Blizzard has cancelled next gen mmo Titan

[advocate84]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/23/6833953/blizzard-cancels-titan-next-gen-mmo-pc

No surprise there, at least in WoW they do not seem as creative. I cancelled my subscription last May for the first time in 9 years although I will play in WoD.

 

[brokEN2]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/23/6833953/blizzard-cancels-titan-next-gen-mmo-pc

No surprise there, at least in WoW they do not seem as creative. I cancelled my subscription last May for the first time in 8 years although I will play in WoD.

That sucks, lots of wasted time and money Im sure too. I really wish they would just do a complete engine overhaul for WoW and make it look more modern.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/23/6833953/blizzard-cancels-titan-next-gen-mmo-pc

No surprise there, at least in WoW they do not seem as creative. I cancelled my subscription last May for the first time in 9 years although I will play in WoD.

First time in 9 years? I applaud you.

I've canceled at least once every expansion. Didn't do any Ulduar or Argent Tournament. Completely skipped the first set of raids and Firelands in Cata. Skipped all of MoP and now catching the tail end of SoO.

 

[advocate84]

It was the first time that I felt that I was just wasting money waiting for a new expansion so I did cancel. Though the fact you can now talk to the friends you made through real id without having to connect to the game was a bonus.

 

[zokudu]

I hope they double down on WoW again to be honest. The game needs some love I feel, I think it has a good bit of life left in it if they adjust it a bit. If they can keep their promise of quicker content by repurposing the teams from Titan I'd be happy. These long periods without content are what kills the game.

 

[nageov3t]

First time in 9 years? I applaud you.

I've canceled at least once every expansion. Didn't do any Ulduar or Argent Tournament. Completely skipped the first set of raids and Firelands in Cata. Skipped all of MoP and now catching the tail end of SoO.

ditto... I blame becoming a grownup more than WoW, though.

when the game came out, I was a fresh 20something working a night shift job and lots of free time on my hands. now I'm in my 30's, have a much more demanding job, spend most of my free-time with my non-gamer partner, etc.

I just don't have the free time in my schedule to be a hardcore raider anymore, and without that aspect of the game I may as well just be dicking around in FFXIV or RIFT.

 

[Grooveriding]

It's game over for Blizzard once WoW's subscriber base dwindles to the point that they can't turn a profit on another large expansion development. Not as a company, but they are done in the MMO space after WoW dies off. The appeal of MMOs is waning. I think WoW is still running on the momentum of the initial huge surge of subs the game saw between TBC and WoTLK, if not for that, it would of died off a few years ago.

 

[ewdotson]

It's game over for Blizzard once WoW's subscriber base dwindles to the point that they can't turn a profit on another large expansion development. Not as a company, but they are done in the MMO space after WoW dies off. The appeal of MMOs is waning. I think WoW is still running on the momentum of the initial huge surge of subs the game saw between TBC and WoTLK, if not for that, it would of died off a few years ago.

Personally, I suspect that'll depend on how you define "large expansion". I expect it to go the same basic route that Everquest has gone, where it putters on for years past its glory days, pulling a (relatively) small but steady profit. (Fun fact: Everquest's 21st expansion is slated to hit next month.) The big question for me is just how long they'll be able to put off going free-to-play. I don't think they're particularly close to that point yet, but in the long run? Inevitable.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

But will they get Legacy of the Void out by Christmas?

 

[Craig234]

It's interesting that they did this. On the one hand, I miss seeing what they were doing, but I come down on the side that it's the right way for them to approach games.

The first thing I think of when I think of Blizzard is a company that does seem to care about quality games.

It's funny, even when their senior people have left and made games, it doesn't seem to have gone as well - Diablo II team making Hellgate: London.

One of, if not the, earliest Blizzard games was 'The Lost Vikings'. I think it's the best platformer I ever played - at least of that period.

Diablo was very innovative. We take action RPG's for granted, but Diablo was a pretty big deal in new things.

I didn't care for Warcraft III, but it seemed to really push that genre as well.

Warcraft II, StarCraft - seemed to be the 'best quality' of their genre. Hearthstone I haven't played but seems very well received as a card game.

I can't think of another gaming company with their record of putting out games that good so consistently. So, good for them - for investing in it, and deciding not to do it.

Maybe some of this isn't just about that, maybe that's spin to cover up 'they don't think the MMO industry is that profitable for another product', who knows.

I would like to see something fresh done with MMO's. The holy trinity, the quest-based gameplay, they could create something innovative in gameplay.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Thing about SCII was it became (for me) a race to finish the mission as fast as possible so I could see the next cinematic.

 

[darkewaffle]

Interesting, I'm surprised they scrapped it although I also didn't realize it had been in development for 7 years (in one way or another). Going that long without something to show for it might have been a sign - plus with the success of Hearthstone and some of the biggest games today being DOTA/LoL and games that can be played "more" but "in smaller doses" Blizz might be ahead of the curve by not going all out on another MMO.

 

[Markbnj]

That sucks, lots of wasted time and money Im sure too. I really wish they would just do a complete engine overhaul for WoW and make it look more modern.

Why the hell don't they? It's still a huge franchise. You would think it would be worth updating the world. Perhaps there are some blocking technical limitations.

 

[norseamd]

What exactly was Titan as far as the game?

