Blizzard Entertainment Interview

[GameBanshee News]

GamesIndustry.biz was able to corner Blizzard COO Paul Sams at the Worldwide Invitational event for a Q&A about the challenges involved with developing three titles at once, their merger with Activision, whether or not they'll ever shift to consoles, and more.

Q: Is there anything you're worried about, particularly?

Paul Sams: Well, we're always worried. We always have a very high bar that we set for ourselves, so I think one of the things that's allowed us to feel a level of comfort is that we've done this progression slowly. It may not feel like that to the outside world, because they don't know all of the details, but what I would say is that over the last four years or so we've amassed the Diablo III team.


We took a base of Blizzard North folks, and added to it, to build the team we have today. The Starcraft II team is the same team that built Warcraft III and Starcraft - certainly we added new people, because some people have gone, but that is the most veteran RTS team in the world. And the World of Warcraft team is a team that's been around for quite a long time.

So while I think I'd be telling you a lie if I said that we didn't have any nervousness, we do feel like we've been able to build some of the best teams in the industry. We've also added to our management team, with people that we've known and trusted for a long time - plus the folks internally have grown, so we feel like we can handle it.

As a result of World of Warcraft we've built a global infrastructure with our European team, our various Asian teams, and we feel that our ability to execute has been really expanded beyond what it's ever been before.

And while I think it will be really, really difficult for us, it's something that I think we'll be able to achieve - because we know that we don't compromise on the quality. If it means that we need to ship one of these games and it's ready, and it means we have to delay another one by a month or two because we want them to stay out of each other's way - we want to make sure we're putting the necessary attention and focus on the game - then we'll do that.

We aren't driven by quarterly results. We aren't driven by semi-annual results. We aren't driven by annual results. We focus on developing great games, and that's not going to change. I think it's something we're going to be able to succeed on, but it's not going to be easy, and I'm sure we'll have many bruises along the way...but I don't think we'll break any bones.

Thanks, Blue's News.