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30 Years in Azeroth - Warcraft: 30th Anniversary Interview with Blizzard Entertainment

We caught up with Executive Producer and Vice President for World of Warcraft, Holly Longdale, and Game Director, Ion Hazzikostas, to look back on 30 years of the Warcraft franchise and ahead to the next 30... or perhaps even more.

Audio transcription

"Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Gamereactor.
Today, as you can probably tell by the lovely little heart we've got going behind us, I'm here with Holly and Ion from the World of Warcraft team and from Blizzard in general to talk all about Warcraft."

"But not really just about one thing, because we're here to celebrate 30 years of Warcraft.
It's been a long journey, but we're here.
So, tell me, let's start by talking about Warcraft as a whole."

"What's your favourite memory from Warcraft?
What's something that you really look back at at the time of the 30 years of Warcraft and go, that's something that really stands out to me as a really memorable experience?
For me, it was the first time I ever logged in to World of Warcraft."

"I made my Night Elf and I was starting my journey.
The music, the purple, the love of life when I first got to Teldrassil, and I just was fully immersed.
I was very sceptical about this new MMO and I was completely lost in it and I've remained that way to this day."

"Night Elf forever.
So, for me, at risk of dating myself a bit here, I'm going to say 28 of those 30 years ago, playing Warcraft 2 with a friend of mine over a dial-up connection, one of the first games I'd ever played online in that sense, not sitting on a couch with someone next to me, but with someone who was a dozen miles away, and then trying to explain to my parents why it was very bad that they picked up the phone when they did."

"Now, we're in London right now, obviously, because you're doing a Warcraft World Tour, really, and going to all these fabulous locations around the world.
Some people, many fans, are going to be able to go out and attend these things in person, experience them for themselves, but for the people who maybe don't get an opportunity to go and physically attend one of these shows, how are you celebrating this massive anniversary?
I mean, honestly, we've had in-game events across all the Warcraft games."

"That kicked off last fall, so we've had a bunch of celebrations there, but also, I think, the enthusiasm and excitement around this is something that spills out online as well.
Really, the people who come to the events, the biggest advantage is the ability to connect with each other."

"I think that's really the power of Warcraft and World of Warcraft, the number of connections that have been formed over these 30 years of playing the franchise, and I think for different people, depending on when they entered that ecosystem, they have their own stories to tell, but really the thing that unites everybody are the friends they've made over the course of that journey."

"And we have ongoing events coming up in-game, not just around...
World of Warcraft itself is continually alive.
We've got events coming up all the time.
And we've got events coming up, we've got events in Boston, Korea, they're happening all over the place, so stay tuned, more coming up."

"But keep eyes on World of Warcraft, and even in Hearthstone as well, we've got a lot coming up, so, yeah, stay tuned, more to come.
And Warcraft, obviously World of Warcraft is probably the most high-profile part of the Warcraft brand currently, but it spans into so many different things, 30 years of history."

"How do you make sure that you don't sort of tread on your own toes a little bit, and you sort of go back to areas or go and do things that you've already done maybe 15 years ago?
It's a challenge."

"I mean, so I think sometimes we're doing a bit of that deliberately, right?
I think one of the interesting parts about world-building and storytelling in a franchise that's gone on for as long as it has is that we have our own internal passage of time in the world, and we can revisit locations and characters that featured prominently a dozen years ago and see what's happened with them since."

"Literally, we've seen a character like Anduin for players of Warcraft who are familiar with the Alliance.
When we first met him, he was literally basically a toddler, a very young child back in 2004, 2005, and now he led the Alliance into war years later."

"And so it's like the world has really grown up with our players in a lot of ways, and it's going to continue to evolve and stay just living.
And players have been asking us, you know...
Mists of Pandaria was my favourite expansion, and we've been going back there in modern and in classic."

"Legion, my favourite expansion.
We're going to be going back there and experiencing it in a new way.
So we listen, and that's sort of the new mode and the new call for us is to listen to our players and take them back and experience this content that they may have experienced in the past, but in a new way, in a bit of a fresh look."

"Is it a challenge to maintain the level of relevance that World of Warcraft and Warcraft has?
You know, 30 years to constantly remain at sort of the pinnacle of MMOs and all the different games that you guys create, surely that's a challenge to be so relevant so continuously."

"Best challenge in the world.
I mean, it is a challenge.
It's one that we're humbled and honoured to take on.
I think the team over the years has done just so much to keep evolving."

"I think the story of World of Warcraft in particular is really one of evolution, changing and growing up with our players.
If we were the same game that we were 20 years ago, we wouldn't still be around having this conversation today."

"And I think the fact that we can release a version of our game that is WoW classic, for example, and have that stand distinctly apart with Often's own community, its own player base that is drawn to it, is an indication of just how much the game has evolved over that time and how much it's going to continue to."

"And honestly, the team is so charged by what can we do and how can we innovate and what are players asking for, like housing that's coming up in Midnight."

"They're always challenging themselves while we're listening to the player base, and it's never going to end.
We're never going to stop chasing the dream that the players have, as well as the dreams that we have ourselves as well."

"It's really exciting.
Now, we see games celebrate other games, and we see it quite commonly.
I mean, between Blizzard, you guys, you celebrate your milestones as an entire unit."

"So can we expect something similar like that for this anniversary, potentially even for the wider Xbox Game Studios family, now that you guys are part of that as well?
That's an interesting question."

