Tag Archives: Rob Pardo

LAN in future Blizzard games? Really not. Blizzard boss Rob Pardo’s given a very solid indication that offline networking for the hoi polloi in the firm’s games is no more.

“I think LAN will be a great footnote in our history, just like DOS was,” said the exec, speaking at a StarCraft II single-player press event in California last month.

News that StarCraft II wouldn’t support LAN play resulted in internet outcry in June. More than 100,000 have now signed a petition to get the feature reinstated.

“It was a very tough decision, and I’d say we’d been talking about it back and forth for well over a year before we finally decided that this is more the direction for the future for us, and actually for the industry,” said Pardo.

Pardo was talking at a StarCraft II single-player event. Impressions here, Rob Pardo interview here, Campaign screens here.

“Well over” half of World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Warcraft III players buy add-ons for the games, Blizzard design boss Rob Pardo has told VG247.

“I don’t know the numbers off the top of my head, but I know that back when you look at Brood War and Frozen Throne, we had well above 50 percent of people that bought the original bought the add-on,” he said, talking as a StarCraft II single-player press day in California last month.

“With WoW, because of the subscription model and the nature of the game, it’s way beyond that.”

Pardo was talking on the subject of expansion sales as StarCraft II will be released in three parts, the first of which, Wings of Liberty, hits next year.

Blizzard design boss Rob Pardo’s claimed Microsoft motion-sensing unit Project Natal might not be the wonder-box the 360-maker would have us believe.

“I’ve got to play with Natal a little bit, and it seems like the difficulty with it is still spatial recognition with moving your hands and doing things,” said the exec, speaking at a StarCraft II single-player event in California last month.

Pardo went on to say that recent ideas for Natal-based strategy games lofted by Ubisoft’s Michael de Plater may not be possible thanks to the system’s “imprecise” nature.

“You’d actually still need an interface that you could do that with, and Natal is still going to be pretty imprecise in the way Wii is today,” he said.

“I mean, I could see the future one day [allowing it], but I don’t know if Natal’s it. Maybe it’s a step towards it.”

It’s worth noting this is the first time Pardo had ever thought about Natal in this sense before.

“I’ve thought about it for all of five seconds right now, so there could be some genius there that I don’t immediately see,” he added.

Natal’s expected to release in late 2010.

Content from the event: impressions here, Rob Pardo interview here, Campaign screens here.

Blizzard boss Rob Pardo’s told EG that work on World of Warcraft is to blame for the fact StarCraft II’s taken so long to finish.

StarCraft II dev started in 2003, but Blizzard didn’t even announce the game until 2007. Apparently Blizzard’s had a playable version of the game since late 2005.

“One of the reasons that StarCraft II had some delays very early on in development is because a fair amount of the design team went onto World of Warcraft for a year to really help finish that game off,” Pardo said.

“They had a lot of really great experience to bring, with their knowledge of how they approached the map editor problems, how they dealt with balancing – which we could then leverage into class balancing.”

Beta very soon. Hit the link for more.

Console MMOs clearly aren’t easy. Which is probably why there are hardly any of them. Why? Blizzard’s Rob Pardo reckons the main culprit’s the pad.

“I’d say challenge number one is the input device,” he told IndustryGamers.

“So if you’re going to port a game like WoW how does that work? Do you ship a keyboard and a mouse? Do you try to make a game that [adapts] to all the different controls and buttons? That’s a porting issue.”

Pardo said that advances in Cloud gaming may overcome some of the lesser tech issues involved.

“The bigger issue would be things like hard drives. I think WoW now is about 10 gigs and we’re always pushing out more content. That’s something cloud computing could eventually solve, but in the current generation of consoles that’s a lot to deal with.

“You’d have to eat almost the entire hard drive, and there are Xbox consoles [sold to consumers] that don’t have hard drives. So that’s a big issue,” he said.

The next major console MMO is likely to be Cryptic’s Champions Online, releasing for 360 later this year.

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 »