Blizzard has officially canceled development on its mysterious next-generation massively multiplayer game Titan. The company confirmed the news to Polygon in a recent interview.
This revelation comes after at least seven years in development and word last year that the developer was going back to the drawing board to reevaluate the project.
Speaking to Polygon, Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime reiterated that the company has technically never officially announced Titan, though it hasn't been shy to talk about the game over the past seven years. "We had created World of Warcraft, and we felt really confident that we knew how to make MMOs," Morhaime said. "So we set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine. And it didn't come together.
"We didn't find the fun," Morhaime continued. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."
Doubt it, RTS right now is a dead market, especially with their poorly designed distribution system. If anything i can see they wana explore the mobile space a lot more with the profits that hearthstone bringing. They just announced 20 million players a few days ago and that number definitely gona lead them toward that space more.
With that said, I think they would wana evaluate Heroes success before deciding on anything new.
On September 24 2014 03:00 Jusba wrote: Warcraft movie next year and at the same time they announce warcraft 4 to be released in 2016 but it will come out late 2017 or early 2018 in the end.
You're not wrong for thinking that in my opinion. God knows it would be a good time. I just want to know what a new warcraft looks like. Hopefully its nothing we expect at all.
Great, now ToD can be the Warcraft 4 world champion in his old age Starcraft 3 is still a distant dream, hope im still alive by the time the beta is released
Wow, this is huge news. I am glad they are going for the longer game instead of the quick buck though. Don't see that all too much nowadays. Guess that dirty WoW money comes with its own special kind of trust by investors
On September 24 2014 03:09 Solmyr wrote: It was the last hope for me. I was preserving my life only to play in Titan as a next vanilla wow. Now I need to rethink the meaning of life.
Mobile games.. it's all in the mobile games! Candy Crush Saga arghhh
To be fair I wasn't especially excited for Titan so whatevs, WC4 would be so much better
Interesting that they would even bother announcing that they canceled the project. In all honesty I have no hope for Blizzard in coming out with "the next big thing" with Hearth/Heroes as their latest releases and consider Valve has taken over as the king of computer gaming. Just need HL3 to be confirmed now and all will be well.
I'd like a new IP. With how big blizzard is and their deep reserves of talent, I'd like to see some creativity. I guess thats what titan was supposed to be, so maybe they are just going back to their 3 title model
amazing news imo. i never had any interest in MMOs whatsoever. WoW is the only Blizzard game since the release of Diablo that i've never played in my life. i hope this means more capacities for LotV, second Diablo 3 expansion (there will be one right?), future Hearthstone content and maybe even War4.
On September 24 2014 03:00 Jusba wrote: Warcraft movie next year and at the same time they announce warcraft 4 to be released in 2016 but it will come out late 2017 or early 2018 in the end.
You're not wrong for thinking that in my opinion. God knows it would be a good time. I just want to know what a new warcraft looks like. Hopefully its nothing we expect at all.
It's going to be a free to play low-budget title that still somehow takes years to develop.
Edit: one actually wonders who makes the financial decisions over there. Canceling a seven-year project is a huge waste of money.
To all the people thinking Blizzard will make Warcraft 4 now... Keep in mind Warcraft 1, 2, Starcraft 1, and Warcraft 3 were all made by the same division within Blizzard (the RTS department). As they still have LotV to work on, I seriously seriously doubt we'll get WC4 anytime soon. In all honesty, I'd expect SC3 to come out after LotV first, considering that it seems like Blizzard is making the Starcraft franchise their flagship RTS series and Warcraft their MMO (and I guess cardgame).
Edit: Also announcing a WC4 would create competition with LotV which is never really a good idea.
On September 24 2014 03:00 Jusba wrote: Warcraft movie next year and at the same time they announce warcraft 4 to be released in 2016 but it will come out late 2017 or early 2018 in the end.
You're not wrong for thinking that in my opinion. God knows it would be a good time. I just want to know what a new warcraft looks like. Hopefully its nothing we expect at all.
It's going to be a free to play low-budget title that still somehow takes years to develop.
I think they have that already in Hearthstone. If anything, I think they are going to want to do something new or maybe to back to Warcraft. They have a lot of talented people at Blizzard and I bet the want to keep them, so its likely not going to be something soul sucking or a quick money grab.
On September 24 2014 03:27 Kenthros wrote: Why be creative, when you can use the same stuff for less expense. not surprised. Would have been nice to see a new IP. ah well cash money amiright?
You clearly didn't read the quotes. Mike Morhaime literally says they couldn't find the passion or creativity to make the game. "We had created World of Warcraft, and we felt really confident that we knew how to make MMOs, so we set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine," CEO Mike Morhaime commented. "And it didn't come together. We didn't find the fun. We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."
They canceled it not only because they didn't think it would be profitable, but because their heart's were not in it. It was a game they didn't want to make.
Disappointing from Blizzard. I was hoping more from them. I think they have too narrow a way of viewing things. They have the resources, the programmers, the imagination to make lots of incredible games. They just aren't doing it. I guess Hearthstone was the last big thing from Blizzard? Can't they do better?
Game devs just generally speaking these days are going downhill, minus a few exceptions.
Well at least it's good to hear they didn't want to continue with it if they weren't passionate and involved in it. No one wants them to spend all that time developing something that no one will give a shit about the week after its release.
On September 24 2014 03:32 Grobyc wrote: Well at least it's good to hear they didn't want to continue with it if they weren't passionate and involved in it. No one wants them to spend all that time developing something that no one will give a shit about the week after its release.
Yeah, I saw that in the same positive way as you (if you can call it that). At least they didn't force themselves to release some random F2P micro-transactionish MMO.
I'm disappointed in no new IP, but this kind of gives me more faith in Blizzard. God knows they could have plodded along with it, done the bare minimum, and cashed in on release because they are Blizzard. But they decided not to do that.
I'd still like to see a new IP, but would not mind a Warcraft 4 at all.
I do wonder what they're going to focus on next. They obviously had a team working on Titan, yet Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, WoW, Diablo III and SC2 were all being developed at the same time.
Like many in this thread, I too would like to see Warcraft IV. Unfortunately, it makes little sense for them to do it right now. WoW is still going strong with an expansion around the corner, plus three more already planned. They already have Hearthstone and, to an extent, Heroes of the Storm using the Warcraft franchise.
Not to mention they also have SC2 as a RTS game. Even though it isn't as popular as LoL, Dota 2 or even Hearthstone these days, it still gets a good amount of viewers and the game isn't dead. Not with LotV on the way.
Releasing another RTS, on top of SC2 and Heroes of the Storm would just split their player base too much. As much as it pains me to say so, I don't think we'll see the Warcraft story being continued outside of WoW. Blizzard can only ride the wave of their three franchises for so long, at some point, they need to make new stuff. It's been 20 years, and while many people still love the good ol' Blizzard characters (Diablo, Illidan, Arthas, etc.), a fair amount of people are also getting tired of it and want new material, myself among them.
The ideal scenario for me would be a new IP which would fill the role of the successor to Warcraft III. Wishful thinking though...
On September 24 2014 03:53 ZasZ. wrote: I'm disappointed in no new IP, but this kind of gives me more faith in Blizzard. God knows they could have plodded along with it, done the bare minimum, and cashed in on release because they are Blizzard. But they decided not to do that.
I'd still like to see a new IP, but would not mind a Warcraft 4 at all.
I bet there are a bunch of writers at Blizzard who would love to create a new world. I wouldn't mind seeing it, even if it took a 5 years.
On September 24 2014 03:27 Kenthros wrote: Why be creative, when you can use the same stuff for less expense. not surprised. Would have been nice to see a new IP. ah well cash money amiright?
You clearly didn't read the quotes. Mike Morhaime literally says they couldn't find the passion or creativity to make the game.
Blizzard seems to have forgotten how to make extremely solid RTS games after Warcraft 3, so another RTS after SC2: Legacy of the Void is probably out of the question.
So now that Titan died, what do they do now? Release Legacy of the Void and keep on milking their dying WoW cow?
On September 24 2014 03:27 Kenthros wrote: Why be creative, when you can use the same stuff for less expense. not surprised. Would have been nice to see a new IP. ah well cash money amiright?
You clearly didn't read the quotes. Mike Morhaime literally says they couldn't find the passion or creativity to make the game.
You clearly believe this PR stuff huh.
Mike Morhaime has always been pretty honest in all of his interviews that I have read. So yes, I believe him. The easy route is to be cynical and assume its all about easy money and the whole interview is PR, but I am not a cynic.
I'd love to know more about what Titan would have been and looked like, now that it will likely never come together. They spent so much time talking about their next-level goals for the game that I was preparing for something groundbreaking. It would be a shame to never at least see what it could have been.
Also, I'd actually like to applaud Blizzard for identifying the problem (albeit very late) and not just pushing something mediocre out. People like to talk about how they don't care about quality anymore, but sinking (I assume) millions of dollars into a game that ends up being cancelled due to the quality and "fun" not being what they were aiming for says to me that they still care a lot about the things they put out.
On September 24 2014 04:20 Zealously wrote: I'd love to know more about what Titan would have been and looked like, now that it will likely never come together. They spent so much time talking about their next-level goals for the game that I was preparing for something groundbreaking. It would be a shame to never at least see what it could have been.
Also, I'd actually like to applaud Blizzard for identifying the problem (albeit very late) and not just pushing something mediocre out. People like to talk about how they don't care about quality anymore, but sinking (I assume) millions of dollars into a game that ends up being cancelled due to the quality and "fun" not being what they were aiming for says to me that they still care a lot about the things they put out.
I am sure there was a ton of pressure over the years from share holders in activision to make the next WoW, which is likely why it dragged on for so long.
I am sure we will hear a lot of about what that game was going to be over the years to come.
On September 24 2014 03:31 Incognoto wrote: Disappointing from Blizzard. I was hoping more from them. I think they have too narrow a way of viewing things. They have the resources, the programmers, the imagination to make lots of incredible games. They just aren't doing it. I guess Hearthstone was the last big thing from Blizzard? Can't they do better?
Game devs just generally speaking these days are going downhill, minus a few exceptions.
To be fair blizzard was always like this.
Starcraft was completely redone after the first announcement. Starcraft Ghost is still posponed. Warcraft 3 was completely redone after the initial announcement. There was a warcraft adventure game in development which was also cut.
