Tag Archives: Rob Pardo

Blizzard’s flattened a GI report from GDC, which claimed that Rob Pardo said the firm’s in talk with Microsoft regarding the next Xbox. He didn’t say anything of the sort, apparently.

“In the Lunch with Luminaries discussion, Rob said that Microsoft occasionally bounces ideas off of us, with no specific reference to any possible future consoles,” a rep told Gamespot.

“This should come as no surprise, as our games run on Microsoft’s PC operating system. We aren’t in discussions with Microsoft regarding any future consoles.”

Whoops. The original story said, “Blizzard’s Rob Pardo has confirmed that his company has had talks with Microsoft about the successor to the Xbox 360.”

No Xbox 720 for you, Mr WoW fan. Thanks, Shatner.

Blizzard’s Rob Pardo has said that the company has been in talks with Microsoft about Xbox 360′s successor, Eurogamer writes.

Although no quote is given, Pardo reportedly said that Blizzard is actively in discussions with the Redmond giant whilst at the Luminaries Lunch at GDC yesterday.

The piece goes on to say that other developers attending the session have not had any such discussions with Microsoft.

Bombshell. More through the link.

We’re about to go live with coverage from David Perry’s Luminaries Lunch, this year featuring Will Wright, Warren Spector, Nolan Bushnell, Rob Pardo and, the man himself “Big” Dave Perry.

The session is the biggest of the big guns waxing lyrical on dev issues. You may well be in for some surprises, so keep those peepers peeled.

It’s scheduled to start at 1.00pm PST, or 8.00pm GMT. Get all the updates after the break.

More »

The Iwata keynote may be over, but don’t you dare touch that dial. We’ll be liveblogging the Luminaries Lunch at 1pm PST today, and the line-up’s stellar.

Will Wright, Warren Spector, Nolan Bushnell, Rob Pardo and David Perry will all be on the panel: you’re guaranteed to get some monster quotes.

That’s 1.00pm PST, 8.00pm GMT and 9.00pm CET. See you then!

It’s so on. VG247 has learned this morning that Will Wright, Warren Spector, Neil Young, Rob Pardo and Phil Harrison are all confirmed for Dave Perry’s Luminaries Lunch at GDC next month.

The chat takes place on March 25 at 1.00pm PST.

The inaugural event at last year’s GDC bore witness to some spectacular quotes from Harrison, who openly criticised Sony’s approach to gaming as a whole. He quit the firm days later.

The addition of Wright and Blzzard boss Pardo to the line-up for 2009′s panel will only add weight to what was dubbed “GDC’s best session” last year by some.

Discussion will be about the future of the industry, new concepts in technology, recent non-gaming related developments and entertainment trends.

It’s invite-only, Ringo. We’ll be there, obviously, which means you will be to. See how that works?

Blizzard boss Rob Pardo’s claimed in a PC Gamer interview that single-player-heavy games are the most susceptible to piracy.

“For many companies, the most compelling part of their product is the single player, or the only part of the product is the single player,” he said.

“At that point, they’re forced to use some sort of heavy-handed DRM solution. It’s difficult right now for them.”

Compelling multiplayer features were instrumental in keeping Blizzard products relatively pirate-free, said the exec.

“The reason we’ve been successful on PC is because we offer extremely compelling multiplayer elements to our games, WoW being the most obvious, of course,” he said.

“But all of our games, a lot of the longevity in the games are the compelling multiplayer, and if you want to play on Battle.net – which I think is one of, if not the best gaming service on the planet – then you have to have a legitimate CD key, so that just cuts out all the piracy right there. That’s what’s unfortunate about the PC business.”

So there you go, game-makers. Stop making single-player games and you’ll make more money.

Thanks, Evil Avatar.

Speaking to MTV, Blizzard design boss Rob Pardo has echoed the sentiments of many of late, saying that the current global financial situation is unlikely to harm the games industry in general.

“Historically for us, the game industry hasn’t been affected by recessions like a lot of other businesses,” he said. “I think the reason for that is [that] games really offer some of the best entertainment value on the market.

“People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you’re staying at home more — and I think that’s one of the reasons why you don’t see games really go in the same recession as the rest of the economy a lot of times.”

More through the link.

Blizzard design boss Rob Pardo, speaking to Joystiq, has said that a Diablo III beta is likely, although it doesn’t sound like anyone else is going to get to play the demo shown last week at BlizzCon in California.

“I’m sure it will have a beta at some point,” said the exec.

“I think this is the only place we’re going to show [the demo],” he added.

“We’ll probably do something similar for a future show, but we’re definitely not going to release it on the internet or anything like that.”

There’s a full interview through the link.

Blizzard’s boss Rob Pardo has said that although Diablo III looks very polished and possibly nearing a release, the RPG is still a way off.

“I don’t know how far out it is, but it’s still fairly early in development,” Pardo told Wired when asked as to a potential release date.

