Activision: Titan Unlikely a Subscription-Based MMORPG
In a financial call after Activision Blizzard's Second Quarter 2013 financial results, Activision CEO Mike Morhaime said that the secret project "Titan" will likely not be a subscription-based MMORPG.
The news follows a report that the company pushed Titan's launch date back to 2016 at the earliest and "reset" the development, reducing the team from 100 people to just 30. The remaining 70 were reportedly distributed to other projects like World of Warcraft, Blizzard All-Stars and Diablo 3's expansion. Insiders claim that the game "just wasn't up to polish" thus forcing Blizzard to restart from the ground up.
MORE: Why World of Warcraft Is Dying
"We're in the process of selecting a new direction for the project and re-envisioning what we want the game to be," Morhaime said on Thursday. "While we can't talk about the details yet, it is unlikely to be a subscription-based MMORPG."
Back in May, Blizzard said that it came to a point where the company needed to make some large design and technology changes to the game. "We're using this opportunity to shift some of our resources to assist with other projects while the core team adapts our technology and tools to accommodate these new changes. Note that we haven't announced any dates for the MMO," the company stated.
In April, a dedicated Titan website leaked what was supposedly actual information and images provided by an insider. The story was reportedly based on Earth's history with heavy use of Greek, Roman and Viking myths, but would also incorporate a high amount of fiction. There would also be a lot of time travel, and a wide range of weapons spanning magic to guns and more.
The source confirmed that Titan was an MMORPG using a completely new game engine. Titan's supposed focus would be the PC platform with eSports in mind, but would likely wander over to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 much like Diablo 3 has done. Other features included clan housing, an Auction House, "Blizzard-style" graphics and more.
With the project "reset", it sounds like all of that may have been flushed down the toilet. Many were expecting to see something this fall during BlizzCon 2013, but fans will likely only get a taste of the next expansion packs for World of Warcraft and Diablo 3. Still, does Morhaime's comment mean Titan could still be an MMORPG? Free-to-play perhaps? We'll have to wait and see.
Also, no mention of the next Starcraft 2 installment. HOTS took 3 years, they better get a move on or it wont be released until 2020.
Yes, Mike Morhaime is the boss of Blizzard, however, Bobby Kotick is his boss and has been since Vivendi purchased Activision and merged them with Blizzard and named Kotick as CEO of ActiBlizz.
And it's not an affiliation. Blizzard is owned by Activision Blizzard. When Vivendi bought Activision, they merged the two companies making a holding company called Activision Blizzard but also kept Activision and Blizzard as separate entities as subsidiaries to ActiBlizz. When Kotick and his financing partners bought out ActiBlizz, that means they own what ActiBlizz owns which means Activision and Blizzard. And yes, it gets a little confusing at times.
The thought of Activision merged with Blizzard has always left a bad taste in my mouth. I can't think of a single Activision title I have liked since MechWarrior 2. However, I have owned every Blizzard title since Warcraft 1 and even played WoW for a couple years (Started with BC and sold my account a few months before Cat dropped.)
Actually it's quite understandable why they haven't done anything with Warcraft. They drove off the hardcore Warcraft fan.
Those currently playing WoW, the vast majority have no clue, nor any interest, in knowing Warcraft lore. Of course with all the retcons, one can hardly keep up with the lore to be honest. Retcons may be an occasional, rare thing in an ongoing fictionsal universe, but Blizzard has done it way to many times over the years.
In fact, little of the story is even presented in game. One of the major storylines when WoW began was Varian's disappearance. Blizzard constantly promised that the storyline would be finished in game (was the Missing Diplomat questline). However, a game that charges $15 a month to play decided to wrap up the storyline in a series of comics that cost about $30 total to see completely. There are numerous other examples as well.
And then you get to the fact that WoW gives so much experience so fast, that even if a player doesn't wear heirloom gear that they will gain so much experience as to need to skip over zones from the order they were originally designed to present the story. But then the vast majority of players don't read quest text anyway to get any of the story, they merely see "Go get 10 of item X" and do it. Bosses and mobs in dungeons may as well be white square boxes with the title "Raid Boss 7 of Tier 12" over their head.
I think Blizzard knows that a WoW 2 or a WC4 would likely bomb out as the current playerbase does not have that same loyalty to Blizzard as the playerbase Blizzard pushed away after Kotick took over once had.
I'm not saying that is what happened. I am just saying that to scrap Titan as far into dev as it was, and with as many people on it as there were indicates that the game wasn't where Blizzard sees their market going.
Not shocking that they say it is unlikely to be a subscription MMO. Very few MMOs are launching with ONLY sub options any more. Most of them are calling themselves f2p and allowing subs as an upgrade.
Is Blizzard funded by Activision now? That wouldn't surprise me.
Good by Blizzard. now that Activision is truly speaking in your stead, your time has come and gone. R.I.P.
Good by Blizzard. now that Activision is truly speaking in your stead, your time has come and gone. R.I.P.