愚人節(jié)玩笑?暴雪表態(tài)凍結(jié)《星際爭(zhēng)霸2》

以下是暴雪最近爆出來(lái)的一封內(nèi)部郵件，發(fā)信時(shí)間是08/3/22，發(fā)信人是暴雪董事長(zhǎng)Michael Morhaime，收信人是全體暴雪員工，抄送董事會(huì)全體高層。至今為止此信還沒(méi)有得到暴雪的確認(rèn)，吾只管翻譯，不予置評(píng)！

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大家好，

相信大家都已經(jīng)知道了，在昨天晚上，我們決定凍結(jié)目前關(guān)于星際2項(xiàng)目的進(jìn)度。(we have decided to pull the plug on starcraft 2)

在這里，我期望能夠告訴大家之所以做出這個(gè)決定的理由。我們都知道，這個(gè)話題此時(shí)此刻并不輕松，尤其是當(dāng)我們?cè)诓粩喾词‘?dāng)初Ghost所給我們所帶來(lái)的沉痛教訓(xùn)、及思考目前我們所給予WoW的幾乎不成比例的投入的時(shí)候。

在做出這個(gè)決定之前，我已經(jīng)同銷售、質(zhì)量管理、開(kāi)發(fā)、美工、程序員及一些社區(qū)管理者們私下進(jìn)行過(guò)交流，然而，沒(méi)有人能夠給我一個(gè)充分的理由讓我不那么做。　　 

WoW是我們的立身之本。如果沒(méi)有MMORPG的話，RTS或者是FPS對(duì)BLZ而言將只會(huì)意味著傷害！我相信大家都能體會(huì)到這一點(diǎn)，因?yàn)槊恳粋€(gè)閱讀這封信的人和他的家庭都曾經(jīng)從WoW這個(gè)世界上最為成功的商業(yè)在線游戲中受益?！?/p>

能夠真正傷害WoW的，只可能是另一個(gè)暴雪的游戲。我們從不相信世界上還存在著另一個(gè)公司擁有向我們挑戰(zhàn)的實(shí)力。

讓我們仔細(xì)想想，推出星際2對(duì)于暴雪和WoW而言將意味著什么？5%的用戶流失，這將是最保守的估計(jì)。500,000用戶將因此而離開(kāi)WoW，這將帶走我們90,000,000美元的年收益！　　 

問(wèn)問(wèn)自己是否確信星際2一定會(huì)成功。是的，我們相信它會(huì)成功。但是，它的成功對(duì)于BLZ而言僅僅只是問(wèn)題的一個(gè)方面。我們應(yīng)當(dāng)站在更為宏觀的角度上來(lái)看待它對(duì)BLZ的影響?！　?nbsp;

我對(duì)Activision、Vivendi、廣大股民、所有blz員工及他們家庭的責(zé)任感促使我不得不做出如此艱難的決定。我們已經(jīng)無(wú)法再承受另一個(gè)新的教訓(xùn)了。

最后，我的內(nèi)心永遠(yuǎn)向你們敞開(kāi)著，希望能夠聽(tīng)到你們的意見(jiàn)?！?/p>

Michael Morhaime

董事長(zhǎng) 暴雪娛樂(lè)

以下是原文，具體地址：http://www.sc2blog.com/private/b%20...%203/Donotcopy-Sc2.pdf

Sent: 22/03/2008

From: Michael Morhaime

To: Blizzard PR; Blizzard Dev; WWi08; Founders Group;

CC: Rod A. Rigole; Paul Maglione; Bobby Kotick; Bruce Hack; Frank Pearce; Rob

Pardo; Jeffrey Kaplan;

Dear All.

As many of you are already aware, last night we have decided to pull the plug on

StarCraft 2.

In this letter, I’d like to share with you all exactly how and why this decisin was made.

We are well aware that many of you will not take this decision lightly, especially

considering the bitter aftertaste of StarCraft Ghost, and the disproportional resources

dedicated to the WarCraft franchise.

Prior to making this decision, I have personally sat down with Sales and Marketing, QA

personnel, developers and artists, progamers and a few community managers. None have

provided an answer which could support a different decision. Not a single person was

able to justify StarCraft 2‘s existence.

World of WarCraft is our 800 lb gorilla.

No MMORPG, RTS or FPS game can leave anything more than a dent in Blizzard!s

subscriber count. Every single person that reads this letter has a family that benefits from

World of WarCraft’s existenc and its utter dominance as the most commercially

successful game of all time.

The only thing that can hurt World of WarCraft‘s subscriber base, is another Blizard

game. We do not expect any other company in the world to be able to subtract as much as

300,000 subscribers from WoW‘s numbers.

How much will StarCraft 2’s release cost Blizzard Entertainment?

The safest estimates are around 5% of World of WarCraft’s subscriber bas.

500,000 users will leave World of Warcraft, taking $90,000,000 worth of yearly

subscriber fees with them.

Do we believe StarCraft 2 would have been successful? Yes.

But only as long as we are looking at the small picture.

My responsibilities towards Activision, Vivendi, shareholders and Blizzard‘s own

employees and their families, prevented me from taking any other course.　　 

My door is always open.　

Best regards,

Michael Morhaime

President

Blizzard Entertainment　

這封信難道是暴雪總裁準(zhǔn)備在4月1日寫(xiě)給全體員工的愚人節(jié)驚喜？但不知道是否會(huì)嚇壞全球數(shù)以百萬(wàn)的鐵桿玩家。