Players who left World of Warcraft once Warhammer Online came out are slowly making their way back home according to Blizzard COO, Paul Sams.
Q: Did you notice a drop off in World of Warcraft users when Warhammer Online launched?
Paul Sams: Not significantly, we've certainly had some of that happen, which is the same thing we experienced with Age of Conan and each time an MMO has come out we've seen some amount of reduction of use. The good news is that we've seen a significant number of people, well over half, that cited Warhammer as their reason for leaving - they've already returned.
Q: Did you find GOAs struggle to launch Warhammer Online in Europe surprising?
Paul Sams: It does and it doesn't surprise me. It surprise me because Mythic is a very good company and it doesn't surprise me at the same time because it's really hard, what they're trying to do and what we've done. We respect those guys over there a lot and certainly wish them well to succeed but having registration troubles having server troubles, these are things that come with the territory when you're talking about managing a game as big as World of Warcraft or Warhammer or anything like that. So, It's not a surprise because it is really difficult.
Be sure and check out the rest of the interview with Paul Sams over at GamesIndustry.biz.
Paul Sams: Not significantly, we've certainly had some of that happen, which is the same thing we experienced with Age of Conan and each time an MMO has come out we've seen some amount of reduction of use. The good news is that we've seen a significant number of people, well over half, that cited Warhammer as their reason for leaving - they've already returned.
Q: Did you find GOAs struggle to launch Warhammer Online in Europe surprising?
Paul Sams: It does and it doesn't surprise me. It surprise me because Mythic is a very good company and it doesn't surprise me at the same time because it's really hard, what they're trying to do and what we've done. We respect those guys over there a lot and certainly wish them well to succeed but having registration troubles having server troubles, these are things that come with the territory when you're talking about managing a game as big as World of Warcraft or Warhammer or anything like that. So, It's not a surprise because it is really difficult.