EA CEO: Warhammer won't rival WoW
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]
