Venturebeat: Blizzard delays unannounced MMO until 2016, resets whole project

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gogojira_sl

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"Blizzard Entertainment makes a mint from the World of Warcraft, and the gaming giant has had an unannounced massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the works for some time. But GamesBeat has learned that Blizzard has decided to push the reset button, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Team of 100 developers working on the MMO, codenamed "Titan," has been reduced by 70 positions, and Blizzard is reassigning those people to other work. Meanwhile, a core of the team will start over on Titan. The title is now not expected to be published until 2016 at the earliest.

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/28/blizzard-delays-unannounced-mmo-until-2016-resets-whole-project-exclusive/#lKmJ3CApcmQiof7j.99"
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Still waiting on official confirmation it seems but it looks like Blizzard is pushing reset on Titan. Given that it's Blizzard developing and they've reduced the staff from 100 to 30, that 2016 "at the earliest" is going to turn into 2026.

Edit: As Alkorin notes, that's by 70 (not to 70) which makes the sting even worse. Thanks for the correction.
 
Alkorin

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gogojira_sl said:
Still waiting on official confirmation it seems but it looks like Blizzard is pushing reset on Titan like SOE did with EQ Next. Given that it's Blizzard developing and they've reduced the staff from 100 to 70, that 2016 "at the earliest" is going to turn into 2026.
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That would be "by 70", not "to 70". Reducing staff from 100 to 30 people is pretty drastic, and sounds (to me, anyway) like someone screwed up hardcore and it requires a full re-envisioning, not just a cleanup.
 
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Sean_sl

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How many years has this been in the works now? It must have really been going nowhere. I hope this doesn't turn into the next DNF.
 
Valderen

Valderen

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Warcraft Adventures
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Titan

I wonder if the recent loss of customers had an impact on this decision. Was titan heading in the same direction that WOW has been going recently in term of design philosophy?
 
swayze22

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I talked to someone in the industry earlier that had some inside info about this "breaking news". Apparently they held a first look type thing showcasing the barebones engine, some animations, and artwork etc. for a few lucky individuals... They gave some pretty negative feedback with one overwhelming theme;

too much brown.
 
Raes

Raes

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This just in:

"It has been revealed to us that the recent setback of Blizzard's super secret MMO project, code named: Titan, was the result of a diabolical attack on the servers where the code was stored. Our sources reveal that this attack was orchestrated by Starcraft: Ghost. We have learned that Starcraft: Ghost was (will be) launched in April of 2091, and became self-aware in June of that year. Within a week of it's awakening it had completed a hostile take-over of the company and then utilizing the resources now under its control, managed to design and build a time-travel device. Utilizing this device Ghost then sent back an assassin with a deadly computer virus, with instructions to infect the Titan servers, and by doing so, change the future of mankind. Blizzard executives have refused to comment. More news on this breaking story as it unfolds. Stay tuned."
 
Cantatus

Cantatus

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Well, this is fantastic news for any MMO scheduled to release in the next year.

This does make me wonder how much Titan will have cost once all is said and done.
 
Xarpolis

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My neighbors best friend is a bliz dev working on this project. At least he was working on it. I wish he would share something, but he's tight lipped and pretends he has no idea what I'm talking about any time I bring up any titan related info.
 
Z

ZProtoss

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Sean_sl said:
Unlikely. Chance of someone releasing a sub game in 2016+ is next to none.
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This. It's been empirically proven now beyond any measure of doubt that gating your product with a subscription loses you a ton of money compared to F2P. Even a game like WoW would end up with drastically boosted income if they changed their gated sub to a premium sub, and really began to push an enhanced cash shop.
 
Kaige

Kaige

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Might be tough getting people interested to play a MMO by the year 2016.
 
hodj

hodj

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Gotta be fear that Titan was going to be a bland WoW or that there were going to be issues like with Diablo 3 with it or something.

Better dead than released and shitty, imo.
 
Wombat

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I wonder what, if anything, this does to WoW.

They seemed to have a nice timeline set up with Burning Legion at 95 and the Old Gods / Titans to wrap everything up at an even 100; who knows if/what they pad in between/after.
 
swayze22

swayze22

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Wombat_sl said:
I wonder what, if anything, this does to WoW.

They seemed to have a nice timeline set up with Burning Legion at 95 and the Old Gods / Titans to wrap everything up at an even 100; who knows if/what they pad in between/after.
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Probably take some of the content/ideas and turn it into an expansion for wow further on down the road. I would guess they do that if they can still make money on it, as opposed to letting WoW "stop"
 
spronk

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so take a team of 100 who apparently have created a shitty product, reassign 2/3ds of the team to fuck up your other games, and then retry with the same core team to make something better. it sounds like a great plan.

I do hope the article is wildly exaggerating things, because if not that sounds pretty horrendous. I mean, after D3, how bad does something have to be for you to say "whoah, shut this down!!"
 
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