– Blizzard chief Mike Morhaime, answering an investor’s question about the company’s focus on new projects.
On the back of better-than-expected Q2 earnings, Blizzard cofounder Mike Morhaime explained in a conference call with investors today that the company now has a number of “incubation teams” dedicated to exploring new projects.
It’s a potential bit of insight into what’s going on with Blizzard’s development efforts, and it suggests that the stated reason for Blizzard cofounder Allen Adham’s return to the company last year — to oversee development of new projects — has resulted in the formation of multiple teams.
“In addition to supporting all of our live games, we’re committed to incubating new initiatives. And we’re also thinking about different platforms, especially mobile. In terms of new IP, our pipeline is in a better position than ever before in our history,” Morhaime said today. “So we now have multiple dedicated incubation teams that are being led by some of our most experienced game designers at Blizzard.”
Morhaime also noted that some of these projects predate Adham’s return, and cautioned investors against expecting quick results.
“I should say that creating new Blizzard-quality games on any platform will take time, and as we’ve shown in the past, we’re not going to release any games that we feel don’t live up to our expectations or those of our players. When we do bring new experiences to current or new platforms for new and existing IPs, they’re gonna be ideas that our teams are passionate about, and that we think there’s a large audience for.”