Analyst predicts StarCraft II will sell 4 million units

Michael Pachter has said StarCraft II could sell 4 million units during its opening quarter.

Priced at $40 wholesale and $50 retail, that would put $160 million in Activision Blizzard's coffers with operating profit hitting $80 million or 4 cents per share.

In response to yesterday's MarketWatch report, where analysts were citing a StarCraft II release delay due to the late Beta testing, Pachter seemed more assured of the product.

"Nobody knows how long the StarCraft II beta will take," he said. "It’s highly likely that the game is polished, with few or no bugs. The issue is balance, and until there is a large scale beta, Blizzard won’t be able to test every single weapon, defense, et cetera, in order to ensure that the three races are perfectly balanced.

"They did a phenomenal job with the World of Warcraft beta (as I recall, it was around four months), and they will have no issues at all in attracting 30,000 supremely knowledgeable beta testers, so my bias is that the beta will take less time than most expect.

"The Blizzard guys are perfectionists, and if they want to take six months, nobody at Activision is going to challenge them.

"So the bottom line is that StarCraft II will launch when Blizzard says so."

More over on Gamasutra.