It's hard to say. I think even a shorter-term concern is whether or not we might see cannibalization of WoW players from Diablo III when we launch it, because it's a similar type of experience. Not exactly similar, but it's that RPG feel.

For us, I think it's really important that we recognize that somewhere, sometime it's likely that someone is going to cannibalize World of Warcraft players, so it's better we cannibalize them ourselves than let someone else do that, because if we cannibalize them ourselves, they're still a Blizzard customer.

Whether it's a Blizzard game or another great MMO, I think there's plenty of space in the market for great MMOs to share customers.

A solid succession plan is not only used for transferring team members to new projects, but also to make sure employees don't get burnt out on a single Blizzard game.

World of Warcraft has been in development in some shape or form dating back to 1999, 2000, somewhere around there. That's more than 10 years, and as cool as it is to be working on World of Warcraft, and as great as I think that would be for anyone to have an opportunity to contribute to something as successful as that, to do it for 10 years is potentially asking too much of someone.

So we need to be very conscious of the fact that at some point, people that have been on the project for a long time are going to need a change of scenery, to do something new and fresh. And so we're very conscious of succession planning and making sure we have mechanisms in place for knowledge transfer to make sure that when someone moves on, someone else will be there to fill those shoes.

As to our new unannounced game, we believe that it will be more complementary than competitive. And while people do have a limited amount of free time that they can devote to these types of games, we do think that people will want to check out the new and the old. We think the new one is very compelling and is going to capture a lot of hearts and minds and will be very successful for us. But we also believe that many people will continue playing World of Warcraft because they have such a huge collection of friends and community.
[---]
The thing that we hope will happen is that it will not stop World of Warcraft but we believe will eclipse it.

We have taken some of our most experienced developers and put them on this project. We believe we have a dream team. These are the people who made WoW a success. We are going to blow people’s minds.

We really try to learn from what we’ve done in the past. When you architect the game, you architect it with the vision that exists at that time. We’ve got some vision for what is coming and how gaming has evolved. Some of the new things that maybe we would want to do, we can’t do as elegantly because of the way we’ve architected the old game. It’s easier if we are starting fresh. So that being said, we are doing that sort of thing and it’s also not the same game. It’s a different game, so we do feel it’s important to our developers as well as the players for us to deliver something else that can expand their gaming experiences.

We have some of our most talented and most experienced developers on that team. Many of the people that built World of Warcraft are full time on that other team.

I believe [it's] the most ambitious thing we've ever attempted, and I feel like we have set our company up to succeed on that.
[...]
We're very confident in that product. It's an awesome one. We're playing it already. It is a total ball to play. We think that the reach of that product is greater than anything that we've done before. We're very excited about that. I believe that it's the type of game that will have a very long life, much like World of Warcraft has.
[---]
As it relates to that other [MMO], we think that it's going to be very impactful in our industry and, we hope, very impactful to the world, we think that that will be, after Diablo III, the next big thing from us.

We really value the social experience of being able to play with your friends, make new friends in the game, and the whole guild experience. Games are more fun when you're experiencing them with other people, whether it's competitively or cooperatively.

Without giving away any details, we have some of our most experienced MMO developers, people who spent years working on the World of WarCraft team, working on this project, we're really trying to leverage all the lessons we learned through the years. Some of which we were able to address in World of WarCraft and others that maybe because of the design decisions we've made, you just can't address. So we're kind of taking a step back with all that knowledge to make something that's completely new and fresh. We're not trying to make a WoW sequel. We're basically trying to take a step back with all of that knowledge, and do something that's completely new and fresh. We're not trying to make a WoW sequel, so we actually envision these two games coexisting in the future.

[...] With Cataclysm, we did something pretty dramatic. We went back and redid the entire old world, we redid the quests. But we didn't actually change the game itself. We think there's a lot more that we can do within the context of World of Warcraft, but sometimes to break the mold you have to start over.

BLIZZCON® 2011 ANNOUNCED
Blizzard Entertainment’s sixth BlizzCon gaming celebration to be held at Anaheim Convention Center October 21-22, 2011

IRVINE, California -- February 7, 2011 -- Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its sixth BlizzCon® gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Friday, October 21 and Saturday, October 22, 2011. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® universes.

"We look forward to holding another exciting BlizzCon this year, filled with some great entertainment and competition, as well as the latest news about Blizzard games," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "BlizzCon is built from the ground up with our community in mind -- we're pleased to be able to host an event where players can come together to have fun and celebrate their passion for gaming."

In addition to serving as a gathering place for Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will offer attendees a chance to enjoy:

* Hands-on play time with the latest versions of Blizzard Entertainment games
* Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
* Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
* Community contests with great prizes
* Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment’s game universes
* More activities and attractions to be announced

The previous BlizzCon was held in Anaheim in October 2010. Tickets to the event sold out in minutes, and some of the highlights included the unveiling of Diablo III's fifth and final playable character class, the demon hunter, and an epic closing concert featuring Tenacious D.

Further details about BlizzCon 2011, including ticket availability and pricing, will be announced on the official Blizzard website, www.blizzard.com, as the event draws closer.

To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities can be found at www.blizzard.com/jobs.
About Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft® and the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® series, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry's most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes thirteen #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company's online-gaming service, Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active players.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Blizzard Entertainment generally uses words such as “outlook,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “might,” “remains,” “to be,” “plans,” “believes,” “may,” “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” “future,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “project,” “remain,” “scheduled,” “set to,” “subject to,” “upcoming” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales levels of Blizzard Entertainment’s titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the impact of the current macroeconomic environment, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Blizzard Entertainment’s products, competition from the used game market, industry competition and competition from other forms of entertainment, rapid changes in technology, industry standards and consumer preferences, including interest in specific genres such as real-time strategy, action–role-playing and massively multiplayer online games, protection of proprietary rights, litigation against Blizzard Entertainment, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, licensees, licensors, vendors and third-party developers, including the ability to attract, retain and develop key personnel and developers who can create high quality “hit” titles, counterparty risks relating to customers, licensees, licensors and manufacturers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates and tax rates, and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities, and the other factors identified in the risk factors section of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

Titan is... the media is not meant to know anything about that. It's our next gen MMO and we've only started talking about it in a limited fashion because we want to leverage the fact that we're working on something like that for the purpose of recruiting – getting some of the best talent in the industry on that.

We have nothing to advertise for the new MMO because it's a shell of a game thus far. We've already stated it'll be a brand new franchise, which means the lore, art, and game play are being developed entirely from scratch. It's an overwhelming process, but a process through which we excel. Our track record supports this.

As always, we appreciate the interest in Blizzard’s current and upcoming games, but we don’t comment on rumors or speculation and we don’t have any new announcements to make. Right now we’re fully focused on the upcoming launch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and we’re very much looking forward to celebrating that event with players around the world starting on December 7.

And remember, we have two enormous investments: one in Bungie and the other in another project at Blizzard that we haven't given a lot of visibility to. Those are going to be entirely new intellectual properties. But with the recognition that the way to build them is take long amounts of time, lots of capable talent, an enormous amount of capital and you have to have a real roadmap for innovation and creativity. And I think that those are going to be two very good examples from the ground up original ideas.

Blizzard Entertainment has not announced any details about the next BlizzCon. We recommend that players refrain from making any BlizzCon-related travel plans at this time.