There is a precedent for sequels being produced by companies within other types of games Blizzard creates. Square Enix rebooted its MMO World of WoTLK Gold Warcraft with FFXIV. It's obvious that games such as Starcraft II and World of Warcraft are sequels in themselves. What's the premise behind the Blizzard iteration process? When does it decide that it's the right time to start either a sequel or to start a new project altogether?
World of Warcraft
Scott Mercer (principal designer): "That is a difficult to answer. The phrase, "It makes us sleepless nights' could be a bit over the top however, it's a significant amount of soul searching. It all boils in the direction of what the team's goal is to accomplish. What are they most strongly about? What are they looking to do in the future? Each team has its own it's different. I was working on World of Warcraft after which I thought, 'Hey What is this team planning to tackle in the future? We didn't want to just create World of Warcraft afterwards we worked on something else.
"As people, we're always looking for the next new challenge. That's why I believe that a lot of the time you'll find, in certain instances, us traveling to new locations such as on World of Warcraft. That's certainly one of the reasons that brought me into the team. I was very excited about a brand new IP and also a World of Warcraft. For all the various Blizzard teams, and for us we're asking"What are we most excited to tackle? It's a different answer for every team."
Starcraft 2
Tim Morten (production director): "Yeah, there's no specific formula, clearly. There's a delicate balance in recognizing the huge players we have--as you're aware, we've recently launched a remaster of Starcraft 1, and many players still enjoy the game that's almost twenty years old. This year will be the 20th anniversary. We really need to buy WoTLK Gold take care of this player base. Also, Starcraft II has had this very stable player base, which we hope to serve too.
