"I don't think we're scared to compete with WoW"

Multiplayer, a blog built by MTV News has spoken with Blizzard execs Paul Sams, Chief Operating Officer, and Frank Pearce, Executive Vice President of Product Development.

Two interesting topics they go over are why Diablo III isn't an MMO and also how they're not afraid of making another MMO to directly compete with their very own World of Warcraft. This MMO could very well be the top secret project they are working on and we had Kody here at Curse make an article about it recently called Blizzard's Fourth Project: StarCraft MMO?. Make sure to check it out.

Paul Sams told MTV's Multiplayer about Diablo III:

We felt like the gameplay experience that we had delivered historically with being in a non-persistent world was the right way to do it for this particular product. I think a lot of people expected us to say that this is going to be an MMO — maybe an obvious choice in a lot of people’s minds. But really, the bottom line is we thought the right game to make was “Diablo III” in the way that we’ve announced it.

And when it comes to developing a MMO which will compete with World of Warcraft Sams comment again and the following is very interesting:

I don’t think we’re scared to do that. And I think that if our developers come up with the next great game that they want to make and it’s an MMO, then we’ll do that. We would go about trying to make the best MMO of all time, and to try to eclipse “World of Warcraft,” if we were ever to do such a thing. But it really all comes down to what type of game we want to make, and the people that we have working at the company.

I like how he end that with saying how it depends on the people they have working at the company. You can really tell how deeply they analyze things. As we all know, comparing developers is very hard, but with the high quality standards Blizzard has, being a developer on for example WoW or any Blizzard title is a big thing. They hire only the best and we can tell.

Now knowing how much the "higher up's" think over things, I can't help but to be impressed and think about it myself as well. I mean, Blizzard lost several high profile developers to other companies, some who had key roles on games such as Diablo and Diablo II. Now, having seen Diablo III -- it's looking quite delicious if I may say so myself and Blizzard went out and said that none of the old Blizzard North employees who's no longer at the company have touched Diablo III. Interesting...

All about having a good idea of what you need to be successful and then mix it and you end up with what they have? Well, of course it's never quite that easy, unless you're making a milkshake. Regardless, let’s say Blizzard announce a Stargate MMO in two years from now -- what would your reaction be? Yes, I know, two years! A lot might have changed with WoW by then and perhaps everyone want to try something new and perhaps that is exactly what Blizzard is planning. Continue to "quietly" work on their new top secret project and then when the timing is right, announce their new project. Regardless, I would be all over a StarCraft MMO, the franchise StarCraft is fascinating and a Blizzard sci-fi MMO has to be interesting.

Noteworthy is also that there's a couple of promising MMOs being released within the next 6-12 months. Warhammer Online, Aion and Stargate Worlds to mention some. There's several more, but it's so hard to know true release dates. These will be direct competition with WoW as well, but it will be hard to push WoW off from the number one pedestal. Eventually it will happen though. Question is, will it be done by a game Blizzard themselves release or by another company?

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