Paul Sams is the chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. The Irvine, Calif.-based company is a division of Activision Blizzard, the newly created gaming powerhouse created from the $18 billion merger of Activision and Vivendi Games. Sams is one of the top executives responsible for making sure that Blizzard keeps pumping out hits like “World of Warcraft,” which has 10-million-plus paying subscribers.
VB: How many people do you have in Blizzard?
PS: It’s around 3,000 globally.
VB: Will Blizzard will still be left autonomous? And what’s critical about what should be left alone?
PS: From top to bottom. There is not one individual thing or person at Blizzard that is the magic ingredient. We have great people in all departments and regions. All product decisions should stay as they are. We are the only company in the world that has been as successful in all the markets where we participate. We have a global reach. Usually, [when people say they have a global reach, they] just mean they sell in Japan. But we’ve got product across Asia. No other company has been able to do that. We have built a global expertise that none of our other competitors have. It’s hard for them to gain that expertise because you have to start with products that consumers love. That’s why it’s important for Blizzard to continue to run its operations. The Activision leadership understands that. Our merger provides a broad portfolio, with Blizzard in PCs and online games, while Activision is strong in consoles. The combination makes us No. 1. Blizzard knows how to provide Blizzard experiences better than anyone else. The same goes for Activision games, like playing music games in the living room.
VB: But you are open to an exchange of ideas.
PS: Yes, we don’t care where the ideas come from. Just that they’re great. We won’t hesitate to exchange information on how things can be done better.
VB: Your games take a long time compared to the rivals, and your games wind up being better. You took six years on World of Warcraft, while NCSoft took six years on Tabula Rasa and they didn’t get anywhere near the same result.
PS: This may sound boastful. But I believe we have the very best game developers in the world. The key element is they have a recipe. They are the best at their craft, whether that’s programming, art, or sound. Also, we have a rule. We only hire gamers. The very best programmer on the planet could walk into our doors. If he or she isn’t a gamer, we’re not going to hire them. They won’t be right for us. We want people who play the games they are making to be part of the decision-making process. Something that is common among most other publishers is they sit in a big board room and they have a lot of people with button-down shirts, slacks, analyst reports, marketing people, sales people, and finance people. They sit in a room and talk about strategy. Those folks, who may not be gamers, will be making decisions on what the products will be. Then they tell the development team that the next great thing is to do a sailing online game. They can say that they think that sailing is an under-served market and the CEO is really passionate about sailing. The odds are there aren’t a lot of sailors on that development team. At Blizzard, the difference is that we ask the team what they want to make next. At Blizzard, it doesn’t matter what marketing says or what business development says. When you empower developers to make the game they want to play, you have a level of commitment that is unlike anything you are going to get from product concepts handed down from up high based on analyst reports and sales reports. Read the rest of this entry »
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