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Uncategorized Thursday, December 29th 2011 at 11:00 am

Blizzard Made $26 Million From Security Keychains

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We already know Blizzard is the king of the video game world, especially after fusing with Activision and going Super Saiyan 5, but just how large is their kingly crown? Aside from owning World of Warcraft, both the bane and champion of the video game industry and MMO market, which millions upon millions of users pay a monthly subscription to play, generating an ever-flowing river of cash directed at Blizzard headquarters, Blizzard has also made $26 million on keychains.

Any gamer who plays a game set in a persistent world will tell you that they value their digital pool of riches and phat lootz, but they’ll also tell you that they are worried about their account security becoming compromised, losing intangible, though valuable, virtual property. To combat this, Blizzard had the not-actually-that-bad idea of a little security authenticator keychain device that exists in the real world — not their virtual one — which generates a one-time, six digit security code that players must enter along with their username and password in order to log in. This provides users with an added step of security that is much more difficult for the nefarious denizens of the Internet to crack.

Outsiders may laugh at this device, telling WoW players to just make better passwords and don’t tell them to anyone, but you know who else is laughing about the device? Blizzard, all the way to the bank, amirite, because they’ve made around 26 million buckaroos on the devices alone. Each keychain sells for $6.50, and around 40% of WoW players actually use them. A bit of math, and voila, $26 million. Like any MMO worth its weight in killing ten rats then collecting ten rat tails which, for some reason, one of which only seems to drop every twenty kills, Blizzard offers an in-game item to those who purchase the security keychain, an in-game pet, the Core Hound Pup.

Geekosystem Associate Editor Eric Limer points out that making so much money off that keychain is a little crazy, especially considering Blizzard could’ve just made the security authenticator an app on a phone (which exists), before ever offering an entirely separate device that only has one use.

So, at least as far as WoW players go, they value their security enough to make their login process a little more obnoxious, or at least, they really want the exclusive pet. Whichever it is, Blizzard knows just how to make money off of either desire.

(via VentureBeat)

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  • http://www.facebook.com/superrob Rob Stevens

    “…
    especially considering Blizzard could’ve just made the security authenticator an app on a phone instead of offering an entirely separate device that only has one use.”

    They did that, too. I use the Battle.Net Authenticator on my iPhone.

  • Anonymous

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  • Stephanie Williams

    Can I do that playing WoW?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Patrician/100001811978280 Robert Patrician

    This article is garbage speculation that shows a lack of economic and technology sense.  Here is some data that a casual search on the subject would have informed you of.

    1.  Blizzard takes a loss on each authenticator sold.  Saying that they “Made $5 per authenticator” shows a total lack of knowledge about basic economics.  These devices cost Blizzard more than $5 each to purchase and ship.
    2.  Authenticators are not just ‘another level of security’, they are one of the ultimate layers of security.  If you have an authenticator, someone who knows your username and password still can’t get into your account.  If a keylogger virus on your computer transmits your username, password and authentication code to someone, by the time they get the info and try to log in the code will have expired (30 seconds).  In addition, failed logins with the correct username/password and incorrect authenticator flag the account as compromised so the user can go change their password.
    3.  The authenticator is available as a free phone app.  Not everyone has a smartphone (such as myself).  

    The PURPOSE of the Authenticator is not to make Blizzard money.  The purpose is to give customers a higher degree of security, considering that there are viruses out there that specifically target World of Warcraft to harvest usernames and passwords.  An authenticator allows someone to log into World of Warcraft in a public location without worrying that the intercepted data will cost them their account.
    The authenticators can also be seen as an investment in the Blizzard customer service department.  For every person who the Authenticator saves from their account being hacked, that’s half an hour of a customer service representative’s time that can be spent on a different task.