On September 24 2014 04:20 Zealously wrote: I'd love to know more about what Titan would have been and looked like, now that it will likely never come together. They spent so much time talking about their next-level goals for the game that I was preparing for something groundbreaking. It would be a shame to never at least see what it could have been.
Also, I'd actually like to applaud Blizzard for identifying the problem (albeit very late) and not just pushing something mediocre out. People like to talk about how they don't care about quality anymore, but sinking (I assume) millions of dollars into a game that ends up being cancelled due to the quality and "fun" not being what they were aiming for says to me that they still care a lot about the things they put out.
Sad day. I guess it's good that they canceled it publicly rather than just stringing us along. I still remember being at multiple Blizzcons thinking "This will be the day they announce Titan!".
On September 24 2014 03:27 Kenthros wrote: Why be creative, when you can use the same stuff for less expense. not surprised. Would have been nice to see a new IP. ah well cash money amiright?
You clearly didn't read the quotes. Mike Morhaime literally says they couldn't find the passion or creativity to make the game.
You clearly believe this PR stuff huh.
Mike Morhaime has always been pretty honest in all of his interviews that I have read. So yes, I believe him. The easy route is to be cynical and assume its all about easy money and the whole interview is PR, but I am not a cynic.
The easy way out was to half-ass the game and release it like other big development studios do (*cough* EA *cough*) in an attempt to make some of the money back. Cancelling it took more guts. That guy you're responding to obviously isn't thinking.
On September 24 2014 03:54 Spaylz wrote: That is very interesting news.
I do wonder what they're going to focus on next. They obviously had a team working on Titan, yet Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, WoW, Diablo III and SC2 were all being developed at the same time.
Like many in this thread, I too would like to see Warcraft IV. Unfortunately, it makes little sense for them to do it right now. WoW is still going strong with an expansion around the corner, plus three more already planned. They already have Hearthstone and, to an extent, Heroes of the Storm using the Warcraft franchise.
Not to mention they also have SC2 as a RTS game. Even though it isn't as popular as LoL, Dota 2 or even Hearthstone these days, it still gets a good amount of viewers and the game isn't dead. Not with LotV on the way.
Releasing another RTS, on top of SC2 and Heroes of the Storm would just split their player base too much. As much as it pains me to say so, I don't think we'll see the Warcraft story being continued outside of WoW. Blizzard can only ride the wave of their three franchises for so long, at some point, they need to make new stuff. It's been 20 years, and while many people still love the good ol' Blizzard characters (Diablo, Illidan, Arthas, etc.), a fair amount of people are also getting tired of it and want new material, myself among them.
The ideal scenario for me would be a new IP which would fill the role of the successor to Warcraft III. Wishful thinking though...
I wouldn't be surprised that a lot of people were pulled off Titan and LOTV to work on their F2P cashcows Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm as soon as they noticed that such games were becoming a trend.
All the current high-end developing companies do anymore is churn out sequel after sequel. Blizzard hasn't done anything new in two decades, Ubisoft is about to release the umpteenth version of Assassin's Creed, Far Cry 4 is just going to be like FC2 and 3, but with a different backdrop, Activision's going to release COD 10 or something, EA is coming with yet another battlefield, Microsoft is rereleasing HALO for the XboxOne because they haven't any other games to offer, etc etc. Even From Software's new game is just going to be a slightly altered Dark Souls.
And the only sequel I care about, Half Life 3, is nowhere in sight. I don't know if it's me growing older, but my interest in gaming has become all but nonexistent. I have a huge "been there, done that" feeling.
I've heard that the few leaks of the game made it seem like it slightly resembled Bungie's Destiny, and considering the at best lukewarm reception that game has received, it makes sense that Blizzard would heavily reconsider what it was going for.
I hope some art gets leaked for the game now that it's cancelled. I'm sure we're all just way too curious about what was being made so secretly behind the scenes.
On September 24 2014 04:35 eviltomahawk wrote: I've heard that the few leaks of the game made it seem like it slightly resembled Bungie's Destiny, and considering the at best lukewarm reception that game has received, it makes sense that Blizzard would heavily reconsider what it was going for.
I hope some art gets leaked for the game now that it's cancelled. I'm sure we're all just way too curious about what was being made so secretly behind the scenes.
It will get leaked in resumes when people are job hunting, just like every other canceled game in the world.
Not surprising after all this time, 7 years and nothing to show for it. Don't really buy the 'lacking passion' though, most likely it's similar to SC:Ghost; too long development forcing continuous reworks to keep it from being outdated. Some of their innovative ideas are probably used in other games already, as well as expertise lost to other companies. Hope we get to see some art or screens from Titan some day however, I'm curious what it would've been.
On September 24 2014 04:35 eviltomahawk wrote: I've heard that the few leaks of the game made it seem like it slightly resembled Bungie's Destiny, and considering the at best lukewarm reception that game has received, it makes sense that Blizzard would heavily reconsider what it was going for.
I hope some art gets leaked for the game now that it's cancelled. I'm sure we're all just way too curious about what was being made so secretly behind the scenes.
Yeah, it's not like they "rebooted" (meaning personal was moved to other projects while they were "figuring things out") the project months before Destiny's release. Or so many years with very little information going out. There's probably many different reasons why it's cancelled but destiny's reception is very unlikely to be one of them.
Have to respect a decission of not putting a game out because the quality seemed questionable. That is pretty gutsy considering 7 years of development is quite a cost to swallow.
When that is said, it may have been necessary with the way Diablo 3 vanilla became a stock market simulator and relatively repetitive, not to mention several other problems. The first expansion did a lot to rectify the shortcomings, but it still hurts as much as the stone called battle.net 2.
I hope they can find a way foreward that involves PC or a port for it. Right now, they seem to explore other areas. While Heartstone deserves applause as a well-made game, it may not be what I am looking for. Heroes looks more like it even though MOBA is kind of reaching a saturation point.
On September 24 2014 03:27 Kenthros wrote: Why be creative, when you can use the same stuff for less expense. not surprised. Would have been nice to see a new IP. ah well cash money amiright?
You clearly didn't read the quotes. Mike Morhaime literally says they couldn't find the passion or creativity to make the game.
You clearly believe this PR stuff huh.
Mike Morhaime has always been pretty honest in all of his interviews that I have read. So yes, I believe him. The easy route is to be cynical and assume its all about easy money and the whole interview is PR, but I am not a cynic.
The easy way out was to half-ass the game and release it like other big development studios do (*cough* EA *cough*) in an attempt to make some of the money back. Cancelling it took more guts. That guy you're responding to obviously isn't thinking.
You are right I wasn't thinking, Blizzard hasn't sold any games in the past by cutting corners for the fast buck. You have opened my eyes.
I'm not honestly surprised. The subscription-based MMO market is not the cash cow that it once was and it seems that unless you really do make the next big thing that you aren't going to be seeing a return on it. It seems that Blizzard is trying to find ways to change with the times, and it sounds like Titan wasn't their answer to that.
On September 24 2014 03:27 Kenthros wrote: Why be creative, when you can use the same stuff for less expense. not surprised. Would have been nice to see a new IP. ah well cash money amiright?
You clearly didn't read the quotes. Mike Morhaime literally says they couldn't find the passion or creativity to make the game.
You clearly believe this PR stuff huh.
Mike Morhaime has always been pretty honest in all of his interviews that I have read. So yes, I believe him. The easy route is to be cynical and assume its all about easy money and the whole interview is PR, but I am not a cynic.
The easy way out was to half-ass the game and release it like other big development studios do (*cough* EA *cough*) in an attempt to make some of the money back. Cancelling it took more guts. That guy you're responding to obviously isn't thinking.
You are right I wasn't thinking, Blizzard hasn't sold any games in the past by cutting corners for the fast buck. You have opened my eyes.
Personal opinions are hard.
On September 24 2014 05:44 FueledUpAndReadyToGo wrote: Lets hope they don't lose the passion to make Legacy of the Void. If it's not revealed at Blizzcon I'm going to be worried.
I wouldn't get to worried if they don't, but I expect them to at least show something. At least a trailer.
On September 24 2014 05:39 jakethesnake wrote: I'm not honestly surprised. The subscription-based MMO market is not the cash cow that it once was and it seems that unless you really do make the next big thing that you aren't going to be seeing a return on it. It seems that Blizzard is trying to find ways to change with the times, and it sounds like Titan wasn't their answer to that.
On September 24 2014 05:39 jakethesnake wrote: I'm not honestly surprised. The subscription-based MMO market is not the cash cow that it once was and it seems that unless you really do make the next big thing that you aren't going to be seeing a return on it. It seems that Blizzard is trying to find ways to change with the times, and it sounds like Titan wasn't their answer to that.
Aren't F2P MOBAs the new cash cows?
Nope, just the one by Riot. Dota works off of the built in steam market place which has a huge install base and unlimited Valve dollars. The rest of the games are just doing what every WoW clone did, chasing the money. The head of Ubi soft came out and said that chasing Riot's success was a bad idea because the only reason they are profitable is due to their huge install base. He cited that they had like 3% attachment rate(3 out of 100 spend money). Basically, if you can't pull in 30 million people, you cant survive on just skins and selling heroes.
Anyone chasing the moba money is just doing the same thing that people making MMO's were doing for the last 10 years.
On September 24 2014 05:23 N.geNuity wrote: BW SERVER UPDATE?
-hd broodwar texture pack to support higher resolutions confirmed -mca64's dev team hired onto blizzard payroll to assist with new launcher allowing users to connect to fish/iccup with only 5ms regardless of global location -fish ladder is now supported by blizzard and will hold weekly cash tournaments casted by tasteless and lilsusie for top ladder players
The most interesting part: Metzen and Morhaime stated that they realized Blizzard isn't entitled or obligated to do MMOs because it's not a MMO company and the success of Hearthstone let them realize further that they don't need to do big budget projects.
