Blizzard release schedule up to 2015

[Tale]

original lore

There is no original lore. Nothing original at all. Anywhere in any of Blizzard's IPs.

[Draegan]

original lore

There is no original lore. Nothing original at all. Anywhere in any of Blizzard's IPs.

That's a terribly old and boring joke.

[Lakov_Sanite]

original lore

There is no original lore. Nothing original at all. Anywhere in any of Blizzard's IPs.

That's a terribly old and boring joke.

Most warhammer fans are terribly old and boring.

[trias_e]

Well, I guess it's real.  Titan confirmed.

[patience]

As if there was any real doubt *fake smugness*

[Merusk]

I haven't seen someone that uncomfortable to be interviewed in a long, long time.

[pxib]

He was worried about the cranial bomb.

[Simond]

http://kotaku.com/5816849/blizzards-secret-titan-project-labeled-a-new-casual-mmo

Michael McWhertor — The people who make MMO juggernaut World of Warcraft have another massively multiplayer online game in the works, a game they're calling Titan for now. Blizzard calls it "awesome" and "ambitious." One analyst calls it "casual."

That analyst would be Stern Agee's Arvind Bhatia, who writes that Blizzard Entertainment's next products are "expansion packs for Starcraft and World of Warcraft, a new Diablo game, [and] a new casual MMO" that are "likely be released in the next 12 to 24 months." Bhatia clarified with Gamasutra that the "casual MMO" he was referring to was, indeed, Titan.

Yeah, Kotaku, I know. Still, we have an 'official' timeline now - "12 to 24 months" so therefore it's three years off due to Blizzard-time.

[Paelos]

I'll expound a little on my thought process for Titan because I think Blizzard's business strategy (while annoying to some like myself in the short term) is probably not as crazy as it looks to the WoW player looking at their game in comparison to their past efforts.

Blizzard is obviously moving assets away from WoW to Titan because they believe it will be their next big 10 year cash cow. WoW simply can't live up to that kind of status after 2014, it's 10 year mark. The shift, ideologically, should be for Blizzard to continue to make WoW more and more hardcore over the next 3 years while Titan is in development. They should strive to make a game that caters to the niche players they want to keep in that market so that when they do release Titan, they can brand it as the casual game for everyone. In a sense, they can capitalize on the success that WoW had by being more casual friendly when it was released. The ironic thing is that the only competitor in the foreseeable market that could legitimately compete with Blizzard is Blizzard itself.

As it stands, they can afford to cannibalize their own content and split off their 10M+ subscriber base into two groups. WoW could continue to cater to the hardcore contingent, while Titan goes after the low-hanging LCD fruit. If they do it in a relatively smooth fashion, they could see minimal loss of their subscribers due to mistrust over the WoW changes, and perhaps even pick up new players in the next cycle. In the meantime, they can build up goodwill with the release of Diablo III and the Starcraft games to prove the company still "gets it" even though their previous cash cow has been painted with new spots.

[Amaron]

The timing is interesting.   It's not hard to believe that a new Xbox will have been out for a year by the time Titan is complete.   Maybe they've been holding off all this time because the current hardware is basically shit for an MMO.

[Lantyssa]

While there will certainly be people who play a game just because it's Blizzard, I think WoW has gone well beyond that.  I'm not sure their own game is capable of cannibalizing a sizable chunk of the player base.  If they quit WoW, they just quit.

They'd be better served actually putting the resources into making WoW better and more expansive.  As long as its numbers are high, any development costs are a drop in the bucket.  Once they're gone, it'll be a lot harder to get them back.

[K9]

I suspect that the holy grail is making an paid, online, open-world, single player RPG where players can periodically interact with other humans. Pretty much taking the MMO and working from the bottom up from the player point-of-view, rather than top-down from the 'massively' point of view. Frankly, it seems to be what a vast chunk of the WoW populace would like. A world to play in by themselves, with arenas where there are other people that they can dip their toes into as they please.

