The Mac Show is a weekly QuickTime-based Webcast of information about the Macintosh. Hosted by Shawn King and Hilary Percy, the show features an ever-rotating list of guests. I’m lucky enough to do a spot featuring game news every week, and this week we had a special guest — Blizzard Entertainment producer Bill Roper.
Roper came on to talk about his company’s latest efforts. They’re the game developers and publishers behind the hit Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo series. Most recently, the company published an expansion pack for Diablo II, called Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. The add-on pack for the original game has been a huge hit since its release earlier this summer, and it’s the first game in Blizzard’s history that has shipped simultaneously for the Mac and PC.
Roper told us that Blizzard is planning a similar feat for the upcoming release of Warcraft III — a new game that takes the classic Warcraft series in a very different direction. While previous Warcraft titles have focused on resource management and unit creation — mainstays of the popular real time strategy game genre — the new title will feature more role-playing game elements as well (Blizzard has referred to Warcraft III numerous times as an RPS, or Role Playing Strategy game.)
Most intriguingly, Roper said that Blizzard is poised to announce a new project next month at ECTS — an annual interactive entertainment expo happening in London from September 2 – 4, 2001. While Roper couldn’t say specifically whether or not the Mac will be supported by this new game, he did point to the company’s long-time support of the Mac market, and suggested that it would continue into the future.
If you’d like to hear the show for yourself, make sure you have QuickTime installed and visit the Mac Show’s archive page. Click on either the streaming or download link for the August 22nd show. If you’d like to fast-forward directly to our segment, queue up to about the 30 minute mark. And don’t forget to tune in live every Wednesday night, from 9 to 11 PM ET.
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