The State of Blizzard's Union

Gamasutra has an extensive interview with Senior Vice President Frank Pearce (one of the company's original founders), and Starcraft II producer Chris Sigaty. They discuss some elements of the the company's future. They discuss their expectations for Starcraft II, some hints of what's to come in World of Warcraft, and word that 50 people are working on the mysterious 'Team 3' game. "Pearce: Our global headcount is like, 2700. Most of that is customer service for World of Warcraft. I mean in terms of development staff... it's probably around 350. For all of Blizzard. World of Warcraft development team is about 135 people...40 for you [indicates Chris' Starcraft 2 team], 50 for ... Team 3 ... Gamasutra: Team 3? What's Team 3 working on? Pearce: Team 3 is working on something really awesome. I will totally tell you, it's really awesome ... Nope, can't give you any hints. Gamasutra: Well, as long as it's awesome."

Comments

Diablo 3

[Nasarius]

One assumes that's the Team 3 project, since it's been more or less confirmed.

Re:Diablo 3

[Pojut]

New and different would be nice, sure...but honestly, the ONLY, and I mean ONLY thing I want out of Blizzard at this point is Diablo 3.

Not because I don't think they could make a new series...I just think that the Diablo storyline has a lot of potential, and the game itself has a lot of potential...look at the massive difference between Diablo and Diablo II...and then look at the large number of changes between Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction...LoD was EASILY the best expansion pack made for ANY game EVER. No other expansion pack (in my experience anyway) did more to add to the game, fix what was wrong, or make it more fun.

Just imagine the monster they could make with Diablo 3...

Team 3 project:

[spocksbrain]

"World of Warcraft 2: The Search for More Money."

Re:Trip down memory lane

[Binestar]

Actually, that space fighter sim sounds good. Of course, I've been looking for a good Space Combat fighter ever since WC:P and Freespace 2.

Re:Couldn't ... care ... less

[Anonymous Coward]

Blizzard lost all credibility as far as I am concerned with bnetd.

Yes, how dare they try to stop people from pirating their games!

Sorry, but sometimes things cost money.

The "everything should be free" crowd will mod me down, I'm sure, so posting anonymously.

Re:Couldn't ... care ... less

[brkello]

Ok, if you are going to have to have this discussion AGAIN, let's at least discuss it honestly. Yes, bnetd was a server. No argument there. But for you to say that it had absolutely nothing to do with piracy is a flat out lie. bnetd did enable piracy because it allowed people who did not buy the game to play each other online (no cd key check). The primary users of bnetd were people who did not buy a copy of the game. I have absolutely zero sympathy for bnetd because of this...plus the fact that Blizzard does not charge for their battle.net service and that it is still running today...after all these years. Blizzard is about the least evil large company you are going to find. If you aren't going to support them over bnetd, then you have either never written software or lack the ability to understand the situation that Blizzard was in.

The tough questions

[uofitorn]

Gamasutra: Well, as long as it's awesome.

Now that's what I call hard hitting reporting! Gamasutra's not afraid to ask the tough questions.