Blizzard: We're platform agnostic
Unless you've been living in the proverbial cave - or under rock, or under a rock in a proverbial cave - you'll realise that today is d-day for StarCraft II, the long awaited successor to the most successful RTS game of all time.
Developer Blizzard is one of the greatest PC developers in the world - with a slew of stellar hits that read like a Who's Who of PC gaming over the past decade, including StarCraft, Diablo and, of course, all-conquering online juggernaut World of Warcraft.
Yet for such a renowned developer of PC games, Blizzard are apparently platform agnostic when they begin the process of making a new title. At least that's what Michael Ryder, Vice President and Executive Managing Director of International Operations told us when we spoke this morning.
We asked Ryder if he felt Blizzard was "flying the lone flag" for PC gaming.
He replied: "We don't focus on the platforms so much, especially in the early stages of creating a game, we really focus on what the game experience ought to be, what the gameplay should be. Once we're inspired about what we want the game to be, we think about what's going to be the best platform for it. "
"As it happens, that the games we've done in recent years have been on the PC and the Mac because we've just genuinely felt that for the game experience we want to create, they're the best platform."
"We don't think about being alone on the PC - we just focus on making the coolest game we can on that platform. And the players have responded to that."
It's an interesting perspective from the world's premier PC developer - even if it's one we're not totally convinced by... Nevertheless, it's intriguing to hear Blizzard claim that their design process doesn't apparently include a pre-ticked PC platform box.
So is there hope for a Blizzard produced console title any time soon? Michael Ryder again:
"We're very aware of the consoles, we look at other platforms and we give thought to those things. We think about it, it's something that could happen at some point, but we don't really have anything to announce at this point."
Developer Blizzard is one of the greatest PC developers in the world - with a slew of stellar hits that read like a Who's Who of PC gaming over the past decade, including StarCraft, Diablo and, of course, all-conquering online juggernaut World of Warcraft.
Yet for such a renowned developer of PC games, Blizzard are apparently platform agnostic when they begin the process of making a new title. At least that's what Michael Ryder, Vice President and Executive Managing Director of International Operations told us when we spoke this morning.
We asked Ryder if he felt Blizzard was "flying the lone flag" for PC gaming.
He replied: "We don't focus on the platforms so much, especially in the early stages of creating a game, we really focus on what the game experience ought to be, what the gameplay should be. Once we're inspired about what we want the game to be, we think about what's going to be the best platform for it. "
"As it happens, that the games we've done in recent years have been on the PC and the Mac because we've just genuinely felt that for the game experience we want to create, they're the best platform."
"We don't think about being alone on the PC - we just focus on making the coolest game we can on that platform. And the players have responded to that."
It's an interesting perspective from the world's premier PC developer - even if it's one we're not totally convinced by... Nevertheless, it's intriguing to hear Blizzard claim that their design process doesn't apparently include a pre-ticked PC platform box.
So is there hope for a Blizzard produced console title any time soon? Michael Ryder again:
"We're very aware of the consoles, we look at other platforms and we give thought to those things. We think about it, it's something that could happen at some point, but we don't really have anything to announce at this point."
giaquinto - 27. Jul, 11:24
