Blizzard VP: World of Warcraft's Success 'Exhausting,' Talks New Projects

Blizzard co-founder and senior VP Frank Pearce called the runaway success of its MMO World of Warcraft "exhausting." Speaking to GamesIndustry, he said, "I don't know if I'd describe it as 'interesting' as much as exhausting."

He elaborated, "As a company we've found ourselves spread very, very thin--because the World of Warcraft community has a voracious appetite for content." Blizzard, as a worldwide company, has grown to 3,000 employees, according to Pearce.

While many of those are involved in business operations or running the world's largest MMO, there are still independent teams working on new titles like Starcraft II--and even some projects that are still secret, including a "next-gen" MMO.

Pearce also responded to speculation that Blizzard's next game announcement might be a new intellectual property. "If there was a development team [within Blizzard] that was really passionate about a new intellectual property idea, then we'd give that strong consideration," he explained, echoing previous statements by Blizzard COO Paul Sams.

With a new World of Warcraft expansion now in beta, Starcraft II and Diablo III in the works, all of Blizzard's major intellectual properties are already in the newly merged studio's release pipeline.