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An archived Hellgate: London feature. See the Hellgate Archives for more.

Interview: Bill Roper talks about leaving Blizzard.
Date: July 1, 2003
Source: No link. Dead site.

HomeLan Fed Interview

Last Wednesday when HomeLAN chatted on the phone with Bill Roper, he was still a vice-president at game developer/publisher Blizzard Entertainment. Little did he and we know that just a few days later (in fact only a few hours after we posted up our chat with Roper) that he and the three co-founders of Blizzard North (Erich Schaefer, Max Schaefer, and David Brevik) would be departing the company. Obviously a follow-up interview was called for and today we chatted with Roper about the foursome’s decision and their tentative plans.

First, Roper assured us that at the time of our previous conversation neither he nor any of the Blizzard North co-founders were planning such a drastic move. Basically he said that they wanted to have more of a say in the direction of where Blizzard as a company was going to go in the future. “We really felt that for ourselves and for the people we worked with that we wanted a more direct pipeline,” Roper said. However, Roper said that it was made clear to him and the Blizzard North co-founders that such an opportunity would not be made available to them by Blizzard’s current owner Vivendi Universal Games so they all decided to take their leave of the company. However, Roper did say their decision was not taken lightly. “I was literatly a month shy of my ninth year with the company,” he said, “None of us were doing this because we wanted to.’

Roper said that he and his colleagues made sure that Blizzard and Blizzard North would not be adversely affected by their departures. Roper told us that Blizzard North currently has two unannounced projects in development but that he expects that the studio responsible for the hugely successful Diablo game franchise will continue to make great games. “We don’t want to see Blizzard North or anything they have worked on disappear and we don’t believe they are going to,” he said.

Now that a new chapter is beginning for their professional lives, Roper said he is excited by the prospects of forming a new game development company. He told us that the foursome is very aware that a lot of attention is being paid to them right now from prospective publishers. “I would be lying if I would say my phone hasn’t already been ringing,’ he said. However, at the time of our conversation today they haven’t even decided on a name for the company. “That’s topic number one when we all get together (later today) he said.” While they are not taking any resumes just yet, Roper said they are also getting calls from people who might wish to join their proto-studio. “We know a lot of people that make games and I hope we get a lot of calls from people,” he said.

However, Roper said he is just as excited about getting messages and phone calls from fans and gamers who are already supporting the foursome’s move and he said that they will establish a way for the gaming community to get in touch with them as they move forward with their plans. “The community is the single most important thing you have,” he said.

Finally, the big question for Roper and indeed the entire foursome is: What kind of game will they be making? Roper said that even during a dinner last night, the group began to talk a bit about the ideas for games they want to make and while Roper told us that while they do have a lot of experience and knowledge in making a popular action-RPG like the Diablo franchise, “I am not going to say, ‘That’s it. That is what we are going to do,’” Whatever they decide on doing, HomeLAN will be staying in touch with Roper and the group in the coming months to get more info on their plans as they announce them.