StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Preview

Q: Blizzard isn't doing E3 this year. You're doing your own thing with BlizzCon instead. Firstly, why just do BlizzCon. Secondly, what can your fans expect from BlizzCon 2010?

FP: Our own trade show instead of the big united trade shows, for us it depends, right? We evaluate every trade show and determine if it makes sense for us to be there. Case by case, year by year. Last year we were at Gamescom, and the year before we were in Leipzig. It really just depends on the show and what we have to tell the community. But with BlizzCon in particular it gives us an opportunity to interact directly with our fans. It gives us an opportunity to get coverage in the media without having to compete with other companies for attention from the media because we bring the media there and the only thing they have to talk about and look at is Blizzard, which is really exciting.

[PR attention] We also have to balance it with the demands on each of the development teams' time. A trade show may be every year in May, but we may not necessarily have anything new to say at that time, so it doesn't make sense to burden the dev teams with creating something just for the sake of it.

FP: As far as BlizzCon this year, I think for the StarCraft franchise it's going to be a little bit of a challenge for us because July 27 is the street date for StarCraft II, and BlizzCon is in October. That's not a lot of time for that team to do much of anything. So definitely a big focus on eSport. And then…

[PR interjection] We'll have more to say when we get closer to it.

FP: I would say they should definitely expect to look at some Diablo III stuff because that'll still be in development. There is an opportunity on the development cycle with the work in progress on the eSports side to feature a few of our games and professional players.

Q: We know Blizzard is working on a new MMO, described as a "next-gen" MMO by some people at Blizzard. Is there a chance of that being shown at BlizzCon, or is that a long way off?

FP: It's going to be a long way off.

Q: I understand it'll be a game based on a new intellectual property. I've heard rumours that it'll be a science fiction first-person shooter. Any truth to those rumours?

FP: I would say that there are all sorts of details to be had internally. But nothing we can talk about today.

Q: I have to ask you about [Activision Blizzard boss] Bobby Kotick. What was your reaction to his now infamous statement about taking the fun out of games development?

FP: We had a leadership dinner where Bobby came and spoke. We asked him about that. I wasn't there so I don't know exactly what he said, but it sounds to me like he was quoted out of context, which would not be unusual for the media to do. Bobby was talking to investors and was trying to make a joke, and that's not how it came off. We're making games. Making games is innately fun. You wouldn't get great games if people weren't enjoying what they were doing.

Q: He's public enemy number one following the Infinity Ward dispute. You've had dealings with him. Does he get a bum rap?

FP: I like Bobby. Yeah, I don't have any issues with Bobby. Bobby and the leadership at Activision Blizzard level have a great amount of respect for what we're doing at Blizzard and understand the industry as well as anyone and recognise the value in what we're doing and how we've achieved it so far. We've got as much autonomy today as we ever had.

Q: Do you need to seek approval from anyone?

FP: There's budgeting and annual operating plans and all that stuff. It's not so much approval as much as it is a collaborative process with us and the Activision Blizzard umbrella. We have as much autonomy today as we ever did.

Q: Bringing it back to StarCraft II, do you get much chance to play it in a hardcore sense? What is your favourite race?

FP: No, I don't get enough time to play to be hardcore. I primarily play terran because that's what the campaign is focused around.

StarCraft II is due out on the PC on July 27.