Blizzard has cancelled next gen mmo Titan

[Zenoth]

For how many years did they work on it?

I hope that they don't just delete all the created assets that they did develop over time for Titan. I'm sure that they will indeed just get rid of some of that, but it sort of hurts just to think of the various Titan team's artists' work potentially just being sent the recycle bin's way. Imagine you're a guy working on textures, or animations for Titan, and you've been creating stuff for it most likely with passion for years, and you eventually learn that your work is now irrelevant? I guess it goes with the "risk" of games development, but from the point of view of a mere gamer I find that to be rather troubling.

"B- but... my Titan map #17 that took me three weeks to polish?!"
"B- but... what about my superb orchestrated intro music that nobody outside of our company will ever hear?!"

Oh well, not concerned at all about the "loss" of MMORPG #1,567,823. But I am somewhat troubled that Blizzard merely lost their time on that particular project, when they could have seriously rejuvenated World of WarCraft instead with that same amount of time, resources and of course, money. I do understand their decision to cancel Titan, however.

Maybe they should leave pure MMO online gaming to WoW, and should start thinking about a new offline IP. They don't "need" to make another MMORPG, they have WoW. They don't need another ARPG, they have Diablo, and they don't need another RTS since they have StarCraft. To be honest I would like to see Blizzard give a try to the FPS genre, and if not they could probably try something that's very characters-driven, somewhat linear and story-heavy.

If you were Blizzard, what type of game would you make? Which game genre would you explore? Or would you simply not try anything new?

 

[Grooveriding]

If you were Blizzard, what type of game would you make? Which game genre would you explore? Or would you simply not try anything new?

Warcraft 4

 

[Aikouka]

I hope that they don't just delete all the created assets that they did develop over time for Titan.

If I had to guess, I highly doubt that they will. They realize that they paid for the items creation, and frankly, storage is cheap. They might as well pay the fractions of a penny on the dollar just to keep them around in case they might be useful later on (modified, as a reference, etc.).

 

[Jaiguru]

After playing through Divinity: Original Sin it go me thinking that a turn based RPG set in the Warcaft universe would be amazing.

 

[Elcs]

So they've cancelled something we knew nothing about?

Big whoop... Not interested in anything Blizzard has to offer at the moment. It's throwing out bad after bad.

 

[TidusZ]

So they've cancelled something we knew nothing about?

Big whoop... Not interested in anything Blizzard has to offer at the moment. It's throwing out bad after bad.

They lost all their talent the last few years, I just hope they do a good job with legacy of the void singleplayer campaign

 

[Elcs]

They lost all their talent the last few years, I just hope they do a good job with legacy of the void singleplayer campaign

I think there has been a void since Diablo 2 and it's heyday.

Commercially they've been a great success but really, nothing has held a spark for me from their productions.

 

[Majes]

Warcraft 4

Yup. Warcraft 3 was the best.

 

[norseamd]

Once they made World of Warcraft everything started to go downhill.

 

[Hacp]

I think they'll eventually turn the assets that was Titan into some fun single player or non-MMO rpg. Seven years so it must have been very far along. They'll want some return on investment in the project, especially with all that art gone to waste and it may generate some goodwill as well since it has been a LONG time since Blizzard has released a fun single player rpg.

 

[darkewaffle]

When did Blizzard ever release a single player RPG in the first place?

 

[brokEN2]

According to an "analyst" it may have cost Blizzard $50 million+ cancelling Titan!

Source

 

[Genx87]

Heh isnt that like half a month worth of subs from WoW?

Be interesting to see what they learned from this project. And if any of it will end up in another project?

 

[Tweak155]

I think there has been a void since Diablo 2 and it's heyday.

Commercially they've been a great success but really, nothing has held a spark for me from their productions.

Diablo 3 was somewhat of a disaster at launch, but honestly I think it is really worth playing for a while at this point. I've gotten back into it since the 2.1 launch (I did RoS for a while after it launched then stopped), and they basically gave you attainable goals to go for while you might find upgrades along the way.

It changes the "grind" to more of a challenge. They still have some work to do, but it is eons better than the original.

 

[Newell Steamer]

I always thought Ghost and WC Adventures were the only 2 cancelled Blizzard games,...

On Titan,.. well,.. meh. I was never really shown anything, so, I can't say I was excited about it coming out.

I am still somewhat disappointed that Ghost never came out. I felt Blackthorne was really well done and would have loved to see Blizzard's take on 3D games.

 

[Anubis]

I loved Blackthorne

as for canceling titan its understandable. when they first made wow they never thought it was going to be what it became. most of the early issues with the servers were because they had millions of subs nearly instantly, where as they thought they might get 500k in the first cpl years.

they started Titan trying to make the "next big thing" after wows success and realized in time you cant simply make it. that and the changing game market is shifting away from MMOs. sure its lost money and time but this happens all the time,

it would be neat if they release some info about what they were planning besides "mystery mmo"

 

[ewdotson]

it would be neat if they release some info about what they were planning besides "mystery mmo"

I don't think we're going to get much on it from Blizzard, but people who worked on it have been talking.

See:
http://kotaku.com/heres-what-blizzards-titan-actually-was-1638632121/+charliejane

 

[Dumac]

Blizzard is honestly not that exciting of a company anymore. All their good talent left a long time ago.

