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Red 5: the renegade WoW team |
Listed in: News, Interviews, Humor Tags: Blizzard, Korea, Red 5 Studios, Sierra Online, Starcraft
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What do titles World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Warcraft III and Diablo II have in common? Aside from being the games we oh-so-love to play, these titles were actually made by almost the same development team that bolted out from Blizzard Entertainment and started indie studio Red 5.
The young, vibrant company was founded by former WoW Team Leader Mark Kern, Art Director William Petras and Blizzard Korea Founder Taewon Yun back in September of 2005. Currently, they are working on a new MMO game that CEO Kern is not yet ready to divulge. But this is what Kern has to say regarding the matter:
We're really happy with the way things are shaping up with the server and we licensed Offset Engine which we're highly customizing for our needs. The new game's focus will be global from the get-go. I think it has to be. These games are so complicated and expensive to make that you need to be successful globally to achieve critical mass.
Speaking of complicated and hard to make, Kern mentioned that they are all about making MMO games. They were recently given a VC funding, totalling to US$ 18.5 million, from investors Benchmark Capital and Sierra Ventures. According to the CEO, the money is not for making the game but for developing the platform:
You've got essentially what's a supercomputer on the backend, the question for us is what to do with that. We've barely scratched the surface. Our goal is to continue to build our team and this funding allows us to do that while building that technology base that can be used across multiple games, too.
Given the background of these people, it would be logical for some to expect a WoW-like title from Red 5. However, Kern explained that they are not planning to imitate or challenge WoW head to head. If anything, Kern admitted that they dream to go way past WoW's achievements, not in terms of revenues or fanbase:
Matching WoW dollar-for-dollar is not the focus here. Creating new experience and entertainment for the gamer is the focus. We want to take it past the fantasy-based RPG genre. ThatÂ’s where weÂ’re headed.
Via NextGen
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