Blizzard: WOW success is "exhausting"

By Robert Purchese Published 2 September, 2008

"Great problem to have," says co-founder.

Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce has described the staggering success of World of Warcraft as "exhausting".

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, he said having to meet the huge demands of over 10 million subscribers had been a "great problem to have".

"I don't know if I'd describe it as 'interesting' as much as exhausting. We've got almost 3000 employees worldwide now, and the majority of that growth is due to the success of World of Warcraft," said Pearce, probably while eating golden truffles.

"As a company we've found ourselves spread very, very thin - because the World of Warcraft community has a voracious appetite for content. That development team is 130 people, they're working on content patches, they're working on an expansion set, they've got their hands full - and then we've got the other development teams that we need to continue to support as well."

"So it's great, it's a great problem to have, but it is a lot of work. We've learned a lot, made a lot of mistakes along the way. It's been good experience for us, I wouldn't say that we've regretted it," he added.

Of course, the growth means Blizzard can now handle simultaneous development of multiple projects; World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King is due for release later this year, followed by StarCraft II and Diablo III.

Plenty more information on that trio of games is expected from the BlizzCon 2008 event in California this October, which sold out of tickets in barely one afternoon.

Pop over to GamesIndustry.biz for the full interview with Frank Pearce, who talks about combining online communities, keeping secrets, and brand new IP.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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