Why can't Blizzard just release a next gen World of Warcraft?

[thejunglegod]

I've been a big fan and have played till the WOTLK expansion. The game is perfect, the events are perfect and the end game is perfect. But it stopped bringing me back because of the outdated graphics and nothing else. The gameplay was still there, but it just got a little too dull for me.

Is there any reason why Blizzard is avoiding making a next-gen MMO? Or is it just because they don't wanna lose the money they're still making on WOW with its expansions?

 

[gus6464]

They need to make world of starcraft with 3 factions to kick it up a notch. 2 faction mmos are so 1999.

 

[Zenoth]

They probably just don't want to. It would also be a very long and costly project, even for them. Instead, they tried to make a new one (Titan) but canceled it, and Overwatch arose from the ashes. I do agree, currently WoW looks dated, but the type of visual fidelity upgrade we'd probably all imagine for it would essentially amount to just remaking the entire thing from scratch, I'd assume.

Personally, I'd rather see them concentrate on their new project(s). But maybe, just maybe one day in a few (many) years down the line they'll decide to come out with either a full remake, or a very extensive graphical overhaul of the existing version (which I highly doubt they'll ever do). The only thing I can imagine them doing is a 'light' upgrade version 2.0, one that follows the original upgrade that they've done a couple of years ago (when they increased polygon count on characters and whatnot). That type of upgrade... sure I guess. But an actual next generation WoW? That was pretty much their canceled game, Titan.

It might just be a coincidence (or you saw the video already, hence maybe that's why you created this thread), but there's the first video out of three, over at GameSpot, that speaks of Blizzard's (mis)adventure with Titan and essentially why they came up with Overwatch. It also sheds some light about how the atmosphere was (internally) at Blizzard during that period (when they worked on Titan). It's a nice video, and they'll release two more soon.

 

[PingviN]

Still making a lot of money on it and as long as Blizzard does, there wont be a WoW II.

 

[Anubis]

But it stopped bringing me back because of the outdated graphics and nothing else

i feel bad for people like you, missing out on so much because of something so stupid

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

The same question can easily apply to EverQuest fans looking for a game with modern graphics and gameplay upgrades.

I would also say, that given the propensity of gaming companies to not release true sequels/true successors and make big changes instead, that it's just as likely that a future EQ, or some other game from a different game company, would be closer to a WoW successor than a WoW II would be. Or vice versa. Well, in gameplay terms only, obviously, since lore is copyrighted.

Of course, after Daybreak misdeveloped EQN down a road that they had to cancel, that there would ever be a future EQ is now questionable. Maybe Pantheon would be closer to a true successor WoW II than what Blizzard would ever release.

 

[cbrunny]

Still making a lot of money on it and as long as Blizzard does, there wont be a WoW II.

This.

Also there isn't a magical next-gen switch that they're just not flipping. You're taking a mega-million dollar investment for something that won't produce any more return than at current.

 

[shortylickens]

A lot of the players are relatively poor kids from countries without Best Buy stores. They can only play on low-end systems and might not even be able to afford a whole new game.

And as already pointed out, it will require huge changes to everything they have now, and they have to decide if they wanna split the player base (which could make both games fail horribly) or force everyone over to the new platform which means losing a bunch of hardcore folks who dont wanna have to start over again and grind for all their goodies.

 

[JTsyo]

They need to make world of starcraft with 3 factions to kick it up a notch. 2 faction mmos are so 1999.

In a MMO, I can see people being very hesitant to play Zerg. Zerg would have to have some kind of new mechanics. Maybe like units that run with you that you command like pets.

 

[Majes]

For being "The top" gaming company Blizzard truly makes a lot of strange choices...
They could have released an updated Diablo 2, made millions and remained in complete control of the ARPG market. Instead they had a terrible release with Diablo 3, gave up on their RMAH and any economy in general and allowed many other ARPG's to find footholds in the market they once completely owned.