“I think when people see it, it feels so polished and so finished, but the reality is we have a very small portion of the game done right now.”

Full interview through the link.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking to Joystiq, Blizzard’s Rob Pardo has clarified comments made at BlizzCon over the weekend about seeking to “monetize” the new version of Battle.Net, assuring that charges will only be made for optional extras, and never for core game elements.

“With Battle.Net we’re definitely looking at possible different features that we might be able to do for additional money,” he said.

“We’re not talking about Hellgate or anything like that. We’re not going to tack things on. I think World of Warcraft is a great example to look at. We charge people if they want to switch servers or if they want name changes, things that aren’t core to the game experience, they’re really just optional things that some people want.

“It takes us some development work to do it, so it makes sense to charge for it. We would never do something like say to get the full game experience, you’ll have to pay extra.”

The new Battle.Net will launch alongside StarCraft II, or the first part of it at least.

More through the link.

Speaking to Develop, Valve boss Gabe Newell has said the success of Blizzard’s titles means PC gaming is alive and kicking.

“I mean, go ask Rob Pardo if PC gaming is dead – if he can take the time out from making money hats, I’m sure he’ll give you a really eloquent explanation of why probably the most valuable entertainment franchise of the moment is PC-specific,” he said.

Please, everyone. Please. Stop asking people is PC gaming is “dead”. It isn’t. It’s very obvious. There are millions and millions of people playing PC games. Please.

In this video interview from the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational last weekend, company boss Rob Pardo confirms that the firm has one more unannounced game in development.

“There is still one unknown project,” he said. “We have another development team.”

The game is thought to be another MMO, and Blizzard has confirmed it’s not related to Diablo III or a WoW expansion. StarCraft? Likely.

Thanks, Shacknews.

There’s no point breaking this into parts. Here’s everything we can find from yesterday’s epic Blizzard III reveal at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris, and all the stuff that happened afterwards on StarCraft II and Wrath of the Lich King. Going outside’s for losers, anyway. For all our news on Diablo III from the opening ceremony and following press conference, hit this.

• Blizzard Worldwide Invitational: Day One (Kotaku)
• Diablo III preview (1UP)
• StarCraft II impressions (IGN)
• News from the Starcraft II panel at the Blizzard Invitational (Joystiq)
• Diablo 2 now available at Blizzard Store (Blizzard Guru)
• Lead Designer: ‘Diablo III’ To Have Less “Carpal Tunnel,” More Action And Better Story (MTV)
• Diablo III First Look (Gamespot)
• 17 videos from the Diablo III reveal and Jessica Chobot piece (IGN)
• Diablo III: What You Really Need to Know (Joystiq)
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King shots (IGN)
• Interview: Blizzard’s Rob Pardo on Diablo III (IGN)
• Movies from Diablo III design panel, game reveal, Rob Pardo interview, day one wrap up (Gamespot)
• Blizzard Worldwide Invitational: Diablo III In-Depth (Kotaku)
• You’re Not Getting Starcraft for Christmas (Kotaku)
• Joystiq chats with Jay Wilson on Diablo 3 (Joystiq)

Before you scoff at Pardo’s message, actually read it. It’s a quickie.

“Lack of hard drive space, and difficulty in certifying patches. Basically just that… Another problem is that [console manufacturers] want a piece of the subscription,” he noted at Paris GDC this week.

Of course, as Massively mentions, these roadblocks haven’t stopped other MMO devs from attempting to careen on through.

From Age of Conan to Dungeons & Dragons Online, you’ll have plenty of MMO goodness steaming on your plate in the near future. But as Pardo would likely point out, there’s just one problem: none of those upcoming MMOs are WoW – nor will they ever be.

By Nathan Grayson

Rob Pardo, Blizzard’s SVP of game design, will give the opening keynote at Paris GDC this year, the event confirmed today.

The keynote – titled “In the Eye of the Blizzard” – GDC boss Jamil Moledina will interview Pardo on stage “on his inspirations, challenges, and on the next steps at Blizzard Entertainment. Pardo will address Blizzard’s lessons learned, the resources unlocked by its success, and the raw talent in evidence in its development team.”

The event takes place on June 23-24 at the Coeur Défense Convention Centre in Paris.

Press release after the link.

More »

Speaking here, Blizzard’s Rob Pardo has said that WoW players want a fair financial system once they’re in the game and that micro-transactions would “betray” them.

“We chose to go with the subscription-based model instead of that approach,” he said. “We’ve taken the approach that we want players to feel like it’s a level playing field once they’re in WoW. Outside resources don’t play into it – no gold buying, etc. We take a hard line stance against it. What you get out of micro-transactions is kind of the same thing and I think our player base would feel betrayed by it. I think that’s something else you have to decide on up-front instead of implementing later.”

Blizzard is currently working towards the release of Wrath of the Lich King, the second major expansion to its 10-million strong MMO.