From an industry perspective, this is a great vision and very smart move, in a world that AAA titles are much much more costly to make and the flexibility of PC gaming and digital distribution are flourishing day by day, not being cornered to a certain market and genre is almost a must to do well both financially and critically, I feel it's the change Blizzard needs to take for the past several years to adapt the new industry environment. The video game industry needs more mid-tier titles and small projects from big companies to provide more variety.
im not surprised, i would have imagined that their MMO would have been along the lines of a wildstar/everquestNext clone and hence they would rather wait until they can come up with a vastly different and "next gen" product by comparison
also although many mobile games might suck, i think we are starting to see real quality ones coming along and its no longer to be scoffed at
Ouch, wonder how much of that work was done by some of those big names that have now since left the company. Seems like every other month there is news about big talent leaving, but I never put stock in a brand name anyway... only as good or bad as the people behind it. I was under the impression that the top shelf talent were the ones working on the project though. :D
Blizzard should probably do what Firaxis does and just take ideas from the indies that are coming up with the creative and innovative stuff and just polish and improve on them like they are known to be good at.
On September 24 2014 06:16 screamingpalm wrote: Ouch, wonder how much of that work was done by some of those big names that have now since left the company. Seems like every other month there is news about big talent leaving, but I never put stock in a brand name anyway... only as good or bad as the people behind it. I was under the impression that the top shelf talent were the ones working on the project though. :D
Blizzard should probably do what Firaxis does and just take ideas from the indies that are coming up with the creative and innovative stuff and just polish and improve on them like they are known to be good at.
The difference is that the last time Blizzard made a solid game was arguably 2004. The last time Firaxis made a solid game was 2013 (XCOM) and initial comments on the new Civilization game coming out next month are overwhelmingly positive.
The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
The difference is that the last time Blizzard made a solid game was arguably 2004. The last time Firaxis made a solid game was 2013 (XCOM) and initial comments on the new Civilization game coming out next month are overwhelmingly positive.
Yeah that's what I mean. The new features for Civ: BE are all ideas I've seen from smaller/indie titles which look to be more polished and improved upon (affinities remind me of govt type in sots2, tech tree from ES). Basically what I remembered Blizzard to be good at doing. :D
On September 24 2014 03:03 ninazerg wrote: May we have StarCraft 3 please?
Wow LotV hasn't even been announced and you want next generation already!
Blizzard is coming out with a movie, so they need to cut budgets. IMDB has a Warcraft movie posted for release in 2016. My guess is that they didn't want to invest into both next gen mmo and a big budget movie.
Damn though, 7 years in development and then Titan is tossed in the bin.
On September 24 2014 03:24 Brutaxilos wrote: To all the people thinking Blizzard will make Warcraft 4 now... Keep in mind Warcraft 1, 2, Starcraft 1, and Warcraft 3 were all made by the same division within Blizzard (the RTS department). As they still have LotV to work on, I seriously seriously doubt we'll get WC4 anytime soon. In all honesty, I'd expect SC3 to come out after LotV first, considering that it seems like Blizzard is making the Starcraft franchise their flagship RTS series and Warcraft their MMO (and I guess cardgame).
Edit: Also announcing a WC4 would create competition with LotV which is never really a good idea.
What if they went balls deep into the hero system and made WC4 a hybrid RTS/MOBA? Personally, that would utterly turn me off from ever having the slightest desire to play it, but MOBAs are crazy popular, and it seems like a formula that could sell amazingly well.
On September 24 2014 06:16 screamingpalm wrote: Ouch, wonder how much of that work was done by some of those big names that have now since left the company. Seems like every other month there is news about big talent leaving, but I never put stock in a brand name anyway... only as good or bad as the people behind it. I was under the impression that the top shelf talent were the ones working on the project though. :D
Blizzard should probably do what Firaxis does and just take ideas from the indies that are coming up with the creative and innovative stuff and just polish and improve on them like they are known to be good at.
The difference is that the last time Blizzard made a solid game was arguably 2004. The last time Firaxis made a solid game was 2013 (XCOM) and initial comments on the new Civilization game coming out next month are overwhelmingly positive.
The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
Most subjective statement in the thread award. And that's saying something.
Wow, this is a bit of a shocker. I knew they already once scrapped and remade titan but I did not expect just a omplete shutdown on the project. Pls Warcraft IV RTS :3
Pretty funny quote from Metzen in the Polygon article
"Metzen compared Blizzard's creative struggles with Titan to that of a band: "I'm not saying we're an old rock band. But you watch documentaries about The Rolling Stones or U2 or these bands that have lasted for a while. And there's times where they just drive each other batshit crazy. For as good as they are and the experience they have, sometimes you just don't find it, and you've got to get out of the damn studio and go have a beer and regroup.""
Blizzard is the Led Zeppelin of rock bands... they only release something when they damned well feel it is right.
Very few rock bands and game studios have that autonomy and well....Blizzard has earned it.
game development at blizzard is a long, lonely, lonely, lonely time.
i'm glad to see Morhaime still has the autonomy and balls to cancel lame projects no matter how much cash is sunk into them.
What I'd like to know... and we'll never had the answer to this... is ... in the past 10 years which released title came closest to getting cancelled ? SC2? D3? some WoW Expo? Hearthstone? i think it was D3 in May 2012. the game design guy got replaced pretty fast after its release.
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
On September 24 2014 06:16 screamingpalm wrote: Ouch, wonder how much of that work was done by some of those big names that have now since left the company. Seems like every other month there is news about big talent leaving, but I never put stock in a brand name anyway... only as good or bad as the people behind it. I was under the impression that the top shelf talent were the ones working on the project though. :D
Blizzard should probably do what Firaxis does and just take ideas from the indies that are coming up with the creative and innovative stuff and just polish and improve on them like they are known to be good at.
The difference is that the last time Blizzard made a solid game was arguably 2004. The last time Firaxis made a solid game was 2013 (XCOM) and initial comments on the new Civilization game coming out next month are overwhelmingly positive.
The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
Most subjective statement in the thread award. And that's saying something.
*humble bow* I admit I exaggerated for effect, but for what it's worth, it's a very common statement. While I personally like SC2 a lot, the degree of overall discontent I've seen with Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 over the years since their releases has been significant, from players familiar with previous Blizzard games and new players as well. The ever-so-popular "Starcraft 2 is dead" meme doesn't help either.
Hearthstone is a nice Magic-style card game, but Heroes of the Storm will be Blizzard's next crack at a real-time action game. It's a MOBA, so making a good game out of it will hopefully be more straight forward than a heavy adventure RPG like Diablo or an intricate and complex RTS like Starcraft 2. Also, there's no real story/plot to Heroes of the Storm, which was a major element and point of criticism both in Starcraft 2 and in Diablo 3.
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote: The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
thanks for the laugh man.
Blizzard has only been around since 1993 .. .so they made good stuff for 6 years and hoave been costing since then. ok
i guess they are doing a great job living off of Lost Vikings and porting educational software over to Windows 3.1.
SC2 holds about 90% of the RTS market share precisely because it has had 2 solid releases in 2010 and 2012.
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote: The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
thanks for the laugh man.
Blizzard has only been around since 1993 .. .so they made good stuff for 6 years and hoave been costing since then. ok
i guess they are doing a great job living off of Lost Vikings and porting educational software over to Windows 3.1.
The real laugh is that you're perfectly incapable of reading XD
Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises were created in the 1990s. Blizzard hasn't had a new franchise since then, which they were attempting to do with Titan. That's the only thing I said.
Every game Blizzard has released since Warcraft 1 has been either a Warcraft, Diablo, or Starcraft game. That's the only point I was making in my last post. I have no idea where you're pulling all this Lost Vikings and education software stuff from, because it's entirely irrelevant to my original point that since the release of WC1, all of Blizzard's development has been for the SC, Diablo, and WC franchises.
But please, keep up with the dumb comments LOL. Future advice: If you really have to take a dickish jab at someone, at least be intelligent when doing it.
SC2 holds about 90% of the RTS market share precisely because it has had 2 solid releases in 2010 and 2012.
And SC2 is part of the Starcraft franchise, is it not? You're only proving my original point.
This is actually a *good* thing. Yes, Titan cost a lot up to this point, but it was likely cancelled before all of the staff hiring & ramp-up started. Blizzard chose not to *waste* 100s of Millions on the project. That's good business & good for the gamer. One more project that isn't hyped to all hell that then fails to be that good.
Also, the amount of money put into the project already doesn't matter. That's the "Sunk Cost Fallacy". A very important economic principle.
Hmm, somehow I swear there was a third game series in addition to WC and SC. I keep forgetting that the [very successful] Diablo stuff was produced by, oh wait, yeah, it was Blizzard. But yeah, even without Diablo, the whole 'only SC/WC thing' is still wrong...and very easily verified: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment
On September 24 2014 11:27 asymptotech wrote: Hmm, somehow I swear there was a third game series in addition to WC and SC. I keep forgetting that the [very successful] Diablo stuff was produced by, oh wait, yeah, it was Blizzard. But yeah, even without Diablo, the whole 'only SC/WC thing' is still wrong...and very easily verified: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment
Hmm, forgot that in my first post, but it's in my next one (two above yours). Considering I've played all 3 Diablos and own the second and third, it was an honest brain fart.
However, it doesn't change the fact that Blizzard was looking to create a new franchise and it flopped, which is the entire fact of my original post. Then again, I think some people would rather be smart alecs and pick at literally anything.
Even without Diablo, please tell me all the non-WC/SC games you see in the mid-late 1990s and the 2000s. What do you see? Nothing (except Lost vikings 2, if we really want to be smart alecs).
You just linked something that proved yourself wrong lol. Do the trolls on this forum even try?
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote: The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
thanks for the laugh man.
Blizzard has only been around since 1993 .. .so they made good stuff for 6 years and hoave been costing since then. ok
i guess they are doing a great job living off of Lost Vikings and porting educational software over to Windows 3.1.
The real laugh is that you're perfectly incapable of reading XD
Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises were created in the 1990s. Blizzard hasn't had a new franchise since then, which they were attempting to do with Titan. That's the only thing I said.
Every game Blizzard has released since Warcraft 1 has been either a Warcraft, Diablo, or Starcraft game. That's the only point I was making in my last post. I have no idea where you're pulling all this Lost Vikings and education software stuff from, because it's entirely irrelevant to my original point that since the release of WC1, all of Blizzard's development has been for the SC, Diablo, and WC franchises.
But please, keep up with the dumb comments LOL. Future advice: If you really have to take a dickish jab at someone, at least be intelligent when doing it.