They could have released Starcraft 2 as a single game, provided players with the same clan/tournament/chat features that they had with Warcraft 3 TFT, and allowed LAN play for South Korea. Instead they announced a 3 part game, and Battle.net 2.0 which was a HUGE mess with less features than the original. They also lost the esports crowd in South Korea to THEIR OLD GAME Brood War...

They could have capitalized on the popularity of DotA that spawned on their Warcraft 3 servers and created a stand alone game for it, or hired the talent that created it. Instead they were late to market with Heroes of the Storm and are watching as both DOTA 2 and League of Legends absolutely rule the PC gaming market.

They do have a tremendous hit with Hearthstone. They did a lot of things right with that title.

It's not even a "hindsight is 20/20" thing... These things were all pointed out to them when they announced the decisions and I'm sure Blizzard has people working for them that pointed things out too... It's just a poor job being done by some of their higher ups...

So back to the topic... There's really no excuse for a multi-billion dollar company to just let their hold on a cash cow like WoW slowly slip away. It's possible they determined that the market simply won't support another MMO like WoW. But man... I guarantee you a WoW 2.0 would sell like crazy. A Starcraft or Diablo MMO would sell like crazy. But as far as I know they aren't doing anything with these titles... Instead they are buying Candy Crush for 5.9 Billion?

 

[Genx87]

Diablo MMO would be more interesting to me.

 

[lupi]

They have been. That's why while releasing less content into the game, the time between patches & expansions have increased.

 

[Anomaly1964]

Even compared to Star Wars Galaxies, WOW's graphics sucked...

 

[exar333]

They have been. That's why while releasing less content into the game, the time between patches & expansions have increased.

This.

Blizzard is pretty smart. They probably saw what happened to EQ's community when EQ2 arrived. It split the players and released, in many opinions a 'mixed-bag' compared to the first. The constant evolution of the game through patches is a way to mitigate that.

 

[Chiropteran]

I've been a big fan and have played till the WOTLK expansion. The game is perfect, the events are perfect and the end game is perfect. But it stopped bringing me back because of the outdated graphics and nothing else.

I feel about the exact opposite.

Stats are way super-inflated. Upgrades are meaningless because of all the welfare epics being handed out, events are.... fine, end game is focused on dances and gimmicks instead of basic combat using the mechanics of the game, leveling is a stupidly easy waste of time.

The graphics are great though, last thing I want in an MMO is fancy graphics that will kill my FPS when 30 characters are on screen at the same time.

 

[Anubis]

Even compared to Star Wars Galaxies, WOW's graphics sucked...

graphics are the lest important part of any game. they only need to reach a base level to make the game function properly as per its design

 

[Mopetar]

graphics are the lest important part of any game. they only need to reach a base level to make the game function properly as per its design

And if you were doing competitive raiding or PvP you turned the graphics down to a minimum anyhow because it made spells and floor effects easier to see.

 

[Subyman]

graphics are the lest important part of any game. they only need to reach a base level to make the game function properly as per its design

There is a balance depending on the type of game and its target audience. You can look at addictive phone games and say graphic don't matter, but then look at a high end FPS game and it needs to look better than the original Quake to sell. I think it is hard to make a strict list of importance and, in doing so, you'd need a million exceptions.

 

[Mandres]

Probably because the MMO market has drastically changed. A lot of very big companies invested hundreds-of-millions into games that were basically "WoW with updated graphics" and none managed to capture the success of that game. Most were abject failures.

The closest thing to that same lightning in a bottle phenomenon has been mobile games like clash of clans, etc - all the ones you see t.v. commercials for now. That's where the money is, and it costs so much to develop and run a great pc mmo that nobody can do it out of love or passion. Smaller studios have tried and you end up with broken games running on engines that already look dated by the time they're ready to play.

