Blizzard on Cancelled MMO: "We Failed Horrifically"

[MoanaLisa]

Well, I am a mod and will agree that the thread is not even a bit about private servers, closed or open. Don't derail the thread. Further discussion about Nostalrius will be liable for infraction and suspension of posting privileges.

[Packing an i5]

people just wont realize the impact of what has happened here. Titan was a massive project and it was canceled. That I know of its the first game canceled by Blizzard. Overwatch could not possibly be anywhere near the size and scope of what Titan was suppose to be. They Saw Titan as a Risk and doomed to fail if ever released. Making wow and releasing it back in 2004 was a massive risk. The biggest under taking the company had ever tried they needed half a million users within the first year to stay afloat. The game soared in popularity too quickly and they had to struggle with a small team for the size of the project to expand Wow's end game content.

Morale can't be at a peak at blizzard right now... Private servers have soared in popularity, subscriptions are down more than ever before for wow and they are hoping to cash in on a brand new IP + A film that has a good chance of not reaching a wide audience. Wow was never as popular as lord of the rings or star wars and never will be. many of the unique users that have played wow were chinese. I expect the film to do really really well in Asia.

Blizzard's cancelation of Titan spells out in big letters there wont be any big new Mmos they arent worth the risk, time and effort and expense. Ever Quest next and a few other mmos that were on the horizon were just canceled as well.

I disagree with this I think an MMO can work as long as it does not require a monthly fee, has frequent updates and fresh ideas.

[Bathory]

Not everything works. Not everything is perfect. Sometimes it's better to start over than to continue pushing something that never encompasses your vision.

[Montyqt]

Sure they're human, but that does that really give them a pass to ignore pretty much everything their fan-base suggests/wants?

[Cooper]

people just wont realize the impact of what has happened here. Titan was a massive project and it was canceled. That I know of its the first game canceled by Blizzard. Overwatch could not possibly be anywhere near the size and scope of what Titan was suppose to be. They Saw Titan as a Risk and doomed to fail if ever released. Making wow and releasing it back in 2004 was a massive risk. The biggest under taking the company had ever tried they needed half a million users within the first year to stay afloat. The game soared in popularity too quickly and they had to struggle with a small team for the size of the project to expand Wow's end game content.

StarCraft: Ghost was canceled. That was a long time ago, and that's just that among the announced projects.

They said why they canceled Titan: playing it wasn't fun.

[Varaben]

Completely forgot about Titan. Wonder if it's possible that we'll see Blizzard attempting another MMO after WoW.

I'm not sure they see the value to be honest. Games like Hearthstone and D3 and OW are very much repeatable and don't include the same level of content creation from raid bosses to the world, etc. My guess is that's part of the reason why Titan was cancelled. They probably got X% done and realized it would not be feasible given the scope.

It's a shame, because while we know nothing about it, we know there was a lot of work done on it, and with WoW in their sails, we can imagine what kind of game could have come out of this team.

[Eliseus]

I disagree with this I think an MMO can work as long as it does not require a monthly fee, has frequent updates and fresh ideas.

In my opinion there has been this huge debate that MMOs are dying, specifically because of the mobile market. I feel that is on the contrary. I feel that there has been NO NEW GOOD MMOs. Most crap coming out is free to play which might be saying something towards that, or not western, and I know there is a huge populace like me out there that doesn't even want to play something that isn't from a western company like Blizzard.

[lockybalboa]

If only they would admit the same about WoD

[Varaben]

StarCraft: Ghost was canceled. That was a long time ago, and that's just that among the announced projects.

They said why they canceled Titan: playing it wasn't fun.

OK, it wasn't fun; so it was so bad that there were no changes to be made to make it fun? That's pretty much a cop-out answer to be honest. They're such bad developers that they couldn't recover and redirect the game in some way, that they had to cancel it? Come on now.

[Roamingstorm]

Its sad to see the people at Blizzard still won't admit what made Blizzard special to begin with.

