EA's Jon Niermann has 'high hopes' for WAR in Asia

Gamesindustry.biz has rolled out the second part of an interview with Jon Niermann, the Asia-Pacific president of EA. The main focus is on how well Warhammer Online can expect to do in an Asian market. World of Warcraft has not been faring at all badly, and it's natural to wonder how a similar but markedly different product can perform in the same arena.

Jon is upbeat about WAR's prospects, even given the known divide between Asian and Western MMO styles. 'I think it's going to surprise people, I think it's going to do extremely well.' It's easy to descend into cliche when talking about the differences between Asian and Western MMO styles, but we've frequently seen gamers mention three elements when discussing perceived Asian preferences: the ability to grind, large raids and group content, and PvP with depth. Given WAR's focus on Realm versus Realm, it could conceivably be the runaway success Jon Niermann expects it to be