All Blizzard has done in a long time is take good ideas that already exist and casualize them for the masses. They also seem to sell like hotcakes, but I really find them unenjoyable and shallow. Sure, they always stole concepts (Warcraft from Warhammer and Starcraft from 40k) but at least the gameplay was solid.

WoW was really boring to me as it played like a dumbed down Everquest. Starcraft 2 was mechanically solid but the writing was absolutely atrocious. Hearthstone was fun for the first few minutes before I realized how simple and braindead it was, that there is no real draft mode, and that most creatures don't do anything interesting. Diablo 3 was just a disaster where I'm concerned.

It's funny that I used to want to fly to go to Blizzcon back before the release of SC2 and D3, but now that I live right by it I don't want to anymore.

 

[asteldian]

According to an "analyst" it may have cost Blizzard $50 million+ cancelling Titan!

Source

No wonder they cancelled it. $50M in 7 years? What kind of cheap ass game were they making. Also, 7 years and never actually showed anything? I wonder if this game was even being produced at all.

 

[Maximilian]

Blizzard is honestly not that exciting of a company anymore. All their good talent left a long time ago.

All Blizzard has done in a long time is take good ideas that already exist and casualize them for the masses. They also seem to sell like hotcakes, but I really find them unenjoyable and shallow. Sure, they always stole concepts (Warcraft from Warhammer and Starcraft from 40k) but at least the gameplay was solid.

WoW was really boring to me as it played like a dumbed down Everquest. Starcraft 2 was mechanically solid but the writing was absolutely atrocious. Hearthstone was fun for the first few minutes before I realized how simple and braindead it was, that there is no real draft mode, and that most creatures don't do anything interesting. Diablo 3 was just a disaster where I'm concerned.

It's funny that I used to want to fly to go to Blizzcon back before the release of SC2 and D3, but now that I live right by it I don't want to anymore.

This. They havent lived up to my expectations at all for the past few years.

DIII should have been one huge consistent world, think WoW but with DIII graphics and viewpoint. Not that BS 8 players per game instance and completing the same game several times once for each difficulty level. That sucked in DII and it sucks even more a decade later. Also the story was lame. Also that dosent even factor in the real money auction house or the stupidly difficult inferno.

SC2's story was meh, and they ruined custom maps with battle.net 2.0. Play something on the front page or not at all, aka don't bother hosting anything other than the top 10 most played maps. Most players don't give a toss about the competitive scene which is where blizz put all their effort, most players played customs... at least in SC1! A game where you neglect the regular players wont have a competitive scene for long because noone will be interested in seeing it.

They are far from the fountain of brilliance and talent they were in the late 90's and early 00's. Ah well, all good things.... *goes back to playing league of legends*

 

[mizzou]

Warcraft 4

wonder what the heck the holdup is with that....warcraft 1,2,3 were all superb (2 was my fav)

 

[Mopetar]

wonder what the heck the holdup is with that....warcraft 1,2,3 were all superb (2 was my fav)

They probably don't want to have it overlap with SC2 since they're in the same genre.

Also they may wait for WoW to wind down otherwise it creates a potential mess with the overarching story. So WC4 might come after WoW from a narrative perspective.

 

[SMOGZINN]

They probably don't want to have it overlap with SC2 since they're in the same genre.

I agree. My guess is that we will start hearing about WC4 about six months after StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void comes out, but it might take several years to actually see the first part of it.

Also they may wait for WoW to wind down otherwise it creates a potential mess with the overarching story. So WC4 might come after WoW from a narrative perspective.

I don't think that will bother them too much. If they want they can make it a limited impact story. They could even set it in the past, maybe during Burning Crusades (since WC3 was set in the previous war with the Burning Legion.)
Because of how well breaking SC into three games worked out I'm sure they will break WC4 into at least 2 parts, maybe more. If they go with the Burning Crusades they could have Alliance, Hoard, and Burning Legion.

 

[lupi]

They've said nothing other than WoW for the Warcraft universe and starcraft is the only rts they are currently working on.

 

[flexy]

That WoW never updated their engine or never made a WoW TNG was *not* the reason we cancelled with the advent of the "Panda Expansion". (We played WoW for years and sure had a hell of a good time when WoW was still "good")

We/I cancelled because WoW got dumbed down more and more to cater to the entitlement crowd, it was the CHANGES which made the game unappealing and bad.

It is my firm opinion that if WoW would have kept many "classic" elements which made MMOs appealing, challenging etc....many WoW fans would probably not have left.

Just pulling some randomly off my head:

Extremely challenging class quests to obtain mounts etc. (such as the old Warlock quest to get the Dreadsteed ---> removed). "EVERYONE GETS A FRICKING MOUNT" attitude. Enable flying in Azeroth etc. which takes away the adventure and challenge to actually having to go somewhere...and countless other things which made the game BAD. The entire feeling of adventure and excitement to *be* in a virtual world and to explore and to discover....had been replaced by a game where it was all about scheduling dungeons&raids and waiting in queue to get in the latest raid etc. to get the best gear.

All those things have nothing to do with a fancy new engine and I'd probably STILL play the game today, even with "less than high-tech" graphics etc. Blizzard simply changed/added too much and those changes were not good for diehard/old-school MMORPG players.