On September 24 2014 11:27 asymptotech wrote: Hmm, somehow I swear there was a third game series in addition to WC and SC. I keep forgetting that the [very successful] Diablo stuff was produced by, oh wait, yeah, it was Blizzard. But yeah, even without Diablo, the whole 'only SC/WC thing' is still wrong...and very easily verified: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment
Hmm, forgot that in my first post, but it's in my next one (two above yours). Considering I've played all 3 Diablos and own the second and third, it was an honest brain fart.
However, it doesn't change the fact that Blizzard was looking to create a new franchise and it flopped, which is the entire fact of my original post. Then again, I think people would rather be smart asses.
No, they didn't make the game because it wasn't viable and their staff didn't want to make it. If you don't think there was a huge push from stock holders to make the next "wow", you are crazy. But after they made Hearth Stone and proved that they didn't need to make an MMO to get 20 million people to try their game, they likely decided that they didn't need to make that game any more. And lets be clear, making video games is a creative process and if your staff isn't into the game you are making, its going to be a pretty shitty game.
You can also read polygon's take on the subject where they go over how amazing it is that Blizzard decided to can the project and move on. Part of the creative process of making things is deciding that what you were working on was crap and moving on. Games are canceled and shelved all the time. Blizzard is just going to move on and make something else.
On September 24 2014 11:19 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
On September 24 2014 11:16 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote: The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
thanks for the laugh man.
Blizzard has only been around since 1993 .. .so they made good stuff for 6 years and hoave been costing since then. ok
i guess they are doing a great job living off of Lost Vikings and porting educational software over to Windows 3.1.
The real laugh is that you're perfectly incapable of reading XD
Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises were created in the 1990s. Blizzard hasn't had a new franchise since then, which they were attempting to do with Titan. That's the only thing I said.
Every game Blizzard has released since Warcraft 1 has been either a Warcraft, Diablo, or Starcraft game. That's the only point I was making in my last post. I have no idea where you're pulling all this Lost Vikings and education software stuff from, because it's entirely irrelevant to my original point that since the release of WC1, all of Blizzard's development has been for the SC, Diablo, and WC franchises.
But please, keep up with the dumb comments LOL. Future advice: If you really have to take a dickish jab at someone, at least be intelligent when doing it.
SC2 holds about 90% of the RTS market share precisely because it has had 2 solid releases in 2010 and 2012.
And SC2 is part of the Starcraft franchise, is it not? You're only proving my original point.
why would they need new franchises? mind blown
I was wondering the same thing. Why are you asking me? I don't work at Blizzard. Maybe ask Blizzard why they were only trying to make a new franchise for 7 years? mind blown
On September 24 2014 11:33 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
On September 24 2014 11:27 asymptotech wrote: Hmm, somehow I swear there was a third game series in addition to WC and SC. I keep forgetting that the [very successful] Diablo stuff was produced by, oh wait, yeah, it was Blizzard. But yeah, even without Diablo, the whole 'only SC/WC thing' is still wrong...and very easily verified: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment
Hmm, forgot that in my first post, but it's in my next one (two above yours). Considering I've played all 3 Diablos and own the second and third, it was an honest brain fart.
However, it doesn't change the fact that Blizzard was looking to create a new franchise and it flopped, which is the entire fact of my original post. Then again, I think people would rather be smart asses.
No, they didn't make the game because it wasn't viable and their staff didn't want to make it. If you don't think there was a huge push from stock holders to make the next "wow", you are crazy. But after they made Hearth Stone and proved that they didn't need to make an MMO to get 20 million people to try their game, they likely decided that they didn't need to make that game any more. And lets be clear, making video games is a creative process and if your staff isn't into the game you are making, its going to be a pretty shitty game.
You can also read polygon's take on the subject where they go over how amazing it is that Blizzard decided to can the project and move on. Part of the creative process of making things is deciding that what you were working on was crap and moving on. Games are canceled and shelved all the time. Blizzard is just going to move on and make something else.
You're saying that Blizzard was at the overwhelming pressure by stockholders for 7 years to develop Titan? That sounds even crazier that the company would have been "held hostage" for that long.
I think the biggest issue was they didn't have the same degree of creativity with Titan that they had in formulating the Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft franchises. I can see why they were having issues with Titan. And fortunately, the early Starcraft, Diablo, and Warcraft games were extremely good, and Starcraft was one of the biggest professional sports in South Korea. When you have that solid foundation, it's really easy to continue on it, and there isn't much motivation to create something new. So yeah, I understand why you say that the staff didn't have too much heart in it.
An analog: id Software is still making shittons of royalties from id Tech, and if you haven't noticed, the legendary FPS creator has really toned down their game development operations since Doom 3 (besides Rage and a Q3 remake), because id Tech is doing well. Still, I honestly prefer the Unreal engine.
Guess they will work on Warcraft4 next then, they already have expansions planned for Starcraft and wow among with Diablo3, unless they start with a new game concept AGAIN or decide to strengthen one of the already existing teams.
On September 24 2014 11:19 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
On September 24 2014 11:16 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote: The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
thanks for the laugh man.
Blizzard has only been around since 1993 .. .so they made good stuff for 6 years and hoave been costing since then. ok
i guess they are doing a great job living off of Lost Vikings and porting educational software over to Windows 3.1.
The real laugh is that you're perfectly incapable of reading XD
Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises were created in the 1990s. Blizzard hasn't had a new franchise since then, which they were attempting to do with Titan. That's the only thing I said.
Every game Blizzard has released since Warcraft 1 has been either a Warcraft, Diablo, or Starcraft game. That's the only point I was making in my last post. I have no idea where you're pulling all this Lost Vikings and education software stuff from, because it's entirely irrelevant to my original point that since the release of WC1, all of Blizzard's development has been for the SC, Diablo, and WC franchises.
But please, keep up with the dumb comments LOL. Future advice: If you really have to take a dickish jab at someone, at least be intelligent when doing it.
SC2 holds about 90% of the RTS market share precisely because it has had 2 solid releases in 2010 and 2012.
And SC2 is part of the Starcraft franchise, is it not? You're only proving my original point.
why would they need new franchises? mind blown
Why are you asking me? I don't work at Blizzard. Maybe ask Blizzard why they were only trying to make a new franchise for 7 years? mind blown
On September 24 2014 11:33 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
On September 24 2014 11:27 asymptotech wrote: Hmm, somehow I swear there was a third game series in addition to WC and SC. I keep forgetting that the [very successful] Diablo stuff was produced by, oh wait, yeah, it was Blizzard. But yeah, even without Diablo, the whole 'only SC/WC thing' is still wrong...and very easily verified: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment
Hmm, forgot that in my first post, but it's in my next one (two above yours). Considering I've played all 3 Diablos and own the second and third, it was an honest brain fart.
However, it doesn't change the fact that Blizzard was looking to create a new franchise and it flopped, which is the entire fact of my original post. Then again, I think people would rather be smart asses.
No, they didn't make the game because it wasn't viable and their staff didn't want to make it. If you don't think there was a huge push from stock holders to make the next "wow", you are crazy. But after they made Hearth Stone and proved that they didn't need to make an MMO to get 20 million people to try their game, they likely decided that they didn't need to make that game any more. And lets be clear, making video games is a creative process and if your staff isn't into the game you are making, its going to be a pretty shitty game.
You can also read polygon's take on the subject where they go over how amazing it is that Blizzard decided to can the project and move on. Part of the creative process of making things is deciding that what you were working on was crap and moving on. Games are canceled and shelved all the time. Blizzard is just going to move on and make something else.
You're saying that Blizzard was at the overwhelming pressure by stockholders for 7 years to develop Titan? That sounds even crazier that the company would have been "held hostage" for that long.
I think the biggest issue was they didn't have the same degree of creativity with Titan that they had in formulating the Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft franchises. I can see why they were having issues with Titan.
Stockholders hold a ton of power and most of Activisions earning reports focused a lot on WoW. There is nothing crazy about it. And MMOs take around 5-7 years to develop, so canceling one isn't a shocker. At least they didn't shit out a crappy game just to try and recoup some of their loss.
On September 24 2014 11:41 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
On September 24 2014 11:40 Artok wrote:
On September 24 2014 11:19 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
On September 24 2014 11:16 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote: The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
thanks for the laugh man.
Blizzard has only been around since 1993 .. .so they made good stuff for 6 years and hoave been costing since then. ok
i guess they are doing a great job living off of Lost Vikings and porting educational software over to Windows 3.1.
The real laugh is that you're perfectly incapable of reading XD
Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises were created in the 1990s. Blizzard hasn't had a new franchise since then, which they were attempting to do with Titan. That's the only thing I said.
Every game Blizzard has released since Warcraft 1 has been either a Warcraft, Diablo, or Starcraft game. That's the only point I was making in my last post. I have no idea where you're pulling all this Lost Vikings and education software stuff from, because it's entirely irrelevant to my original point that since the release of WC1, all of Blizzard's development has been for the SC, Diablo, and WC franchises.
But please, keep up with the dumb comments LOL. Future advice: If you really have to take a dickish jab at someone, at least be intelligent when doing it.
SC2 holds about 90% of the RTS market share precisely because it has had 2 solid releases in 2010 and 2012.
And SC2 is part of the Starcraft franchise, is it not? You're only proving my original point.
why would they need new franchises? mind blown
Why are you asking me? I don't work at Blizzard. Maybe ask Blizzard why they were only trying to make a new franchise for 7 years? mind blown
On September 24 2014 11:40 Plansix wrote:
On September 24 2014 11:33 JudicatorHammurabi wrote:
On September 24 2014 11:27 asymptotech wrote: Hmm, somehow I swear there was a third game series in addition to WC and SC. I keep forgetting that the [very successful] Diablo stuff was produced by, oh wait, yeah, it was Blizzard. But yeah, even without Diablo, the whole 'only SC/WC thing' is still wrong...and very easily verified: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blizzard_Entertainment
Hmm, forgot that in my first post, but it's in my next one (two above yours). Considering I've played all 3 Diablos and own the second and third, it was an honest brain fart.
However, it doesn't change the fact that Blizzard was looking to create a new franchise and it flopped, which is the entire fact of my original post. Then again, I think people would rather be smart asses.
No, they didn't make the game because it wasn't viable and their staff didn't want to make it. If you don't think there was a huge push from stock holders to make the next "wow", you are crazy. But after they made Hearth Stone and proved that they didn't need to make an MMO to get 20 million people to try their game, they likely decided that they didn't need to make that game any more. And lets be clear, making video games is a creative process and if your staff isn't into the game you are making, its going to be a pretty shitty game.
