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Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce is leaving the gaming company
Another Blizzard co-founder is stepping away from the company. Just a few months after Mike Morhaime left his role as Blizzard CEO and president, his fellow founder Frank Pearce has announced that he's also hanging up his hat as Chief Development Officer. Pearce founded the gaming giant 28 years ago with Morhaime and Allen Adham, who left in 2004 but came back in 2016 to oversee the development of several new titles.
Blizzard has 4,700 employees across 11 cities
Blizzard Entertainment is kind of a big deal -- you already knew that. But did you know that the studio is such a big deal that it spans "4,700 employees across 11 cities?" That's a lot of people! And while many of said employees are saddled with customer support roles, a whopping 750 are assigned to product development, which spans WoW, StarCraft, Diablo, and the still-unannounced "Project Titan" MMO (not to mention anything else Blizzard has cooking behind-the-scenes).Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce discussed the astounding statistic during a panel at DICE last week, using the numbers to put context behind his company's lack of preparedness when launching World of Warcraft way back in aught four. "I don't think we had any idea what we were getting ourselves into," Pearce admitted, as reported by industry trade site Gamasutra. "We had to stop shipping boxes to stores." Resultantly, the company now makes "more aggressive" predictions for its various launches, and has its many hundreds of support employees at the ready for said launches.
Blizzard admits to 'grossly underestimating demand' for World of Warcraft in 2004
If World of Warcraft is credited with a smooth initial launch, that's only because time tends to smooth over the growing pains that come with every MMO. Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce was quite up-front with the studio's stumbles in 2004 as WoW launched to unprecedented demand; he's admitted that Blizzard execs "grossly underestimated" how many people wanted to play the game, forcing the company to cease shipping boxes to stores while tech was improved to deal with the influx. "I don't think we had any idea what we were getting ourselves into," Pearce said at the recent DICE executive summit. The studio quickly ramped up from its 500-employee taskforce to 4,700 people in 11 cities across the world. Pearce also addressed the issue of addiction in MMOs, saying that Blizzard "think[s] about it all of the time. If there's something that you're really passionate about, whether it's video games, a book, a TV series [or something else]... we have to consume it in moderation."
Blizzard's Frank Pearce steps up to join AIAS' board of directors
Blizzard Entertainment has another reason to be proud of its family at holiday parties this year, as lil' Frank Pearce has grown up to join the board of directors at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. "Look at my boy," Blizzard will sniffle with pride. "We always knew he was going to make something of himself one day!" Pearce was one of the original co-founders of Blizzard back in 1991 and has been a vital part of the studio's operations ever since -- he's overseen development on World of Warcraft among other roles. In joining the AIAS board of directors, Pearce will now extend his influence over the Academy's dealings with its over 22,000 members from various industry leaders. For his part, Pearce thinks the appointment will be a good match for his experience: "I've always appreciated the Academy's commitment to advancing the gaming medium and fostering creativity within our industry. I'm honored to be chosen for this role on the Board, and I look forward to drawing on my experiences at Blizzard to help support and contribute to the AIAS' ongoing mission."
Blizzard bigwigs recall company's first 20 years
Twenty years is a long time, and to illustrate how long (and make you feel old in the process), let's do a little retrospective. In 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev led the Soviet Union, James Cameron's Terminator 2 and Kevin Costner's Robin Hood ruled the box office, and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was flying off toy store shelves everywhere following its August release. Also in 1991, a software company known as Silicon & Synapse started its life by working on ports for other gaming companies before re-branding itself as Blizzard Entertainment three years later. In a new interview at PC Gamer, Blizzard bigwigs Frank Pearce, Mike Morhaime, and Rob Pardo talk about the company's past, present, and future, as well as where PC gaming is headed in general. "I think the effect we're on the verge of having -- at least for World of Warcraft specifically -- is that right now, gaming is on the edge of not being the basement-geek entertainment anymore," Pardo says.
