General Tekno
09-18-2007, 03:39 PM
Gaming site Gamasutra recently sat down with Blizzard's Senior Vice President Frank Pierce and Starcraft II producer Chris Sigaty, quizzing them about World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, and Blizzard's state now and in the future.
So, Starcraft 2. Obviously, announced in Korea…what have you taken from the Korean market? I mean obviously, Starcraft is still going ridiculously over there. Have you taken a lot of feedback from that region?
CS: I think definitely more recently, it was…it totally caught us off guard completely with the original Starcraft and the reason we launched in Korea was a sort of nod, in recognizing that community. It's definitely on our radar, we have Blizzard Korea, we've opened offices there, because we they're a very important part of our fan base and community.
FP: I would add actually on that point, the competitive gaming component in Korea is huge. So what we're talking about, what we take away from Korea as far as that market. We always contemplated what we’re going to be doing as far as e-sports go in the context of games, because it's huge there.
CS: Yeah, but we didn't set out to make Starcraft knowing that was going to happen. It happened with Starcraft. Certainly you’ve seen it with World of Warcraft. It's definitely the biggest there… I don’t know if you want me to go to detail there, but they are setting the standard I think for where e-sports and competitive gaming is going and where it should go.
Read the full interview here (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1885/the_state_of_blizzards_union_.php?page=1).
Source: Gamasutra (www.gamasutra.com)
So, Starcraft 2. Obviously, announced in Korea…what have you taken from the Korean market? I mean obviously, Starcraft is still going ridiculously over there. Have you taken a lot of feedback from that region?
CS: I think definitely more recently, it was…it totally caught us off guard completely with the original Starcraft and the reason we launched in Korea was a sort of nod, in recognizing that community. It's definitely on our radar, we have Blizzard Korea, we've opened offices there, because we they're a very important part of our fan base and community.
FP: I would add actually on that point, the competitive gaming component in Korea is huge. So what we're talking about, what we take away from Korea as far as that market. We always contemplated what we’re going to be doing as far as e-sports go in the context of games, because it's huge there.
CS: Yeah, but we didn't set out to make Starcraft knowing that was going to happen. It happened with Starcraft. Certainly you’ve seen it with World of Warcraft. It's definitely the biggest there… I don’t know if you want me to go to detail there, but they are setting the standard I think for where e-sports and competitive gaming is going and where it should go.
Read the full interview here (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1885/the_state_of_blizzards_union_.php?page=1).
Source: Gamasutra (www.gamasutra.com)