Rumor: Blizzard Revealing Project Titan Next Month

M2 Research senior analyst Billy Pidgeon firmly believes that Blizzard will finally reveal its much-rumored next-gen MMO -- codenamed "Titan" -- next month at BlizzCon 2011. There's no solid proof that this big reveal will actually take place, but there's talk that Blizzard is under pressure to deliver something big before the end of the year now that Diablo 3 has slipped into a Q1 2012 release window, and EA's Star Wars: The Old Republic is officially arriving on store shelves this December.

"If they are holding any juicy details, it's going to be announced at BlizzCon," Pidgeon said. "The big news is probably going to be a Diablo 3 date and a possible new announcement about one or more new properties."

Now that Diablo 3 is essentially out in the open, Blizzard doesn't have anything to really "wow" gamers with other than additional coverage of StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and possibly content from the next World of Warcraft expansion pack. Revealing "Titan" at BlizzCon 2011 would seemingly take the focus off Diablo 3's delay and the impending Star Wars MMOG.

Previous reports have indicated that "Titan" will be a new casual MMO based on a completely new IP, but it will be more complimentary rather than competitive in regards to Blizzard's other MMOG, World of Warcraft. A leaked Blizzard roadmap also showed that the game is slated for a Q4 2013 release alongside the fifth World of Warcraft expansion pack.

"While people do have a limited amount of free time that they can devote to these types of games, we do think that people will want to check out the new and the old," said Blizzard COO Paul Sams. "We think the new one is very compelling and is going to capture a lot of hearts and minds and will be very successful for us."

While competing MMORPGs have added free-to-play, microtransaction-based models to their service lineup (City of Heroes, EverQuest 2, DDO, etc), Blizzard has yet to address this demographic with World of Warcraft. The closest its come to this model is with the release of a "demo" Starter Edition which allows gamers to play World of Warcraft for free, but limitations include a level cap of 20, a maximum of 10 gold, the inability to trade in the Auction House and more.

Will the casual "Titan" MMO address the free-to-play market? If Pidgeon is right and Blizzard plans to reveal the game during BlizzCon 2011, we'll find out all the juicy details on October 21 - 22.

  • cuecuemore
    This story was already announced on IGN and then updated with an official Blizz comment that this will not happen.
    Reply
  • trak74
    CuecuemoreThis story was already announced on IGN and then updated with an official Blizz comment that this will not happen.
    LOL, Remove Article?
    Reply
  • Marcus52
    Q4 2013 seems possible for "Titan". No sooner. If that's when the 5th X-pak goes live, it will mean that Blizzard takes another year to develop it than they have previous ones, I would think Nov 2012 is a reasonable expected target date for X-pak #4. If it got pushed to early 2013, that would be in the range of normal. Not saying they wouldn't take an extra year, and perhaps they would do well to take the time to develop meatier content, but they've already announced releasing the raid content in which the players defeat the main boss for this X-pak (Deathwing), so I'm thinking they don't have 2 years worth of additional Cataclysm content to release.

    So, I expect they'll announce the next WoW X-pak anyway. Just guessing, of course.

    ;)
    Reply
  • smashley
    Saw that on IGN too.. makes me wonder who these analysts are and who pays them to make shite up for a living.. nevermind the fact that this analyst thinks Blizz will announce a release date for Diablo 3.. clearly they don't know dick all about how Blizzard works.. they do not announce release dates that far ahead of time. Ever. What we'll here at Blizzcon is that Diablo 3 will release when it's done, and that's as specific as they'll get, MAYBE saying something vague like first half of 2012.
    Reply
  • lashabane
    ...Blizzard doesn't have anything to really "wow" gamers...
    I see what you did there. :D
    Reply
  • mephistocr
    3 years prior to release announcements and then 2 years in delayed release dates is getting old, and people are getting tired of it. We sucked it with Duke Nukem because it became part of gaming folklore. I wouldn't think it to be a smart move to announce "Titan" when we actually know we wont be seeing any of it until 2016-17 (i would say 2nd half 2017 - 1Q 2018), and just imagine the amount of decent F2P MMO while we wait for it. Blizzard is reacting late, and lets just hope they can blow our minds away, now that we've seen everything.
    I still remember the first time I saw WoW, the sounds, the music, the graphics, the feeling, the environment, and how I got immediately hooked, and lasted more than 6 years, of which the last 2 years I sadly watched its downfall. I miss and long to have the same sensation of discovery again.
    Reply
  • g00fysmiley
    its blizzard... they take a long time to release anything... but its always been worth the wait, and if somehting doesn't work out they scrap it (RIP starcraft ghost).

    given the company history I am looking forward to titan whenever it is truley ready to be released they will release it, till then there are planty of other games out there to play... now if you'll excuse me i must get back to playing space marine (relic does some pretty good work to )

    Reply
  • I think media needs to start covering solid information based on events taking place rather than speculating the Who, What, When, Where.
    Reply
  • flint4president
    I've been waiting on blizzard a long time... Darn im gettin old
    "Operation CWAL (Can't Wait Any Longer) A band of Blizzard fans that formed after the repeated Delay the StarCraft release date beyond December 1997.
    Impatient fans interested in the game, CWAL contributed through works of fiction on the battle.net forums in which StarCraft was completed but it was being held up in an evil plot by Blizzard's management, which was bent on world domination! CWAL was an organization attempting to liberate the StarCraft CD."
    Reply
  • tamalero
    more casual than WOW?
    then this will be a "press button, receive bacon" type mmo a la MAPPLESTORY?
    Reply