Roper worked at Blizzard North and Blizzard Entertainment from 1994 to 2003, and was Vice President at Blizzard North at the time of his departure.[5] He served in senior production and design capacities on the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo series. He also provided voice-over talent for numerous games.[6]
After his departure from Blizzard, Roper co-founded and held the position of CEO for Flagship Studios, the developer of Hellgate: London and Mythos (which was later released by HanbitSoft).[7] In early 2008, amidst rumors of layoffs within the company,[8] the company dissolved and lost the rights to both Mythos and Hellgate: London to Hanbitsoft and Comerica[9] respectively, after it secured financing with Texas-based Comerica Bank to support the continuing development of its franchises.[10] HanbitSoft currently owns the intellectual property rights to Mythos and Hellgate: London.[11]
In November 2008 Roper joined Cryptic Studios as Design Director and Executive Producer of their newest project, Champions Online.[12] In March 2010, Roper was promoted to Chief Creative Officer of Cryptic, replacing Jack Emmert after the latter transitioned to the role of Chief Operations Officer.[13] On August 16, 2010, Roper announced his departure from Cryptic Studios to join Disney.[14]
Roper was formerly Chief Creative Officer at Improbable.[18] In an interview with VentureBeat, Bill Roper unveiled the name of a new studio he founded, Lunacy Games, which is currently developing an "open world survival RPG set in the post-apocalyptic American West" as well as a sequel to 2007's Hellgate: London, codenamed Hellgate: Redemption[19]
Honorsedit
Roper was named #41 in IGN's Top 100 Game Creators of All Time.[20]
^"FSS Senior Developer speaks out at You Got Flagshipped". Flagshipped.com. Archived from the original on December 28, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
^Green, Jeff. "Flagship Founder Bill Roper Interview". 1up.com. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
^Linde, Aaron (March 26, 2008). "Comments - Hellgate: London Receives Additional Financing; Failship Uses Sales Rights As Loan Collatoral - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads". Shacknews. Archived from the original on July 31, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
^Warner, Matt (July 15, 2008). "HanbitSoft CEO claims ownership rights to Hellgate:London and Mythos". Engadget. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
^"Cryptic Studios Hires Industry Veteran Bill Roper | Champions Online Official Site". Champions-online.com. November 3, 2008. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
^Horner, Kyle (March 30, 2010). "Bill Roper made Cryptic's CCO, Jack Emmert switches to COO". Massively. Retrieved March 31, 2010.
^"Bill Roper Departs Cryptic Studios | Champions Online Official Site". Champions-online.com. August 16, 2010. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
^Brown, Nathan (July 22, 2011). "Bill Roper joins Disney Interactive". Edge Online. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
^Conditt, Jessica (February 7, 2012). "Former Bungie president, Alex Seropian, leaves Disney Interactive". Engadget. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
^"Disney May Turnaround Its Interactive Media Losses Over Infinity". Nasdaq, Inc. March 18, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2014.
^"Former Disney VP Bill Roper and GitHub's Jason Jhonson join Improbable's leadership team". Improbable. June 5, 2017. Retrieved July 13, 2017.
^Takahashi, Dean (March 27, 2024). "Bill Roper unveils Lunacy Games studio with survival game demo and a new Hellgate license". VentureBeat. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
^"Bill Roper: Top Game Creator". IGN. March 6, 2009. Archived from the original on March 6, 2009. Retrieved March 9, 2009.
^"IMDB profile". Imdb.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2009. Retrieved March 9, 2009.