Last week, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick drew a strong reaction when he said that a competitor would need $500 million or $1 billion to compete with World of Warcarft, the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Lars Buttler, CEO of Trion World Network, promptly said that Kotick was just trying to scare off the rivals.
In an interview, Buttler clarified his intentions. He doesn’t necessarily feel like he’s going to go head-to-head with World of Warcraft. But he thinks the idea that one game will dominate the whole market is silly.
“To think a great game that is a first mover will be there forever is a flaw,” he said. “Mr. Kotick is a very smart man and I have tremendous respect for him. He is either trying to bluff and defend the valuation that they got in the (pending merger between Activision and Vivendi’s game division). What would be worse and very fatalistic is if he really believed that was the case. It’s not a zero sum game.”
Buttler’s own company has raised $30 million from marquee VCs and is building a platform for a variety of server-based online games. He believes that online games will truly transform the industry and will generate higher margins.
“Traditional publishers don’t take big creative risks,” Buttler said. “WoW is an amazing franchise. That doesn’t mean others can’t do it. Trion is not in the business of competing with WoW, which is only one hit product. We are a publisher of server based games. We are building a portfolio, a network of games. We have AAA independent teams. ”
Buttler hasn’t announced any of those games, but he said that to clone WoW would be boring and limiting. His games will be social, will work on a variety of devices, and will offer developers a platform so they don’t have to reinvent server technology every time they make a new game.
He said that Trion’s publishing business will take care of billing, call center, and server technology. It will offer developers a variety of business models, including subscriptions, advertising, micro transactions, and virtual currency.
“We call it server based games because it doesn’t matter what platform the gamer is using,” he said. “They just have to be connected. They should all be part of the same you unleash the power of the servers.”
Buttler said the Redwood City, Calif., company is not currently looking for money and has more than 100 employees.