Korea and China are still making big-budget pc MMORPGs, probably because labor is so much cheaper, and their player base doesn't balk as much at cash-shop p2w mechanics to recoup the investment. Even so, many of the bigger ones - TERA, Blade&Soul, Black Desert - have essentially no end game. The development costs are better spent on making the next game on the new engine than trying to grow an existing world and community and shoehorn a lot of new content that will never generate the right ROI for that effort.

 

[Anubis]

And if you were doing competitive raiding or PvP you turned the graphics down to a minimum anyhow because it made spells and floor effects easier to see.

no I just raided on a non potato computer

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Even compared to Star Wars Galaxies, WOW's graphics sucked...

I remember when they first released the bloom effect on SWG..."woah".

I hate WoW for the gameplay, what it's done to MMOs, and it's...lore? crappy/Goofy graphics just make it even more lame to me.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

StarCraft MMOFPS. That will let you pilot a Thor, and someone else fly you with a medevac.

 

[Sonikku]

For being "The top" gaming company Blizzard truly makes a lot of strange choices...
They could have released an updated Diablo 2, made millions and remained in complete control of the ARPG market. Instead they had a terrible release with Diablo 3, gave up on their RMAH and any economy in general and allowed many other ARPG's to find footholds in the market they once completely owned.

They could have released Starcraft 2 as a single game, provided players with the same clan/tournament/chat features that they had with Warcraft 3 TFT, and allowed LAN play for South Korea. Instead they announced a 3 part game, and Battle.net 2.0 which was a HUGE mess with less features than the original. They also lost the esports crowd in South Korea to THEIR OLD GAME Brood War...

They could have capitalized on the popularity of DotA that spawned on their Warcraft 3 servers and created a stand alone game for it, or hired the talent that created it. Instead they were late to market with Heroes of the Storm and are watching as both DOTA 2 and League of Legends absolutely rule the PC gaming market.

They do have a tremendous hit with Hearthstone. They did a lot of things right with that title.

It's not even a "hindsight is 20/20" thing... These things were all pointed out to them when they announced the decisions and I'm sure Blizzard has people working for them that pointed things out too... It's just a poor job being done by some of their higher ups...

So back to the topic... There's really no excuse for a multi-billion dollar company to just let their hold on a cash cow like WoW slowly slip away. It's possible they determined that the market simply won't support another MMO like WoW. But man... I guarantee you a WoW 2.0 would sell like crazy. A Starcraft or Diablo MMO would sell like crazy. But as far as I know they aren't doing anything with these titles... Instead they are buying Candy Crush for 5.9 Billion?

Blizzard's best years are behind them at this point. They're basically in decline, though I hope to be pleasantly surprised with Overwatch.

 

[TidusZ]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-on-cancelled-titan-mmo-we-failed-horrific/1100-6439068/

They tried to make a next gen MMO in Titan and admit they "failed horrifically." In my opinion, they failed just as horribly with Diablo 3. Unfortunately the blizzard that exists today is a shadow of the one from 2004.

Blizzard's best years are behind them at this point. They're basically in decline, though I hope to be pleasantly surprised with Overwatch.

My expectations for overwatch are low. I'll play the free week in May but I doubt I'll be buying. Meanwhile I own like 5 copies of diablo 2, 2-3 copies of WoW, and 0 copies of diablo 3 expansion.

 

[flexy]

I am usually also a graphics ho, but graphics was NOT why we stopped playing. Not at all.

They turned a game which (IMHO) is about exploration and adventuring into a grind fest. Where people now log-on at certain times to raid etc...where everyone gets stuff handed to them, where 10 year old Johnny logs on and will get a sense of "achievement" for nothing.

The best time in Wow (for me), was right before/about the time of BC (unfortunately never played vanilla)....and the best memories of things like walking (!!) say from S/W, through the barrens, into areas I haven't been, where you really had the sense of exploration and adventure. (Of course we also did a lot of heroics, raiding etc.)

But now it seems it's just chores.

DAILIES <--- that expression alone makes me cringe

People log on to do "their dailies", the exact some repetitive grind, every day.....'nuff said.