And shit-tons of vanity pets. Vanity pets are to Blizzard as hats are to Valve.

[Ingmar]

That's pretty much GW1 you just described.

[Tannhauser]

I can easily see a large segment of the population playing both.

[Riggswolfe]

I suspect that the holy grail is making an paid, online, open-world, single player RPG where players can periodically interact with other humans. Pretty much taking the MMO and working from the bottom up from the player point-of-view, rather than top-down from the 'massively' point of view. Frankly, it seems to be what a vast chunk of the WoW populace would like. A world to play in by themselves, with arenas where there are other people that they can dip their toes into as they please.

And shit-tons of vanity pets. Vanity pets are to Blizzard as hats are to Valve.

Isn't that TOR in a nutshell?

[Paelos]

I can easily see a large segment of the population playing both.

Yep. If I'm given the choice of putting my resources into a new project that has the potential to be fantastic, or put the resources into improving the aging product that's on it's 3rd facelift, I'm going to choose the new project.

You can't rest on your laurels at this point. Blizzard has to make a play for the next thing within the next 3 years, or risk slowly smothering while the market stagnates. That doesn't mean that WoW can't continue to be popular, but for a different reason than the new game.

[Kail]

WoW could continue to cater to the hardcore contingent, while Titan goes after the low-hanging LCD fruit.

The issue I have with this is that I'm not sure it's possible for WoW to rebrand itself this radically at this point.  Boot up any other MMO, and when people talk about WoW, they talk about how casual it is.  That's how it's seen.  Nobody cares that the Cataclysm raid bosses were slightly overtuned or that only 5% (or whatever) of the top end guilds have beaten Cho'Gall.  It just doesn't factor for them.  Even for people who are playing WoW already, it's generally less "yay, more hardcore content" and more "boo, this is a pain, my friends are leaving because the content is too hard etc. etc.".

To be honest, I'm kind of curious just how Blizzard intends to make Titan more casual friendly than WoW.  A lot of the stickiness of MMOs depends on character advancement, while a lot of the appeal of "casual" games works against that, in that you don't need to devote X hours to do Y.  And at this point, it's not like WoW has a lot of arbitrary gating mechanisms to frustrate casuals.  How are they going to change it, I wonder?  Remove levelling?  Remove rep grinding?  Remove gear progression?  Make raids/dungeons super short and easy?  I'm not sure how you'd remove a lot of that without hurting your stickiness.  I kind of suspect it'll be an F2P cash shop game, but beyond that, I really don't know where they plan to take this.

[Malakili]

WoW could continue to cater to the hardcore contingent, while Titan goes after the low-hanging LCD fruit.

The issue I have with this is that I'm not sure it's possible for WoW to rebrand itself this radically at this point.  Boot up any other MMO, and when people talk about WoW, they talk about how casual it is.  That's how it's seen.  Nobody cares that the Cataclysm raid bosses were slightly overtuned or that only 5% (or whatever) of the top end guilds have beaten Cho'Gall.  It just doesn't factor for them.  Even for people who are playing WoW already, it's generally less "yay, more hardcore content" and more "boo, this is a pain, my friends are leaving because the content is too hard etc. etc.".

To be honest, I'm kind of curious just how Blizzard intends to make Titan more casual friendly than WoW.  A lot of the stickiness of MMOs depends on character advancement, while a lot of the appeal of "casual" games works against that, in that you don't need to devote X hours to do Y.  And at this point, it's not like WoW has a lot of arbitrary gating mechanisms to frustrate casuals.  How are they going to change it, I wonder?  Remove levelling?  Remove rep grinding?  Remove gear progression?  Make raids/dungeons super short and easy?  I'm not sure how you'd remove a lot of that without hurting your stickiness.  I kind of suspect it'll be an F2P cash shop game, but beyond that, I really don't know where they plan to take this.

