Blizzard Entertainment Q&A

GamesIndustry.biz has published a Q&A with Blizzard’s Paul Sams, in which the vice president of business operations talks about the success of World of Warcraft, console game development, and more. Check it out:

Q: What about the next-generation consoles? Final Fantasy XI is going to Xbox 360 – surely Microsoft must have talked to you about bringing World of Warcraft over as well?

A: We’ve been in contact with Microsoft… World of Warcraft was really built with a focus on PC, and while I think it certainly could get to Xbox, it’s not something that at this moment we’ve decided to do.

We’re exploring any variety of possibilities, as you can imagine, and as it relates to [Xbox 360], it would require certain input devices – you know, a keyboard or a mouse. Those are things that are not standard, they’re peripherals, and peripherals have historically not done well for any of the console companies unless you’re talking about additional controllers or memory cards. Other than that, when you look at other peripherals, they historically haven’t done so well – so for us, we’re exploring it, we’re listening, we’re talking, however, we’ve not made any decision to go that direction at this point.