EA CEO: Warhammer won't rival WoW
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jun 19th 2008 at 7:30PM
There's been quite a bit of buzz around that whole little Warhammer game that's coming out soon, and while we're not a Warhammer blog or anything, we've at least covered the questions that keep arising over how it stack up to WoW. Will Warhammer Online be the game to beat WoW? Is Blizzard stealing Ideas from them?
Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitello put his two cents into the kitty recently at an investor's meeting. Next Generation reports that he said the following:
"Warhammer Online [will be] a strong entry in the MMORPG space," Riccitiello said at the William Blair & Company's investor meeting Tuesday. "No, I don't think it's going to rival WoW, but no one would ever predict that. But it is a strong game that will ... get our returns for us. We're proud of it."
Riccitello has been content to settle for lesser sales in the past, but this could also be seen as yet another acknowledgment from a major game company CEO that you just can't beat Blizzard. Activision got around the problem by joining them rather than beating them, but I don't think we'll be seeing EA-Activision-Blizzard any time soon.
It'll be interesting to see if EA's more non-competitive approach allows them a foothold in the MMO world. While David and Goliath was always one of my favorite stories as a young lad, It may simply be true that Blizzard's numbers aren't really directly assaultable. In that case, Riccitello may have the right idea: Just find a decent player base that likes what you do, and settle for decent profits instead of massive profits. Of course, whether Warhammer's more dedicated fans are apt to give up the fight against WoW is probably another question entirely.
[Via Massively]
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Rubin Jun 19th 2008 7:52PM
I think nobody expects WoW to be beaten right at the beginning and it's foolish for a CEO to come along and say publicly their game will kill the other and nobody will say their game will beat WoW.
I do think Warhammer could give WoW a run for its money and who knows what the future holds because Warhammer does look very promising. The thing is though it's hard to predict how successful a game will be before launch. Remember, even Blizz thought WoW wasn't gonna be as successful as it is now, so to make predictions one game will beat another or can't beat another is very hard to do indeed.
MercyfulFate Jun 20th 2008 6:43AM
This whole article sounds like the hugest wow fanboy wrote it. Lets face it, the only original thing bliz came up with is arenas, and they failed to make that any good and/or a balanced form of pvp. The only good thing bliz ever did to make a decient game was steal from everyone else.
http://cecilvortex.com/swath/2008/04/21/an_interview_with_chris_metzen_part_one.html
read question "how would u describe your approach to the creative process?". Metzen says how much they loved evercrack and they just changed a few ideas (to make an MMO). What happens when they cant steal from anyone anymore?
darian Jun 20th 2008 10:51AM
Old news.
Blizzard has always been a master refiner of genres. Warcraft? Certainly not the first or most innovative RTS, but it was simply the most fun. Diablo? There were plenty of other dungeon crawls before it, this one was just better. WoW?
Blizzard has its innovations, but they are firmly (and rightly) built on the successes and failures of their predecessors and competitors.
Chris Jun 19th 2008 7:55PM
So basically EA is saying, 'oh well we're gonna make a lot of money from this, but we don't really care about our competition.'
jbodar Jun 19th 2008 8:27PM
I think his implication is that WAR will occupy a different niche in the MMO market. It's more PVP oriented and likely will try to appeal to the more hardcore MMO players, many of whom are now discontent with the way WoW has -- in their eyes -- been diluted or become too easy, rather than appeal to the mainstream casual WoW player.
Badger Jun 19th 2008 8:20PM
"Riccitello has been content to settle for lesser sales in the past, but this could also be seen as yet another acknowledgment from a major game company CEO that you just can't beat Blizzard."
I don't even know what to say to this, aside from "This is 100% not what Riccitello said."
Kuroyume Jun 19th 2008 8:24PM
WoW's great success was not killing it's rivals, but opening the market. A good chunk of WoW's subscribers are people who never played an MMo before.
I feel that any game that wants to beat WoW is gonna have to do the same thing... bring in new people to the genre.
Preston Jun 19th 2008 9:10PM
Warhammer can do that--it sounds like it'll be easier to jump into than WoW with things like public quests. EA's CEO has to be modest about it, but don't be surprised if Warhammer is a huge hit, especially for all those casual players who don't like the Arena but love fighting in large groups like in battlegrounds. Most of the boring WoW grinds don't exist in Warhammer, like leveling/making gold/armor repair costs/fishing/etc.
Mives Jun 19th 2008 8:42PM
Mythic arn't trying to beat WoW at their own game rather give gamers a different focus. More PvP centric with a central focus of the World at War should and will excite any PvPer to give it a crack
I don't think any MMORPG will ever see the number of subscriptions of WoW. In fact give it a year and WoW won't see the numbers it has now, too many options for the subscriber. That being said I don't believe that WoW will lose players in droves, far from it, rather I think it's going to level off after Lich King. AoC should have ironed out most of it's bugs, same same with WAR and you'll have 3 very successful Fantasy based RPG's dominating the market. WoW of coarse will have the lion's share of the pie.
