Blizzard Nukes Another Game in Progress: Titan
Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime revealed on Tuesday that the long-awaited Titan game is no longer in production. The next-generation MMO remained in development for nearly seven years and at one time was aiming at a 2016 release date. Morhaime admitted that after all that time, the project just didn't come together.
"We didn't find the fun," Morhaime said. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."
Titan was a super-ambitious project. However, as Morhaime mentioned, the studio decided to head back to the drawing board back in May 2013. The company indicated that the team also shrunk down from 100 to 30 and said that the new team would be making some "large design and technology changes." The other 70 were pushed onto other projects.
Part of the cancellation seems to stem from Blizzard's identity. The company doesn't want to be known as making MMORPGs; they don't want to be locked in a specific genre. Instead, Blizzard wants to be known for making great games, such as StarCraft II and Diablo III.
Last year, a dedicated Titan website leaked information and images provided by a Blizzard insider. The story was allegedly based on Earth's history, with a 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.
At the time, 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 it 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.
However, Morhaime said in a financial call after Activision Blizzard's Second Quarter 2013 financial results that Titan wouldn’t be a subscription MMORPG. "We're in the process of selecting a new direction for the project and re-envisioning what we want the game to be," he said.
Chris Metzen, Blizzard's senior vice president of story and franchise development, compared the Titan team to an enduring musical group like The Rolling Stones and U2. Sometimes they have to get out of the studio because the other members are driving them crazy. For Titan, the group took a break and discovered that what they were working on just didn’t "flow" like a great album.
"It definitely had some merit as a big, broad idea, but it didn't come together. It did not distill," he said. "The music did not flow. For all our good intentions and our experience and the pure craftsmanship that we brought together, we had to make that call."
Will there be any MMORPGs in Blizzard's future? Possibly, but that's not where the studio wants to be right now. The resources will be better spent supporting the current crop of games and working on Blizzard's Next Big Thing.
Morhaime called the decision to cancel Titan "excruciating" because it's difficult to make that kind of decision. It's not the first time, either; the company canceled StarCraft Ghost and Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans.
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Diablo 3 is not a great game, its an ok game. But a great game is something special, and d3 is pretty bland. And thats the problem. They think that d3 is great, its not. It wouldnt take all that much to make it great, but more then 2 years on they still havent realized it.
It just makes you wonder why small (poor) developers have many ideas but big guys like Blizzard has so few? too much $$$??
Diablo 3 is not a great game, its an ok game. But a great game is something special, and d3 is pretty bland. And thats the problem. They think that d3 is great, its not. It wouldnt take all that much to make it great, but more then 2 years on they still havent realized it.
The fact they nuked this after years of costs shows it isn't about money. If it was only about money, they would have just rush finished it and sent it out. The only logical answer to what they just did is that they simply didn't like what they had created so far and pulled the plug, money be damned.
take 10 million dollars, and give it to 100 indie devs, and let them make the games, find the ones that have the most promise, and put them as lead devs and give them 10 mill for their next game as a budget.
wow did i just outline how to make new ip on the cheap?
in the case where they make a game but cant finish it in a reasonable time, take a look at the hype behind it, and see if its worth putting real man power behind it.
Some of us believe that Titan was supposed to be a Blizzard game but something happened in the agreement with Activision and blizzard buying back themselves. I believe Titan project was paused and canceled for the public but in reality blizzard made the game for bungie, at least some elements and that was part of the buyout agreement (prepare an mmorpg for activision / bungie). It can't be coincidence that Blizzard canceled the whole project few days after Destiny going live. Also another speculation was, that in the buyout there could be a rule that blizzard won't make another mmorpg of sci-fi If activision has the rights of another mmo.
Also WoW continuing success gives no space for other mmorpg from Blizzard. It is what people say, WoW has to die before blizzard throwing out another MMO. But WoW is up and kicking and to be honest i feel it will take 10 years more for players to go under 1 million!
Most likely we will see a WoW 2, who knows perhaps a World of Blizzard with classes from Diablo Starcraft etc
Diablo 3 is an example that must be taken in consideration. Some friends, actually a couple, were into Diablo 2 too much. When Diablo 3 appeared they bought it instantly of course but they were saying "diablo 2 was better"
However they kept playing, now with RoS (the expansion) and the content patches they have stopped whining and they enjoy themselves. Long story short, it took some time for Diablo fans to forget D2 and it took Blizzard 1 expansion to make D3 better success than D2.
Same thing will happen with WoW 100%.