You can also read polygon's take on the subject where they go over how amazing it is that Blizzard decided to can the project and move on. Part of the creative process of making things is deciding that what you were working on was crap and moving on. Games are canceled and shelved all the time. Blizzard is just going to move on and make something else.
You're saying that Blizzard was at the overwhelming pressure by stockholders for 7 years to develop Titan? That sounds even crazier that the company would have been "held hostage" for that long.
I think the biggest issue was they didn't have the same degree of creativity with Titan that they had in formulating the Diablo, Starcraft, and Warcraft franchises. I can see why they were having issues with Titan.
Stockholders hold a ton of power and most of Activisions earning reports focused a lot on WoW. There is nothing crazy about it. And MMOs take around 5-7 years to develop, so canceling one isn't a shocker. At least they didn't shit out a crappy game just to try and recoup some of their loss.
Well, let's be frank. WoW's earnings have been plummeting over the last 4 years. I don't understand who over at Activision or among their stockholders thought the proper response was to continue forcing the development of a game that the developer saw wasn't going anywhere. Then again, this wouldn't be the first time that Activision was twisting Blizzard's arm.
Still, I don't think we can put all the blame for these shortcomings on Activision and the stockholders. Some game devs make honest mistakes (3DR is a famous example). I also don't think that if Valve became publicly traded tomorrow, that somehow ignorant stockholders would force them into developing games they don't want to or would receive a lot of criticism (like Diablo 3 did).
Still, do we even know for sure that Activision was forcing Blizzard to develop Titan all this time, when Blizzard knew it was a failing endeavor? Or are you speculating?
Honestly, if I was Blizzard, from the start I would have said, "I have 3 really solid franchises, so I'm going to continue with that."
Just look at Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series that has been around since 1994, or id's Wolfenstein, DOOM, and Quake series that are alive and well to this day and originated in the early-mid 90s. Dare I even mention Final Fantasy? I wouldn't expect Blizzard to make an entirely new franchise for a very long time.
It's not the first time Blizzard cancels games that's been in production for a prolonged period of time, Starcraft:Ghost had an entire in house team, and a secondary team that was hired from the outside much like how Diablo 1 was created. Then we have Warcraft:Warlord of the clans which pretty much got finished before it was cancelled.
I hope they go yolo with LoTV and make it MUCH more like brood war, then get to work on Warcraft 4. The free to play model can certainly work for an RTS; Blizzard was just too lazy/didn't realize the potential pile of money they could have made with sc2.
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote: The cancellation of Titan is 7 years down the drain, and doesn't reflect well on Blizzard, whose success to this day has entirely benched on the Warcraft and Starcraft franchises they made back in the 1990s.
thanks for the laugh man.
Blizzard has only been around since 1993 .. .so they made good stuff for 6 years and hoave been costing since then. ok
i guess they are doing a great job living off of Lost Vikings and porting educational software over to Windows 3.1.
The real laugh is that you're perfectly incapable of reading XD
Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft franchises were created in the 1990s. Blizzard hasn't had a new franchise since then, which they were attempting to do with Titan. That's the only thing I said.
Every game Blizzard has released since Warcraft 1 has been either a Warcraft, Diablo, or Starcraft game. That's the only point I was making in my last post. I have no idea where you're pulling all this Lost Vikings and education software stuff from, because it's entirely irrelevant to my original point that since the release of WC1, all of Blizzard's development has been for the SC, Diablo, and WC franchises.
But please, keep up with the dumb comments LOL. Future advice: If you really have to take a dickish jab at someone, at least be intelligent when doing it.
SC2 holds about 90% of the RTS market share precisely because it has had 2 solid releases in 2010 and 2012.
And SC2 is part of the Starcraft franchise, is it not? You're only proving my original point.
which point? this point right here? is that the point?
On September 24 2014 08:29 JudicatorHammurabi wrote: The difference is that the last time Blizzard made a solid game was arguably 2004.
after several posts you're now babling in circles.
Blizzard has made solid games that are post 2004 including WoL and HotS. Let's compare these releases to SCs closest competitor in the RTS genre.. C&C and EA's latest RTS masterpiece.. .C&C4... or how about CA's Rome2.
I like Blizzard making very few games.. and i like the autonomy Blizzard management has to cancel games that have been under development for several years.
Every game Blizzard cancels costs me $0 and zero time deciding whether or not to buy it.
On September 24 2014 12:04 Integra wrote: It's not the first time Blizzard cancels games that's been in production for a prolonged period of time, Starcraft:Ghost had an entire in house team, and a secondary team that was hired from the outside much like how Diablo 1 was created. Then we have Warcraft:Warlord of the clans which pretty much got finished before it was cancelled.
I think SC:Ghost had 3 development teams work on it. first it was Nihilistic, then Swingin' Ape, and then 1 other internal Blizzard team.
I learned 2 things from the cancellation of SC:Ghost.
1. Blizzard's top execs really really wanted to make a 1st person tactical shooter in the SC universe work. 2. Blizzard's top execs were eventually willing to admit it was not up to standard no matter how many ways they tried to skin this cat.
Blizzard's "feedback loop" is pretty amazing for such a big company.
Cancelling a game that would of probably sucked out loud because it never came together isn't bad.
It does beg the question of what does blizzard do down the road now, clearly they have Hearthstone now. Heroes of the Storm will be a hard sell because LoL is just so damn big, but who knows.
On September 24 2014 04:20 Zealously wrote: I'd love to know more about what Titan would have been and looked like, now that it will likely never come together. They spent so much time talking about their next-level goals for the game that I was preparing for something groundbreaking. It would be a shame to never at least see what it could have been.
Also, I'd actually like to applaud Blizzard for identifying the problem (albeit very late) and not just pushing something mediocre out. People like to talk about how they don't care about quality anymore, but sinking (I assume) millions of dollars into a game that ends up being cancelled due to the quality and "fun" not being what they were aiming for says to me that they still care a lot about the things they put out.
Just this!!
Yeah, they should totally hand over the ultra-innovative MMO ideas they couldn't put into a game.
Diablo, RTS, MMO, MOBA, and TCG genres are all up to date. They don't really have anything else to do short of a new IP (or a WoW 2 but that'd be kinda dumb, particularly considering the recent WoW expansion)
I guess there's Ghost; but short of plot they'd need to restart that from scratch, and single player games aren't really as profitable (I guess they could add multiplayer and make it like a Half Life)
Seems like a poor decision to waste all the work they put into that new IP (Although they could have kept the world/setting I guess)
Considering that Jay Wilson was in the development team of that game... Thank GOD ! We saw his "innovative" ideas, that almost killed 18 years old franchise. I wonder what will be the next project now. Right now Blizzard are not developing anything new. WoW is getting old... Their next thing should be big and I'm not sure that WC4 can be that.
It amazes me when people says that's good news. So what do you wanna play in the future? Why do we need something like Warcraft 4? A new RTS? And what about mmorpg? Is it dead genre?
On September 24 2014 15:19 Pr0wler wrote: Considering that Jay Wilson was in the development team of that game... Thank GOD ! We saw his "innovative" ideas, that almost killed 18 years old franchise. I wonder what will be the next project now. Right now Blizzard are not developing anything new. WoW is getting old... Their next thing should be big and I'm not sure that WC4 can be that.
Isn't Jay Wilson that guy who called some guy who criticized D3 a "fucking loser" or something? That guy's trash I think? D3 became good after RoS, which was released after JW was kicked from the project?
On September 24 2014 15:19 Pr0wler wrote: Considering that Jay Wilson was in the development team of that game... Thank GOD ! We saw his "innovative" ideas, that almost killed 18 years old franchise. I wonder what will be the next project now. Right now Blizzard are not developing anything new. WoW is getting old... Their next thing should be big and I'm not sure that WC4 can be that.
Isn't Jay Wilson that guy who called some guy who criticized D3 a "fucking loser" or something? That guy's trash I think? D3 became good after RoS, which was released after JW was kicked from the project?
He left the project late enough to have plenty of input on RoS and 2.0's features.
Well since they said last year they will add at least 3 more expension to wow, Titan was already dead. it's like ghost, they just waited a long time to say : "now it's over".
My money is Legacy of the Void for blizzcon (not the realease or beta). They will do showmatches with pros. since we will have less Starcraft than last year. My money's on that
On September 24 2014 15:47 Solmyr wrote: It amazes me when people says that's good news. So what do you wanna play in the future? Why do we need something like Warcraft 4? A new RTS? And what about mmorpg? Is it dead genre?
MMORPG is hard to create in a way to have something original and fun. There is so many "free" games around that releasing MMORPG is not profitable and is hard to create(in other words too much work for low profit). Look at the last few big names, all failed. Now there is almost every possible combination of fun factors so it's really hard to come with a new one.
They have to create something unique or just bring in some new story telling game. Amazing animations with well told story is the Blizzard's strength, they should focus on this and just create some new universe, use some story for the 102 135th time(save the blond girl, save the world, save the Universe etc.) with tons of good animations in a game where you can set your difficulty settings(meaning I can set it hard as hell with all helps off and some beginner can set all helps to on and just view the scenes and from time to time hit some button). And if the new game could be sci-fi RPG, oh boy
Really interested to see what they were holding behind closed doors, would love to see some of the concept stuff they had.
On September 24 2014 17:02 FFW_Rude wrote:
My money is Legacy of the Void for blizzcon (not the realease or beta). They will do showmatches with pros. since we will have less Starcraft than last year. My money's on that
if they don't bring any LotV starcraft is fucked for sure.
On September 24 2014 17:07 Meavis wrote: Really interested to see what they were holding behind closed doors, would love to see some of the concept stuff they had.
My money is Legacy of the Void for blizzcon (not the realease or beta). They will do showmatches with pros. since we will have less Starcraft than last year. My money's on that
if they don't bring any LotV starcraft is fucked for sure.
From a pure timeline perspective, a LotV announcement would also fit pretty well. I think the same amount of time had passed between WoL release and HotS announcement than between HotS release and now, so it would be "logical" for Blizz to announce LotV around the end of this year. But we all know how Blizz approaches dates of announcement and releases of their games... ("Soon")
On September 24 2014 17:07 Meavis wrote: Really interested to see what they were holding behind closed doors, would love to see some of the concept stuff they had.