 

[zokudu]

Why the hell don't they? It's still a huge franchise. You would think it would be worth updating the world. Perhaps there are some blocking technical limitations.

Every expansion they try to up the graphics quality somewhat, personally I think the new models in the warlords beta are impressive for what they are and the water isn't the ugliest thing I've ever seen in a video game. Their art style helps this a lot, Warcraft has never really had a hyper realistic theme and I doubt they would ever go down that route.

I honestly think they will never outright swap engines because the WoW engine is so responsive. It's one of the major reasons I stay with WoW vs something like Rift. It's super tight, I don't even think Diablo 3 feels as responsive as the WoW engine does. If they were to gut the entire thing and put it on a new engine if they lose any of that responsiveness there would be a huge outcry.

 

[lupi]

The biggest problem is that there are so many elements to the game that are hardcoded, they would have to spend significant development time to revise those subsystems in any sort of a total overhaul. As seen in the release of cata, people don't want to hear about "their" content being thrifted just because the old world was redone to better standards.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I think the real reason they don't update their engine is that it would cost a lot and create massive change. And any change causes WoW to shed subs like a husky sheds fur in the summer, so the question they keep asking themselves is does spending all that money on a engine update, which would require them to basically redevelop the game from scratch, is will they get enough new subs to make it worth it? The answer they keep getting is no. When you subtract the lost subs to the new subs you gain, you get very little. It is simply not worth the trouble. They are much better off continually putting out new content to hold on to those old subs.

Titan was supposed to be the WoW2 for Blizzard, the something new that would give them a chance to capture new subs. Now they evidently don't believe that even that is worth it. I think we can confidently say that MMO's are now on life support.

 

[Kronvict]

I was actually looking forward to see what they had to offer.

 

[hardhat]

I think this probably has a lot to do with the MMORPG genre's recent downward swing. If they saw TESO, or Wildstar, or Archeage, and they knew Titan wasn't much better, and these games weren't leading to critical success, it's hard to continue to justify spending so much money on continuing development. This is all speculation of course.

 

[brokEN2]

I think the real reason they don't update their engine is that it would cost a lot and create massive change. And any change causes WoW to shed subs like a husky sheds fur in the summer, so the question they keep asking themselves is does spending all that money on a engine update, which would require them to basically redevelop the game from scratch, is will they get enough new subs to make it worth it? The answer they keep getting is no. When you subtract the lost subs to the new subs you gain, you get very little. It is simply not worth the trouble. They are much better off continually putting out new content to hold on to those old subs.

Titan was supposed to be the WoW2 for Blizzard, the something new that would give them a chance to capture new subs. Now they evidently don't believe that even that is worth it. I think we can confidently say that MMO's are now on life support.

I mean granted, I know nothing really about engine changes so I am ignorant on the subject, but seeing these anniversary edition of games were they update the graphics dramatically and keep all the game play and core elements intact you would think Blizzard would be able to do so even though this game is much larger and probably more complex. I just think the game is really dated and trying to get a newer generation on the game has got to be hard and the graphics have to be a top reason, as I believe graphics can pull them in and game play will make them stay. I know even if they did a engine update/graphics overhaul it wouldn't put Crysis to shame or anything like that but I do believe the game is just so dated in terms of that.

Also they should be able to keep the cartoony look as Wildstar and even like DOTA 2 and Team Fortress 2 have similar looks similar just a bit more higher res and such. If not upgrade the engine the need serious re-texturing on everything IMO which they may do in another expansion as they have done the water,character models, and maybe some other things Im missing. The game is still fun and is still the best MMO IMO but definitely needs to a graphic change

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Why the hell don't they? It's still a huge franchise. You would think it would be worth updating the world. Perhaps there are some blocking technical limitations.

Personally I think it's unfair at all the games that people want remade, and people cry "omg you want reskin", "omg you are suffering from nostalgia", "omg you are unwilling to change". I would like to see EQ get a modern version in the same sense you just asked for one for WoW, but you can't take 2 steps in that direction without someone saying these things.

It happened to BF2 vets, Planetside vets, and now EQ, and probably to 100 other games that I don't know. I get it that WoW still has a huge playerbase, but the problem with the other gaming companies is that they don't want to bite off chunks. They won't be happy with 3 million players, they want to pursue WoW's legacy and crack 14 million.

 

[Jodell88]

An engine update = remaking WoW from scratch

 

[Aikouka]

An engine update = remaking WoW from scratch

Yeah... asking for a total overhaul would pretty much mean that they have to redo all of the art assets for the game. I recall Blizzard mentioning how huge of a deal it was just to redo the races, and they actually never planned to do them all at once! What seems to make it even harder is the fact that they're messing with an established entity, which means they need to really make sure they don't mess with it too much.

 

[advocate84]

What exactly was Titan as far as the game?

Truth is we do not know, they had this secret project for a game and we never given the slightest idea what it was, how it will be, how it would look and what it would involve. They never showed anything about it.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Truth is we do not know, they had this secret project for a game and we never given the slightest idea what it was, how it will be, how it would look and what it would involve. They never showed anything about it.

I'm betting it was a MMO that focused around combat surfing on the moons of Jupiter. So, I think they canceled it after they got hold of the newest Oculus Rift prototype and decided that a surfing MMO needs to be VR. It will resurface when OR goes retail, only renamed Uncle Bob's Big Kahuna.