Though Blizzard admits console development is easier, the developer isn’t going to abandon the PC anytime soon.
Perhaps due to the current popularity of online multiplayer gaming through today’s consoles, there is a frame of mind out there that thinks PC gaming will someday die off. Blizzard is here to refute that possibility, saying that it will keep its focus on the PC even if console development might be easier.
Talking to PCR, Blizzard VP of International Operations Michael Ryder said: “[PC] is certainly not written off by us. PC development has a number of unique challenges that console developers don’t face, but Blizzard is one of the few companies that is there making great PC games.”
Part of the challenge is with the massive number of hardware combinations found in current PCs; a challenge not found in console development outside of having to create both an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 version of a title. Ryder explains: “We’ve spent a lot of time in development focusing on scalability, on new PC hardware and old. If you were just designing for a console it would be a much easier task.”
It’d be silly for Blizzard to ditch the platform that has made it rich for more than a decade-and-a-half, especially with the massive-selling StarCraft II already allowing management to sleep on fresh beds of money constructed on top of beds of money already made from World of Warcraft, but some of Ryder’s language makes it seem like developing for the PC does have caveats that he wishes could be avoided. That goes for consumers too.
Combined with rumblings of Blizzard returning to consoles in some form, we may see a console game out of the developer in the next decade, but at least PC gamers won’t be left cold… that is, warm? As long as Blizzard, BioWare, and plenty of smaller developers are still finding a PC audience, I’m not worried about having to trash my computer for an Xbox, ever.
(PCR)