My money is Legacy of the Void for blizzcon (not the realease or beta). They will do showmatches with pros. since we will have less Starcraft than last year. My money's on that
if they don't bring any LotV starcraft is fucked for sure.
Well...
- Wow realease an expantion so : they can't announce another. - Diablo 3 realeased its extension and console version after HotS - the other HotS is in alpha/beta so they'll talk about it but it won't be a new thing - Titan is dead so that's pretty clear - They can't be a Warcraft 4 cause RTS is pretty scarce and they don't want to have 2 RTS at the same time (considering that SC2 isn't even finished yet). - Even heartstone got a new expension.
So it can only be :
- Warcraft movie. - Legacy of the Void - Rock'n roll racing with Diablo and Kerrigan as driver - The lost viking of the swarm. - A new game ?
FPS ? "Starcraft GHost is back ?" FPS could be a thing Or a "skyrimish" warcraft game. Naaa to much world of warcrafty.
On September 24 2014 05:23 N.geNuity wrote: BW SERVER UPDATE?
-mca64's dev team hired onto blizzard payroll to assist with new launcher allowing users to connect to fish/iccup with only 5ms regardless of global location
Well, that'd be a nobel price or two for breaking the speed of light if nothing else.
Well, let's be frank. WoW's earnings have been plummeting over the last 4 years. I don't understand who over at Activision or among their stockholders thought the proper response was to continue forcing the development of a game that the developer saw wasn't going anywhere. Then again, this wouldn't be the first time that Activision was twisting Blizzard's arm.
Still, I don't think we can put all the blame for these shortcomings on Activision and the stockholders. Some game devs make honest mistakes (3DR is a famous example). I also don't think that if Valve became publicly traded tomorrow, that somehow ignorant stockholders would force them into developing games they don't want to or would receive a lot of criticism (like Diablo 3 did).
I don't think there is this big effect of shareholders on game developments as some people tend to argue. Shareholders and game devs. have similar interests here: Develop a game that is as enjoyable as possible, and create a solid business model behind it so it can be monetized. In some ways, one could argue that game devs doesn't feel the need to release the game as quickly as possible as shareholders would like to see, but given that Blizzard has gradually increased the production time after merging with Activision, it's a weird argument to use that Acitvion has had a "money"-focussed impact on Blizzard.
Activision distributes games by paying other developers and Blizzard develops the game them selves, and I think both corporates can work almost indepentely.
Did Blizzard start developing Titan because they thought they could make shareholders money with such a game? Yes, but if it had not been a public game, they would probably have started developing the game anyway and financed the game out of their own pockets or by going to private investors to finance the game. I guess if anything Blizzard is probably more inclicned to go for higher-quality/longer production cyclusses games if its a public company compared to a private company as it can get financing easier.
In the end, I believe that part of Blizzard's decision to scrap the game was that MMO sector (with WOW in the lead) is in a decline and the Destiny "flop" functioned as a catalyst to prirotize ressources differently. The idea of Titan/Destiny looked great 5-7 years ago, but today the game genre has lower potential (less profitable).
A big threat for Blizzard (and Activision) going forward is the whole focus on F2P-games which efficiently reduces entrance barriers and thus intensifies competition for gaming companies going forward. Blizzard has a competitive advantage in developing AAA-games, but not in developing F2P-games, and I wonder whether Hearthstone is the exception or the rule going forward. Right now the share price of ATVI is calculated on the premise of the latter, and I personally believe that's probably a misestimation.
On September 24 2014 17:07 Meavis wrote: Really interested to see what they were holding behind closed doors, would love to see some of the concept stuff they had.
My money is Legacy of the Void for blizzcon (not the realease or beta). They will do showmatches with pros. since we will have less Starcraft than last year. My money's on that
if they don't bring any LotV starcraft is fucked for sure.
Imagine if Titan was actually Activision/Bungie's Destiny MMOFPS. When Activision bought out Blizzard, they looked at Titan and said "We will take this one! Thanks."
On September 24 2014 05:23 N.geNuity wrote: BW SERVER UPDATE?
-mca64's dev team hired onto blizzard payroll to assist with new launcher allowing users to connect to fish/iccup with only 5ms regardless of global location
Well, that'd be a nobel price or two for breaking the speed of light if nothing else.
just gotta put the servers in earths core and everyone can have 40ms!
Also, i dont see the complaints, blizzard has created new gameplay with heroes of the storm and heartstone.
Who cares that they havent created their 4th universe, writing pc game lore really isnt the hard part.
On September 24 2014 05:55 digmouse wrote: The most interesting part: Metzen and Morhaime stated that they realized Blizzard isn't entitled or obligated to do MMOs because it's not a MMO company and the success of Hearthstone let them realize further that they don't need to do big budget projects.
From an industry perspective, this is a great vision and very smart move, in a world that AAA titles are much much more costly to make and the flexibility of PC gaming and digital distribution are flourishing day by day, not being cornered to a certain market and genre is almost a must to do well both financially and critically, I feel it's the change Blizzard needs to take for the past several years to adapt the new industry environment. The video game industry needs more mid-tier titles and small projects from big companies to provide more variety.
Absolutely.
I just did not see Titan working from the little news I heard, and was relieved when I saw they were gonna try out smaller, different projects instead
I don't believe for a second that Blizzard canceled making the game because "their hearts weren't in it". If the game was going to make money and your heart wasn't in it then you would just be replaced.
MMORPG's are hard to expand on because games like WoW/Eve have just been expanded upon and revamped so much. I think a company like Blizzard could make a new one, but for other companies I could see it being difficult, which is maybe why pretty much every one since WoW/Eve has done pretty poorly. Like others have said in this thread maybe there isn't a lot of money in your typical MMORPG right now, although you would have to think at some point people aren't going to want to start a game like WoW that's been out for 10 years from scratch.
I have seen a few MMO's aiming to be both PC and tablet compatible which is probably the way they will go. Grinding out trade skills or farming up monsters isn't so bad on a train ride or when you have 20 minutes to kill anyway.
RTS is an even worse market than MMORPG's though, I'd be really surprised if Blizzard made wc4 or sc3. The next big strategy game will have to be more like Civ or a 4x game than pure blizzard style RTS.
My guess is this year they just release expansion packs again, even for games like D3 and WoW that basically just got one.
I don't buy this "There is no money in the MMORPG genre" argument. It's quite the opposite actually. There are a lot of people that will pay for MMORPG games, but the game developers are failing hard to deliver quality product every single time. Destiniy is the latest prime example of that. It was hyped so hard, many people pre-ordered it and then... it was not what everybody expected. Almost the same with ESO and countless other games that failed. If Blizzard manages to create actually good and innovative game, they will cash-in hard... Again. I guess with Titan they failed to do that.
Time for Blizzard to make a first person shooter? i imagine that'd be the genre to pick if they wanna make a boatload of money. That's the one market that isn't too saturated with good games yet. Would be funny to see a blizz fps at least.
On September 24 2014 19:52 Pr0wler wrote: I don't buy this "There is no money in the MMORPG genre" argument. It's quite the opposite actually. There are a lot of people that will pay for MMORPG games, but the game developers are failing hard to deliver quality product every single time. Destiniy is the latest prime example of that. It was hyped so hard, many people pre-ordered it and then... it was not what everybody expected. Almost the same with ESO and countless other games that failed. If Blizzard manages to create actually good and innovative game, they will cash-in hard... Again. I guess with Titan they failed to do that.
The reason there previously were more money in MMOPRG (2008-2010) was that subscriptions were numbers were a lot higher as the F2P-scene wasn't as dominant back then. However, today so many great games are F2P and that makes paying a subscription fee much less attractive.
Thus, there is less of an incentive to invest the big bucks as Blizzard did WOW if the same revenue can be accomplished through a cheaper MOBA game (or card-game). If the majority of earnings come from purchases of ingame-items, then an MMORPG is not needed as other game-genres can accomplish that.
It's not that an MMORPG cannot be succesful today, but rather that the potential revenue generation is lower, which makes it less attractive from a risk/reward POV.
MMORPG's are hard to expand on because games like WoW/Eve have just been expanded upon and revamped so much. I think a company like Blizzard could make a new one, but for other companies I could see it being difficult, which is maybe why pretty much every one since WoW/Eve has done pretty poorly. Like others have said in this thread maybe there isn't a lot of money in your typical MMORPG right now, although you would have to think at some point people aren't going to want to start a game like WoW that's been out for 10 years from scratch.
Another argument here is that if they released Titan it would cannibalize WOW revenue (since that will probably still have around 4M subscribes in 2017 or whenever they plan to release it). Thus, the overall net revenue generation of Titan won't be anywhere near as high as it ever was for WOW. So it makes sense from Blizzard to not focus on spending more ressources on the game unless they feel they have some really awesome stuff (which I guess they didn't).
I don't see it as a bad news. Lots of other companies would have rushed and release it as an OK good game, it might sell well. but I am always happy to see companies being stubborn on getting things right instead. personal preference though
blizzard is the behemoth developer that's been slow to adapt to the changing game market until hearthstone but with all the basic features that was missing in SC2 er requested for years has been awful. more flexibility, also heroes of the storm imo if they don't change it, is shit and wont do anything significant as long as we have dota2 and LoL
On September 24 2014 19:52 Pr0wler wrote: I don't buy this "There is no money in the MMORPG genre" argument. It's quite the opposite actually. There are a lot of people that will pay for MMORPG games, but the game developers are failing hard to deliver quality product every single time. Destiniy is the latest prime example of that. It was hyped so hard, many people pre-ordered it and then... it was not what everybody expected. Almost the same with ESO and countless other games that failed. If Blizzard manages to create actually good and innovative game, they will cash-in hard... Again. I guess with Titan they failed to do that.
To be fair on the devs they probably are much better games after a few short months of patching, just noone is willing to give them a chance.
Fuck man, i waited years for this and now we shall never know what it could have been... ah well just gotta wait for the next great game they tease us with i guess
They used diablo 3 to crash test the system they had developed for titan (RMAH), seeing the response was so negative they had to find a viable alternative to milk money away, they failed and game was cancelled.
I don't get it, WoD universe is ideally suited for an MMO. Shows White Wolf right for partnering with ccp and their obsession with building sandbox mmo's. I would be happy enough just with a standard rpg with vampires if it was made well.
