TalonBot
03-27-2009, 06:42 AM
Filed under: Odds and ends (http://www.wowinsider.com/category/odds-and-ends/), Blizzard (http://www.wowinsider.com/category/blizzard/), Economy (http://www.wowinsider.com/category/economy/), Hardware (http://www.wowinsider.com/category/hardware/)
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/03/wow_box_art1.jpgRumors are bubbling up from GDC '09 that Blizzard is finally considering consoles again for their future games. Blizzard seems to have a hate/hate relationship with consoles -- despite the fact that they started out with some extremely popular console games (Lost Vikings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Vikings) was one of the best games on the Sega Genesis), they've become very solidly a PC gaming company in the past few years. Sure, they released Starcraft 64 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft) and the Playstation port of Diablo (http://www.gamespot.com/ps/rpg/diablo/index.html), but since Starcraft: Ghost left a bad taste in their mouths, they've stayed away from the console market (and some might say that's saved the PC market (http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/02/sams-microsoft-could-do-more-for-pc-gaming/)).
The main problem, says Rob Pardo, is one of control: console controllers just don't have the flexibility (http://www.incgamers.com/News/15691/BlizzardInTalksWithMicrosoftAboutNextXbox?gr_i_ni) to do what Blizzard wants to do with their games. "If I were them," he told the press, "I'd be sitting around trying to figure out what's a cool new input device that supports all types of new kinds of games." And he also hinted that he might be trying to do just that -- Blizzard is apparently in talks with Microsoft (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90490-Blizzard-Talking-With-Microsoft-Over-Next-Xbox), not to develop for this generation of consoles, but to help them advance to the next generation. This is a little more than just Diablo III on the Xbox 360 (though that's definitely a possibility) -- it's Blizzard possibly getting the chance to bring what they love about PC gaming to the next console generation.
Heady stuff. Blizzard doesn't need to do anything these days, of course -- if they want to take their next sequel and release it in, say, three separate parts (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/10/starcraft-2-to-be-released-as-a-trilogy/), they can do that and it will likely still be a hit. But if they want to set their sights on innovating in the console space, we'll probably all benefit.http://www.wowinsider.com/media/feedlogo.gif (http://www.wowinsider.com)Blizzard's hate (/love?) relationship with consoles (http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/03/27/blizzards-hate-love-relationship-with-consoles/) originally appeared on WoW Insider (http://www.wowinsider.com) on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Read (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90490-Blizzard-Talking-With-Microsoft-Over-Next-Xbox) | Permalink (http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/03/27/blizzards-hate-love-relationship-with-consoles/) | Email this (http://www.wowinsider.com/forward/1499375/) | Comments (http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/03/27/blizzards-hate-love-relationship-with-consoles/#comments)
More... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WowInsider/~3/kEYsB1lrJms/)
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wowinsider.com/media/2007/03/wow_box_art1.jpgRumors are bubbling up from GDC '09 that Blizzard is finally considering consoles again for their future games. Blizzard seems to have a hate/hate relationship with consoles -- despite the fact that they started out with some extremely popular console games (Lost Vikings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Vikings) was one of the best games on the Sega Genesis), they've become very solidly a PC gaming company in the past few years. Sure, they released Starcraft 64 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarCraft) and the Playstation port of Diablo (http://www.gamespot.com/ps/rpg/diablo/index.html), but since Starcraft: Ghost left a bad taste in their mouths, they've stayed away from the console market (and some might say that's saved the PC market (http://www.wowinsider.com/2008/07/02/sams-microsoft-could-do-more-for-pc-gaming/)).
The main problem, says Rob Pardo, is one of control: console controllers just don't have the flexibility (http://www.incgamers.com/News/15691/BlizzardInTalksWithMicrosoftAboutNextXbox?gr_i_ni) to do what Blizzard wants to do with their games. "If I were them," he told the press, "I'd be sitting around trying to figure out what's a cool new input device that supports all types of new kinds of games." And he also hinted that he might be trying to do just that -- Blizzard is apparently in talks with Microsoft (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90490-Blizzard-Talking-With-Microsoft-Over-Next-Xbox), not to develop for this generation of consoles, but to help them advance to the next generation. This is a little more than just Diablo III on the Xbox 360 (though that's definitely a possibility) -- it's Blizzard possibly getting the chance to bring what they love about PC gaming to the next console generation.
Heady stuff. Blizzard doesn't need to do anything these days, of course -- if they want to take their next sequel and release it in, say, three separate parts (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/10/10/starcraft-2-to-be-released-as-a-trilogy/), they can do that and it will likely still be a hit. But if they want to set their sights on innovating in the console space, we'll probably all benefit.http://www.wowinsider.com/media/feedlogo.gif (http://www.wowinsider.com)Blizzard's hate (/love?) relationship with consoles (http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/03/27/blizzards-hate-love-relationship-with-consoles/) originally appeared on WoW Insider (http://www.wowinsider.com) on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Read (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90490-Blizzard-Talking-With-Microsoft-Over-Next-Xbox) | Permalink (http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/03/27/blizzards-hate-love-relationship-with-consoles/) | Email this (http://www.wowinsider.com/forward/1499375/) | Comments (http://www.wowinsider.com/2009/03/27/blizzards-hate-love-relationship-with-consoles/#comments)
More... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WowInsider/~3/kEYsB1lrJms/)