The fantasy MMO World of Warcraft is soon celebrating its tenth anniversary and is feeling a bit nostalgic. Chris Metzen looks back at the past and takes a glimpse into the future of the MMO giant.
During its launch in 2004, the highest estimate was a million players, which was already quite optimistically bold. It quickly rose to over five million, and at its peak, WoW boasted twelve million players; now it’s a bit under seven. But hasn’t Blizzard grown tired of WoW in its tenth year? Not at all, if Chris Metzen, who is responsible for the story and franchise development at Blizzard, is to be believed.
A million players – a wild thought
In an interview with Polygon, Blizzard veteran Metzen reflects on the turbulent early days of World of Warcraft. Everquest, the then-market leader, never exceeded 500,000 players. From Blizzard’s perspective at the time, they were used to different dimensions with Warcraft, Warcraft 2, Starcraft, and Diablo all being million-sellers, yet they remained cautious, though slightly optimistic.
“I still remember what we had in mind for the first year,” Metzen says in the interview. “We said: Let’s reach for the stars. Imagine at the end of the year, a million are walking through our world. That was a completely wild thought back then.”
The success of World of Warcraft was the biggest challenge for Blizzard
By 2010, the number of players rose to 12 million temporarily. This massive influx also changed the company culture at Blizzard. They transitioned from a development company to a provider of a global service. This “success problem” made it difficult to maintain the company culture: “The success of World of Warcraft was our greatest challenge.”
Suddenly, people from Blizzard’s core team had to lead their own teams. They were busy keeping everything running. The thinking during that time may have become a bit too bureaucratic, too institutionalized. The development on Titan bound many resources, and they had struggled in recent years to fully utilize the many new faces involved with World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft has never been bigger, never more important for Blizzard
Now the player count has shrunk to under seven million, much less than at its peak, yet still vastly higher than the wildest expectations at launch. However, it seems that on the occasion of its tenth anniversary, they are more determined than ever to stand by World of Warcraft: “The World of Warcraft team is 50% larger than at the launch of Mists of Pandaria. We are already working on the next expansion. We have plans for the ones after that. We have never been bigger. We have never looked more towards the future than we do at the moment when thinking about World of Warcraft.”
According to Metzen, it’s odd to say that after all these years. But it feels at the moment like Blizzard is returning to the unrestrained creativity of its early days. Yes, it feels like they are just at the beginning.