"I think we're open to those sorts of collaborations.
We're all fans of games broadly, play lots of things.
I think it's easier to coordinate, certainly, between, let's say, WoW and Hearthstone from an IP perspective and timing."

"But I think, ultimately, we love just celebrating the gaming community at large and are very cognizant and humble about our place in it.
Of course, and talking a little bit about Xbox Game Studios as well, you've been part of that family now for about 18 months."

"How has that helped you really elevate and expand the Warcraft brand in a way that you might not have been able to do so beforehand?
It's really great. We're really getting to know each other.
We've set up a lot of calls with a variety of different studios, from the Bethesda team to... It's a pretty long list."

"We just had discussions with Obsidian, got to celebrate with them with a vowed in the release, because they're just down the street from us.
So it's a really exciting time."

"So we're going to get to know each other's stage and even learning.
So we're sharing knowledge and getting to know each other a bit.
And hopefully those relationships will continue to develop.
It's sort of a brave new world for us."

"And there is so much going on with the studios that we're really excited to learn about and share.
And it'll continue to evolve.
Yeah, it's a really exciting time for us."

"Yeah.
And talking about a brave new world, we've seen as of late one thing that Xbox is doing is taking its things elsewhere onto other platforms that maybe we wouldn't have seen before."

"Warcraft, a particular world of Warcraft as well, or even Hearthstone.
You guys have platforms that you stick to and have stuck to.
Is that something you're going to continue doing?
Or can we see potentially Hearthstone on Nintendo Switch or World of Warcraft on consoles?
Have you explored either of those things?
We don't have anything to announce right now, but we're always thinking about where we could take Warcraft."

"And ultimately, at the end of the day, we want to see Warcraft and certainly World of Warcraft in the hands of everybody on the planet, of course.
But we don't have anything to talk about right now."

"Now, Azeroth is growing at a very rapid pace.
There's new continents always popping up.
Do you have a limit in mind, or does the world map just keep expanding, keep growing?
At the end of the day, it's a spherical world, we're all assuming, right?
I think there are still vast parts of it that we have yet to see."

"Obviously, in our most recent expansion, War Within, we're delving beneath the surface of the world.
And there's untold adventures to have there.
But also, as I mentioned earlier, we're able to revisit locations that were introduced in the past, like our next expansion, Midnight, is going to return to the Blood Elf lands that were introduced in our Burning Crusade expansion."

"A lot of time has passed, a lot of change has happened, there are new stories to tell and adventures to have.
And I think something that we've thought a lot about on the WoW front is we're actually doing ourselves and our story an injustice if we can't tell new stories in those places."

"If Stormwind or Orgrimmar, the great capitals of our world, feel like they're forever locked in time, however many years ago, that's not really the living world that we want to be in."

"So while, of course, we're going to keep finding new places to explore, I think there's a lot of richness and depth in places that are already discovered.
And so, we've seen in the past the Warcraft adaptation on the big screen."

"It did really well, actually. Looking back at it now, it's still one of the most successful animated video game adaptations.
But it doesn't look like it's going anywhere else at the moment.
I'm assuming that's something we can continue believing, or have you guys explored any other ways to bring Warcraft back to the big screen?
I will say there's nothing off the table."

"Nothing off the table. And what about, talking about that as well, what about a dream adaptation?
Anything that you'd really like to do, like an animated series, something like that? Anything different?
I feel like we would love to do all of it."

"But we've got nothing to talk about right now.
Fantastic. All right, so let's go back to Warcraft as a whole a little bit.
You guys have done so many amazing things with this brand.
You've taken it to so many different places."

"You've done card games, you've done strategy games, massive MMORPG.
Is there anything else that you'd like to hypothetically explore?
Some quirky things, a kart racer perhaps, something strange like that?
I feel like, so for us, the whole team at large, I feel like we are, like we've been talking about, we really want to expand Warcraft over time."

"We have this vision of really getting Warcraft into the hands of everybody around the world.
So I do think, you know, our plan is you'll see a lot more from us in the future, but we don't have anything to talk about right now."

"But we really want to see it grow.
And we have a really big vision for what it can be.
And we want to take steps to get there.
We really want to see Warcraft in the hands of everybody in every way they want to play or engage with this incredible Warcraft brand that we have, or our IP."

"Yeah.
And as a sort of a final question, then, it's the 30th anniversary of Warcraft, but it's not going anywhere anytime soon.
So we know there's a few exciting things coming."

"The World Soul Saga is continuing, housing's on its way.
What are some other exciting things that players should be, you know, keeping their eye out for down the line?
Obviously, the World Soul Saga, we also are going to be launching Mists of Pandaria Classic later this year."

"And I think, you know, our classic ecosystem, as I mentioned earlier, kind of stands alongside the modern game.
And we have a huge, passionate community there who we want to continue to serve."

"And we're going to have a lot of exciting news coming out for them in, you know, the year ahead.
And so, ultimately, you know, the future is bright for World of Warcraft.
As we just celebrated our 20th anniversary a few months ago, we're already, you know, looking ahead to how we can continue that for another decade and beyond."

"Well, there we have it. 30 years of Warcraft.
Here's to another 30.
As well, at least another 30, yeah.
You never know the first centennial MMORPG."

"Who knows? Who knows?
But, yeah, this has been the World of Warcraft or the Warcraft 30th anniversary interview.
Maybe we'll be back in another 30 years. Who knows?
Stay tuned for your local Game Rector region for that."

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