Valve has shown them the way.  Sell hats and they will come.

[angry.bob]

Remove raiding or even grouping as a requirement to the highest level of gear. If even a single piece of gear is available via a raid that isn't available at the same rate to people wandereing around solo the game fails to be casual and starts the shitty forced grouping thing and stratification of players. But I'm not talking about a Diablo style loot system of randomly generated gear. Make gear buyable with experience points.

THe genre as a whole needs to abandon the concept of raids.

[Numtini]

Remove raiding or even grouping as a requirement to the highest level of gear. If even a single piece of gear is available via a raid that isn't available at the same rate to people wandereing around solo the game fails to be casual and starts the shitty forced grouping thing and stratification of players. But I'm not talking about a Diablo style loot system of randomly generated gear. Make gear buyable with experience points.

THe genre as a whole needs to abandon the concept of raids.

Save yourself a lot of money and make it single player and offline.

[tgr]

My point was that as long as you are in the ballpark with graphics, I don't see the appeal of "This game simply LOOKS awesome." I don't really give a fuck. Tell me how it plays, because I ignore the graphics after 10 hours into gameplay. Minecraft, WoW, Total War games, Pirates!, Civ games, etc. These have little to do with graphics but they were some of the most fun to me.

It's funny how many times I've said this, and people just keep looking at me like I'm a leper or something. vOv

[Malakili]

Remove raiding or even grouping as a requirement to the highest level of gear. If even a single piece of gear is available via a raid that isn't available at the same rate to people wandereing around solo the game fails to be casual and starts the shitty forced grouping thing and stratification of players. But I'm not talking about a Diablo style loot system of randomly generated gear. Make gear buyable with experience points.

THe genre as a whole needs to abandon the concept of raids.

Save yourself a lot of money and make it single player and offline.

The thing is, it turns out people want games which are *social* but not games in which they actually have to rely on other people.

[Merusk]

I can easily see a large segment of the population playing both.

Yep. If I'm given the choice of putting my resources into a new project that has the potential to be fantastic, or put the resources into improving the aging product that's on it's 3rd facelift, I'm going to choose the new project.

You can't rest on your laurels at this point. Blizzard has to make a play for the next thing within the next 3 years, or risk slowly smothering while the market stagnates. That doesn't mean that WoW can't continue to be popular, but for a different reason than the new game.

You pointed this out in the wow subforum and I'd been thinking on it but Kail beat me to the punch on the problems.  Yeah, it'd make a lot of sense if they wanted to rebrand WoW and make it harder (or is WoW the new level of "hardcore" and we ignore the catasses in the genre?)  Except they're pissing customers off RIGHT NOW.  Sure, they'll still have that core of Blizzard fans but I don't think they'll be able to recapture the lightning that gave them 12mil. 

There's till people who won't touch anything with SOE on it based just off of experiences in EQ1. How many of the disgruntled Cata Casuals will avoid the next Blizzard game, no matter how casual they declare it to be?

It makes sense from a business plan standpoint, but as things are going 'on the ground' they're fucking it all up.

[Paelos]

I'll use myself as an example.

I'm furious about the way WoW has gone, and I spend day after day cherry-picking quotes of people quitting for posts, in addition to going back and forth with Rokal for months over how stupid they were to let the game get to this point. They drove a dagger into my social circle and ruined the entire thing for me.

Yet, I still acknowledge that Blizzard can and will put out a superior product when they put the right resources behind it. I will buy Diablo III. I will buy Titan. What they've done (when the dust settles) will be seen as them moving to "C Team" on WoW while this next project will be branded as the "A Team" best in show.

[Merusk]

As will I. However, you and I know about the background and ongoings of the company and the industry more than your average user.  It's those people I'm wondering about.  The ones who never visit a message board, only know that the game they enjoyed turned into one they didn't and so slinked off in silence.

[Amaron]

The thing is, it turns out people want games which are *social* but not games in which they actually have to rely on other people.

