What Blizzard is trying to accomplish right now
So taking one step back and looking at the way you came to your position now. What were your goals and what were your primary areas of focus that you identified as you entered this leadership role in D2R Items?
I think the element that was the most significant–and I believe that is the reason Mike [Morhaimewho was co-founder and former president of Blizzarddecided to pick me to fill this role was knowing that Blizzard is a development-led company, and that the products and the game focus we have (are) present, throughout all the leadership levels and is really important and extremely strong.
One among the very first actions that I implemented was to bring Ray Gresko on as the chief development officer. Later, I include Allen Adham to the executive team, to increase the percentage of staff creating games as well as recently created games a bit higher. The focus is back on our mainstays and what has made Blizzard’s success gaming experience, which is our games. That’s fundamental, the first step of what we set out to do.
Through the course of this year, we’ve analyzed every single project we’re working on. We’ve looked into various aspects that we’re doing that we believed that we could do better at. We looked at different things that we did that we thought we ought to do less of. We’ve also come up with the debut of Diablo Classic, which has been a fantastic experience for us. And we were at the Diablo League’s second season and getting ready for heading towards the end to the season by attending BlizzCon. So it’s been quite a pleasant ride here.
For those who do not have a clear idea of what Blizzard is trying to accomplish right now, what do have you to say regarding recent shakeups at the top of the hierarchy and layoffs? And what type of direction you would like to see it go into?
The most important thing that is true, has been true traditionally and will continue to be so in the future, is that we’re an values-driven company buy D2R Ladder Items. We make the majority of our strategic decisions with that perspective.