Blizzard’s president has discussed the challenges involved in satisfying players “who want new content literally almost every single day”.
In an interview with The Verge, Mike Ybarra said Blizzard wants to meet this demand, but not at the expense of releasing quality content.
“Players have no patience,” he said. “They want new stuff every day, every hour. We’re trying to react that way while holding the Blizzard quality bar high.”
Blizzard announced three new World of Warcraft expansions at BlizzCon last week, the first of which will launch in 2024, when Cataclysm will also come to World of Warcraft Classic.
“We know players want new content literally almost every single day,” Ybarra continued. “At the same time, it takes large teams to be able to deliver that. So you have to monetise it in the right ways.
“At the same time, I always tell the teams, ‘When someone spends one dollar or a penny with Blizzard, I want them to feel good after they do that. How do we get to a world where we know that’s always going to be the basis of what we’re doing?’”
Ybarra suggested Bizzard is still trying to find the perfect balance for its content release strategy.
“I think we’re still fine-tuning a lot of those things as we go forward,” he said. “But it’s something top of mind for me as we go forward.”
Blizzard announced in January 2022 that it was developing “a new AAA survival game” for PC and unspecified console platforms.
While not directly referring to this project, Ybarra reportedly told The Verge that Blizzard has wrestled with the idea of releasing a game that isn’t a live service.
“We’re not afraid to create new IPs. We’re not afraid to turn models upside down,” he said, adding that he would be receptive to “someone that has an idea for a four-hour experience or a 400-hour experience”.
Xbox maker Microsoft completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard last month, in the process taking ownership of franchises including World of Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch.
Ybarra, who joined Blizzard in 2019 following almost 20 years at Microsoft, was joined by Xbox boss Phil Spencer on stage during BlizzCon’s opening ceremony.
Microsoft’s head of gaming told attendees: “We’re going to empower our new colleagues in a culture of trust, inclusion, and collaboration, to continue what they do best: redefining existing genres, creating new, never before seen experiences, and uniting players globally in new ways – in Azeroth, in Sanctuary, in near-future Earth, and beyond.”
