The situation at Blizzard Entertainment

[Lightnr]

I played a fully working and pretty well balanced multiplayer demo of StarCraft2 at the Eastern US WC3 and WoW Arena Invitationals OVER A YEAR AGO. The rate at which Blizzard conducts development on their games has become ridiculous and no one seems to notice or care.

Don't get me wrong I have always strongly been in favor of polishing games before they hit the shelves and not rushing developers. However the reason Diablo 3 and SC2 are moving so slowly is NOT ONLY because of Blizzard's ideal of polishing their games, but because of how much work World Of Warcraft DEMANDS allocated to it.

If you disagree that Diablo3 and SC2 are wayyyy down on the list after WoW here are some supportive facts:
+ SC2 was announced: May 18th 2007 it is now 2 FULL years later.
+ Diablo 3 Announced: June 30th 2008 1 year has passed.
+ Both had fully working engines upon announcement.
+ If you stick 5 people in a room working 8 hrs a day they will come up with 2 classes and all class skills relatively quickly (definately in less than a year).

WoW:
First expansion announced Oct 23rd and released following Febuary.
Second expansion announced 3rd of August 2007 released Sept 2008.

Edit: (sorry had to add this great find by antibonk that further proves my point):
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174991

 

[VitalSigns]

Agreed and backed 100% but there is not much we can do about it unfortunately. Blizzard are incredible when it comes to designing games. I really wish they could pop out at least a couple a year.

 

[angrytaco26]

meh, i agree that alot of work is being put into WoW when it should slow down

not everybody can get full 3.1 gear and theyre working on 3.2 now

they need to stop working on wow and focus on Diablo 3 and SC2

 

[Iammatt]

Diablo 3 hasa only been anounce for a year, thats not too bad.The reason they focus so much on WoW is because thats what most of the people play and most their money is at, their doing the financially correct thing

EDIT:and at least they dont DELAY the games 2 years like nintendo, nintendo barely ever releases them on time.

 

[101194]

Well, WoW requiring 90% of there staff to create quests and shit for them to do, It would get pretty repetative, Consitiering only 5% give a shit.

 

[Ridonculous_Ninja]

Diablo 3 hasa only been anounce for a year, thats not too bad.The reason they focus so much on WoW is because thats what most of the people play and most their money is at, their doing the financially correct thing

This.

Although I duz wants mah Diablo...

GIVEZ 2 ME NAO!

U can haz cookie for Diablo Blizzard!

Pls?

OT:At least the Starcraft 2 Beta is pretty soon.

 

[TaborMallory]

Try running a world-wide MMORPG, one that is arguably the most popular on the planet. Run it to customers' standards while simultaneously programming and producing two critically claimed titles to perfection.

Sorry if this sounds mean, but I just had to get the point across.

 

[Ripshot]

there's a reason the term "blizzard time" means something

though it's only been 2 years since the initial announcement, that's not as bad as valve time
*cough half life 3 cough*

 

[Lightnr]

Diablo 3 hasa only been anounce for a year, thats not too bad.The reason they focus so much on WoW is because thats what most of the people play and most their money is at, their doing the financially correct thing

Its not too bad but when you consider it is no where NEAR 1/4th done you tend to cring(sp?).
As for the second part of your post you nailed it on the head: WoW is where the money is.

meh, i agree that alot of work is being put into WoW when it should slow down

not everybody can get full 3.1 gear and theyre working on 3.2 now

That is something I did not notice and you are totally right.

Also to reiterate:

Blizzard are incredible when it comes to designing games.

100% Agree, but when you take 3-5 years from announcing to release you might be working on an outdated engine and then you might turn into DNF.

 

[Shifter.Unit]

As long as they don't pull a 3D realms and take 12 years....amirite?

 

[Lightnr]

Wow escapist forums are pretty good, all valid points and minimal flaming... Am I on some parallel internets?!?!

BLIZZARD TIME

though it's only been 2 years since an announcement, that's not as bad as valve time
*cough half life 3 cough*

BLIZZARD TIME! ~ i love it.

Valve is bad at getting themselves to work, but when they ANNOUNCE something it usually comes along in a fairly decent time frame.

 

[zacaron]

$2,520,000,000 a year
thats how much money WOW generates for them from subscriptions alone
$15 x 14mil players x 12 months
then factor in the $50 for every copy sold

considering how much profit it generates I think they are right to focus on it as much as I would love diablo 3 an SC2

 

[Alarid]

As long as they don't pull a 3D realms and take 12 years....amirite?

At least the game would be good at the end of it - even if it is cancelled!

 

[Lightnr]

$2,520,000,000 a year
thats how much money WOW generates for them from subscriptions alone
$15 x 14mil players x 12 months
then factor in the $50 for every copy sold

Servers and equipment for support for that many people IS pretty expensive... But I bet they still make a killing.

As long as they don't pull a 3D realms and take 12 years....amirite?

NO ONE can pull off a 3D Realms...

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

There once was a wise man that said "It's better to be on hand with ten men than absent with ten thousand." I believe the video gaming equivalent would be "It's better to get a great game in a year than an adequate game now".

I've got never ending supplies of adequate games available. I'm willing to wait for a great one. Would I like Diablo 3 tomorrow? Certainly. But if that means it plays like Hellgate:London then I'll be willing to wait a bit longer.

 

[Bobtowna]

do not rush blizz. They're the only game company that makes good games as far as i can think of.Exept WoW, played it, lost soul, quit, souls back, anger.

 

[crudus]

Ok, maybe there is something you don't realize: WoW has 11 million subscribers. At 15 dollars a month that is 165 million a month going to WoW. Now, I don't know about you but I like money. If you had a project that was making you over 150 mil a month (that's 1.98 billion a year) you would focus on keeping everyone who is providing that very happy. At this point the people who are going to buy SC2 and Diablo 3 are the original fans of both series and will buy it no matter when it comes out.

 

[DonPauliani]

Let's look at it from the lens of immersion:

The World of Warcraft is a fully immersive world that gives each of its participants a role in the Wow society that they must maintain--guild positions, quests, item fetches. Their actions and possibility for actions thus must shift and change like a real world in order to keep the people as dedicated to their roles in the WoW societies as they are in real life societies.

In this sense, Blizzard is sinking their time into altering a world that is incapable of developing itself outside of the boundaries set by each patch and expansion. Think of it as a circle that must constantly be expanded to make more room for interest and people-- a living world.

In essence, the guys at Blizzard are playing God; a God that makes oodles of money-- entire Sistine Chapels worth of cash-- from expanding this world. No doubt they are stalling on SC2 and D3 and there is no doubt that they will be wildly successful (financially, at least). But as of now they must continue to play God lest they be spread too thin.


That or they're spending all their time eating cocaine flavored ice cream off the bellies of expensive hookers in diamond thongs whilst sailing around Australia in their massive yachts. Whatever.

 

[Fallswhale]

Congratulations Blizzard. You have the most envyable problem in publishing, two popular highly anticipated games in development while maintaining the gold standard of money generating subscription services. Now lock yourselves into two sets of major hotel suites and IGNORE THAT SUBSCRIPTION MONEY AND FINISH THESE DAMN GAMES BEFORE THE END OF THE DECAADE.

Sorry, haven't executed a zerg stomp in a while and really need to get out some of that aggression healthily.

As an aside Bliz, Why haven't you been cultivating new talent or even additional peeps that could have been doing these pallet swaps?

 

[Snotnarok]

Star Craft 2 isn't coming out, you'll go to their website one day and the page will just not be there. Call me a negative thinker, but then you'll remember Star Craft Ghost and how great that games was ...oh wait.