Blizzard asked us to remove the slides and we did. The slides, though, are publicly available.

People on Q23 still argue whether we need a public execution for this crime or not.

Shild concludes all that went on with a very well written article thaty I’m going to quote. In the light of what has been said, I think that my first reaction still represents the heart of the discussion. Which is about the relationship between Blizzard and Vivendi that has already caused a good number of developers to quit both before and after WoW’s launch (Flagship Studios, Arena.net, Red 5, NCSoft Orange Country, Cheyenne Mountain and Castaway Entertainment to name those I remember, plus the single devs that fled to a number of other companies).

Right now Blizzard doesn’t even have enough resources to support properly the development of WoW and the expansion. Vivendi is another matter.

So I’m concluding quoting SirBruce again and then Shild to underline what we were actually talking about. (edit: added Darniaq)

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SirBruce: No one reported that in the future they would only focus on MMOGs or only on one platform; that’s a misinterpretation of what WAS reported, which was “All Blizzard franchises (actually, Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo) to become MMOGs.” The same slide that supports this suggests that those three franchises could expand into the console market, as well.

Rob Pardo is splitting hairs. *Blizzard* may not have any current development plans to do an MMO beyond the WoW expansion, but *Vivendi*, who *owns* them, does. So they can easily give Blizzard a bunch of money to make World of Starcraft, or even decide to delegate that to one of the other development studios under Sierra Online (although that would probably be a big mistake).

The news is “Vivendi plans to make more MMOGs, with Diablo and Starcraft among the IP possibilities” not “Blizzard is currently making Diablo and Starcraft MMOGs.”

Bruce

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Darniaq: Of course, I happen to agree with that, as I always have. They’re held in very high regard, and I certainly won’t argue against their skills. But they’re still a profit center, a division of a multi-national. The average Blizzard fan can believe otherwise, and are probably currently arguing all over the place in defense of some stance they thing Blizzard is taking. But this is still a corporation with goals and objectives and nowhere near complete autonomy.

Gotta love the web :)

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F13: Blizzard is owned by Vivendi Universal – or as far as I can tell they still are. They do not get the final word. It doesn’t matter who you ask at Blizzard – including one Mr. Rob Pardo. He’s a lapdog as far as I’m concerned. They pay him the big bucks to do what he’s told. I did not see a single website talk to the executive equivalent to Pardo at Vivendi. Someone might have, but I missed it. Referencing Blizzard/WoW moderators was a true sign of awesome journalism in action. These people, I guarantee, know less about what’s going on at Blizzard than the average player who scours the internet for every tiny nugget of information on their beloved company.

Also, the slide presentation – you know why I didn’t talk about it in my original post? Because it had nothing to do with what I said. See, the problem is, I have a majority of the facts – and put simply, I like playing some cards close to my chest. Especially when it’s about the three headed hydra consisting of Diablo, Warcraft, and Starcraft. By referencing some other folks, you’ve managed to get your dirty little paws on a slideshow given during the Wall Street presentation. GRATS. That slide show presentation – if you haven’t read it – did a great job of dumbing this gaming “stuff” down for people who have no clue what it’s about. They want the bottom line, that’s why population and dollars were the big discussion there. What hasn’t been discussed anywhere, as far as I can tell is the Q&A session that went on afterwards. Shortly after I posted the news, an unnamed source sent me news that people were getting it wrong. That the line “All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs” came from a Q&A with a Vivendi rep after the presentation. Have I said Q&A enough times? Is someone going to refer back to the WoW Slideshow for Dummies again? No?

A Vivendi representative saying [the bit about franchises] means two things:
1. All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs.
2. This will happen with the support of Rob “The Ego” Pardo & Co. or not.