Mon, Mar 21, 2011 | 10:17 GMT
Blizzard: Diablo III may cannibalize WoW audience before Titan
Blizzard EVP Frank Pearce has admitted that World of Warcraft’s subs base could be cannibalized before the release of the company’s next-gen MMO by its “other” game: Diablo III.
Speaking to Gama, Pearce admitted Blizzard’s mindful of incoming games that could chip players away from WoW before Titan’s release. And if anything’s going to do it in that time, it’ll be one of its own.
“It’s hard to say. I think even a shorter-term concern is whether or not we might see cannibalization of WoW players from Diablo III when we launch it, because it’s a similar type of experience,” said Pearce. “Not exactly similar, but it’s that RPG feel.”
He added: “For us, I think it’s really important that we recognize that somewhere, sometime it’s likely that someone is going to cannibalize World of Warcraft players.
“So it’s better we cannibalize them ourselves than let someone else do that, because if we cannibalize them ourselves, they’re still a Blizzard customer.”
Diablo III still doesn’t have a release date, although a 2012 ship is likely.
Blizzard has said constantly that Titan and WoW can co-exist, but Pearce admitted that the transfer of main talent to the newer game is “deliberate.”
“Whether someone’s leaving for another team or moving onto other opportunities outside of Blizzard, it’s important for us to have a solid succession plan in place,” he said.
“World of Warcraft has been in development in some shape or form dating back to 1999, 2000, somewhere around there.
“That’s more than 10 years, and as cool as it is to be working on World of Warcraft, and as great as I think that would be for anyone to have an opportunity to contribute to something as successful as that, to do it for 10 years is potentially asking too much of someone.”
Titan has no release date as yet.
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Posted in: Activision Blizzard, MMO, PC
Tags: diablo III, titan, world of warcraft
12 comments
#1
YoungZer0
21/03/11, 10:44 am
“Hey there, I find an amazing web,please click the web ,you can find big pleasantly surprised”
How do i click Web?
#2
Yoshi
21/03/11, 11:11 am
@1 Find a spider.
@Article, if you’re going to go up against WoW you might as well be the makers of WoW ;D
#3
Hybridpsycho
21/03/11, 11:46 am
I highly doubt Diablo 3 will Cannibalize WoW, there’s just so many players in WoW who’s barely ever been introduced to Diablo and even fewer who’d SWAP the experience. Imo it’s two diffrent types of game, completely.
Diablo 3 will be the game I run through a few times alone or with friends, I play it on LAN now and then…maybe have a character I build on when I’m not playing or doing anything else.
What I’m trying to say is (sorry haven’t slept for like 40 hours), they’re not at all the same. Just cause both are fantasy and have some RPG elements doesn’t mean they’re the same kind of experience.
Looking forward to more info about Titan, PLEASE BLIZZARD GIVE US SOMETHING TO HOLD ON TO! WE KNOW NOTHING RIGHT NOW
)
(Except it’s a new IP
#4
_LarZen_
21/03/11, 12:16 pm
Hope Diablo 3 wil be something special, would be nice to get all my WoW whore friends over to a new game to play together with…
#5
Maximum Payne
21/03/11, 12:21 pm
Actually Diablo series is only games that i LOVE to play from Blizzard.
#6
Big_Boss
21/03/11, 12:41 pm
All this article made me think of was “What could Diablo possibly have that would make WOW players switch?”. Either this is a huge hype build up for Diablo or they really will have something in D3 that can engage players for a long long time. This would have to be something secret that they haven’t announced yet. Some sort of massive online component we don’t know about. Can something like that even exist in an RPG?
#7
HauntaVirus
21/03/11, 4:16 pm
Thank goodness, maybe people will realize what a real RPG is when they dump WoW to try Diablo 3.
#8
DSB
21/03/11, 4:30 pm
@7 Oh deffo, because in WoW you just pound keys 1 through 5, whereas in Diablo you pound mouse key 1 through 2.
It’s going to BLOW their minds.
#9
Phoenixblight
21/03/11, 4:36 pm
@7
Its going to have the similar things as WOW such as the talent trees will be streamlined ones in WOW currently with respeccing. Its just going to be WOW meets Dungeon crawler with a possibility of more plot.
#10
HauntaVirus
21/03/11, 5:20 pm
@8&9
I’ve found WoW to be extremely boring and slow. Diablo on the other hand, is fun.
#11
hitnrun
21/03/11, 8:27 pm
#s 7-10 just go to show how little the games have in common. Though the artwork suggests otherwise. I’m pretty sure I killed the demon-bitches in the Monk video when I first dinged 70.
As for me, I’m having a blast playing Rift. It’s a fun collage of WoW, EQ2, DAoC, and Warhammer Online, with design elements shamelessly unabridged. I don’t think it’ll “kill” WoW, but it does bring up an interesting point: whichever big game releases when people finally start getting tired of WoW is going to be credited with “cannibalizing” it, probably unfairly.
#12
DSB
21/03/11, 8:32 pm
@10 Totally, it’s not that I disagree with that.
Faster pace and more action doesn’t make something “more” RPG though. Quite often it goes the other way, really.