How I become the boss of Blizzard

Apparently I'm not the only one having problems coming up with serious predictions of the top ten games of 2008. But instead of shortening the list to two like I did, other bloggers turned to humor. I especially laughed, and was somewhat flattered by the following prediction from Wilhelm, the Ancient Gaming Noob:

10. World of Warcraft

The failure to ship the promised expansion, the Wrath of the Lich King, in 2008 will finally take the shine off of the land of Azeroth. While Asian numbers will remain healthy based on the strong PvP following and the late release of the Burning Crusade, a precipitous fall in subscriptions in the US and Europe and the consequent decline in revenue will put the fear of Wall Street into the corporate masters at Vivendi. Star Craft II will soften the blow some, but it will be released so late in the year that it won’t be able to make up for the droves of departing subscribers.

The team at Vivendi’s HQ will not swallow Rob Pardo’s line about polish. They will want action and they will want it ASAP.

Michael Morhaime will be sacrificed to satisfy the financial markets and Vivendi will hire a top notch executive search team to find a replacement. The search will end when a proprietary computer algorithm reveals a single true match for the position.

Negotiations will commence. Offers and counter-offers will fly. In the end, the positions occupied by both Michael Morhaime, Frank Pearce, and Rob Pardo will be will be filled by Tobold.

The three former Blizzard execs will be the subject of an early 2009 press release about the formation of a new game studio.