Blizzard pro-cannibalism: Diablo 3 could eat into World of Warcraft audience
While Blizzard cofounder Frank Pearce is unexpectedly bullish on EA's prospects with its Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO – and of course Blizz's own next-gen, untitled "Titan" MMO – he sees another potential product that could cannibalize his massive World of Warcraft audience. "I think even a shorter-term concern is whether or not we might see cannibalization of WoW players from Diablo 3 when we launch it, because it's a similar type of experience," Pearce told Gamasutra. "Not exactly similar, but it's that RPG feel." While Diablo 3 currently has no release date – it's possible it may not make it out this year – Pearce said "it's better we cannibalize them ourselves than let someone else do that, because if we cannibalize them ourselves, they're still a Blizzard customer." And that, ladies and gentlemen, is maybe the only kind of cannibalism that we can endorse.
Blizzard surprisingly hopeful for The Old Republic's success
EA Games' Frank Gibeau was less-than-complimentary to Blizzard's World of Warcraft this past week, saying that the older game "feels more like doing a shopping list at times" than EA and Bioware's upcoming The Old Republic title. But Blizzard's Frank Pearce is a little nicer to his competitor, saying in an interview that he'd love to see another popular MMO arrive. "This is a game that has an opportunity to grow the MMO market if done right," he said, "and therefore is very important to the industry as a whole, not just EA." Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime was similarly excited by the prospect of a quality Bioware MMO and its effect on the market. "From our perspective, we hope they make an enjoyable game because they're going to bring in a lot of new players to the MMO genre," he's quoted as saying. These guys make an MMO about war? Where's that blood, the fury, that boisterous arrogance? There's just one answer: Morhaime and Pearce must both play Alliance.
Blizzard: StarCraft 2 'marketplace' still coming
During BlizzCon 2009, Blizzard revealed plans to put a shopping interface inside StarCraft 2, which would allow players to purchase user-created maps, with revenue shared between Blizzard and the creator. The game came out in July 2010, sans marketplace, and that feature is still missing. During an interview with MTV Multiplayer, Blizzard's Frank Pearce asserted that the feature is still on the way. "But it's not necessarily something we have a specific timeline for," he said, "which is unfortunate because one of the things that we've found is, especially from our learnings from World of WarCraft, is that these audiences that play these games are very, very passionate and want to experience lots and lots of content. With the StarCraft 2 client and the StarCraft 2 map editor and the Battle.net platform, it creates an opportunity for the community to serve itself with content, if the mechanisms are there." To be fair, if it did have a timeline, it would be a Blizzard timeline, and therefore could only be specific to the year. Approximately.
Blizzard 20-year anniversary retrospective video now online
Blizzard turned 20 years old this year, and we have been given a wonderful treat by Blizzard's founders -- the story straight from their mouths. Are you interested in Blizzard history? I sure am. Mike Morhaime and Allen Adham lead us through a 20-year retrospective about the foundation and formation of the company, their trials and tribulations, and how we got to the Blizzard of today from two guys in the same computer architecture class. The video is absolutely fascinating. Check it out at the Blizzard Entertainment 20-year anniversary site.
Blizzard confirms 'Titan' as 'next-gen MMO'
In an interview with Destructoid, World of Warcraft producer Frank Pearce finally confirmed "Titan" as at least a codename for Blizzard's new MMO project. "The media is not supposed to know anything about [Titan]," Pearce said with a smile. "It's our next-gen MMO, and we've only started talking about it in a limited fashion because we wanna leverage the fact that we're working on something like that for the purpose of recruiting, getting some of the best talent in the industry on that project." Does "we made WoW" not work well enough for recruiting developers? The name "Titan" most recently appeared on an alleged Blizzard release schedule that had supposedly leaked, but Blizzard has declined to verify its authenticity. These documents also contained details about two additional WoW expansions, as well as expansions for Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2.
