Even the best want a new challenge every now and then. Such was the case when developers from Blizzard (World of Warcraft) and Sony Online Entertainment (Everquest, Planetside) recently announced the formation of a new studio based in San Diego, Molten Games. The first project to come out of the studio will be a free-to-play online PC title developed with the help of an investment from Guild Wars 2 publisher NCSoft.
Speaking to Games Industry International, chief product officer Paul Della Bitta, formerly senior director of global community development and eSports at Blizzard, stated that, “AAA to us is really an identifier for quality. With the advent of mobile and social games, some gamers are starting to associate free-to-play with games that don’t have the depth or overall quality level that was expected of a PC or console title of the past.
“This is a game that you would have happily paid $60 for at retail. We’re just trying to take advantage of the free-to-play model, but we want people to have the same expectation of quality they would if they went and bought a $60 console game at the store.”
As of now, everything is in place for development. “The challenge is execution. But we feel like we built the right team to where we can execute on product,” said Della Bitta.