Blizzard Struggling With Battle.Net Marketplace

[Logan Westbrook]

Blizzard Struggling With Battle.Net Marketplace

Adding a marketplace to Battle.net is taking longer than Blizzard expected, and there's even a chance the project might get cancelled altogether.

Dustin Browder, StarCraft 2's lead designer, says that Blizzard is "struggling" to create a marketplace for its Battle.net platform. This is the first time that the developer has ever tried to build such a service, and Browder says that there are a lot of difficult issues to solve before it can launch.

Blizzard originally announced the marketplace for Battle.net at Blizzcon in 2009. It was intended to be a venue for players to trade maps for StarCraft 2. This would include both free maps, and player-created, "premium" maps. The marketplace was supposed to launch soon after StarCraft 2's release, but, as yet, still hasn't materialized.

Browder said that player's right issues - like how to prevent players from ripping off other people's content - were proving a stumbling block, as was working out appropriate price points. He said that there wasn't a firm launch date that Blizzard was working towards for the marketplace - which isn't all that unusual for the developer - but that people shouldn't expect to see it in the near future.

In fact, Browder said that there was a chance that the marketplace may never see the light of day. He didn't suggest that Blizzard was really considering cancelling the project just yet, but he also didn't rule it out either. He pointed out that Blizzard had cancelled Warcraft Adventures - a game that was early complete - and implied that the marketplace could suffer the same fate if Blizzard couldn't figure out how to make it work.

Source: Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-21-battle-net-marketplace-may-never-launch]



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[mr_pants66]

well that's Blizzard for you

 

[TheEvilCheese]

He pointed out that Blizzard had cancelled Warcraft Adventures - a games that was early complete

I think you meant to say 'A game that was nearly complete' =P

OT: yeah, I wasn't keen on the whole idea to begin with, if I'm honest but we know what blizzard are like when it comes to releasing things; they demand excellence.

 

[Wicky_42]

...a games that was early complete...

Someone needs to prod the editor

I never liked the idea of the market place, nor the idea of 'premium' maps, though I can see why Blizzard would have liked it. They've got a powerful tool there, and if they could attract some actual indie developers to using their platform to make and sell professional quality maps then that would be a serious feather in their cap! Still don't think it would be worth the potential damage to the current map-making community though - and I like free stuff!

 

[iLikeHippos]

This is what experiment's are all about; You never know HOW to do it exactly, just that you work from your theory and build from there and puzzle some bits and pieces together.

Just hope this won't totally rape the Battle.Net custom games for me.

 

[DonTsetsi]

Woohoo! Now all they need is to add some features from the original BattleNet.

 

[New Troll]

Marketplace is going to alienate Blizzard's fan-sites, but otherwise a decent idea. No need to leave the game to get the map you want to play. Course, knowing Blizzard, not expecting to see the Marketplace for a long, long time. That's perfectly alright.

 

[Woodsey]

Marketplace is going to alienate Blizzard's fan-sites, but otherwise a decent idea. No need to leave the game to get the map you want to play. Course, knowing Blizzard, not expecting to see the Marketplace for a long, long time. That's perfectly alright.

How come? I literally know nothing about it - didn't even know they were creating a marketplace until about a minute ago, and I don't know how Battle.net works either.

 

[GothmogII]

It should be cancelled. It's a horrible idea that will only alienate easily more than half of the people who already paid for the damn game. And the Battle.net should be restructured from the ground up on some fronts, especially concerning custom games.

This is something I've noticed going on with Team Fortress 2. The maps, hats and user-submitted weapons are all free, and in the case of the weapons and hats can be found in game. Optionally, and this is something that seems to bother a lot of people, the weapons and hats may be purchased via the TF2 store as well as the capability to buy 'stamps' which is basically a donation to a map maker whose map you like.

If I'm reading it right, Blizzard is aiming at something similar and is trying to gear Battlenet toward providing maps both free and premium, and possibly other services: Remember that you can already buy special mounts, mini-pets and other services through Battlenet for World of Warcraft.

My thoughts on this are:

1: Even providing that Premium maps would be sold, it is highly unlikely that any of such maps would become part of the standard multiplayer map lists. I would be very surprised if this happened. It would be like in WoW where Blizz releases a new instance but decides to charge for it. Not going to happen in World of Warcraft at least because I believe that the monthly fee actually covers such things and that they would be un-willing to alienate their customers in such a manner. Similarly for SCII, even taking into account that there is no monthly fee in that case.

2: Good work should receive good reward. Work should be paid for. I'm not insinuating that you're implying that creators shouldn't get paid for the work they do, but there is an overwhelming desire throughout the internet for free stuff. And, assuming content creators are going to get a fair portion from the sales made on the maps they make, they are more than entitled to such. And as per #1 you are not obligated to purchase that content, but neither are you justified in taking it for free regardless of the perceived quality of the product or the consideration that you are being ripped off.

