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