Blizzard: Companies underestimate launching new MMOs - General Discussion

Blizzard: Companies underestimate launching new MMOs
Wed, Oct 15 2008 5:17 AM #295870
magdalene2008 Posts 8	Publishers and developers new to the MMO genre underestimate the difficulties of launching in the market, according to Blizzard's Mike Morhaime. Following GOA's struggle to launch Warhammer Online, GamesIndustry.biz asked Blizzard's CEO if companies fail to anticipate the true logistics of launching a massively multiplayer online game. "I think everyone who hasn't done it will probably underestimate the logistics behind it - we certainly did," he explained. "You focus on the things you are used to but you don't necessarily realise how difficult it is to scale up quickly and with an MMO you have to factor in providing 24/7 customer service, multiple languages... and that's not just hiring all those people to do customer service because internally within the organisation you still have to support your employees and that's a whole lot of management infrastructure that doesn't exist before the launch." Morhaime further revealed that the company still aims to release a World of Warcraft expansion annually but is currently on the "longer than a year plan" and following Wrath of the Lich King fans won't see another for more than a year. "That's still the ideal goal," he said in response to GamesIndustry.biz, "but as with anything there is this underlying rule that trumps everything which is that we'll take as much time as we need until... it reaches the expectations of ourselves and our players." "Right now we're on the longer than a year plan," he added. "The next one I think it is still unlikely that we're going to get it down to a calendar year. We're going to continue to try and decrease that but really the content of the expansion is more important and I think you guys are going to find with Wrath of the Lich King that it's going to be worth the wait." Source : http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/blizzard-companies-underestimate-launching-new-mmos ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EA screwed it up? I don't think so..
	Tags wotlk, warhammer online, wow, blizzard
Thu, Oct 16 2008 6:35 PM #304393
Kody Curse Posts 10,717	Agreed. I don't think EA has screwed anything up.

Fri, Oct 17 2008 12:30 PM #307600
ChaosInc Mod Posts 618	So basically Blizz is saying that no else can make a good MMO in comparision? Can they get a little more arrogant?

Sat, Oct 18 2008 10:43 AM #310353
Bensidhe Posts 1	Mythic and EA has been around for a loooong time. WO is basically DAoC made 10 times better with all the devs involved boosting it to the next level. Bl;izz has already ripped off a lot of what WO has in place in terms of UI and content . IMO, Blizz hasn't got an original idea running through their heads as they "borrow ' heavily from other games, pop culture and history ...how "fantasy RPG" is that ? I'm thinking there are 4 dweebs in dirty track suits who sit on front of a t.v. , smoke dope and say " Dude, that would so rock on WoW..lets dew it !

Sat, Oct 18 2008 12:49 PM #310712
jonathonbarton Posts 3	Every reference I've heard to GOA in regards to WAR has been in relation to the European Launch - an most of the references to THAT that I've heard have said that GOA screwed it up pretty spectacularly (and continue to do so - I read yesterday that the Euro Servers are still one patch behind the NA servers.) The North American Launch, however, was silky smooth by any standard of comparison.

Sat, Oct 18 2008 5:02 PM #311327
Sebel1974 Posts 18	Well I don´t think GOA struggles that big. In fact it was one of the smoothest MMO launches I came across. And if I think back when WoW started here over in europe....what a mess. Server offline, no account registration...I could go on and on. @ jonathonbarton: the eu servers have only a patch delay from 1-2 days. [edited by: Sebel1974 at 6:52 PM (GMT -6) on 18 Oct 2008]