Which is why having serious business esports as an end game is so shitty.

[UnSub]

http://kotaku.com/5816849/blizzards-secret-titan-project-labeled-a-new-casual-mmo

Michael McWhertor — The people who make MMO juggernaut World of Warcraft have another massively multiplayer online game in the works, a game they're calling Titan for now. Blizzard calls it "awesome" and "ambitious." One analyst calls it "casual."

That analyst would be Stern Agee's Arvind Bhatia, who writes that Blizzard Entertainment's next products are "expansion packs for Starcraft and World of Warcraft, a new Diablo game, [and] a new casual MMO" that are "likely be released in the next 12 to 24 months." Bhatia clarified with Gamasutra that the "casual MMO" he was referring to was, indeed, Titan.

Yeah, Kotaku, I know. Still, we have an 'official' timeline now - "12 to 24 months" so therefore it's three years off due to Blizzard-time.

Who is this analyst and why should we believe them?

Don't get me wrong - Blizzard will be releasing a mass market title designed with as wide appeal as possible - but I've been amazed how much attention this comment has received in MMO circles.

[Paelos]

As will I. However, you and I know about the background and ongoings of the company and the industry more than your average user.  It's those people I'm wondering about.  The ones who never visit a message board, only know that the game they enjoyed turned into one they didn't and so slinked off in silence.

I think people are inherently simple in their tastes and boycotts are inherently hard. If a company releases a good product with a good team and good buzz, it becomes very hard for the majority of regular people to boycott the product over a perceived injustice in the past.

Look at college football. How many people dislike the bowl system and want a playoff? Yet, because of the product, they are unwilling to stop watching and do the only thing that would force a change even with a perceived injustice. It's a different form of entertainment, but I don't believe that Blizzard has shattered so much of it's goodwill simply by shifting their game.

[Malakili]

The thing is, it turns out people want games which are *social* but not games in which they actually have to rely on other people.

Which is why having serious business esports as an end game is so shitty.

WoW doesn't have serious business esports as an endgame.  I guess you could be talking about Starcraft.  I may just have a different definition of serious business esports than you though.

[Mrbloodworth]

I came in here looking for a Release date, found the same conversation thats going on in 5 other threads!

 

[Amaron]

WoW doesn't have serious business esports as an endgame.  I guess you could be talking about Starcraft.  I may just have a different definition of serious business esports than you though.

Maybe we differ on what the endgame of WoW is?   I'm talking about hard mode raids.   You can't do them as they release without an extremely serious group of talented players.   They have ladders and sponsors and shit.    Seems serious enough to me.   Raiding at the start of wrath was ezmode but once they got the hard mode stuff worked out it became extremely difficult.    Going to 10 man has increased the difficulty further as well according to all the raider types.

[Malakili]

WoW doesn't have serious business esports as an endgame.  I guess you could be talking about Starcraft.  I may just have a different definition of serious business esports than you though.

Maybe we differ on what the endgame of WoW is?   I'm talking about hard mode raids.   You can't do them as they release without an extremely serious group of talented players.   They have ladders and sponsors and shit.    Seems serious enough to me.   Raiding at the start of wrath was ezmode but once they got the hard mode stuff worked out it became extremely difficult.    Going to 10 man has increased the difficulty further as well according to all the raider types.

Yea, raiding isn't eSports to me.  Whatever though, your point that its too difficult stands and I don't care enough to argue semantics.

[Amaron]

Yea, raiding isn't eSports to me.  Whatever though, your point that its too difficult stands and I don't care enough to argue semantics.

Yea I'm not really big on calling it esports that's just the justification Blizzard always pulls out for why they are fucking over normal players.

[Speedy Cerviche]

casual = shooter?

login and pew pew competitively without having to catass

[Malakili]

casual = shooter?

login and pew pew competitively without having to catass

Well, CoD does make about a billion dollars a year.