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.
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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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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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Avus Blizzard = 3 hits wonder... that's it, nothing more...Reply
It just makes you wonder why small (poor) developers have many ideas but big guys like Blizzard has so few? too much $$$?? -
pacdrum_88 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.Reply -
none12345 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.Reply
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. -
gm0n3y 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.Reply -
beayn @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.Reply -
bystander 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.Reply -
sad31 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.Reply -
bystander Reply14244517 said: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.