World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Q&A Feature

TVG: You say you’re not ready to discuss the next MMO at this moment, but with Blizzard relying on a trinity of franchises with Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, you guys aren’t going to set to create an original brand for the MMO – you’re going to use one of your existing brands aren’t you?

Sams: I think it all depends on what the gamers want [us] to make.  If one of the three franchises fits, if they don’t, then we would do something new.  We’re not afraid to do something new; we’re just not saying that’s what we’re going to do.  We don’t know.  But there are a lot of people in our organisation that love these franchises, and a lot of people who love these franchises but want to try something new.

It’s kind of like the business model conversation.  We don’t make decisions about what our business model is for our games until we know what the game is.  We wrap the business model around the game we create it so it supports the game, not the other way around.  It’s the same thing for franchises.  We don’t tell people, “By the way, that game you want to make?  You have to do it in that franchise – have a good time!” They may not think it’s the right mix, not the right match.  That’s what it comes down to, that the game matches the right franchise whether existing or new, and builds a business model that’s appropriate for that game in each market.

TVG: What are your thoughts on Star Wars: The Old Republic?  It’s likely to be the latest to be regarded as a ‘WoW killer’ in the months ahead; you’ve already seen off other challenges…

Sams: There’s a couple of things.  They have a couple of real key benefits; number one, they have a great team and a proven team – and that’s one of the key elements you must have to be successful in the MMO space.  They also have a great franchise that they’re going to be operating in; that’s another key element of success.

I think what’s allowed us to succeed, and succeed early, was the fact that we had those two things, but we also had something that I don’t think anybody has, which is that we were already the world leader in online gaming with Battle.net since early 1997.  So we’d had the opportunity to get kicked in the teeth countless times and be bumped and bruised along the way because we had to learn along the way.  We could learn a lot of those things and apply those things to World of Warcraft.  But while Battle.net and World of Warcraft aren’t the same, there are similarities in certain aspects of the business; and so, I think it’s going to be the thing that’ll be the most challenging for them and for anyone else coming after us is can they juggle all those other things?  I wouldn’t say those things are as important as the game because in my mind, the game is first and foremost – the game has to be great.

To get mass appeal, the game also has to be something that people know and love already.  Last but not least, you have to be able to manage a lot of things that you won’t necessarily have a lot of experience in, and you’re going to have to learn along the way.  It’s tough, and I think that’s going to be one of their greatest challenges – you know, I know, everyone knows, that team can make a great game.  It’s a fact. And we all know that Star Wars is badass.  So, will they be able to pull off those other things?  They certainly have as good a chance as anybody, and they’re not going to be short of a few dollars to spend on that.

Sparks:  I think that competition breeds ingenuity in us too.  We like having other games to see and play as well, and it helps us too.

Sams:  It’s well known that Blizzard does a couple of things.  Number one, we do a number of things that innovate the genre and push it to new levels.  But we’re also students, so when other games come out and they have new features or new systems, we take a look at them and ask how we can evolve it to make it even better.  Another thing that you hear people say about Blizzard is that we really try to improve and perfect different elements within the genres we operate in. Competition allows that to happen too, because we aren’t the only people to have great ideas.  We have a lot of great ideas, but not all of them.  We don’t care where the great ideas come from, just that they come and we’re able to execute them into our games for the benefit of our players.

TVG: With that in mind, is there anything that Blizzard is scared of at the moment, and who do you regard as your biggest rivals?

Sams: We do not spend time thinking about our competitors I’ll be honest with you; we spend our time figuring out how we can create the best experience for the players.  We feel that if we do our job right, and we deliver a Blizzard level quality of product and experience, we’re going to do just fine.  There can be multiple games that are successful, and we’re excited about the prospects about other products coming on the market.

We’re excited about Conan and Warhammer and The Old Republic.  They’re going to grow the market, and growing the market is good for them and good for us.  One of those franchises may be the impetus for someone who hasn’t played an MMO to try it.  Maybe people aren’t into dwarves and elves and orcs, but maybe they’re interested in Star Wars, and so maybe that will be the thing that will cause them to try this genre of product.

Or maybe they really love Warhammer because they grew up going to the Games Workshop and played table top games.  Maybe that’s what brings that person into that genre and product.  Our feeling is that if they become interested in our genre, they’ll eventually hear about us and try our game – we have confidence that if they do, they’ll be interested in playing it for some period of time, because we have a high level of confidence about what it is we deliver and we feel like it rates very well against everything else.

TVG: Thanks to both of you.

Sams: Thanks for taking the time to speak with us.

TVG would like to thank Pauls Sams and Lee Sparks at Blizzard Entertainment, along with Jonnie Bryant at Blizzard UK.  World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King has now launched on PC.