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Blizzard "Struggling" with Battle.net Marketplace

by Keith Sadler, posted on 21 February 2011 / 1,582 Views

Blizzard is struggling with Battle.net Marketplace so much, according to an interview Dustin Browder has done with Eurogamer, that the Marketplace might never be released. Announced at Blizzcon 2009, the Marketplace would allow StarCraft II modders to sell free and premium maps that they've made.

"As you can imagine there is an immense number of challenges for us to overcome," said StarCraft II design lead Dustin Browder in an interview with Eurogamer.

"We're trying to deal with those issues. I don't know how we're going to solve some of the player rights issues. How do players protect their own maps so they don't get ripped off by other players? What are the rules of how much you're allowed to charge? There's just a ton of work for us to figure out.

"We've never, ultimately, built anything like this before. Some of our competitors have and more power to them. But we haven't done it yet. So there's going to be a bunch of work for us to figure out how to get this done. But it's something we're working on."

Dustin Browder has also said they're willing to throw the whole thing away if they can't get it right.

"We've cancelled whole games before. Warcraft Adventures never made it out and that game was basically done. But we are working very hard on it. We have a bunch of people dedicated to it. I have every hope and belief and faith in its success and we're absolutely committed to getting it done.


6 Comments

Kenryoku_Maxis
Kenryoku_Maxis (on 10 May 2011)

@MattAnderson I'm pretty sure the difficulties they're having are not only what the cost should be for specific fan made materials, but how they can regulate it. I mean, image 1 million people uploading all their maps in a year. People are going ot have to be hired to oversee each map that gets posted for legal issues, random swear words written with crystals, copies of existing maps, etc. All those people take time and money from new game development and the maintenance of Battle.net.

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viewtiful_jon
viewtiful_jon (on 22 February 2011)

To be honest they should get a royalty for every map sold on this service, The people who currently making maps for free will not complain if they take royalties. Blizzard would basically be the publisher and also provided the software to make the map and the shop. Around a 30-40% royalty would be fair. Im sure there are lots of problems there facing and its probally pretty close to what they have described the problems to be. Blizzard generally want to release good quality software that they know works and works well.

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MattAnderson
MattAnderson (on 21 February 2011)

I think there is more to this than they are letting on. I cannot possibly see how these things he is describing can be so difficult. My guess is they (and/or Activision) want to implement it in a way where they have the rights to everything uploaded and they want insanely high royalties.

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Baalzamon
Baalzamon (on 21 February 2011)

The thing is, its not any game that can charge. Blizzard has said it would have to be premium content that goes through the Blizzard team, and has indicated even Dota would not qualify to be a charged game...so whether they release it or not doesn't make much difference to me.

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Killiana1a
Killiana1a (on 21 February 2011)

I wonder if it is Activision or Blizzard who is pushing this middle man nonsense? My bets are on Activision wanting royalties from getting a 25 to 40 percent cut of every map sold on this platform in development.

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Hephaestos
Hephaestos (on 21 February 2011)

or they could just scrap the idea of making people pay and do as in past games....

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