The reason there previously were more money in MMOPRG (2008-2010) was that subscriptions were numbers were a lot higher as the F2P-scene wasn't as dominant back then. However, today so many great games are F2P and that makes paying a subscription fee much less attractive.
Another thing about MMOs is that they are pretty often mutually exclusive. For instance, I can play Tomb Raider, Arkham City and Saint's Row, all first person action games. They don't really overlap, and consume a moderate amount of time. The gameplay is easily understood and very approachable.
MMOs are basically the exact opposite. They consume huge amounts of time, are often extremely complex and require a fair degree of expertise to get anywhere. Starting a new MMO is like relearning how to ride a bicycle in some ways. If you have eight years invested in your WoW account, ditching that for a new MMO is a pretty big decision.
Some people have the time and dedication to play multiple MMOs, but I think that is a relatively small market. I consider myself an avid gamer, I go to university three times a week, for no more than three hours at any one time. I have practice three times a week for about two hours. That leaves me with more spare time than most. Even so, I could never find the time and space for more than one MMO, but I can easily play half a dozen single player adventure or RPG games side by side.
Trying to scuff oneself into a niche market, that is already occupied by a product that has a decade or refinement and polishing on it is incredibly daunting. If a developer wants to draw people away from the commitment they have to something like WoW, they need a product that is more or less perfect right out of the box, which is for all practical purposes impossible.
On September 24 2014 23:14 DDie wrote: They used diablo 3 to crash test the system they had developed for titan (RMAH), seeing the response was so negative they had to find a viable alternative to milk money away, they failed and game was cancelled.
That's actually not too far-fetched, might very well be that's one of the reasons imo.
On September 24 2014 17:02 FFW_Rude wrote: Well since they said last year they will add at least 3 more expension to wow, Titan was already dead. it's like ghost, they just waited a long time to say : "now it's over".
My money is Legacy of the Void for blizzcon (not the realease or beta). They will do showmatches with pros. since we will have less Starcraft than last year. My money's on that
sry to nickpick here. but, SC:Ghost is on indefinite hiatus; Blizzard's last statement on it was that they may go back to it. SC:Ghost is not officially done the way Titan is.
i think the main reason Blizz gave an official statement that its completely dead is taht Titan has appeared in Blizzard's official pipeline at investor's meetings along with speculation about the billions of dollars it would make.
SC:Ghost never got that kind of press with investors.
Therefore, this public announcement of cancellation is a very responsible move by Blizz.
i wish i was as honest on my tax return as Blizz is with its investors. but, hey, when i can make tax write-offs that can never be verified i'm going to take 'em and cheat the Canadian government ( and so do all my pals ).
Morhaime is such a boy socut. what a fucking guy. damn.
OH yeah ? i thought it was announced a few years back that it was canceled for good. So i went looking and you are in fact right. The game is indefinite hiatus as you said.
a Beta test of software is the most intense stage of software development in terms of man power needs.
Blizzard announced that HotS is now in the final stage of technical Alpha and they are aiming for only 1 final "character wipe" and that is it.
Heroes of the Storm will charge $40+ to get into the Beta test. This is the "next big thing" for Blizz and its the company's next big test. This is Blizzard's little gimmick for increasing the pay rate of their F2P game.
Get into the beta early by paying $40 and we will try to guarantee you all your progress during the Beta test will be saved when the game is released.
Yeah paying for Beta as goten kind of thing. Works well on steam. It makes sense that blizzard want to do that. But i think that will be the first free to play to do that
I doubt that HotS is going to charge to play the basic game. They already charge for heroes and I have seen no evidence that they are going charge. They might sell a hero pack if people really want in early, but that is about it.
On September 25 2014 00:39 Plansix wrote: I doubt that HotS is going to charge to play the basic game. They already charge for heroes and I have seen no evidence that they are going charge. They might sell a hero pack if people really want in early, but that is about it.
to get into the public Beta will cost $40+. with it you'll get some heroes. you won't be able to enter hte public beta for $0.
that is how i see Blizzard justifying to investors the giant team working on the game. we'll know soon enough... as stated earlier ... we're on the final character wipe now.
On September 24 2014 08:56 Jaaaaasper wrote: Shocker, Blizzard hasn't been good at making games since wc3.
diablo 3 is amazing at this stage of it's development.
Amazing is a strong word, and I've been a Diablo fanboy for over a decade. They've made tremendous improvements to D3 (they only had 1 direction to go) but they still have a LONGGGGGGGGGGG way to go.
For the record, I don't think Blizzard would ever have any interest in a multiplayer FPS, given that Call of Duty is an Activision product and is showing no signs of slowing down.
I would still love to see Ghost become a thing, but if Blizzard is really interested in creating something new, then they should create something NEW. I'd like to see some sort of turn based 4X type of game out of Blizzard. Dem Civilization games sell like hotcakes. Plus there's a ton of unexplored design space there. Maybe we would get something distinctive. Hearthstone was disapointing because it was sooo similar in feel to Magic (but worse, cheaper and with matchmaking)
A new IP RTS would be great too, although it seems unlikely.
How about a high concept adventure/puzzle game. Sure, a big budget adventure game seems like throwing money away, but damn it, the Portal games (my favorite single player gaming experiences of the last decade) made it work and I want more.
On September 24 2014 11:01 JimmyJRaynor wrote: Blizzard is the Led Zeppelin of rock bands... they only release something when they damned well feel it is right.
Very few rock bands and game studios have that autonomy and well....Blizzard has earned it.
Have to disagree, doesn't really fit at all. Maybe more like Boston, or even more accurately, Miley Cyrus etc. That raw, pure, unadulterated sound of Zeppelin is more like the creativity and innovation of small indie studios, where Blizzard was always finely autotuned and refined for mass consumption. :D
On September 25 2014 01:47 sc2isnotdying wrote: For the record, I don't think Blizzard would ever have any interest in a multiplayer FPS, given that Call of Duty is an Activision product and is showing no signs of slowing down.
I would still love to see Ghost become a thing, but if Blizzard is really interested in creating something new, then they should create something NEW. I'd like to see some sort of turn based 4X type of game out of Blizzard. Dem Civilization games sell like hotcakes. Plus there's a ton of unexplored design space there. Maybe we would get something distinctive. Hearthstone was disapointing because it was sooo similar in feel to Magic (but worse, cheaper and with matchmaking)
A new IP RTS would be great too, although it seems unlikely.
How about a high concept adventure/puzzle game. Sure, a big budget adventure game seems like throwing money away, but damn it, the Portal games (my favorite single player gaming experiences of the last decade) made it work and I want more.
Something using Kerbal Space program physics + 4x4x4 type base-building inspired by Minecraft + A semi-open world like the GTA-series + semi-turnbased gameplay missions like the classic X-com: Enemy Unknown. Add classic Blizzard over the top graphics and you can get something quite unique.
Something using Kerbal Space program physics + 4x4x4 type base-building + A semi-open world like the GTA-series + semi-turnbased gameplay missions like the classic X-com: Enemy Unknown. Add classic Blizzard over the top graphics and you can get something quite unique.
As cool as that sounds, Blizzard would never do something even remotely like this lol. Arcen on the other hand now... (can't wait to see their 4X game planned for 4/15).
I wouldn't totally write off WC4 yet. They are doing remakes of WC1/2(/3? I forget) and there's Warlords of Draenor and then the Warcraft movie, which all point back towards earlier Warcraft. I wouldn't be surprised if WC4 is lurking around somewhere.
I'm also getting my hopes up, but that's okay. People can dream.
Something using Kerbal Space program physics + 4x4x4 type base-building + A semi-open world like the GTA-series + semi-turnbased gameplay missions like the classic X-com: Enemy Unknown. Add classic Blizzard over the top graphics and you can get something quite unique.
As cool as that sounds, Blizzard would never do something even remotely like this lol. Arcen on the other hand now... (can't wait to see their 4X game planned for 4/15).
That is not a bad game at all, but more X-com and Kerbal with less Asteroids and Masters of Orion.
Btw. It sounds like WoW with the professions as the main play and pvp or pve as side-quests. That sounds incredibly difficult to make deep and replayable. Besides I don't think adrenaline-rushed FPS and casual simulation, is appealing to the same people at the same time. You are gonna bore some people in half of the game.
That is not a bad game at all, but more X-com and Kerbal with less Asteroids and Masters of Orion.
Oh I meant the game they have in prototype phase currently- "Spectral Empire". Supposed to be closer to a more "traditional" 4X, but knowing Arcen, that doesn't mean much lol.
Interesting timing for this announcement. ATVI Investor calls occur every 90 days. This announcement occurs 45 days after the last investor call... and 45 days before the upcoming call
I suspect Kotick, Morhaime et al don't want to field questions about cancelling a game that was worked on for 5+ years.. with whispers as Blizzard's replacement for WoW.
On September 24 2014 11:01 JimmyJRaynor wrote: Blizzard is the Led Zeppelin of rock bands... they only release something when they damned well feel it is right.
Very few rock bands and game studios have that autonomy and well....Blizzard has earned it.
Have to disagree, doesn't really fit at all. Maybe more like Boston, or even more accurately, Miley Cyrus etc. That raw, pure, unadulterated sound of Zeppelin is more like the creativity and innovation of small indie studios, where Blizzard was always finely autotuned and refined for mass consumption. :D
Boston lol. Mass consumption? Zeppelin is all about mass consumption... #3 all time.. where is Boston and Cyrus? and Zeppelin was only together for 10 years... U2 has been around since before the space shuttle was invented.
The Zeppelin/Blizzard analogy Warning: Way Off Topic + Show Spoiler +
Zeppelin has a cult like following. Blizzard's games have a cult-like following. Blizzard releases games whenever they feel like it... Led Zeppelin made albums whenever they felt like it.
Publisher tells Zeppelin to make 4 minute songs to fit in with the radio commercial cycle...Zeppelin makes Stairway To Heaven. Zeppelin is given more autonomy than any rock band on any record label. Blizzard has so much autonomy they can take 2.5 years to make an expansion pack. Bungie is pumping out expansion packs like your favourite anonymous 70s rock band pumps out 4 minute songs on albums released 12 months to the day.
Led Zeppelin is #3 all time in sales...Blizzard products sell well.
