Blizzard Reveals It's Rooting for The Old Republic

[Logan Westbrook]

Blizzard Reveals It's Rooting for The Old Republic

The new Star Wars MMO could help grow the industry, says Blizzard's co-founder.

Blizzard, the studio behind the immensely popular World of Warcraft [http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Pc/dp/B000067FDW/ref=sr_1_3?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1300456842&sr=1-3 ], doesn't appear to be worried about the release of a high-profile rival like Star Wars: The Old Republic [http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Old-Republic-Pc/dp/B001CWXAP2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1300456811&sr=8-6 ] on the horizon; quite the opposite, in fact, as Blizzard's top brass seems to be rather hoping that the game does well.

Frank Pearce, Blizzard's executive vice president and co-founder, said that if handled properly, the release of The Old Republic could help grow the MMO market, and that was a good thing for the whole industry, not just publisher EA and LucasArts. Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime added that Star Wars was a strong brand and that BioWare was a great developer. He felt that The Old Republic would result in a lot more people checking out MMOs, and hoped that their experiences with TOR - and by extension, the whole genre - would be positive.

Obviously there are also things that the pair aren't saying - there must have been some discussion at Blizzard about the potential negative effects that the launch of TOR will have on WoW - but it seems that they've decided to focus on the positives instead, at least in interviews, anyway.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is scheduled for release in the second quarter of this year.

Source: MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/news/43546/WoW-bosses-hopeful-SWTOR-will-be-a-hit]


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[Popido]

Aand now they jinxed it.

Like we need Blizzard's approval to make MMOs...

 

[Ganthrinor]

Blizzard isn't worried about WoW. The damn thing has paid for itself so many times over it's actually a little nauseating and slightly frightening to think about it.

 

[Freshman]

Yea, Nobody but blizzard is going to be able to make an MMO that's more popular than WoW. And that one will proly just be a graphical update of WoW.

 

[Nimzar]

Statements like this are probably just sound PR strategy.

Why risk making part of your fanbase upset with you.

And saying that BioWare is a great developer is like saying that most species of grass, at the peak of their photosynthetic cycle, reflect light at a frequency of about 575 Terahertz.

Plus, even if TOR siphons away a portion of WoW's playerbase Blizzard will STILL have enough subscribers to pretty much buy Belgium every year[footnote]this is not based on any fact, and is in fact, hyperbole on my part[/footnote].

 

[DTWolfwood]

boo hotkey mmo boo!

GL BIOWARE.EA

 

[cerebus23]

WoW is on a steady decline anyway, lest a bunch of people i know that have played it own every expansion, got bored of the latest a month after it came out and quit.

Blizzard has to recognize that WoWs best days are behind it ToR or no ToR, nevermind guild wars 2 that is looking pretty darn good. Both games will draw current and former wow players, will either game grab new people into the mmo world, hard to say. MMO players tend to gravitate from mmo to mmo as the years move on and i am sure many ToR players will be former SWG players and a mix of wow gw etc etc.

Whats blizzard supposed to say i hope they fail? Their next mmo is years off, so not like they got anything new to offer since wow has retread the same ground over and over thru multiple expansions.

 

[Phishfood]

And saying that BioWare is a great developer is like saying that most species of grass, at the peak of their photosynthetic cycle, reflect light at a frequency of about 575 Terahertz.

And that the pope likes cats. Thats why they call him a cataholic right?

OT:
The innocent side of me thinks "well isn't that nice".

The more cynical side of me thinks:
"Yeah, of course they aren't worried. Same way no-one will kill facebook people stick where their friends are."
and
"Yeah, they hope it does great and has some stuff they can copy in their next patch"

 

[Art Axiv]

Plus, even if TOR siphons away a portion of WoW's playerbase Blizzard will STILL have enough subscribers to pretty much buy Belgium every year[footnote]this is not based on any fact, and is in fact, hyperbole on my part[/footnote].

I laughed so hard... its a joke a Dutch guy would make .

On the topic: Obviously marketing people from Blizzard know their art - why be "the bad guy" while they can chill with everyone else and still make similar money? That's PR! I really approve of it, despite it is quite weird.. just like Popido said:

Like we need Blizzard's approval to make MMOs...

... yeah, this is the feeling I also have.. Like the Emperor of Rome giving his "thumbs down".

 

[Worgen]

really what they should be worried about is guild wars 2, thats certainly gonna take some of the wind out of blizzards sails, its gonna be a true mmo and its gonna have no monthly fees

 

[Jamous]

Plus, even if TOR siphons away a portion of WoW's playerbase Blizzard will STILL have enough subscribers to pretty much buy Belgium every year[footnote]this is not based on any fact, and is in fact, hyperbole on my part[/footnote].

I laughed so hard... its a joke a Dutch guy would make .

On the topic: Obviously marketing people from Blizzard know their art - why be "the bad guy" while they can chill with everyone else and still make similar money? That's PR! I really approve of it, despite it is quite weird.. just like Popido said:

Like we need Blizzard's approval to make MMOs...

... yeah, this is the feeling I also have.. Like the Emperor of Rome giving his "thumbs up".

You know, when the Emperors did that it actually meant kill him? Thumbs down meant lower your weapons, thumbs up meant STICK 'IM.
OT: Anyways, I really don't know what to think of this. I wonder if they'll tell some of their subscribers to stop playing WoW and go play TOR for a week or so. :L

 

[Art Axiv]

Plus, even if TOR siphons away a portion of WoW's playerbase Blizzard will STILL have enough subscribers to pretty much buy Belgium every year[footnote]this is not based on any fact, and is in fact, hyperbole on my part[/footnote].

