Blizzard: "I don't think it's a bad thing to want to make money"
Diablo III's Jay Wilson on the auction house system and bringing the game to console
Activision Blizzard
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard, Inc. is a worldwide pure-play online...
Blizzard's Jay Wilson, the game director for the newly released Diablo III, has explained that the introduction of a real money auction houses into the RPG was a actually a design decision. And revealed that Diablo on console isn't a sure thing just yet.
"It came from the design department," Wilson told Gamasutra of the new system that will see players able to sell and buy loot for real world currency.
"So here's one of the things that I will say -- that no one in forums will believe me -- but we never make business decisions outside of the game development team. We always make them based on what we think is right for the game."
He explained that Blizzard obviously intended to see a return on the service, and of course they wanted it to be successful. And that could only translate into a better experience for Blizzard fans down the road.
"We want to make money because making money means we get to make more games, and we get to make bigger games," he continued.
"I don't think it's a bad thing to want to make money. I think it's a bad thing to want to make money off things that are not a good service or product for your customer, and that's our inherent belief, is that it's okay to make money on a service we provide for our customers that we think is a good service worth paying for."
Wilson also touched on the subject of Diablo III on console, which, despite the hype, isn't a sure bet just yet.
"We tell people that basically we're experimenting, because it helps us hire people," he said.
"The better people we hire, the better chance we have to actually make it. That's why we haven't kept it super secret, but we also haven't confirmed it, because we're not sure yet whether we think it will work, and whether we think we have the resources to do it."
Top Comment Well, outside of the auction house (which I won't be using, thank you much) wouldn't Blizzard also make more money by releasing a game MORE people could play offline without a mandatory internet connection?
I don't mind them making money at all (as noted, that helps they make better games) - I just wish they would have taken a better look at the people who might WANT to play Diablo III who don't care for online play and welcome them aboard instead of create a game made more for an audience who would put up with a rather bizarre restriction without understanding how annoying it can be once set in motion.
Sure, require ALL players to register their games when they install (for proper sales tracking and security), Sure, have them get mandatory BattleNet accounts and register any characters created (another layer of security). But forcing people to basically queue up and wait in front of their computers for a server to free up or whatever just to play solo is asking way too much, no matter how many copies sell on day one (that can't be played by those affected by whatever isn't functioning properly at a given moment)...
Posted:A year ago