Blizzard just says no to consoles (or do they?)
by Elizabeth Harper 
Feb 6th 2007 at 4:00PM
Our friends at Joystiq have pointed out an interview with Blizzard's VP of business development, Itzik Ben Bassat, at GameIndustry.biz. In it, he again confirms yearly expansions -- though he didn't let slip any details on what we might see in the next one. However, he has some interesting things to say about gaming consoles, summed up in this quote:Consoles are becoming sophisticated PCs which sit in the living room... We'll have to see how all this develops. Maybe in five years you won't need a console because you'll have one PC which delivers content all over your house.
No plans to bring World of Warcraft to the console market, then? Bassat says there are no plans to bring the game to consoles, though Blizzard is keeping a close eye on the next gen machines, especially their online services. And he has nothing but good to say about Xbox Live Arcade:
I'm very impressed, I'm impressed by the people who do it, and the service is very easy, very intuitive. I love it.
Is anyone else getting mixed signals here?
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Roguerhunter Feb 6th 2007 4:20PM
I think before about making a move like this you have to think about being unique in the market and keeping it simple as it already is. I think people are happy enough that they can click away back and forth with there wrists between, vent, music and keeping it all in one simple workstation. This gives you the feeling of an old Street Fighter or Mortal Combat game industry. I think people of all ages play on the pc to have that home office enviorment and privacy. Plus I had for there to be an expansion where you would have to purchase the latest Xbox like street fighter went from Nintendo 64 to X-Cube. No way I rather just upgrade my hard drive and Memory! You dont see yahoo or aim messenger going game system to chat with you friends. What do you guys think!
roXet Feb 6th 2007 4:50PM
There's not really any mixed signals here, he's just keeping his options open. From what he said here I would wager that you will never see World of Warcraft on current gen consoles. But we have no way of knowing where console will be going in 5 years. They *are* basically becoming PCs, and for him to state that World of Warcraft will never be on any console would be silly.
Roguerhunter Feb 6th 2007 7:00PM
if it does come to that I am sure you will have people quit playing..
DarkTipper Feb 6th 2007 5:40PM
I want some Warcraft 1 & 2 on Live arcade.
Tracy Feb 7th 2007 12:25AM
I'm slightly surprised that they haven't come out with a console version. They would be essentially printing more money. Square/Enix have already shown that MMORPG's can be multi-platform by releasing Final Fantasy XI on the PC, PS2, and the Xbox 360. Hell I played it on the PS2 for well over 2 years before moving on to WoW.
umamasyean Feb 7th 2007 4:44PM
I think the majority of console gamers are “non-sophisticated gamers” such that they would not enjoy a game like WoW. Console games are primarily for those casual “action-reaction” focused gamers and these people would not have the patience and desire to play a game like WoW. If they did like more involved games, they would have a computer. Perhaps the next-generation will blur the lines more between the PC and console…maybe even give rise to the “entire home controller”. But until then, porting a game like WoW into Xbox isn’t simply installing the software. There has to be a lot of time and money invested to make a new version, controllers, and technology products to support such a different system and then question would be…”Is it economically viable to do that at this point”. As he indicated…they are going to wait and see.