Blizzard surprisingly hopeful for The Old Republic's success

by Mike Schramm on Mar 19th 2011 1:32AM

EA Games' Frank Gibeau was less-than-complimentary to Blizzard's World of Warcraft this past week, saying that the older game "feels more like doing a shopping list at times" than EA and Bioware's upcoming The Old Republic title. But Blizzard's Frank Pearce is a little nicer to his competitor, saying in an interview that he'd love to see another popular MMO arrive. "This is a game that has an opportunity to grow the MMO market if done right," he said, "and therefore is very important to the industry as a whole, not just EA."

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime was similarly excited by the prospect of a quality Bioware MMO and its effect on the market. "From our perspective, we hope they make an enjoyable game because they're going to bring in a lot of new players to the MMO genre," he's quoted as saying.

These guys make an MMO about war? Where's that blood, the fury, that boisterous arrogance? There's just one answer: Morhaime and Pearce must both play Alliance.

Source: MCV

Tags: blizzard, ea, frank-pearce, mike-morhaime, mmo, pc, Star-Wars-The-Old-Republic, The-Old-Republic

Reader Comments (46)

Blizzard doesn't need to throw any mud. They, and everyone else in the game world, know damn well who the HNIC is...

@Macabre 13
Prodigy?

@Macabre 13

What the hell does HNIC mean?

God I hope they are... I need a new MMO already.

Waiting on Guild Wars 2

@KillaPat

From what I hear Guild Wars isn't even a true MMO, more akin to Diablo in that it hosts the zones on your own computer when you or a party go out and play, with only the social hubs being fully hosted on NCSoft's servers. Maybe GW2 will completely change that, but based on GW1 I'd say it will be like Diablo, and thus how can you compare a Roguelike to a true MMO like SWTOR? It's like saying "Nah I won't be playing TOR because I'll be playing ME3". It may be true, but it has nothing to do with the genre of games being discussed here, which is TOR and WoW and MMORPGs.

@RogueJedi86 Actually I think GW2 is going to have a more persistent world. Also note that WoW itself has introduced plenty of instancing that sometimes applies to only yourself, like the quests at the start of leach king. While mechanics differ somewhat, and certainly GW1 isn't 100% MMO in the classical sense, it's still an MMO and unlike Diablo has absolutely no single player component. You could say that GW1 is as much an MMO as ME2 is an RPG :D

@RogueJedi86 Did you just call Guild Wars a rougelike?

@RogueJedi86
GW2 is more of a true MMO than the original was. But unlike ToR it seems to be doing away with many of the dated MMO conventions and honestly just looks like the far better game.

Being F2P will also really help them bring in the players.

@RogueJedi86

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/game-faq/#five

What you hear is not the truth. Get your facts straight before you utter misinformation.

I already play WoW and I intend to pick this one up too.
I'm a total Bioware fanboy, I'll buy anything they put out.

Stay classy, Blizzard.

Of course Blizz is classy about it. They have WoW now, Diablo 3 in a little bit, and then project "Titan". That and I don't think they're the type to mud-sling most times.

@OrangeGamer Your sort of implying that Diablo 3 is an MMO, anyways yeah it's going to sell millions.

@mithhunter55 Well, it isn't massively online, but I'd argue it's an MORPG (Multiplayer online RPG). Probably more in the vein of that Diablo flavor, or PSO, but still very much online and can take MMO customers away from something. I personally only have time to really play one game with loot/leveling/online at a time though. I might be a rare case.

At any rate, I'm on Rift ATM anyhow.:P

Any good company will tell you that without competition things can get sloppy as they dont have to push themselves. Its in Blizzards best interest to see bioware suceed, so that blizzard can make some crazy new thing in there game to out do anything bioware does.

How will this change the MMO genre? It's another WoW clone. So of course Blizzard won't say anything negative about it, that could easily be turned back around on them. It's Guild Wars 2 that will be the real game changer, and I don't expect Blizzard to be foolish enough to praise that game up.

@geoff0011

The difference is supposed to be the story. I didn't even know about most of WoW's lore until I read about it, it wasn't apparent in the game unless you read every block of text that comes at you. Cutscenes are very few and far between.

Darth Malak, is that you?

Blizzard is only saying this because their new mmo is rumored to be sci-fi so it makes sense that they hope many will like a sci-fi themed mmo.

The alternate headline is "Blizzard readies for bleak future for yet-to-be-released, heavily invested in MMO."

@KupoCheer
That's what I'm thinking. The more people in the mmo market, the more people Blizzard can pull away with their new MMO. (I only kid). This is one of the more promising mmos coming out. I'm excited for this, Guild Wars 2, and Dragon Nest.

Must be some kind of Jedi mind trick...

Kudos to Blizzard for not stooping to Bioware's level. I don't understand why Bioware was slinging mud around to begin with. They are aiming at 2 very different markets in my opinion. I've played WoW since launch and am also excited for the KotOR MMO as well.

@Poifection

When has BioWare slung mud? Every time they mention WoW they are the most respectful and polite about it. The only TOR people mudslinging WoW are the TOR fanboys who have grown tired of WoW. Don't try to lump BioWare in with them.

And i just want single player. why why this game have to be MMO...

@DokiDokiBawanga
^This.

I wonder if the words would be so kind to their former employees who are now making GW2?

Blizzard North was a major cornerstone to the success of the overall company, yet Blizzard liquidated the studio. To see a group of people doing so well after unceremoniously cutting them off like a diabetic foot could be a sore spot in the ego for Blizzard execs.

Why throw mud, when you have 12 million players in an MMO?...lol. I think SWTOR will arrive with some success, but from what I've seen so far, it's not going to be enough to overtake WoW. I think SWTOR will see 2-3 million players in the short term, but it's probably going to suck in new players, player who prefer a more sci-fi theme, and probably effectively kill Galaxies.

