The Golden Child

Blizzard has done no wrong since their inception in the early 90's. Save their Super Nintendo titles that are just a foot note now at the colossal feet of World of Warcraft. Their games sell like gangbusters and not because they are over hyped smoke and mirrors (see: Assassin's Creed). They take time to build games that are polished to a blinding shine and then they buff them a little more. Over that time many gamers have come to whorship at the throne of Blizzard and given their track record there is little argument that can be made against them.

Blizzard's previous model did not include a massive multiplayer online game though. Their releases have become spaced and hulking. The last game before it was all WoW all the time was five years ago and it looks like Starcraft 2 won't be out until 2009. I wonder if Blizzard still has the chops to make great non MMO games? Some critics are looking at Starcraft 2 and the newly announced Diablo 3 and not seeing the giant leaps forward that Blizzard made previously. While the games certainly do look pretty, there seems to be nothing in terms of an evolution in game mechanics. To wait six some years to release a next generation dugeon crawler and graphics update for your best selling RTS might be considered a bit conservative.

They are Blizzard though. Is it a cop out to take them to the mat and then just give them a hug? Yes. Do they deserve the hug? Yes. Not one of their games in the past thirteen years has been a critical or financial failure. They might be taking a long time to produce retreaded franchise sequels, but if the baker makes you a tasty cake today and closes shop for a month; will you spend that time speculating on the failure of his next confectionery creation or just day dream about how tasty it will be?