Uber upgrade?

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Edit: The one thing I don't understand is how blizzard profits from b.net. All of the advertisements are now for blizzard products. In a MMOG, keeping people playing (either because the account gets sold, or because people with busy RL can 'keep up' by buying items, and therefore not cancel their accounts) brings in money for the company. But -how- does the battle.net model work?

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Blizzard doesn't profit, except for selling their games and merchendise. That's what's cool about Blizzard; they're still keeping their Starcraft servers up, even though they are now LOSING money on the game (not enough people buying it). Blizzard has long since been known as a company with high production values, and the develepors (sic?) play their own games. Diablo II, however, is not in the same boat as Starcraft. Starcraft servers don't actually host games, just hold databases and provide the ability to chat. Actual people host the games. Diablo II servers actually host games (every time you make a game, a server is assigned to host it). This obviously means a lot more computers are involved, and as the popularity for the game dwindles, I see huge losses coming Blizzard's way soon, the source; D2. (World of Warcraft works the same way of course, but they have a monthly fee.) Likewise, when Blizzard stops selling Warcaft III copies, they will likely cut back on servers in one of their other games to keep their profits in the green (Warcraft III servers actually host most games, except for custom games, and then there are the chat servers).