John Bonham dies.. do they replace him? no, they disband.... that's "cancelling the game" taken to the n-th degree. Blizzard cancels games after many years in development for a reason no more concrete than "we just didn't like it".
On September 24 2014 11:01 JimmyJRaynor wrote: Blizzard is the Led Zeppelin of rock bands... they only release something when they damned well feel it is right.
Very few rock bands and game studios have that autonomy and well....Blizzard has earned it.
Have to disagree, doesn't really fit at all. Maybe more like Boston, or even more accurately, Miley Cyrus etc. That raw, pure, unadulterated sound of Zeppelin is more like the creativity and innovation of small indie studios, where Blizzard was always finely autotuned and refined for mass consumption. :D
lol, you haven't been around for long have you? Blizzard has ALWAYS been known for Soon™
The cancellation of Titan, while somewhat unfortunate, has likely saved me dozens of hours that would have otherwise been spent arguing and trashing it's likely business model.
lol, you haven't been around for long have you? Blizzard has ALWAYS been known for Soon™
Yeah sort of why I they remind me more of Boston than Zep I guess (Scholz a lot like Morhaime). :D JimmyJ makes fair points though, certainly comparing success and autonomy etc.
Some excerpts from Boston's Wikipedia page, see if this sounds familiar:
Despite having problems with manager Paul Ahern, being caught in the middle of a fight between Ahern and his business partner Charles McKenzie, and doing most of the recording work alone, Scholz completed the second Boston album two years after the debut album's release. The second album, Don't Look Back, was released by Epic in August 1978.
At the time this was considered a long gap between albums, but Scholz still considered Don't Look Back to be a rush job and was unhappy with the album's second side in particular. Overall Don't Look Back sold about half as well as the debut album, eventually selling over 7 million records.
Delayed by technical renovations to his studio, Scholz eventually began the process of working on Boston's third album, determined to complete the album at his own pace and up to his demanding standard.
I want to see how successfully they revitalize WoW before I call on Blizz to make Warcraft 4. If Warcraft 4 were to turn out like SC2 or D3, I'd rather they never make Warcraft 4. I think it's a safe bet to assume if WC4 was release, it'd be underwhelming at best.
I could see why the game got cancelled. It doesn't sound fun. In fact, it sounds like work. I probably would rather be in the office than playing that game.
Im glad they cancelled if this is what the game was like. Doesn't sound good at all to me. But then again I really dislike this whole superhero thing. And playing a game to work doesn't sound fun.
The game description actually sounds very interesting to me. It kind seems like it could have had a lot more hardcore potential than WoW. Despite that, the idea seems like something that could appeal to a wide variety of gamers.
I can understand why it was cancelled. In the grand scheme of things, the very idea of Titan, as we know it, sounds incredibly ambitious. I'm not sure the industry, let alone the consumers, are ready for something of that nature.
Interesting how the article ended on a high note, though. Maybe we'll still see some toned-down version of Titan in the future. Perhaps, more small dev teams could be in the future for Blizzard.
I read the first three pages so I'm not sure if this was mentioned, but wasn't Jay Wilson sent off to be a Lead Designer or something on Titan in 2013 after the public was literally sending him death threats for fucking up so hard on D3?
Is anyone else hoping for them to release a 2nd Starcraft 1 expansion where the campaign goes Zerg => Protoss => Terran and it completely ignores sc2 lore and just gives us the game we want.
On September 26 2014 04:22 Wombat_NI wrote: If enough of us insist that SC2 is non-canon and make our own one I put myself forward
Zerg Campaign - Kerrigan pushes forward and begins the assimilation of the known galaxy. Planet after planet falls. But she still has some level of humanity infecting her, so she sets off to prove herself truly Zerg by beginning her campaign against earth itself.
Protoss Campaign - the sudden laxation of the Zerg onslaught causes the Protoss people to gather together and attempt to flee the sector. Planet after planet artanis breaks in and frees his comrades, gatherin them for a final escape until the very end when Jim, after failing to convince artanis to help humanity, curses at artanis and says something like "turning his people into cowards was not what Tasadar died for" and he storms off.
Terran Campaign - raynor gathers Terran forces are mengst's forces fight off the main Zerg army. They do everything they can to disrupt the Zerg, to assassinate Kerrigan, even full scale nuclear war--all failures. Kerrigan finds their base of operations and right before the siege starts the golden armada warps in with artanis saying on the coms "no, fleeing is not what He died for--en taru Tasadar!" And it's a last stand just like in vanilla Starcraft with final mission a joint army of Protoss and Terran fighting the Zerg main army.
It would be glorious and I'd play the shit out of it.
1 year before the start of SC2 rebel terran scientists ( led by Sy Sperlings great,great,..., great grandson) combine rogaine, and laser treatments to instantly "cure" male pattern baldness.
Raynor grows a full head of hair in 6 weeks... later Dustin Browder's great, great,... ,great grandson attempts this same cure and it fails.
The search for a cure continues as every one speculates the cure may finally be found in SC3 by Egon Stetmann.
Wish they would devote their time and energy recreating the SC2 platform and engine and re-release the game with a F2P model, so we can have all the things we've ever wanted: skins, better battlenet services and UI, customizable voicepacks, ladder observing, twitch intergration, etc.
Then we could have constant big gameplay patches like LoL or DoTA instead of waiting for LoTV...
On September 26 2014 04:22 Wombat_NI wrote: If enough of us insist that SC2 is non-canon and make our own one I put myself forward
Zerg Campaign - Kerrigan pushes forward and begins the assimilation of the known galaxy. Planet after planet falls. But she still has some level of humanity infecting her, so she sets off to prove herself truly Zerg by beginning her campaign against earth itself.
Protoss Campaign - the sudden laxation of the Zerg onslaught causes the Protoss people to gather together and attempt to flee the sector. Planet after planet artanis breaks in and frees his comrades, gatherin them for a final escape until the very end when Jim, after failing to convince artanis to help humanity, curses at artanis and says something like "turning his people into cowards was not what Tasadar died for" and he storms off.
Terran Campaign - raynor gathers Terran forces are mengst's forces fight off the main Zerg army. They do everything they can to disrupt the Zerg, to assassinate Kerrigan, even full scale nuclear war--all failures. Kerrigan finds their base of operations and right before the siege starts the golden armada warps in with artanis saying on the coms"no, fleeing is not what He died for--en taru Tasadar!" And it's a last stand just like in vanilla Starcraft with final mission a joint army of Protoss and Terran fighting the Zerg main army.
It would be glorious and I'd play the shit out of it.
holy fuck you gave me nerd-chills i cant belive this shit :D :D and i was gonna report you for that first post that reeks of bw-elitism, talk about comeback ^_^
I could see why the game got cancelled. It doesn't sound fun. In fact, it sounds like work. I probably would rather be in the office than playing that game.
That is basically eve online integrated with dust-514.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..... really interesting turn of events. Blizzard admitting they may not make giant piles of cash with every title.
"Maybe we can be what we want to be and inspire groups around the company to experiment, get creative, think outside the box and take chances on things that just might thrill people," Metzen said. "Maybe they don't have to be these colossal, summer blockbuster-type products."
its a good thing this comment occurred 45 days before the next investor call. let's see if someone brings it up. if they do Kotick's reaction will be watched carefully by every ATVI shareholder.
Will Kotick respond by lowering Blizzard's autonomy? or will Kotick just let them do their thing and be happy for the inexplicable cult-like following Blizzard enjoys. ( inexplicable to non-players who've never experienced a Blizzard masterpiece ).
Fewer Clients? Less Money?
it didn't work for Jerry Maguire will Kotick let it happen for Blizzard? the next ATVI investor call will be some epic theatre.
They way i see it, it would have been sort of like GTA, in wich you can have "buisness" or a "job", roam around the city, buy a house, etc. And then go put in missions destiny-like.
Part of me really feels like Blizzard needs to re-vamp their in house production processes Diablo, SC, and Warcraft (RTS/Card Game/MMO included) are great but I would love to see something new new come out. They make great games but we haven't seen any new material from the studio in terms of franchises for so long.
On September 30 2014 03:48 ThomasjServo wrote: Part of me really feels like Blizzard needs to re-vamp their in house production processes Diablo, SC, and Warcraft (RTS/Card Game/MMO included) are great but I would love to see something new new come out. They make great games but we haven't seen any new material from the studio in terms of franchises for so long.
No kidding, Starcraft is in fact their youngest franchise. At this point I'm not expecting anything new, just anxiously hoping LotV comes soon. Also, I want Lost Vikings III!
It's for the best I think. Recently, their games have been severely lacking in the character development department. Issues with Anduin in WoW, and the whole Raynor/Arcturus/Twilight thing in StarCraft, for example. Their current franchises are built heavily on past lore, which has an amazing foundation IMO, built from the passion of many developers that have come and gone.
Especially if they're citing a lack of passion as one of their reasons. Wouldn't want them to create a whole new franchise with new characters that are half arsed. Might not be well received.
Should just stick with what they know, considering that they are apparently already struggling to meet deadlines (WoD release)
On September 30 2014 03:48 ThomasjServo wrote: Part of me really feels like Blizzard needs to re-vamp their in house production processes Diablo, SC, and Warcraft (RTS/Card Game/MMO included) are great but I would love to see something new new come out. They make great games but we haven't seen any new material from the studio in terms of franchises for so long.
Problem is that Blizzard, since Warcraft 1, mostly makes multiplayer games. The only big multiplayer genre they haven't touched is FPS, the most oversaturated genre in the market.
Just like Starcraft Ghost! Blizzard most likely spent a ton of money on this project. I hope they can salvage parts of it for other things.
Didn't they trademark something called "Overwatch" a while ago? I heard something about that, and remembered thinking "that doesn't really sound like a Blizzard-ish type of name." Sounds more like an action-packed FPS or something similar.
After years of the same franchises over and over again, it would be an incredible breath of fresh air for a new and different IP from Blizzard.
On September 30 2014 06:18 HeeroFX wrote: I think Warcraft is the MMO brand. The RTS genre is Starcraft. Idk blizzard won't make war 4
I've been dreaming of World of Starcraft forever, as well as Fallout Online.
Why? Both of those ideas sound like TERRIBLE concepts.
Why not? The only reason I'm not into WoW, ESO etc. is the setting. If anyone can deliver a proper futuristic MMORPG, it's Blizzard. I want to believe.