Blizzard exec bets on the PC | games, starcraft, game - Business ...

Despite the rapid rise of mobile gadgets, Blizzard President Mike Morhaime says he's still betting on the long-term future of the personal computer.

That's how most people still want their video games, he says. Computer gaming continues to be the focus of the Irvine-based company, which released an addition, "StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm," to its popular real-time strategy franchise this week.

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Blizzard at a glance

Company: Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of Activision Blizzard

Leadership: Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder; Frank Pearce, chief development officer and co-founder; Rob Pardo, chief creative officer

Revenue: $1.6 billion in 2012

Stock: ATVI

Location: Irvine headquarters

Games: "StarCraft," "Warcraft" and "Diablo" are Blizzard's three main franchises.

Interesting fact: "World of Warcraft" accounted for 89 percent of net revenue in 2010, 90 percent in 2011 and 61 percent in 2012.

What's next: After a year'a hiatus BlizzCon is returning to Anaheim on Nov. 8 and 9. Blizzard hosts the conference as a participation event for fans and also details upcoming plans. BlizzCon typically is attended by 20,000 people, some of whom dress up as a variety of characters including space marines and demon hunters

Source: Blizzard earnings

"I don't know if touch is necessarily the big, magic thing, that's so important to the future," Morhaime said. "I think keyboards and mice aren't going anywhere."

The 45-year-old president, however, remained tight-lipped about the details of Blizzard's next big project, the top-secret game known only as "Project Titan" being developed at its Irvine headquarters.

Click here to watch a video of the Starcraft?II: Heart of the Swarm launch party.

In an interview with the Register this week, Morhaime talked about the "StarCraft II" launch and the changing videogame landscape.Morhaime co-founded Blizzard in 1991 to develop video games. Since 1998 the company has made games that focus only on three universes ? demon-fighting "Diablo," space-faring "StarCraft" ? which is played competitively around the world ? and the fantastical "Warcraft." Each franchise has spawned sequels, expansions and off-shoots. The games have attracted a devoted audience ? with 2004's "World of Warcraft" becoming a cultural phenomenon. Eight years later, more than 9 million people still play "WoW" ? and many pay as much as $15 per month to explore that world as virtual orcs, dwarves and elves.

Q. How important is competitive gaming to Blizzard?

A. Competitive gaming and professional eSports are important on a number of different levels. A game like "StarCraft" needs to be balanced well so there isn't a dominating strategy ... for any strategy you might come up with you can devise a counter that can defeat that strategy. I think for the longevity of the game, eSports is very important. If you look at the longevity of "StarCraft" one [released in 1998], people are still playing "StarCraft" one and still interesting in watching "StarCraft" one games.

We put a lot of effort into ? 'How do you design a sequel to one of the most well-balanced games of all time?'

Q. How did you try to improve "StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty" with the "Heart of the Swarm" expansion?

A. We think "Wings of Liberty" was a great game, but "Heart of the Swarm" takes it to the next level and fills in a lot of gaps.

We've been able to make a lot of improvements to the user interface, to the experience on Battle.net (Blizzard's online platform for connecting with friends), to training players on how to make the jump from single-player to multi-player ... For the casual player, we've made it easier to play, easier to learn and more fun. For the experienced player, we've added more depth and strategy.

Q. Have things changed for you as a gamer as you grow older?

A. I have more time to game now than I ever have. I have a bit more balance in my life than the [first years] of starting Blizzard. There was no time to do anything. I woke up. I went to work. I programmed all day ? actually, I managed the company all day ? I programmed all night, went home, watched '24,' went to sleep, got up, went to work ... I didn't have a lot of time to play anything then.

Q. Blizzard makes almost all its games for PC, why haven't you made games for touch-screens and tablets yet?

A. It's a very young market when you talk about tablets. The install base of PCs is still larger. I know that will change at some point. I also wonder about keyboard and mouse as an interface ? I don't know if that's going away. It's such an efficient way of communicating with computers. So even when we're walking around with tablets ? you look at the Microsoft Surface ? their whole ad campaign is about 'clicking' in to your keyboard. We'll look at it in the future as we're developing games. I'm sure there are ways to utilize touch.

Q. What's new?

A. "Diablo III" is coming to console, which is really big to us. We haven't released a console game in many years. It's a port, maybe, but it's a port that was meant to live on console. The game is so well suited to the big screen in your living room. It's so well suited to the joypad controller.

Q. Why didn't you hold BlizzCon last year, and why did you bring it back this year?

A. We held a big eSports event in Shanghai (and) we had an awful lot of development going on last year. We really didn't have the bandwidth to ship two games, hold a big eSports competition and hold BlizzCon. We still have a lot going on this year. This year our eSports finals will occur at BlizzCon (in Anaheim, Nov 8-9).

We try not to bite off more than we can chew and we recognize that holding a major event like BlizzCon or a major eSports event in a foreign country ? those are things that require a huge amount of planning and logistics. It can be very distracting. We allow ourselves one per year.

Q. How much effort is going to your top-secret massive-multiplayer online game (code-named Titan)?

A. We have a development team that's working on it. It's a very experienced team. Some of our most senior "World of Warcraft" members are actually working on that project right now. What we've said about it is it's a brand new universe, so it's not "StarCraft," "WarCraft," or "Diablo." A completely new setting. It's not going to be a sequel to "World of Warcraft."

Q. Will you detail "Titan" at BlizzCon?

A. I can't answer that. At some point we probably want to answer that.

Contact the writer: 949-229-2426 or ihamilton@ocregister.com

• VIDEO: Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm launch party draws lots of fans

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Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/games-499897-starcraft-game.html

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