It always starts like this, "we can be friends, I like your games, trust me..." then BAM they declare themselves emperor and execute order 66...

@guyver unit 4

http://chzmemebase.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/memes-goodbye-spider.jpg

I'm very upset that Malik has a blue blade but Revan has a red one, don't ruin my continuity!!!

Anyhow, I'm generally opposed to MMO's and subscription based gaming and by opposed I mean I bite my thumb at it when it comes up. God damn you Bioware you know I love you too much to not buy one of your games.

Hell I bought Jade Empire and your Sonic RPG!

Blizzard is being nice to them because they know TOR isn't changing their model very much. TOR is going to bring a lot of new people into the MMO genre only because their game is about Star Wars. It doesn't have much to do with the actual gameplay. And if Bioware doesn't hold on to them, Blizzard can turn around and say offer them a familiar experience backed by over half a decade of polish and refinement with a well-established playerbase.

They won't ever say something like this about GW2 or The Secret World or any other game that's drastically changing the expectations of an MMO. Players that play those games or want that experience aren't very likely candidates to in turn pick up an older game thats has a lot of very boring conventions in comparison.

@Apakal I think the really great way that TOR can get more players into MMOs is how it has a lot of singleplayer features. Particularly the npc party members, the fully voice npcs, deep story quests, even people who don't like MMOs can probably play this just like KOTOR 3, and maybe Blizzard hopes they'll ease their way into WoW

Blizzard understands the industry needs new games. They respect their competition and know MMOs need to be diverse to catch another type of player that doesn't like high fantasy. EA like always is all about dollars and trash talk.

Meh. I'm far more interested in TERA and Guild Wars 2 than TOR. Especially TERA. It's too bad it isn't getting any publicity other than over at Massively just because it doesn't have a name like Bioware behind it. 9_9

Oh BioWare, you're so funny. Poking the sleeping giant that is Blizzard and talking down to WoW. Seems okay since that worked for all those other MMO's.

Oh, wait...

Joystiq, that's a screenshot from Knights of the Old Republic, the PC and Xbox game, not Star Wars: The Old Republic, the upcoming MMO.

@fischju

We know what the game looks like now, you don't have to take an image from a pre-reveal article. http://exophase.com/8092/lucasarts-to-unveil-knights-of-the-old-republic-mmo-this-month/

@fischju

It bothers me a little bit that you can even recall something like that...

Wait wait... I'm tired and I probably just read it wrong but the Morhaime and Pearce must both play Alliance, are you pinning the Alliance on them for being actually level headed and well just simply NICE on this whole thing? Don't you mean Horde then? Alliance players are the biggest A'holes I've seen even in the lore the Alliance is pretty douchey.

Now if you meant Alliance as simply they're pansy I guess I get where you were going with that then.

@Hyne I couldn't have said it better myself. Alliance players are some of the biggest assholes in all of online gaming. You gotta wonder who the villains were supposed to be, because it definitely isn't the Horde.

@Hyne

Varies wildly from server to server. I played Horde on Zul'jin US and I ran into some of the biggest pricks I've ever encountered on that server. My battlegroup as a whole wasn't much better. I never played Alliance, so I can't really say what they were like, but point being that Horde can be just as awful.

Well Blizzard basically amalgamates and polishes up all the best aspects of games to make their new games. This leads to pretty incredible games for the most part. Unfortunately for Blizzard there haven't been really any games that have challenged their domination of the MMO market.

So, it's been left up to them to innovate the genre, which they've done a so-so job at (obviously personal opinion). I'd imagine they'd love to have another successful MMO come out so that they can incorporate that games new/successful ideas into Titan...and keep up their business model.

probably cuz they want competition TOR is gonna rock!

They're nice now, but if this, or any game, ever actually threatens their business, they'll be sorry when they have to get off their dead asses and stop pallet swapping enemies and armor all day.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Blizzard surprisingly hopeful for The Old Republic's success

Reader Comments (46)

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 1:42AM Macabre 13 said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:21PM Typhonic said

Posted: Mar 20th 2011 11:50AM Fullmetal Salchemist said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 1:49AM Midnitte said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:00AM KillaPat said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 8:20AM RogueJedi86 said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 8:43AM 2late2die said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 9:06AM Poor Tom said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 9:08AM Snowblind said

Posted: Mar 21st 2011 7:56AM Dirame said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:14AM Saladfork said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:22AM Darric said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:34AM OrangeGamer said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 3:58AM mithhunter55 said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 5:01AM OrangeGamer said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:54AM Tezz said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 3:04AM geoff0011 said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 3:29AM DelTrigger said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 3:08AM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 3:14AM SaintV said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 3:25AM KupoCheer said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 11:57AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 3:30AM Ospov said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 5:43AM Poifection said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 8:14AM RogueJedi86 said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 6:13AM DokiDokiBawanga said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 11:51AM MiceInATank said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 7:47AM Rez Delnava said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 7:48AM hiruuamon said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 9:06AM guyver unit 4 said

Posted: Mar 27th 2011 11:18PM MrCheeks said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 9:16AM Rawrnosaurous said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 9:46AM Apakal said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:35PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 10:34AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 11:20AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:12PM Starkey Love said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 2:33PM fischju said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 4:27PM fischju said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 11:37PM Apakal said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 5:35PM Hyne said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 7:36PM kph59 said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 11:43PM Apakal said

Posted: Mar 19th 2011 7:46PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Mar 20th 2011 4:16PM MasterBrief said

Posted: Mar 21st 2011 2:34AM McDude said

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