Blizzard Teases More Info on 'Titan'
During the 2011 DICE Summit keynote panel, Blizzard's Mike Morhaime hinted at a possible social element in the upcoming MMOG.
While speaking on the 2011 DICE Summit keynote panel Wednesday, Blizzard's Mike Morhaime was questioned about the company's unannounced MMOG. Without revealing specifics, he told the audience that the game will be "new and fresh."
Previously a leaked product slate revealed the MMOG's name to be "Titan" with a projected release date of Q4 2013. Shortly after the leaked document caught the media's attention, Blizzard's Frank Pearce was immediately grilled about the project just after the Video Game Awards back in December. According to Pierce, the media wasn't supposed to know anything about the project as of yet--despite the rumors of its existence over the past few years.
"We've only started talking about it in a limited fashion because we want to leverage the fact that we're working on something like that for the purpose of recruiting, getting some of the best talent in the industry on that project," he said in a brief interview.
Now two months later, Morhaime found himself having to answer questions about the mystery "Titan" MMOG, and seemingly hinted that a social element--beyond playing with total strangers like most MMORPGs-- may be incorporated into the upcoming MMOG.
"Without giving away any details, we have some of our most experienced MMO developers, people who spent years working on the World of WarCraft team, working on this project," Morhaime said.
"We're really trying to leverage all the lessons we learned through the years," he added. "Some of which we were able to address in World of WarCraft and others that maybe because of the design decisions we've made, you just can't address. So we're kind of taking a step back with all that knowledge to make something that's completely new and fresh. We're not trying to make a WoW sequel."
According to Morhaime, the upcoming MMOG and World of Warcraft will actually co-exist. He then went on to talk about playing with friends, making new friends in a MMOG, and the unique experiences while playing in guilds.
Previously Morhaime mentioned that he was playing Words With Friends on the iPhone, and expressed how fun it was to play against people he actually knew. That said, various sources have heard that social gaming may be an important factor in the future.
Additionally, French website NoFrag reports that the MMOG will actually be split into two distinct sections: one dedicated to social interaction and one dedicated to combat. Overall the game is rumored to be focused heavily on first-person shooter combat. Morhaime himself has even said in previous reports that the MMOG will be an entirely new property. That means any thoughts of Titan serving as a StarCraft MMORPG are out the door.
"To break the mold, sometimes you have to start over," Morhaime told the audience.
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So, then Titan WILL be a Soul Eating Machine.
Cheers! XD!
well i have faith in blizzard to release a quality product or to scrap it... starcraft ghost comes to mind they made it they decided it didn't cut it and to the pit of unpublished material with is... here's hoping titan sees the light of day
Yeah, WoW is their bread and butter... should they release another massively addicted MMO... Blizzard will rule the world!
I am EXTREMELY skeptical about what I've heard about Titan so far. But then again, who knows if what I've heard is true or not.
WoW was the first and only MMO that actually got me to play. Every other MMO I've tried I felt no need to play past the usual 10-30 day trial period (I'm more of a first person shooter type of guy). So if Blizzard can make something just as good or better than WoW, then more power to them.
I just hope the Activision crew stays out of Blizzard's way. Blizzard is VERY good about releasing some of the higher quality products in the industry, even if it means delaying/canceling games. You can't say that about other Activision dev studios (Treyarch comes to mind at the moment...).
I wonder if Titan is the code name for World of Starcraft. They just had those kids change the name of their mod from World of Starcraft and they have no probs mentioning WoW in Titan related media presentations but never mention Starcraft.
MMMOFPSRPG? sounds cool
the split between social and combat elements reminds me of Star Wars Galaxies
I wonder if Titan is the code name for World of Starcraft. They just had those kids change the name of their mod from World of Starcraft and they have no probs mentioning WoW in Titan related media presentations but never mention Starcraft.
They say at the end of the article that it is going to be a new IP...
Hmm, a mmo with a fps twist.. something I would look forward to!
lol wow is going to cannibalize it
Hmm, a mmo with a fps twist.. something I would look forward to!
Didn't Planetside (among others) already do that years ago? If you want a new one, keep an eye out for games like Dust 514.
Beard power. 'nuff said.
So basically they will go around and cherry pick features from current MMO's and ones to be released shortly dumb it down so lemmings can play it. Slap a title on it like WoW2 and all the WoW fans will say its the best thing since sliced bread. Do not know about most people but its getting extremely old hearing that WoW was the best MMO ever made. Yeah to people who never played a real MMO and started with WoW it might be.
But in reality its just a hodgepog of every MMO that came before it dumbed down so it was easy to play. I personally am old school and was around long before WoW. I played it and got extremely bored fast with it. When you max your char out in a cpl days and figure out raids in a cpl hours that does not compute to me as best MMO. I like blizzard so I am hoping there second try is a actual substance MMO not a updated WoW clone that caters to all the people that want easy mode and everything handed to them all the time. I know it would be a real tragedy if we actually had to use our thinking caps instead of just point and click.
There is already a great FPS MMO called DarkFall. I just started playing about a month ago and it is so far, the best MMO I've ever played.
Social element? Do they mean like a Facebook game? I doubt it, but still... It will be an interesting project to follow.