Paul Sams on WoW, PC game sales, and Blizzard's next challenge

by Mike Schramm Dec 4th 2008 at 5:30PM

Blizzard COO Paul Sams sat down with PC Retail magazine for the first time after Wrath's sales numbers have come out to talk about PC game sales in general and Blizzard's huge effect on them. First question, Sams says that no, PC gaming is not dead, and Blizzard isn't saving it. As long as people have PCs, he says, people will play games on them. If PC gaming was dead, Blizzard wouldn't be releasing Starcraft II and Diablo III -- as long as they make great games on PC, people will shell out the money to play them.

While he never does mention anything about their expectations for sales numbers (we know Wrath broke a number of records), he does reiterate what other Blizzard higherups have said: that they'll be making expansions as long as people are interested in playing them. And he says that the biggest challenge for Blizzard in the next few years will be to balance what they're doing -- they've never had more on their plate before, and they've already gotten a harsh lesson with the splitting of Starcraft II into three games. It'll be interesting to see if they can keep up the quality and popularity even while trying to work on three AAA PC titles (not to mention the unannounced MMO) at the same time.

Tags: blizzard-coo, blizzard-financial, coo, diablo-iii, gaming, not-dead, paul-sams, pc-gaming, pc-retail, pc-titles, starcraft-ii, wrath-records

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, Blizzard, Making money, Interviews, Wrath of the Lich King

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Urosh Dec 4th 2008 5:37PM

first

Tumleren Dec 4th 2008 5:46PM

Congratulations! First to be a goddamned pain in the ass, and first to get downrated for this blog-post!

Yay, you!

Alkaios Dec 4th 2008 6:28PM

I voted Tumleren down and Urosh up, for the lol's :D

Cosmo Dec 4th 2008 6:13PM

Um ok... Not first.

I can't wait to see what the top secret next-gen MMO is gonna be.

Wistin Dec 5th 2008 9:10AM

You know, Valve tried an experiment with episodic game content. It didn't work. Each episode still takes just as long to create as an original complete game.

I have to agree, it is all about greed. We'll pay, too. Though I have to admit lately I've been putting off new game purchases more than I used to. I can't justify the cost unless I'm convinced I will get a lot of enjoyment out of it. (IE: my money's worth)

Dean Dec 5th 2008 10:24AM

Telltale tried it too with Sam and Max and the Strongbad games and that did work.

Charlie Dec 5th 2008 12:47PM

The big problem with SCII as a trilogy is that you may focus on the terran to much, while Protoss and Zerg aren't getting as much attention. Thats my only problem with it.

If you haven't seen the campaign trailer, its freaking phenomenal. They are putting ALOT of work into the campaign, its very Mass Effect-ish. If they really make it as massive as I hope it will be then I can definatley see a reason to make it a Trilogy. Trying to make Mass Effect x3 in one game plus multiplayer, well thats just to much for one game.

I will support blizzard in whatever decision they make untill they make a bad game. They haven't made a bad game yet. Thats something that very few dev or pub companies can claim.

arun84h Apr 25th 2009 10:07AM

I thought the mysterious, unannounced game alluded to in that link, turned out to be Diablo III?

Spazmoosifer Dec 4th 2008 6:12PM

I was thinking the same thing, seeing as how it mentions Starcraft II and an "unannounced game", but has no mention of Diablo III.

With that in mind, I do not see any statements by Blizzard employees in that article mentioning that it is an MMO. The only mention of MMO is by the article's author and says, "Personally, I would like to see Diablo 3 or another MMO on the horizon. "