I laughed so hard... its a joke a Dutch guy would make .

On the topic: Obviously marketing people from Blizzard know their art - why be "the bad guy" while they can chill with everyone else and still make similar money? That's PR! I really approve of it, despite it is quite weird.. just like Popido said:

Like we need Blizzard's approval to make MMOs...

... yeah, this is the feeling I also have.. Like the Emperor of Rome giving his "thumbs up".

You know, when the Emperors did that it actually meant kill him? Thumbs down meant lower your weapons, thumbs up meant STICK 'IM.
OT: Anyways, I really don't know what to think of this. I wonder if they'll tell some of their subscribers to stop playing WoW and go play TOR for a week or so. :L

Crikey, you are right, I blame the pop-culture!

 

[Mikoi]

I was into WoW for a very long time, god I even got Grand Marshal on my hunter. A lot of my friends has slowly been quitting WoW over the last few months, either over the fact that nothing is really happening that appeals to them, or they just got fed up.

One thing that Blizzard knows better then most, is the need for great PR, and they have never been bad at it from my memory. I know a lot of gamers rate them as close to gods.

I will take a look at TOR when it comes out, just like I did Warhammer, and Guild wars (Both good games in there own right).

Just hope that BioWare lives up to there normal high standards (Sad they got eaten by EA)

 

[Jamous]

Plus, even if TOR siphons away a portion of WoW's playerbase Blizzard will STILL have enough subscribers to pretty much buy Belgium every year[footnote]this is not based on any fact, and is in fact, hyperbole on my part[/footnote].

I laughed so hard... its a joke a Dutch guy would make .

On the topic: Obviously marketing people from Blizzard know their art - why be "the bad guy" while they can chill with everyone else and still make similar money? That's PR! I really approve of it, despite it is quite weird.. just like Popido said:

Like we need Blizzard's approval to make MMOs...

... yeah, this is the feeling I also have.. Like the Emperor of Rome giving his "thumbs up".

You know, when the Emperors did that it actually meant kill him? Thumbs down meant lower your weapons, thumbs up meant STICK 'IM.
OT: Anyways, I really don't know what to think of this. I wonder if they'll tell some of their subscribers to stop playing WoW and go play TOR for a week or so. :L

Crikey, you are right, I blame the pop-culture!

:L No worries, I did Latin at GCSE so I know lots of interesting bits and bobs about that. Very good stuff.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Well, just look at WoW. See how much of what made it successful is it's ability to take what has worked in other successful MMOs (and even some of the less successful ones) and borrow it while coating it in WoW-esque goodness. Of course Blizzard wants TOR to be a success, because then they'll be able to borrow what people love about it and use it in either the next major WoW expansion or improve upon it in their next MMO.

 

[The Apothecarry]

No love for Dark Millennium? I am disappoint.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, it also occurs to me that Blizzard has "Titan" in the pipe which leads me to believe that they are already preparing for damage to be done by "Old Republic Online". They of course aren't going to talk about abandoning WoW and then having their player base quit right now, it's in their best interests to say it will remain a major focus and always see support, but I think they are preparing to at least make it second fiddle.

Their attitude is probably akin to being happy that Bioware will launch a game with an expensive IP attached that will draw in more people, so they can hopefully steal back a bigger audience than the one they are going to lose at least temporarly.

Such are my thoughts on the subject, but we'll see what happens, I'll definatly be trying Old Republic (I try most big MMOs) but it still remains to be seen if it will actually succeed. I expect it will be "the next big thing" since it has all the elements for that kind of success, but at the same time thereis some cause for concern in what we're not hearing, such as what their endgame is like, and how it plans to keep people wanting to pay subscriptions for years. I mean sure, the leveling mechanics and such are important, but in the terms of a long term product all the stuff up until max level is just a glorified intro. The actual game has to start at max level, and you need to keep people playing those characters month after month. How Old Republic plans to do this has yet to be revealed. It could be either ingenius, or a matter of yet another game designer not understanding the MMO dynamic and focusing entirely on the journey.

Also EA has a second MMO in the pipe "The Secret World" seems interesting, even if not of the same quality as "Old Republic". It's being developed by Fun.com who did "Anarchy Online" and "Age Of Conan". The second which was something of a disappointment, but Anarchy Online managed to actually hold a player base for a very long time, and arguably was one of the first western games to use a "Free To Play" model when it ran into issues. It's something of a shadowy "Dark Horse" at this point, but assuming EA has their eyes on it, and has been learning the lessons from other failed projects, it might be a factor most of the big boys aren't account for yet, especially seeing as it has a fairly unique premise. Given the popularity of modern supernatural stories (Anita Blake, The Hollows series, etc...) I suspect the rather unique premise of this one gives it a potential that is being underestimated, it has yet to see much promotion so we'll see what happens. I think EA has been keeping it relatively quiet despite their logo being on what trailers are currently out there. That could very well wind up being the MMO of choice for the "Twilight" crowd and all the fanboys who have been keeping the Cthulhu mythos alive in nerd-dom.

 

[tautologico]

It's not just PR. These guys are saying that a big, well-known "franchise" like Star Wars will bring more people to play MMOs, thus expanding the market. It will also expand the awareness of the general public about MMOs, more than WoW has managed to do so far.

Blizzard is in the MMO market, after all, with their "next-gen" MMO already in development.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

Would this explain why Cata sucked....

Perhaps that wish it success so "Titan" (should SWTOR last that long) have a fair foe...?