Amid the festivities, I sat down with Blizzard execs Paul Sams, Chief Operating Officer, and Frank Pearce, Executive Vice President of Product Development. The pair, in separate interviews at the event, gave me their insight about several topics, including:
1. Why "Diablo III" isn't an MMO
2. Making another MMO to compete with "World of Warcraft"
3. The player overlap between their games
4. The time between their game releases
5. Creating a new game franchise
6. ...
On why "Diablo III" isn't an MMO:
Sams: When we're deciding what type of game we're going to make, we look at what the gameplay experience is going to be. We talked to the team a lot and say, "What is it you want to play? What is it that you want to make?" And we really felt like "Diablo" is a franchise that is very cooperative in the manner in which you play it. We felt like the gameplay experience that we had delivered historically with being in a non-persistent world was the right way to do it for this particular product. I think a lot of people expected us to say that this is going to be an MMO maybe an obvious choice in a lot of people's minds. But really, the bottom line is we thought the right game to make was "Diablo III" in the way that we've announced it.
On making another MMO that would compete with "World of Warcraft":
| "If we wanted to make was another MMO, then we would do that. I don't think we're scared to do that." |
Sams: Well, it's certainly a conversation that we've had. The idea of doing games that could compete with "World of Warcraft" is something that I think a lot of people would say, "Geez you shouldn't do that." But I do believe that if the game that we wanted to make was another MMO, then we would do that. I don't think we're scared to do that. And I think that if our developers come up with the next great game that they want to make and it's an MMO, then we'll do that. We would go about trying to make the best MMO of all time, and to try to eclipse "World of Warcraft," if we were ever to do such a thing. But it really all comes down to what type of game we want to make, and the people that we have working at the company.
Pearce: Whether or not it makes sense to have another subscription-based MMO competing against "World of Warcraft" within the Blizzard space is hard to say. At some point, some product's going to come along and cannibalize the "World of Warcraft" player base, and if it's going to happen, it'd be better for us to cannibalize our own player base compared to having another publisher do it. But our hope is that "Starcraft II" and "Diablo III" will be games that can be enjoyed by our fans simultaneously with "World of Warcraft."
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