blizzard Mike Ybbara on Blizzard's Approach to Meeting Player Demands

[Staff 1,502]

PC Gamer had the chance to talk to Blizzard President Mike Ybarra who said Blizzard's job is to satisfy impatient players who want "new stuff every day, every hour".

Interview Highlights

• Blizzard is now adapting to the Microsoft Era under the umbrella of Xbox and Phil Spencer. The focus remains on maintaining their live service model.
• Blizzard President Mike Ybarra emphasized the challenge of satisfying players who demant constant new content. He acknowledged the high expectations of players for new updates and experiences on a nearly continuous basis.
• The live service model is expected to continue with their upcoming unannounced survival game.
• Ybarra stressed out the difficulty of delivering new content on regular basis while ensuring fair and satisfying monetization strategies to players.
• Ybarra didn't rule out the possibility of Blizzard exploring shorter, non-live service games.
• Ybarra is yet to have discussions with Phil Spencer about the future direction under the new ownership.

You can read the full interview here.

[Dejo93 1,023]

Maybe give the players what they want in game instead of the shop? Shocking, I know

[Sarabandethemage 6]

By this, I think he means FOMO-chasing whales. I, and many other struggle to keep up with current content, and I think I play a LOT.  I used to do what I could to get a powerful as I could (within my playstyle) and then enjoy the rest of the time with achievements, mount runs or just flying around taking screenshots, or hanging out with guidies in the cities, just messing around.  Now, once I'm done doing "current content," I'm too tired, and rather than staying on to hang out for too long, I usually log out.  I used to just spend time relaxing while herbing (for an hour or more), or doing stupid, fun stuff (like hanging out with friends/guildies, as Alliance, at the Pleasure Palace in Azshara, for no real reason than to just check it out).  Now, I mostly just do weekly stuff and then whatever dungeons are beneficial, though I do look forward to new STORY QUESTS, it's nice when they are in bite-size chunks.  BUT really, I don't do too much else.

I would rather have less, but high quality, long-lasting content, rather than a WHOLE BUNCH of ones that will become obsolete in three months (or less) that there are very few people doing them.  I liked it when players, at least those with imagination, were able to create their own fun, and had time to do it.  This would create less stress for all-but-the-the-most-impatient players, and also, allow the devs more time to create things and hopefully, also be less stressed out.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Sarabandethemage

[Mudwaters 10]

In wow, I just want the m+ season and the normal + heroic raid. With that, I’m happy to sit on the sidelines and watch them release new content patches and areas and quest lines and secrets etc for all the other people, stuff that keeps the game alive.

They’re doing an awesome job, and it gets better all the time.

[Prophet001 599]

20 hours ago, TheRagingwolf said:

Content-chasers ruin games IMO. It is nice to have options and new content on a reliable basis, but trying to appease the people who constantly complain about getting "new", is futile and pointless. Make the content high-quality by deepening the story lines, creating raid and dungeon encounters that can't be "cheesed" and completed with a blitz of damage, make PvP more intuitive and less its own entity and more a part of the overall game. Just a few quick ideas that can be expanded upon.

 

Yeah you can't spend 25 hours a day playing a game and expect there to always be something new to do.

[Mudwaters 10]

17 hours ago, Prophet001 said:

Yeah you can't spend 25 hours a day playing a game and expect there to always be something new to do.

Haha this perspective is needed!