IG: I've occasionally heard some analysts say that WoW has already peaked, but then we see the huge uptick when you guys release another expansion. It almost seems like it's become one of these evergreen things...
RP: I don't think there's any rule that say it is going to slow down. I mean, you just assume it will one day but I don't know when, and we definitely don't approach it like it's going to. I always make the analogy that it's like writing for a TV series as opposed to a feature film. ... Typically when TV series die it's when the storylines get worse, or they planned it. But I think that's the trick with WoW. As long as we keep delivering great content, then yeah I think people will stick with it for a very long time.
IG: Is there any thinking about Blizzard working on some new franchises we've never heard of? Right now the focus is on WoW, StarCraft and Diablo. How about some new IP?
RP: I think you'll see us do it, but every time a development team frees up, in large part they decide what they want to make next. And historically, at least in recent years, the dev teams have wanted to work on our existing franchises. After we finished Warcraft 3, that team wanted to make StarCraft 2. It wasn't that the executives at Blizzard said that we have to make it. If our decisions were driven like that we wouldn't have made it after StarCraft 1 – it's been 11 years since StarCraft 1 came out. So it's clearly not a business driven decision; it's a team passion driven decision. Same thing for Diablo 3. So I think you'll see us do something new eventually. It's just always challenge, because just as our fans love them, we love our franchises too, so we always have ideas to do something within our existing franchises. It's just a push-pull situation.
IG: Before we wrap up, in regards to the Activision Blizzard merger, Blizzard's online expertise and penetration of the Asian market is obviously a huge help to Activision's online strategy, but in terms of the non Blizzard titles, just how much of the online component is fueled by the knowledge they have from you guys? How much do you work with them on that?
RP: We work with them very lightly. As far as us providing penetration of mainline Asia for them, that's just more of painting the story of the overall corporation. It's not like suddenly we're helping them sell Call of Duty in Korea. Certainly we share knowledge, but it's not a [major focus] because we have to be focused on what we're doing if we want to continue to be successful. But if they want to come down for lunch and pick our brain for ideas and stuff, we do that. It's a pretty light involvement – we're not suddenly consulting with them for how to make an MMO or things like that. What's always made us successful is no matter how many times we've been acquired or merged... we've always focused on what's made us successful in the first place and not let things distract us.
IG: And finally, what's your vision for the future of the MMO space. Where do you see it going?
RP: I think it's going to go in a lot of different directions. And it all depends on how you want to define what an MMO is too. If you go by the Raph Koster definition, it's sort of any social-based game.
IG: Right, you could almost argue that Facebook itself is an MMO.
RP: Exactly, so I mean it's one of the stranger genres. Usually genres are defined by a particular type of gameplay, like a first-person shooter or real-time strategy, so you can really understand and talk about where you might see the genre going in five years. With MMOs you really can't because the only thing that defines it is that there are a lot of players playing simultaneously. You can imagine almost any type of game turning into an MMO if done right.
IG: Thanks very much, Rob.
