VideoGamer.com: So you would prefer reviews to come out after a month or so?
PB: I think that people need to say here is our experience of beta, or our experience of how are they as a developer, how are they as a company who give a damn about their game. Here is our experience about launch. It was bumpy, it was smooth, the servers were up, the servers were down. And then the third part is if you ever thought of migrating, now the game's up and playing, here's what we think about it.
VideoGamer.com: Now that the open beta is coming to an end, how many people applied across the world?
PB: We had over a million people who signed up for it. I don't know the exact number. That's one of the irritatingly not at my fingertips numbers.
VideoGamer.com: But over a million is an amazing amount. You must be thrilled.
PB: Oh yeah. We're actually really really pleased with loads of stuff. We're pleased with the length of time beta players are playing our game. We're pleased with the amount of people who have logged in who have then subsequently logged in over 10 times in a week, showing that they're returning. We're very pleased with the sticky factor - people who log in and play over four hours are on the whole playing for tens of hours to hundreds of hours. We're pleased with the longevity of the careers. People are taking just a little longer to level in our game than people are used to and combat is a little bit more tactical than people are used to. And that's because quite a few of the modern games that are out are very mature. If you have a mature game you effectively need to speed build characters. WoW's latest one allows you to get to level 70 in something absurd like two days. But that's because they're trying to get you to their end game. When you're actually playing a proper MMO that's new, there is a longer period of time it takes to level because you're supposed to be playing it and enjoying it. We're pleased with the fairness we've been getting off reviews. No complaints there.
VideoGamer.com: Were you expecting over a million people to apply to the open beta or did the number exceed your expectations?
PB: Oh wow! As a creative director, I have a completely different view of the game to almost anyone else. I believe that it will take us to the moon, solve climate change and probably cure every form of cancer known to man. So I'm not surprised. Businessey people, I think they're just very happy. EA shareholders will hopefully be very happy as well. As long as we can convert them into sales and then convert them into long term hobbyists, I'm happy.
VideoGamer.com: What's the conversion rate from people who buy to people who subscribe you're expecting?
PB: I believe Camelot worked on 70 per cent. I would hope that we would do at least that well or improve on it.
VideoGamer.com: So you're looking at a fairly healthy amount of paying subscribers then.
PB: Millions and millions if I have my way!
VideoGamer.com: What's your immediate post-launch plans?
PB: There are two different answers. We have three teams at the company, we have a core team whose job it is to make the servers work better, make the plan work better, put new features in. We have a live team, which is the team that works on the game that's live, fixing bugs, adding new content, making it a better extended hobby. We have an expansion team. They're busy working on the next expansion for the game. All three teams exist right now. All three teams have existed for quite a long time. The expansion team has been working on expansions for ages. The live team is already up and running and core tech are already on the core systems. That's how you protect these games when they get out of the door.
VideoGamer.com: The studio lead of Stargate Worlds told us in a recent interview that in order to challenge WoW you need a license. Do you subscribe to that belief?
PB: I would say that it's like Premier League football. If you want to be in the top four then you probably do. But there's nothing stopping a small team coming up from the lower leagues and surprising people. But there's definitely a chasm and to cross that chasm requires several things. Timing, license, tech, luck, presence, force of will and cups of tea.