The Path of the Blizzard

Only When it's Ready

But there are other reasons people will see Blizzard as an attractive proposition - yes, other than the license to print money that now drives its ability to run so many teams simultaneously.

"Well, I'd say that if you've been in the games industry for any length of time and you've worked for a variety of companies, what you will hear from developers is that they were working on a game that they were so excited and enthusiastic about... and yet, when it got to the point where the company wanted to ship it and the game wasn't done, that company would oftentimes make the decision to ship it anyway - because they needed to make their quarterly numbers, or whatever.

"So the people who have put in the blood, sweat and tears on making this game that has all the promise - which instead has to be pushed out the door - those types of experiences are pretty devastating to people. Developers know that when they come to Blizzard know that they will get to make the game they want to make, because we let the developers decide what they're going to make.

"They also know that we will not pull the rug out from under them - they will have ample time, budget and support to be able to deliver the game that they envisioned. We will not pull the rug out from under them and ship it before it's done, so people feel that when they out their heart and soul into a game, they'll be able to deliver the game they envisioned and there's not going to be a situation where there are tonnes of compromises, we're shipping too early and everybody does that thing where they say 'Woulda, shoulda, coulda if we'd had the time.'

"I do think that's a meaningful and material part of what attracts people to Blizzard, and I think another big part of it is what we refer to as the Blizzard family. We want people to feel like they can be who they are, they can be creative - and they're not going to have people picking at them because they're trying to be creative, to make something that's new and different.

"We try to do a lot of different things to foster a family environment, a team environment, and I think people genuinely love to work at Blizzard - I think if you were to ask a broad selection of employees at Blizzard I think they'd tell you it was the best place they ever worked, and that they don't want to work anywhere else."

It's safe to assume that Sams is talking from a position of personal experience, and he freely admits as much.

"I can tell you definitively that if Mike Morhaime will continue to allow it, I'll be here until I retire - this is a place I do not want to leave," he says - and why would he? "It's the best place I've ever worked; the only place I can envision working. I don't think there's any place else that I would have a more fulfilling experience - and I think that's a consistent feeling at the company."

Learning Lessons from the Past

So going back to the start of the exploration into Blizzard's path, and understanding why it's made a difference, brings us full circle on the question of how it's impacted the industry. Hinting at the point about finishing games properly, and it's easy to look at how the release schedule changes today as publishers push releases back for that 'extra polish' they need.

But it wasn't always that way - in fact, that mentality has only really come about in the past couple of years, as companies have seen more and more the damage that can be done to a franchise by pushing it out before it's ready, just to hit a fiscal deadline.

By Sams' account, that's never been the way that Blizzard has worked, and while Pardo admits the company's had to learn tough lessons from mistakes such as underestimating demand for Diablo II - a "pants down" moment that he believes restricted its ability to sell to its full potential - the delays to WoW's release, the push back of the Battle.net revamp last year and the rescheduling of StarCraft II to this year all demonstrate an unwillingness to break that rule of release.

"I think that probably is one of the things we've done to influence the industry," concedes Sams. "Certainly not everybody has been able to follow that, because different companies have different situations, and financial pressures are different.

"But Blizzard's always taken the position that if you do right by the players and you only ship games that are done - only games that you want to play next - you'll result in games that others want to play next, and they'll vote with their pocket books very positively.

"It's always made sense to us to make sure the game was right, and it's also a trust issue - if you're a Blizzard gamer and you know that when you go out to the store and lay down your money on the counter to buy the game, you know you're going to get the value you paid for... and then some.

"I feel like that trust we've built is another critical component and other companies observe that - they see that Blizzard has a population of gamers that is very supportive of the company, that's there each and every time. I'd like to believe it's because we treat them with respect; we don't try to fool them or screw them - we try to make sure that every time they give us their money that we do right by them, and they get everything they were hoping for, and then some.

"I think that has probably influenced the industry - there are certain companies that have tried to do that, and modified the manner in which they're operating, or built themselves with that mentality in mind.

"There are some companies that unfortunately haven't done that, but their circumstances are such that maybe they can't, or are unwilling to - or maybe they're just approaching it differently, and not everybody sees the Blizzard way as the right way. But we think it's worked out pretty well for us, and that it's worked out pretty well for gamers around the world."

And there are at least 12 million gamers that would agree with that statement, every single month.