Quote of the day, 11/02/05

Lead Producer Shane Dhabiri joking on Blizzard's renowned reputation:

...I think the only thing we've shipped on time is BlizzCon [laughter]

Bit Torrent of the interview with Dhabiri is available here.
More of WorldofWar.net's videos are available here, which is definitely worth a visit.

My personal opinion is that this reputation is just a myth perpetuated over and over again so much it's become common knowledge. Certainly some of their games have been delayed, most recently Starcraft: Ghost (which most likely is involuntarily). World of Warcraft is a mixed bag, while battlegrounds and such weren't in the release -- they planned on having content packs released for the game anyway. Warcraft III, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction all shipped on time. Diablo 2 is fuzzy. Delayed up to a year I think, but it was released in 1999/2000 -- five years ago (pre-dotcom burst), so I don't think that should count.

Starcraft: Ghost itself isn't Blizzard's fault, really. The project travelled between developers until Blizzard finally slammed their fists together and bought the Swingin' Apes.

Edit: For some reason I thought it was Dabri, not Dhabiri. Doh. Fixed.