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Bill Roper interview
News
We speak to former Blizzard North vice-president Bill Roper about the
sudden departure of the studio's management and these former Blizzard
employees' new plans.
Earlier today, Blizzard Entertainment revealed that the Blizzard
North cofounders Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer, and David Brevik, plus
Blizzard vice president Bill Roper, have left the studio responsible
for the Diablo series, which has sold more than 10 million units
worldwide. The four held the key management positions at Blizzard
North, with Brevik as president and the others holding vice-president
titles. We talked with Bill Roper on the phone this afternoon to get
his perspective on the group's departure and their plans to form a
new game company.
As surprising as the announcement may be for fans of the Diablo
games, it may be even more surprising to know how quickly the group
made the decision to leave. Roper said that the departures were the
result of a series of very quick events. Indeed, the first time the
group will meet to discuss their company plans in depth will be
tomorrow morning. But what they do know for sure is that they want to
start a new game project.
Roper said, "We made a very difficult decision. We love everyone at
Blizzard... at the San Mateo office and at Blizzard in Irvine." And
in addition to this personal well-wishing, he did reveal other
reasons for wanting to see Blizzard North continue on, and said, "I
want to play Diablo."
Asked what role Vivendi Universal's corporate management had to play
in the decision, Roper admitted that was a big part of it: "We wanted
to have a level of involvement [in deciding the studio's direction]
that was not going to be made available. For the interests of the
people that we work with, we should have been able to talk to the
people that make the decisions and that knew what was going on." But
in further describing Blizzard's situation, he said, "It's the same
challenges we always faced. I have absolutely no doubt that they will
keep fighting the good fight. We tried to leave them in a good place,
and I honestly expect that Blizzard will continue to make great
games."
The group's future isn't limited by employment contracts or
non-compete agreements. Roper said that there's nothing "to stop us
from approaching this any way we'd want." Lacking such legal
constraints, the new game company may hire current Blizzard employees
at some point in the future.
Roper repeatedly mentioned how very excited the group is at the
possibilities that lie ahead. The four have worked as a very tight
knit creative group, according to Roper. The Schaefer brothers are
artists by training and Brevik is a programmer, and all have been
project leads and designers as a part of Blizzard's philosophy that
has developers wearing many hats.
Starting over as a "lean and mean" company will grant them new
creative freedom. In fact, Roper is sure that they'll initially come
with too many ideas and will have to trim back to find the great one.
He also admitted, "We'd love to be talking with publishers" and
mentioned that interested parties could get in touch on the company
cell phone at 650-207-6030 (serious inquiries only, please).
The company's next steps are to decide on a name and set up a Web
site. We can expect to hear more concrete details on the company's
future plans very soon.
By Sam Parker, GameSpot [POSTED: 06/30/03 06:06 PM