Why Blizzard is so Successful

[qaz156]

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/21/is-world...pc-games-market

First I'd like to refer to the above article. And second: any thoughts on why blizzard is able to CONSISTENTLY stand out? (Plz no, "They make good games" answers). Obviously every developer strives for that. Especially would like to know the opinions of those in the industry, because I'm sure they talk about it, concerning the major success of blizzard and how they're able to pull it off. (They're consistency is almost so scary that it's like "are they enslaving lots of third world genius programmers and artists?")

[Pidesco]

Blizzard is successful because their fanbase is composed of people who couldn't pick the right forum to create a thread, even if their lives depended on it. :D

[Laozi]

[Hurlshort]

First of all: I'm drunk

 

Second of all: Blizzard is succesful because they pay attention to details.

[Pidesco]

Drunken posting rules!

[J.E. Sawyer]

They have the money required to iterate over development cycles that are twice as long as other games -- with full dev teams through most of that time.

[Pidesco]

And why do they have more money than everyone else?

[Fenghuang]

Because they're successful. Geez. Aren't you paying attention?

[vaxen83]

Although BE games are sometimes annoying precise against playability. (Bugs aside) Like Diablo II.

[Pidesco]

Although BE games are sometimes annoying precise against playability. (Bugs aside) Like Diablo II.

 

What?

[Kaftan Barlast]

They have more money because they:

 

 

1. Like ID Software, they started out in the heyday of PC gaming when the developer could get most of the profits from a successful game.

 

2. Theyre not really a developer, they got bought up by the big fishes way back in 1994 and then they bought up the dev who made Diablo

 

3. They have had some of the top selling games of all times; Diablo, Starcraft and WoW all top the sales of their respective genres.

 

 

From a creative standpoint, none of Blizzards games were actually in the least bit inventive, their method is to figure out what features people like from a certain genre of games like MMO's and then make a game out of it.

[Pidesco]

Kaftan is right.

[Atreides]

I think Starcraft's story world building back in its day was very creative. I won't go so far as to say they defined the RTS engine staple but they've certainly helped refine it. That's pretty impressive by my easy standards.

[kirottu]

Although BE games are sometimes annoying precise against playability. (Bugs aside) Like Diablo II.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yeah. I have always thought that the strong point of Blizzard games is their playability.

Edited August 5, 2006 by kirottu

[Blarghagh]

Now, I've played every Blizzard game they've ever made down from Lost Vikings, and I gotta say it's because they take things from other people and alter them so they're unique but still reminiscent from what they're taken from.

 

Prime example would be StarCraft which in many ways can be described as an alien vs. predator RTS.

 

People easily get familiar with something if they're actually already used to it.

 

EDIT: I meant RTS, not FPS.

Edited August 5, 2006 by TrueNeutral

[Musopticon?]

It's funny how much they took from Games Workshop.

 

I mean, Tyranids anyone?

[alanschu]

2. Theyre not really a developer, they got bought up by the big fishes way back in 1994 and then they bought up the dev who made Diablo

 

I did not know that. Who bought them up?

 

And who did make Diablo? Because I thought Diablo was Blizzard through and through.

 

 

Prime example would be StarCraft which in many ways can be described as an alien vs. predator RTS.

 

Somehow I can't see the relationship to the old SNES/Arcade Alien vs Predator dynamic.

 

Which AvP influence went into Starcraft?

[Musopticon?]

It's more like Blizzard took the whole space marines vs. ugly genobastards-theme from Warhammer 40k. Even the power armors look akin. Not to mention that Eldar are pretty damn similar to Protoss; both have a honor-based warrior culture, both are humanoid telepaths and kinetics and extremely xenophobic.

 

Edit: Durnk tpying

Edited August 5, 2006 by Musopticon?

[Lucius]

Muso is right, anyone who has been playing WH40k can see the similarities, hell me and my friends could easily cry "lol copycats" back in the day when it was released, but that didn't make the game any less enjoyable for us.

[alanschu]

It's more like Blizzard took the whole space marines vs. ugly genobastards-theme from Warhammer 40k. Even the power armors look akin. Not to mention that Eldar are pretty damn similar to Protoss; both have a honor-based warrior culture, both are humanoid telepaths and kinetics and extremely xenophobic.

 

Edit: Durnk tpying

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The space marines definitely reminded me of a game I played, called Space Hulk, which apparently was taken from the 40k universe.

[Lucius]

Space Hulk was a game based on an elite combat unit within the Space Marine chapters called the Terminators, they wear even bigger armours than regular Space Marines called tactical dreadnought armour. These were then deployed to take out huge Tyranid infested space ships, or hulks, very much so inspired by Alien and/or Aliens methinks.

 

 

Ultramarines Termies )

[Kaftan Barlast]

2. Theyre not really a developer, they got bought up by the big fishes way back in 1994 and then they bought up the dev who made Diablo

 

I did not know that. Who bought them up?

 

And who did make Diablo? Because I thought Diablo was Blizzard through and through.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Diablo was developed by Condor Games which was purchased by Blizzard and reorganized into Blizzard north, who continued to make the expansion and sequels.

 

Blizzard was first purchased by distributor Davidson&Associates in 1994, then sold on

 

"Blizzard has changed hands several times since then: Davidson was acquired by a timeshare company called CUC International in 1996; CUC then merged with a hotel, real-estate, and car-rental franchiser called HFS Corporation to form Cendant Software, in 1997. In 1998 it became apparent that CUC had engaged in accounting fraud for years before the merger; Cendant's stock lost 80% of its value over the next six months in the ensuing widely discussed accounting scandal. The company sold its consumer software operations, including Blizzard, to French publisher Havas in 1998, the same year Havas was purchased by Vivendi. Blizzard is now part of the Vivendi Games group of Vivendi."

[alanschu]

Heh, my curiousity just had me reading up about them on Wiki and Moby Games

[Lucius]

Who, Terminators?

[alanschu]

Terminators and Genestealers. The Genestealers creeped me out when I was a kid!