Blizzard CEO calls shipping an unfinished product, 'devastating'
by Kyle Horner 
Jan 19th 2010 at 8:00PM
Filed under: World of Warcraft, MMO industry, News items
So what gets devastated? The people who put in all those long hours of hard work, says Sams. We believe it, too. This kind of issue is bad for any game, but for an MMO we can only begin to imagine the sort of downtrodden emotions that can permeate a dev team after seeing their work pushed out into the world before it's ready. And while we all know MMOs are living, breathing things that are never "Finished." there's still a point where more gestation time is far better than getting pushed out the door prematurely.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mortalonline34334 said on 8:11PM 1-19-2010
They must be talking about...
MORTAL ONLINE
Reply
RogueJedi86 said on 8:34PM 1-19-2010
I know their last expansion launched unfinished. It launched without one of the things boasted in the announcement trailer for "Wrath of the Lich King". Yes, I'm speaking of the fabled Dance Studios, or as the WotLK trailer put it, "New Dances!".
Reply
Verit said on 1:42PM 1-21-2010
Thats more of a cosmetic feature than game breaking bug - big difference there.
One would be nice to have, but its missing - the other makes a miserable experience.
Lethality said on 8:41PM 1-19-2010
And thats why Blizzard is king.
Reply
ethereal.wolf said on 9:47PM 1-19-2010
yup. polish pays.
JP said on 8:51PM 1-19-2010
they should have started the article "Dear Cryptic... "
Reply
Turlagh said on 12:08AM 1-20-2010
I thought they were talking about Mythic's Warhammer.
yep said on 9:35PM 1-19-2010
Makes sense. So many people on the STO boards are saying they're buying the game to support the potential the game has. I believe the game has potential but it's sure not worth dropping $50 for right now -- when there are completed games that cost the same thing.
Yeah I know... let's leave WoW out of this... they weren't ready when they released either. Still, it seems like Blizz learned from their mistakes and developers now are ignoring the lessons learned by their predecessors.
Reply
Brian! said on 10:21PM 1-19-2010
Wonder if it will be like Champions. Where there are a few patches at the start, then quiet. Go check out the CO news page. It seems Cryptic is out for the rush of sales to start, then they will be off to their next project.
UltimateQ said on 9:34PM 1-19-2010
I bet he is referring to Starcraft 2. Damnit Blizzard, Give me my Starcraft 2!
Reply
DrewIW said on 9:47PM 1-19-2010
How long did it take for them to add the Lich King?
Yeah, Blizzard doesn't ship unfinished products...
Reply
Russell Clarke said on 9:50PM 1-19-2010
Easy to say 'we'll release it when it's done' when you have very deep pockets, and a bunch of investors who are willing to wait....and wait...and wait.
Blizzard are very lucky in that regard. You could say they made their own luck, and I'd probably agree with that.
But some (mostly smaller, but some still quite large yet not so smart) companies are not so 'lucky', especially as MMO development houses are now a dime a dozen, there's less money to actually go round, the investors shout a lot louder, and therefore a quicker ROI is required.
Reply
Utakata said on 10:59PM 1-19-2010
Fallen Earth was released when it was ready.
Scott said on 10:18PM 1-19-2010
^its easy to say that when investors are down your back, but look back at the big HYPED releases back in 2008/7 and how badly they are doing,
UnSub said on 10:22PM 1-19-2010
Agreed - it's hard to take Blizzard seriously on this issue since they basically have the funding to do anything they want. Before WoW's launch Vivendi were getting increasingly nervous about the cost of its development (especially since they were undergoing their own financial issues around that time).
Sure, Blizzard haven't minded cancelling products they've shipped off to third party developers, but they've also changed things / added things to their products post-launch. There really is no such thing as "done" until you stop releasing patches.
Russell Clarke said on 10:30PM 1-19-2010
@Scott - Hence my "still quite large but not so smart" comment. Even large companies have backers to appease, and it's an art that no amount of marketing hype will satisfy.
Wjowski said on 10:31PM 1-19-2010
Honestly the whole 'deep pockets' thing rings hollow given that the number of high profile developers that seem to follow the same mistake.
Russell Clarke said on 10:36PM 1-19-2010
Deep pockets are generally filled with other people's money. And if they don't like what you're doing, they'll take it back.
Lethality said on 6:33AM 1-20-2010
And how do you suppose they got those deep pockets in the first place? They made sure they shipped quality products - always.
Russell Clarke said on 2:41PM 1-20-2010
@Lethality - yeah, I agree. Like I said in my original post, they made their own luck. It was about hard work, and knowing when it's done. But the definition of 'when it's done' differs depending on whether you're a developer (when all the bugs are squashed!), an investor (when you have hit the release date you promised us time and time again) or a player (now! now! now!) (extreme examples but hopefully you get my point.)
Who wins that ideological battle depends on who holds the best cards. The sweet spot is somewhere in between, and finding it isn't easy. So kudos to Blizzard for continuing to find that sweet spot, thereby developing those deep pockets, and attracting further understanding investors who are willing to fill them.
Disclosure: I like Blizzard.