WoW 360 ain't gonna happen, says Blizzard

by James Ransom-Wiley on Mar 3rd 2006 4:30PM

With a subscriber base of 6 million, World of Warcraft is the caliber of franchise that Microsoft is after. Well, maybe not anymore. Blizzard COO Paul Sams has made his company's stance clear, stating today, "We do not have any plans to take WoW to Xbox 360."

Sams criticized the Xbox Live architecture for being too protected from outside influence. As such, he had his doubts about the prospect of Xbox 360 and PC gamers being able to share their experiences if a console version of WoW was ever released. However, Sams did admit that Blizzard isn't entirely opposed to developing for the Xbox 360 and believes that the MMO genre will blossom on consoles once developers overcome the limitations of the joypad.

See also: Guild Wars developer criticizes XBL business model

[Via Digg]

Source

Tags: PC, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (53)

This would be a great oppertunity for another developer to score big! Screw Blizzard if they do not want to add to the fan base. Support for someone else will make them wish they did. I am no big fan of MS, but there needs to be companies that are willing to cross-over to get the ball rolling.

m3mnoch,

Until Blizzard or NCSoft or any other company launches a game (MMO or otherwise) or comes out with a statement saying such and such a game is coming to the platform, it is all hearsay. These companies may change their minds later, so who's to know.

m3mnoch, you speak for Blizzard as if you know what the heck they are thinking about. For all you know, they meant the same thing.

The only thing here is that this guy was very diplomatic about it.

NCSoft is a publisher of games (mainly all PC), Blizzard is not, they get Vivendi Universal (parent company) to do their publishing.
It is in Blizzard's best interest to be neutral about their stance.

Which company in their right mind would want to share their userbase as well as their user information with another company (MS) who has (looking at history) screwed their partners both ways and more ?

"Until Blizzard or NCSoft or any other company launches a game ...[snip]... was very diplomatic about it."

i may not know what they are thinking, but i know what they said. (see both interviews)

that whole 'we will know when it happens' thing is a weak argument.

"It is in Blizzard's best interest to be neutral about their stance."

i'm trying like hell to understand what you are talking about here. i don't see why blizzard has to be diplomatic at all. THEY are the 800 lb. gorilla, not arenanet or ncsoft. i have a feeling their relationship with the publisher (especially in light of vivendi's financial position) is more like 'we will ALLOW you to be our publisher.'

if blizzard suddenly shopped around for a different publisher? a bidding war would break out.

blizzard, out of almost any other company, is the most consistent with games that are hits. they, out of almost any other company, have the least business-driven incentive to be 'diplomatic.' they don't answer to anyone in the industry -- especially in the mmo segment.

so, how did they get in the position they are in? by answering to gamers and making the games we want. (hint: accessibility is their secret sauce)

"Which company in their right mind would want to share their userbase as well as their user information with another company (MS) who has (looking at history) screwed their partners both ways and more ?"

this is just silly. look at the crowd of major publishers lining up to make xbla games. look at ea putting madden on live. look at square enix putting final fantasy on live.

fluffy, what on earth are you talking about?

m3mnoch.

Previous 50 Comments