The developing team for Blizzard’s Titan revel in mystery, it seems. Heralded as the studio’s follow-up to their unparalleled success with World of Warcraft, their next-gen MMO was first teased back in 2007. Six years on and the wheels are still aching into motion. Firstly, we learned that the industry giant were reinventing the game back in May and now, in Activision Blizzard’s quarterly earnings call yesterday, the studio provided a brief update on the long-gestating project.
During the earnings call, Blizzard’s CEO Mike Morhaime shed some light on the game’s situation.
“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. “And while we can’t talk about the details yet, it is unlikely to be a subscription-based MMORPG. I also want to reiterate that there has not been an official announced or projected release date. What I can say is that the commitment to quality has always been at the core of Blizzard values. And we’ve gone through this type of iterative development process several times in the past on the way to creating genre-defining games.”
Morhaime’s candid discussion of Titan’s redevelopment process adds context to the internal reshuffling witnessed at the company a few months back. Reports confirmed that 70 of the 100 staff were reassigned for the project and, subsequently, Blizzard attached a tentative 2016 release date to the MMO and forced Titan back towards the initial stages of development.
The big question, however, is will Titan forgo the subscription based model altogether? Without doubt, this proposed method of approach is a symptom of World of Warcraft’s declining user base, which has witnessed a 14% drop in the last three months alone. As such, Blizzard’s options appear to be limited. For a studio celebrated for redefining the genre, the importance of the studio’s next-gen MMO can’t be understated.
With Blizzcon – the studio’s annual convention – slated to take place this November, it could well be the case that we’ll discover more details about the abstruse Titan then.
What do you think, though? Do you foresee Titan succeeding when it’s finally released? Or do you feel the general audience are experiencing genre fatigue? Let us know what you make of it below.