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Blizzard Nukes Another Game in Progress: Titan

By - Source: Polygon | B 24 comments

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.

Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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Top Comments
  • 11 Hide
    none12345 , September 24, 2014 10:08 AM
    If they want to be known for making great games. They need to take a serious look in the mirror. They have been making too many misteps for too long.

    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.
Other Comments
  • 3 Hide
    Avus , September 24, 2014 9:48 AM
    Blizzard = 3 hits wonder... that's it, nothing more...

    It just makes you wonder why small (poor) developers have many ideas but big guys like Blizzard has so few? too much $$$??
  • 4 Hide
    pacdrum_88 , September 24, 2014 9:58 AM
    They may be a 3 hit wonder, Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo, but all of those games are genre defining and were certainly revolutionary when they came out.
  • Add your comment Display all 24 comments.
  • 11 Hide
    none12345 , September 24, 2014 10:08 AM
    If they want to be known for making great games. They need to take a serious look in the mirror. They have been making too many misteps for too long.

    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.
  • 2 Hide
    gm0n3y , September 24, 2014 3:59 PM
    SC2 was pretty good, but D3 wasn't. Warcraft hasn't seen a non-mmo release in over 10 years. If they are really serious about making games they need to come up with some new games, not just sequels of their 3 existing series, though I would totally be down for a Warcraft 4. Titan should have been their new big game as it has been hyped for so long, but now they don't really have much in the pipeline other than the next WoW/SC/Diablo expansions.
  • 2 Hide
    beayn , September 24, 2014 5:16 PM
    @Avus They have more than 3 hits. Warcraft and World of Warcraft are pretty different games. I'd say they're a 4 hit wonder if you want to count universes instead of actual games.
  • 1 Hide
    bystander , September 24, 2014 8:07 PM
    Blizzard may have had 4 major hits, and sequels, but what has made Blizzard special is that they do not release unfinished products. They do not rush, and as a result, the games have have are very good. Diablo 3 may have seemed like a big cash grab with their auction house, but if you ignore that, it is still pretty good.
  • -1 Hide
    sad31 , September 24, 2014 8:10 PM
    Sorry but how hard is it to think of a game that going to be the best in the industry? So far all of them have been the same. Your telling me its so hard that you cant do different now. Come on blizzard, really? Just admit it, it is financially not in your best interest to actually waste money to create the worlds greatest game like you use to do.
  • 2 Hide
    fuzzion , September 24, 2014 8:20 PM
    Warcraft IV. Please take my money now!!!
  • 2 Hide
    bystander , September 24, 2014 8:22 PM
    Quote:
    Sorry but how hard is it to think of a game that going to be the best in the industry? So far all of them have been the same. Your telling me its so hard that you cant do different now. Come on blizzard, really? Just admit it, it is financially not in your best interest to actually waste money to create the worlds greatest game like you use to do.


    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.
  • 1 Hide
    dimar , September 24, 2014 8:56 PM
    Blizzard should revive the Warcraft adventure game. I'll buy it and sequels on day one!
  • -1 Hide
    alidan , September 24, 2014 9:53 PM
    1 million dollars, that could create 10 indie games, 10 million can fund 100.

    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.
  • 2 Hide
    beetlejuicegr , September 24, 2014 11:24 PM
    Titan is Destiny, unfortunately i can only think of this and many others agree with me.

    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 :p 
  • 0 Hide
    beetlejuicegr , September 24, 2014 11:29 PM
    Diablo 3 RoS is a great game, they implemented with the content patches loads and loads of stuff inside, i find myself playing 1-2 hours daily and casually and actually enjoying the grinding.

    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%.
  • 0 Hide
    Draven35 , September 25, 2014 6:15 AM
    "Blizzard-style" graphics... so more stuff copied from Games Workshop's miniatures?
  • 0 Hide
    rarichorig66 , September 25, 2014 6:56 AM
    They may still have some genre defining stuff, maybe something called "Full spectrum game world" But they have to keep in mind that they have the same development time as a motion picture. About 1=2 years before the SOTA/ geitzeit has passed them by.
  • 0 Hide
    master9716 , September 25, 2014 7:48 AM
    All blizzard did is recycle WoW over and over , They say they don't want to be known as an MMO company , well that's the company that made them rich , at this point they know they are a failure for any future games, all they can do is recycle Diablo . The good thing is that they didn't release Titan , it would have made them money but atleast they show they care about actual quality.
  • 2 Hide
    spartanmk2 , September 25, 2014 8:26 AM
    Lost Vikings + Skyrim = Titan
  • 0 Hide
    garrick , September 25, 2014 9:45 AM
    I wonder if they decided to cancel Titan from some time ago but then used elements from Titan and made that Destiny?
  • 0 Hide
    condorxiii , September 25, 2014 10:59 AM
    I agree with @pacdrum_88 they made three universes and those universes defined genres of games forever. To compare them to indie developers is completely unfair. We can't stand on the sideline and beat them up for it when the money and investment of time and passion to take a risk building a game in an area that revolutionized a genre, then have the build up of your name from the previous one and do it AGAIN and then decide you're going to step out of the box and build ANOTHER game that changes everything would be INCREDIBLE pressure. Sure, the sequels and follow-ups weren't as good as the originals; SC2 is good but not SC1 and D3 is not D2 but my point is we can't expect them to make industry changing revolutions EVERY time. Instead, I'm glad there is company that TRIES (don't forget their human) to make amazing games every time and might not revolutionize on every release but they refuse to release something they aren't proud to put their brand on just to make money. It's no secret if they release Titan they would probably make money back, but they would hurt there name if it wasn't Blizzard worthy. Good for them for keeping themselves in check and making games to make good games that are so good, they sell. Not relying 100% on their name to sell games (I'm looking at you E.A. - sorry, couldn't resist one uppercut at them). While I would have loved a new game from Blizzard, I would rather another Blizzard quality game.
  • 1 Hide
    fadeese , September 25, 2014 2:00 PM
    Personally I don't mind the sequel thing till its gets to yearly refreshes just making cash grabs: CoD, Assassin's Creed, every sports game ever made, etc... blizzard puts out a game and supports it well for long past its selling point. Boot up D2/SC and can still play them online, try playing any other "online" game from the 90s
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