that he expects a similar performance from the yet-to-be-dated Diablo III.

“Diablo is not going to come out for a year at least, probably two since there are two Starcraft expansions to come out, but even that will sell the same kind of numbers, maybe slightly smaller because Diablo doesn’t have the same online player fanbase that Starcraft does," he said.

"But you will still see 4-5 million units sold right off the bat."

StarCraft II's getting a simultaneous release on July 27 in Europe, South Korea, and North America, with two expansions planned about 18 months apart - Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void.