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WoW players exhaust Blizzard

September 03, 2008 in Interview comments 11

Blizzard's Frank Pearce said in an interview he would describe World of Warcraft's success as "exhausting" moreso than interesting. You wore him out, WoW players! Ease up!

Q: How interesting has it been for you to watch the success of World of Warcraft?

Frank Pearce: I don't know if I'd describe it as "interesting" as much as exhausting. We've got almost 3000 employees worldwide now, and the majority of that growth is due to the success of World of Warcraft.

As a company we've found ourselves spread very, very thin - because the World of Warcraft community has a voracious appetite for content. That development team is 130 people, they're working on content patches, they're working on an expansion set, they've got their hands full - and then we've got the other development teams that we need to continue to support as well.

So it's great, it's a great problem to have, but it is a lot of work. We've learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes along the way. It's been good experience for us, I wouldn't say that we've regretted it... but "interesting" isn't how we'd describe it necessarily.
chautemoc via gamesindustry.biz »
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  • 0
    AznLiquid Sep 3, 08
    Yeah they are spread very thin right now. They're working on 4 games (that we know of) right now. SC2, WoW: WotLK(and probably another expansion), D3 and an unnamed next-gen MMO.
  • 1
    GTA_Fanatic Sep 3, 08
    LOL, he's whining because he's making money? That's dumb.
    • 0
      AznLiquid Sep 3, 08
      He's not really whining. Consider all the maintenance WoW requires and the other games they're working on.

      Pearce is just simply saying it's been a lot of work, which is pretty obvious. He didn't say anything like "oh, pity us and all of our money".
  • 0
    Shadow net583x s Sep 3, 08
    I can see Blizzard becoming huge, almost like Microsoft. I'm sure that after D3 is released for a while and more WoW expansion packs are set, they could hire more people and expand their business. Maybe make their own brand of computer and other products.
  • 2
    Seproth Sep 3, 08
    They're making over $150,000,000.00 a year on their subscriber base alone. Not counting on profit made on software sales. Of which they have, I think, three titles on best selling PC games on a weekly basis.

    They can afford to hire some more people I think.
    • 0
      huntyr Sep 4, 08
      I dont think thats accurate. the $15 fee varies quite a bit and the chinese gold farmers pay less per month.
      • 0
        Seproth Sep 4, 08
        Why would blizzard give a discount to gold farmers? It's illegal and they're continuously banning accounts that do it.

        I could see other countries having different subscription fees. But I doubt it would be more than a two to five us dollars different.
        • 0
          AznLiquid Sep 4, 08
          Asian subscribers pay less than North Americans and Europeans. And your calculations are off. By assuming they make $15 per month from the ~10 million subscribers, that would mean Blizzard is making $150 million very month and $1.7 billion each year. But the fee varies across the globe.

          You also have to consider how much money it costs to keep all those servers and costumer services running 24/7.
        • 0
          Seproth Sep 4, 08
          Yeah, the year/month thing was a typo.

          I did consider it costs money to keep servers running. It's pretty damn far from 1.7 billion a year though.

          Obviously it's not all profit. My point is that if your stressing about all the things you need to do, and you can afford more help. Then what's the problem? Hire more people. If you don't then IMO you have no right to complain.
  • 0
    RabidChinaGirl Sep 3, 08
    <insert wow="wow" reference="reference">

    Oh QQ, Pearce.

    </insert>
  • 0
    kik36 Sep 4, 08
    Like he said "It's a great problem to have." I'm envious! LMAO

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