My initial thought on seeing this is "This certainly explains the Starcraft three-game split". | |
Then again, they DID say they were going for one WoW expansion per year. And are currently releasing them at half that speed, so... | |
If they stick to this, it'll mark the beginning of the end of good Blizzard games. Mark my words. | |
It's sad really. With wow making the money you'd think they didn't need to evolve in that direction. I suppose it's either money or... the volumes of hate mail they get for not developing starcraft 2 and diablo 3. | |
Yes Activision, destroy what Blizzard is known for: making sure their games are going to be incredible, even in that means taking years and scrapping the project (Starcraft Ghost). If Activision knows what's good for their company they won't pressure Blizzard any more than needed. | |
If they could do that and keep the blizzard quality and polish then great, I'm a little worried they won't though. I think for the time being blizzard has enough weight behind themselfs to disregard releasing a game once a year if it doesn't work out for them though. | |
I'm hoping they mean WoW expansions which makes it good for me and possible for them to keep the high standard for full games, plus shouldn't Blizzard have been able to buy...well every game company by now? (Blizzard vs EA, dun dun duuun!) | |
I just hope Activision doesn't ruin everything like they always do... Tons of stuff that has their stamp on it comes out prematurely without it's protective polished shell and burns in the fanboy hatred... | |
Well, let's look at it this way. What they've got under development that would qualify as a "frontline" release: WoW Team: WoW Expansion #3 RTS Team: StarCraft II Terran/Zerg/Protoss Diablo Team: Diablo 3 Fourth Team: Next-Gen MMO Right there, that's six games. We'll probably see SC2 Terran out by the end of 2009. In 2010, we'll likely get SC2 Zerg... potentially Diablo 3, and the next WoW expansion (going by the two-year development cycle of TBC and WotLK). 2011, SC2 Protoss, D3 if not in 2010. Presumably the RTS team goes to WC4 once SC2 comes out, Diablo 3 team starts work on D3 expansion. Assuming that the WoW team keeps releasing one every two years, filling in the gaps with the other teams should be cake for a developer with the sort of cash reserves Blizzard is sitting on. At least, one can HOPE so, anyway. | |
Why would you say that? Now I'm getting my hopes up and stuff. :/ | |
Yah. Now that Sams has said this, he's got at least a 4 year buffer just from announced games. 4 years from now, Blizzard might just go: "Actually, we're not so sure about this one-a-year thing... Don't our fans seek quality over quantity?" | |
I want Diablo 3, but I want it to be good. | |
J. Allen Brack (WoW production director) said he thought it was pretty likely that we'd see a WC4 once the RTS team was finished with SC2, at BlizzCon. We reported on it :) | |
Score! I love the Warcraft story; but I don't like where they are going with it in WoW. | |
So... 2009 we see SC2-Terran. 2010 WoW Expansion 3, 2011 SC2-Zerg, 2012 WoW Expansion 4, 2013 SC2-Protoss, 2014 Diablo 3, and by 2015 we get WoW2. Translation - Milk the WoW teat like it's the Sims, and in 4 years we may finally have all three parts of a game that was promised to be complete and released in 06, with year 7 finally giving us an RPG announced way too early. | |
Psst. They do have multiple teams, y'know. :P And I'm still not sure where you got this idea that SC2 was promised to be released in 2006 when it wasn't even announced until May 2007, and they've been saying "when it's done" since the outset. Puzzling. | |
Goddamn it Activision. | |
LET THE DOOMSAYING BEGIN! THE END IS NIGH! BLIZZARD IS CLEARLY GOING BACK ON IT'S REPUTATION OMGWTFBBBQ!!!111ONE Yeaaaaahh or not. Blizzard is the only company I just can't be cynical about. Cry babies... wait and see what happens. | |
"In Blizzard we trust." | |
I want to believe... and then I read such things, that's just bad juju right there. | |
All good things eventually come to an end. It's just a matter of time. | |
Marked and quoted for truth. | |
I am not enthused. Isn't wow making more revenue than most south american countries now? | |
Activision strikes! Poor Blizzard was doomed in my eyes since it was bought by Activision. Remember what happened to Guitar Hero? It's gonna be that, but much slower and drawn out. | |
Then again BLizzard is a bigger company now then it was 5 years ago, so I guess they can release games faster and maintain the quality...(keeps hoping) Also didnt Blizzard "rescue" Activision? | |
Blizzard was always evil. Activision just enabled them. | |