It's a very good time to be a gamer.
Vim Jun 19th 2008 10:30PM
Well, I think this is the right idea. Avoid the crazy hype that can come with a new MMO and instead let the players and the player base talk it up. It's essentially what WoW did when it came out. Look at Guild Wars. It's not a game for everyone, but it has a loyal fan base and does relatively well.
Korgak Jun 19th 2008 9:52PM
Darkfall < all
Den Jun 19th 2008 10:22PM
Darkfall is real now ? Its been in "dev" so long with no real substance that I (and everyone I know) thought it was vaporware.
On the Topic War doesn't have to compete with WoW, no games does. I think people need to get over the idea of a WoW killer.
Korgak Jun 20th 2008 1:22AM
Aparently they are scheduled to release Darkfall late this year, early next, so anticipation is at its most :)
Lerxst Jun 20th 2008 7:45AM
"Darkfall" is less than all?
Well, no wonder I've never heard of it then. Mustn't be that good if it couldn't even manage Darkfall > a few things, maybe.
Protip: < is less than, > is greater than.
Korgak Jun 20th 2008 10:19AM
Proberly would be the best idea to mention i flunked maths XD please be gentle.
Brian! Jun 19th 2008 10:32PM
I remember when everyone said that EQ could not be beat and that they would remain the dominating force.
WoW is going to fade away and another more modern, polished game will replace it and break new records. It is hard to say if that will be Warhammer.
Oh, and Warhammer is RvR focused, but it is also casual friendly. They even have ways to casually take part in a large scale raid where you get a reward based on how much you helped. Now, that is really cool. So be careful to label Warhammer as hard core and Warcraft as casual. If Mythic pulls off what they keep claiming, Warhammer is going to appeal to both casuals and hardcore alike in a more synergistic way than WoW does today.
TotalBiscuit Jun 19th 2008 11:28PM
Warhammer provides rather less static world than WoW, and that's it's
strength. It's world contains keeps that can be assaulted and claimed
by individual guilds, towns and cities that can be attacked,
ransacked and the faction leaders captured and put in stocks, even
guilds that gain levels as their members achieve various feats,
unlocking new bonuses and capabilities as they go. For those of us
who are looking for a world in which we can make a piece of it our
own, and affect the way it develops, but who don't want to deal with
the cut-throat nature of EvE Online, Warhammer is a strong contender.
Rubin Jun 20th 2008 12:32AM
Well said, it's ironic because wasn't Blizzard gonna do a Warhammer MMO first but the deal was canceled and they decided to go with Warcraft?
Varus Jun 20th 2008 1:12AM
That pretty much sums it all up.
The PvE content in EVE is truly horrible, so I have high hopes for WAR to bridge just that gap. Living world which players can affect, game based on solid PvP rules and good PvE content to go with it. That's all I've ever wanted, hopefully they can deliver it in a nice playable package.
Having said that, I don't think it will start with 10 million players. I'd be surprised if it passes 1 million mark. It might grow as it matures, but somehow I doubt it ever will reach WoW numbers, WoW has that mass market appeal - games based on PvP hardly ever do that well.
I think it's good news EA is saying "this won't kill WoW, but we'll make ton of money out of it" - it means they're not that desperate to clone WoW (and the WoW playerbase), they have their own target audience chalked out and they're aiming to cater for that audience. From a game design point of view, that is fantastic, WoW has had that "we need to give something for everyone"-bug for a while, that leads to toning down class differences, casual-hardcore differences etc. Variety is good thing, both in MMO's and in the MMO marketplace.
Varus Jun 20th 2008 1:15AM
That pretty much sums it all up.
The PvE content in EVE is truly horrible, so I have high hopes for WAR to bridge just that gap. Living world which players can affect, game based on solid PvP rules and good PvE content to go with it. That's all I've ever wanted, hopefully they can deliver it in a nice playable package.
Having said that, I don't think it will start with 10 million players. I'd be surprised if it passes 1 million mark. It might grow as it matures, but somehow I doubt it ever will reach WoW numbers, WoW has that mass market appeal - games based on PvP hardly ever do that well.
I think it's good news EA is saying "this won't kill WoW, but we'll make ton of money out of it" - it means they're not that desperate to clone WoW (and the WoW playerbase), they have their own target audience chalked out and they're aiming to cater for that audience. From a game design point of view, that is fantastic, WoW has had that "we need to give something for everyone"-bug for a while, that leads to toning down class differences, casual-hardcore differences etc. Variety is good thing, both in MMO's and in the MMO marketplace.