Personally, I wouldn't have the funds either way to make use of such a service, for the same reason I don't use the TF2 store, LoTRO's store system or Battlenet's WoW store.

 

[CKalvin]

*pokes editor*

Marketplace is going to alienate Blizzard's fan-sites, but otherwise a decent idea. No need to leave the game to get the map you want to play. Course, knowing Blizzard, not expecting to see the Marketplace for a long, long time. That's perfectly alright.

How come? I literally know nothing about it - didn't even know they were creating a marketplace until about a minute ago, and I don't know how Battle.net works either.

Battle.net lets you join a party with friends to play team games, browse anyone's profile which has their match history, win loss etcetc. It's a pretty nifty tool, though I still dislike how the new Starcraft has ranked random matches.

I think if I want to play on a certain map against a certain race, I should be able to do so.

Just my two cents

 

[GothmogII]

*pokes editor*

Marketplace is going to alienate Blizzard's fan-sites, but otherwise a decent idea. No need to leave the game to get the map you want to play. Course, knowing Blizzard, not expecting to see the Marketplace for a long, long time. That's perfectly alright.

How come? I literally know nothing about it - didn't even know they were creating a marketplace until about a minute ago, and I don't know how Battle.net works either.

Battle.net lets you join a party with friends to play team games, browse anyone's profile which has their match history, win loss etcetc. It's a pretty nifty tool, though I still dislike how the new Starcraft has ranked random matches.

I think if I want to play on a certain map against a certain race, I should be able to do so.

Just my two cents

You can though (even with friends)...it's just not ranked. A phrase involving in-edible cake comes to mind right now.

 

[CKalvin]

*pokes editor*

Marketplace is going to alienate Blizzard's fan-sites, but otherwise a decent idea. No need to leave the game to get the map you want to play. Course, knowing Blizzard, not expecting to see the Marketplace for a long, long time. That's perfectly alright.

How come? I literally know nothing about it - didn't even know they were creating a marketplace until about a minute ago, and I don't know how Battle.net works either.

Battle.net lets you join a party with friends to play team games, browse anyone's profile which has their match history, win loss etcetc. It's a pretty nifty tool, though I still dislike how the new Starcraft has ranked random matches.

I think if I want to play on a certain map against a certain race, I should be able to do so.

Just my two cents

You can though (even with friends)...it's just not ranked. A phrase involving in-edible cake comes to mind right now.

Those games take FOREVER for people to join though

+ even then I don't get the choice of what race I want to play against.

 

[Therumancer]

I've never been a big fan of virtual transactions to begin with, and I don't care for this kind of system because ultimatly what I think it's going to lead to is Blizzard relying increasingly on content generated and sold by users.

I also tend to think when it comes to user generated content, it's hit or miss, and I'm not big on 'leaps of faith' when it calls to paying real money for things. In games with user generated content like "Spore" or "Little Big Planet" or whatever I think it's the promise of free levels that helps move the product. Make people pay for other user's creations and I think that's going to ruin a lot of the charm, especially if you start seeing products becoming dependant on it.

On top of that, I think all you need to do is look at things like "Second Life" to see the problems inherant in a community where player generated virtual goods can be exchanged for real currency.

The situation with their Battle.net store for WoW and such is that the content they are selling is professionally generated. Also I seem to remember that the whole thing started as a donation drive with the money being donated to some cause or other, though they have been pocketing the money since then. The biggest thing is that if you can afford it, and play enough for it to be worthwhile to save mount money for all your characters or whatever, or want a rare pet, you can assure everything there is of good quality and works properly. This cannot be said of a player generated map, compared to one generated and balanced by the designers and doubtlessly playtested extensively. Of course then again I've always thought selling maps was a corperate cash grab as well, and going a bit too far from the very beginnings years ago, so of course my attitude is slightly loaded.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

You could always have a word with Valve, Blizzard. They might be able to tell you how not to milk games to death, delay until ready and treat PR as a necessary evil.

At worst, Gabe could have a sumo against Kotick and people would pay to see that.

 

[Carnagath]

It took them 6 months to add chat channels which is like 10 minutes of work, so by comparison a marketplace should take them over 9000 years. Not that a marketplace in a AAA game that costs 60$ is anything but a greed move (almost exclusively present in Activision games). Starcraft is a major, expensive title, and content made using the editor should be free and encouraged as something that increases the game's longevity, it's not a "free" browser game trying to find ways to squeeze in some profit.

 

[LawlessSquirrel]

Warcraft Adventures is the example he chose? Not the arguably more known Starcraft: Ghost or the original Diablo 3? Eh, odd choice.

I liked the idea of this system, but I have very little hope for it at this point. Even if it does make its way into the game, the game still has a lot of custom game issues that need fixing before they can expect people to pay extra for it, and some of the earlier modders are likely to feel cheated out of this benefit (since they'd have free versions of things they may have wanted premium floating around).

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

As for the sumo wrestling...I just lost my breakfast and lunch. Thank you.

The name's there for a reason.