Battle.net supremo Greg Canessa says Acti and Blizz are ”two separate entities,” and they don’t want to ”spread too thin”. Battle.net not ”nailed down” yet.
”Bobby Kotick and all the folks at Activision are very, very supportive of Battle.net and what we’re doing. They’ve said that Battle.net is one of the top five strategic initiatives going on at Activision Blizzard,” said Blizzard’s Battle.net boss Greg Canessa.
”Having said that, as you know, Blizzard and Activision are really two separate entities, and we really do our own thing.” Blizzard’s stellar performance with World of Warcraft and the like help keep them wearing their own trousers in management.
”We have this vibrant World of Warcraft business; we have the StarCraft II business and eSports; we’ve got Diablo III and what’s going on there - and that’s going to be a huge phenomenon for us.”
”We’ve got so many opportunities in front of us, I think the mistake that we could make as a company - and I don’t think we are making it because we’re aware of it - is to get spread too thin and go in too many directions.”
The future might hold an expanded Battle.net service which could hope to rival the heights that Valve’s Steam has achieved, but for now they’re staying focused.
”Some day maybe we add other titles in there. Who knows?” he mused. ”When we really feel like we’ve really delivered that kick-ass set of experiences for Blizzard games, and we feel like we’ve grown the team - and you’ve heard some of my challenges growing the team and finding the talent - when I’ve got that sustainability, when we really feel like we’ve got that dialled-in and nailed down, you know, who knows what the future holds.”
StarCraft II’s arrival also saw the newly launched Battle.net service which includes huge upgrades over their past service. For one it’s integrated with all Blizzard’s games and you can also buy titles from them directly. Diablo III has PvP arenas and will significantly bolster what Battle.net offers to fans, not to mention SC2 tournaments and such.
”We’ve got a lot of huge ambitious plans,” Canessa noted. ”Exactly: the sky is the limit with this stuff. And we’re getting into spectating, tournaments, the marketplace and other stuff going forward.” Blizzard is in no hurry to conquer the digital marketplace.
”We’ve just got so much potential here, I only wish we could stop time and get some of this stuff sooner. It takes a long time to build this stuff.” If indication of how long they take to make a videogame is anything, we’ll see this Battle.net expand around 2030-ish?