I take particular issue with this. One of the few games companies that refuses to rush their product for a deadline is 'evil'? what constitutes 'good' in your eyes? *'good' and 'evil' used in quotes as i don't believe in such absolutes | |
ok, i take issue with this. I don't care how long a game takes, i don't want it until its the best it can be. and i dont think that im gonna get much of an argument out of ne 1 here. lets face it WoW took about what? 4 years of development? right? and its arguably the most successful game in history, if im not mistaken. DIABLO II effectively made me a gamer in the first place. I mean come on if you set a time table on these guys of a game a year, their gonna churn out some serious crap, and thats a fact.especially now that they shut down blizz north in 05. i think this is has the corporate stink of activison's greed all over it. I dont think they realize that although blizz is famous for its quality games, a developers rep as game makers can go from golden to unpolished lead grey in a matter of 1-2 games. and this could very well do that to blizz. that said, taking too long with a game can also be the kiss of death, ie TOO HUMAN, or the Chinese Democracy of gaming Duke Nukem Forever. is it 11 years now? and still counting? | |
blizzard can take all the time they please, they have the WOW monster backing them up | |
well as much as i love blizzard (those soul eating fiends) i gotta say that this doesn't sound to good, the reason i love blizzard games so much is all because of the "when its done" mentality, they don't release a game until it is truly the highest standard they can get it to. they don't release a half baked game just because the schedule said so, this is why although they only have a few games released, all of their games are the best games in their respective fields.
You clearly know nothing about those delightful soul eaters down in CA that we like to call blizzard entertainment. we love them for their evilness. | |
There is nothing good that can come from Activision pushing Blizzard developers to put more games out faster. No matter how dissapointed I am at the slow release schedual they have, or the lack of the initially promised "Monthly Updates" (Hah!) to WoW, Blizzard maintains a standard of excellence that has served them VERY well for the past decade. Love them or hate them, Blizzard's games are always enjoyable and rich with character and story. | |
Well considering how they at least have three, possibly even four fully separate development teams, I don't see this as unrealistic. | |
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Blizzard Commits To One "Frontline Release" Per Year
Despite its reputation for a "when they're done" approach to release schedules, Blizzard said during Activision's fourth quarter earning call last night that it now intends to release one "frontline" game per year.
Much of the call focused on Activision's performance in the market, along with forecasts for the future including a prediction from Activision President Mike Griffith that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 install bases in North America and Europe will grow by eight million in 2009 while the Wii will see growth of over 16 million units in the same period. But more interesting was a statement from Blizzard COO Paul Sams, who said the studio was now scheduled to put out one major release every year.
"Blizzard intends on delivering one 'frontline' release per year," Sams said. "I think you can see in our numbers that that is contemplated." Blizzard currently has Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 in the works and it's safe to assume there's action on the World of Warcraft front as well, but Sams wouldn't say which "frontline release" gamers can expect in 2009.
The smart money seems to be on Starcraft 2, which Sams recently announced is expected to enter beta "in the next few months," but there's also a hint of concern going around that Blizzard's fabled commitment to quality over timetables may be under pressure now that it's part of the Activision stable. Intending to make regular annual releases isn't the same as actually doing it and what constitutes a "frontline release" is hazy, but committing to a major release every year is awfully optimistic for a studio that's managed only three new games, three expansion packs and an MMOG since the release of Diablo all the way back in 1996. There's no doubt Activision has the resources to make it happen, but will the final result be what we've come to expect from Blizzard?
Source: Joystiq
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