Blizzard has grown infamous for long delays on its upcoming titles. With Diablo III (announced 2008) nowhere near completion for 2010, Blizzard’s executive vice president of game design Rob Pardo reflected to Techland [thanks Big Download] on this reoccurring issue for Blizzard.
“We always announce all of our games too early,” said Pardo. “We realize that and go, ‘You know what? Next time we’re not going to do that.’ And then we always fail at that. But I’d rather fail at that than fail at making the game great. I think it’s safe to say that, yeah, (Diablo III) is not going to be out next year.”
“We’re definitely not fiscal calendar-driven,” he added, “and we know that our fanbase is not going to hold us to a fiscal calendar. With (2007’s World of Warcraft expansion) Burning Crusade, we missed Christmas by about three weeks. We could’ve shoved it out the door, but we decided we didn’t need to get it into stores for Christmas. We just needed it to be great and our player-base is going to buy it whenever it hits the shelves.”
Indeed, the fans are so used to delays that Pardo confirmed that it’s changed the company’s policies when it comes to release dates. “We’ve been wrong (on release dates) for as long as I can remember, so that’s why don’t do release dates anymore,” he noted. “Now when we announce (a game) we just go, ‘Here’s the game we’re working on, we’re going to start talking about it and who knows when it ships.”
3 Comments
10 months ago
As a gamer, I certainly appreciate them only shipping finished product. I've found that the frustration of delays only enhances my anticipation while the frustration of a buggy game has no incidental benefits.
10 months ago
Totally agree. Publishers often push studios to get a game out rather than letting them really polish it. Of course, Blizzard is one of those studios that can have the luxury to do whatever. It knows people will buy its games regardless of ship date.
10 months ago
You're right James, most publishers give the developers a due date and expect the game to be ready for retail no matter what. And we all know what happens when games get rushed out too quickly. But a majority of the games coming out next year(especially in quarter 1) have been pushed back, mainly due to competition. So I hope that none of those games are buggy because of the extra polish time.
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