That’s because if we have standards in the genre, ”WoW established them.” It’s a ”touchstone” for BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic.
”It is a touchstone. It has established standards, it’s established how you play an MMO. Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that’s pretty dumb,” Greg Zeschuk said at the conference.
”If you have established standards, WoW established them.” Huge triple-A projects are still viable these days despite the rise of social gaming. He cited the Warcraft franchise at Blizzard as an example of success, particularly World of Warcraft.
”Bigger does work. Big has worked and frankly, WoW is the biggest.”
”On a pure revenue basis it’s probably the biggest game ever by a country mile. It generates so much revenue it’s an incredible international business unto itself. How do we compete with that? It’s an interesting challenge,” continued the BioWare boss.
”In some ways they cracked this market wide open. Obviously Star Wars is a very big licence and it’s something that when done right - and it’s something we did right with KOTOR (Knights of the Old Republic) years ago - it’s an incredible force multiplier on your efforts. We’ve added things so that anyone that plays it knows it’s a BioWare game.”
”It’s not like we’re actually going out there to beat anyone, we’re going out to place. The audience will tell us if we have a place,” wrapped up Zeschuk.
So what does Blizzard think about all this? ”BioWare is a great developer and obviously Star Wars is a very strong licence. We think it’s good for the MMO genre for additional MMOs to come out that are actually fun and good to play,” said Mike Morhaime.
”I don’t know that it serves the genre very well when MMOs come out and have all sorts of problems and players leave in frustration.”
”Hopefully, new players will come in, experience it for the first time and find out that maybe they’re fans of the genre. If they get frustrated and leave maybe they won’t give the genre a try at all. So, do a good job,” Blizzard’s Morhaime told Zeschuk.
Star Wars: The Old Republic releases on PC later this year. Are you excited about the upcoming BioWare MMO? Will it feel the force, or fall in the sarlacc’s pit?