New Blizzard MMO project is confirmed to be Titan
Blizzard has kept its newest MMO project under tight wraps despite some corporate leakage earlier this month. However, Destructoid seems to have a confirmation from World of Warcraft's Executive Producer Frank Pearce that Titan is the name of the company's next big project. Pearce told Destructoid, "Titan... the media is not supposed to know anything about that. It's our next-gen MMO, and we've only started talking about it in a limited fashion because we wanna leverage the fact that we're working on something like that for the purpose of recruiting, getting some of the best talent in the industry on that project." However, Titan may only be an internal title for the -- obviously -- massive project. The title is not meant to replace WoW, according to Blizzard President Mike Morhaime. "We think that World of Warcraft can continue co-existing with our new MMO," he said in a GameTrailers interview at BlizzCon 2010. Massively will be sure to keep you informed as more news becomes available. [Thank you to Merketh for the link]
Blizzard: DRM a 'losing battle' for developers
Ubisoft is the latest company to attach DRM to its PC games in an effort to curb piracy -- an initiative that has had basically the opposite of its intended effect in keeping out people who bought the games. Blizzard's Frank Pearce told VideoGamer that it's not the strategy Blizzard intends to implement in StarCraft II, with the company opting instead for a compelling Battle.net that will make people want to stay online in single-player, rather than requiring it. It's still a form of DRM, requiring online authentication, but it's also meant to serve other, gameplay-enhancing purposes. "If we've done our job right and implemented Battle.net in a great way," the StarCraft II producer said, "people will want to be connected while they're playing the single player campaign so they can stay connected to their friends on Battle.net and earn the achievements on Battle.net." Pearce called DRM "a losing battle for us," noting that the group of people who want to crack DRM is always "larger than our development teams." Pearce said "We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology" -- something with which those of us patiently waiting for StarCraft II will agree.
Blizzard: More growth ahead for WoW
VG247 met up with Blizzard Executive Vice President Frank Pearce in London to talk about StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft. While it appears that WoW reached its peak with 11.5 million players, Pearce disagrees. "I don't think 11.5 million is a peak, necessarily," he says, "but there are certain things that we need to do and need to do well in order to see it go further." Those things include finally launching the Wrath of the Lich King expansion in China and bringing players back with the upcoming Cataclysm expansion in the US. And while some have guessed that the release of StarCraft 2 might make a dent in WoW's player base, Pearce says he expects the opposite: StarCraft's Real ID social network system works across both games, and it may "potentially have a strong enough connection so that [someone playing StarCraft] may get a message from someone in WoW saying, 'Hey, come on over, we need a last person to fill our raid.'"
Blizzard assures more growth to come for World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft has been stagnating for the past few years, even though it doesn't seem like such a word could be applied to a game with 11.5 million subscribers. While the number is certainly impressive, it's stayed the same since 2008 -- something that no developer likes to see. Frank Pearce, Blizzard's EVP of Product Development, says he anticipates that changing very soon for several reasons. Eighteen-month-old expansion Wrath of the Lich King is not yet released in China, but when it is Blizzard expects to see good things: "...once we get that approval and launch Wrath in China then I think we will see growth." Cataclysm is on the way later this year as well, and Pearce says that it will probably bring "win-back" from former players. Add that to the upcoming announcement of a new Blizzard MMO on the horizon, and the developers have high hopes for the future. You can check out the rest of what Pearce had to say over at vg247.
Breakfast Topic: Make it all BoA
Gnomeaggedon happened to post something so interesting the other day that I thought it merited a bit more discussion. He actually posted it almost as an afterthought (I guess he's moving in RL -- good luck with that), but it's quite an idea just the same: "Make it all BoA," he says. Blizzard has added in some more Bind-on-Account items, and most recently made it possible for BoA items to go across factions. But Gnomeaggedon says it's time to stop messing around: mounts, emblems, tier and arena gear, currencies, vanity pets, reputation items, anything that would be useful across toons should be able to be traded freely between them. Why, he asks, should there be limits on which character you decide to play with? And actually, while the possibilities there might make some players' heads spin (imagine how many badges you could earn on your geared-out pally for your newly 80 warlock), I think that Blizzard is probably headed that direction. They may not want to open the floodgates completely, but look at where we've come -- we just heard Frank Pearce say the other day that faction changes are a direct result of Blizzard wanting to give players more choice of who to play with, so wouldn't it follow that we'd eventually get more choice about which characters we use? You have to think that we'll see more and more BoA items, so why not just skip to step ten and open it all up? What do you think?
