Former Blizzard Engineer Reveals ‘Diablo’ Studio Could Have Created A ‘Steam’-Like Platform Years Before Valve
A new book on the history of Blizzard Entertainment has revealed that in years past, the World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2 developer let a major opportunity related to the world of PC gaming slip through their fingers.
The Missed Opportunity
In his new book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, ‘journalist’ Jason Schreier (who it should always be noted was aware of Blizzard’s now infamous HR problems long before they were publicly brought to light by staff) details how several years prior to Steam’s official launching in 2003, former Blizzard programmer Patrick Wyatt, along with a few other developers, once pitched the idea to transform the company’s Battle.net platform into a digital storefront.
Having already made waves as for its existence as a free online multiplayer platform specifically or Blizzard’s games, including such classics as Warcraft and StarCraft, as one can imagine, Battle.net had the potential to become a hub for players to purchase and play a variety of PC games.
According to Schreier, who spoke to Wyatt himself, this proposal was backed by Mike O’Brien, the engineer who originally built Battle.net. However, despite their efforts, Blizzard’s leadership decided not to pursue the idea.
As Schreier writes, “a few years before Steam launched, former Blizzard programmer Patrick Wyatt and others pitched the company on a plan ‘to turn Battle.net into a digital store for a variety of PC games.'” Ultimately, the company’s decision not to act on the idea left the door open for Valve, which launched Steam in 2003 primarily to deliver updates for Counter-Strike.
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Hindsight and What Could Have Been
And talk about egg on Blizzard’s face, as in retrospect, the company’s reluctance to pursue such a game store model stands as a huge misstep, especially given Steam’s prominence today.
Since its inception, Steam has not only revolutionized the concept of digital distribution, but has also gone on to become the world’s largest digital platform for PC games. Meanwhile, Wyatt, O’Brien, and Jeff Strain, another key developer, would eventually leave Blizzard in 2000 to form ArenaNet, the studio who would eventually go on to create the Guild Wars franchise.
One can only wonder how different the gaming landscape would be today had Blizzard capitalized on the digital storefront concept. Steam has not only transformed PC gaming, but its success has helped Valve hold a significant share of the digital game distribution market. Meanwhile, Blizzard’s own Battle.net has remained exclusive to Blizzard and Activision titles, in doing so missing out on the broader opportunities that Steam seized.
Making note of the irony, Schreier notes in his book that “Blizzard finally started releasing its games on Steam just last year,” more than a decade after its own chance to shape the digital marketplace for games had passed.
The Future of Blizzard
With Blizzard recently releasing some of its games on Steam, it’s clear the company has had to adapt to the realities of the modern gaming world.
Yet not all things are bleak for the company. So far Diablo IV has performed well, with sales breaking $1B, not including the revenue of the in-game store and now live DLC.
However one can’t help but wonder what could have been, and how different the digital landscape for gaming would look like if Steam had an early competitor, rather than already being at the top by the time latecomers rose to the challenge.
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