Joystiq talks to Frank Pearce about the past and future of Warcraft
Our friend Kevin Kelly over at the Joystiq mothership got a chance to talk to Frank Pearce at Blizzard about the Warcraft anniversary, and he did us proud. Not only did Frank Pearce do some nice reminiscing about Blizzard, where they've come from, and how the massive World of Warcraft undertaking has changed them as a company (they've gone from 500 employees to about 4,000 in just the last five years), but he also touched on some issues we've really been wondering about over here at WoW.com as well. Like, say, the reason we haven't seen a girl in the ads yet. Pearce says they're open to it, and he wants some names submitted, so we'll offer up Felicia Day as a no-brainer, and if you guys have other ideas, share away below. He also talks about server capacity, and says that at nearly every step, Blizzard has been surprised by their success. He attributes race and faction changes to thinking that realms were big enough on day one to bring everybody together who wanted to come together, but they later realized that wasn't what was happening. He mentions China and NetEase and says they wish the process there was faster. And finally, he talks, surprisingly, about the BlizzCon Vegas that wasn't, and seems to confirm that Blizzard was considering a Vegas show. Interesting. Where else did they consider holding the convention, we wonder?
Interview: Blizzard's Frank Pearce on Warcraft milestones
Blizzard's Frank Pearce has been with the company since co-founding it in 1991 as Silicon & Synapse, along with Michael Morhaime and Allen Adham. Today, he's the senior vice president and serves as the executive producer of World of Warcraft, which probably includes the duty of swimming in pools filled with gold coins, a la Scrooge McDuck. We talked to Frank about the milestones that Warcraft recently hit: 15 years for Warcraft and five for World of Warcraft, and how those games have changed the company. Read on beyond the break for the details and find out what he thinks the developer has failed at, why another company might be able to do it better and when you can expect a Blizzard theme park to open. %Gallery-79942%
Blizzard celebrates the WoW anniversary
The good folks at the Orange County Register got invited to Blizzard's official WoW anniversary party that took place last Thursday on their Irvine campus, and their report is now posted. It sounds like quite the event -- lots of free food and beer, head honchos regaling employees with their tales of the early days, and Rob Pardo suggesting that just like geek culture helped define this game, this game might help define geek culture going forward. The picture gallery included with the piece is a good browse, too -- you can see all of the Blizzard heavyweights hanging out together, and the great spread set up on the campus. The Register's also been asking Blizzard about their memories of the game -- they've got more memories from Samwise, launch day stories from Shane Dabiri, and some thoughts from Pardo and Frank Pearce (who, strangely enough, at first didn't believe that Blizzard belonged in a hardcore niche market like MMO gaming -- he didn't want to make "a game that never ended," he says). All good stuff. Congrats once again to Blizzard on five years, good to see they celebrated in style.
Electric Playground sits down with Blizzard to talk Cataclysm
The gang over at Electric Playground just recently wrapped up their "Week of WoW" segment with a fitting conclusion -- a look into Cataclysm with Frank Pearce, Blizzard's Executive Vice President of Product Development, and J. Allan Brack, the production director on Cataclysm.While the interview doesn't cover new information, it does give insight as to why Blizzard has chosen to go back and recreate the mainland of Azeroth. Thanks to lessons learned in The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard wants to take their new knowledge and apply it to their old zones, hence the diversity and changing of quests that Cataclysm is bringing to the table.But don't take our word for it! Check out Electric Playground's interview for the full story.
Listen to Blizzard's "Universe Behind World of Warcraft" keynote from Austin GDC
If you're wondering what the internal goings-on at Blizzard consist of, grab yourself something to eat and kick back. We've got the entire hour-long keynote speech at the Austin Game Developer's Conference down below. Blizzard's J. Allen Brack and Frank Pearce were on-hand to walk a slightly hungover crowd through the way they make things work and how their teams are organized.Click below for the full audio, or for those of you on the go, download it here.