Battle.net 1.0.

The original bnet was amazing. It was a graphical chatroom where kids could easily meet, socialize, and maybe hop into a game or two. The games were actually not as important. Sure, you could have played Diablo, Starcraft or Warcraft on bnet, but you could have altered the course of history and removed those 3 and replaced them with any 3 decent titles and bnet would still have made them a rabid success.

The secret formula was that Blizzard offered an amazing social experience for kids. World of Warcraft used to offer that as well, until they removed global chat, adder LFR, phasing, bodyguards, etc. They sit there and say the games were great and that's what was special. But they are wrong. And they still don't get it.

I still want to know who designed bnet 1.0 and what that person or group thinks of what has happened to the social experience in Blizzard games. Bnet 2.0 is a disaster.

I watch that video and I'm thinking. "Metzen, dude, you've just gotta go. They've gotta fire you. You don't get it. You don't understand why there was success so how can you fix this?"

Or could be the fact there's tons of different social tools out there, but no one uses them or wants to be bothered enough to do so. Or going deeper that since there's multiple different types of social media out there that it's been so ingrained into people now that it's just like saying hello to someone when they walk into your store and they look at you like a deer in the headlights. I've added awesome people on SC2 with Co-Op modes and HoTS, and even Overwatch, so I don't think it's the lack of tools, it's the lack of motivation to talk. I've been in PUGs where they want people to get into vent and everyone is dead silent, it's even more awkward than going to an actual party and everyone is quite.

[Spiral Mage]

It's amusing hearing them try to claim Overwatch had anything to do with Titan. I mean, was their new MMO that was meant to succeed WoW, really going to be a COD clone? That's a ridiculous public claim. No MMO was going to turn out like Overwatch. The only thing that came from TITAN was some of the arenas that are now featured in Overwatch, so it's likely the setting of Overwatch was the backdrop of the new MMO but that was the only likely thing these two "titles", have in common.

Futhermore, I'm confused how they say they're not used to failing, considering how badly WoW is doing. It's not really surprising that with WoW's constant decline, that they couldn't manage to create a new MMO. It was likely a very bad WoW clone, and they realized they had managed to accomplish nothing new, so they just gave up on it. We don't need a clone of WoW, we need a brand new concept. And BLIZ is not poised to deliver on that, considering the only game they make right now that shows any sincere signs of having an intelligent team working on it, is Diablo III.

It's pretty sad that they cannot get out of this rut they are stuck in. Look at "World Quests" in LGN, Dailies with a new name. That's the problem, their ideas WERE good but since then, they've come up with nothing new, they just repeat old ideas.

[Roamingstorm]

OK, it wasn't fun; so it was so bad that there were no changes to be made to make it fun? That's pretty much a cop-out answer to be honest. They're such bad developers that they couldn't recover and redirect the game in some way, that they had to cancel it? Come on now.

Didn't they technically recover it via Overwatch?

I mean, while it's not an MMO, look at Fable Legends. I was in the beta for that awful game, and honestly I don't think there was any way around to make the game better with the initial design they had in mind. But than again, sometimes you need to scrap a project before you end up "development limbo" and just keep pouring money into something without ever really coming out with anything, or even worse something awful. Personally I'd rather be known for canceling a game no one really knew anything about, over releasing a game that was poorly received. And yes probably going to get a comment on "Well WoD sucked", and it did, but then I remember previous expansions and how they were good. I mean take Dragon Age with Bioware. Wasn't a huge fan of Dragon Age 2, thought it was pretty mediocre, took a chance on Inquisition and loved it.

TL;DR version, Devs screw up sometimes, sometimes they get better, sometimes they don't.

[cholobanger]

Futhermore, I'm confused how they say they're not used to failing, considering how badly WoW is doing. It's not really surprising that with WoW's constant decline, that they couldn't manage to create a new MMO. It was likely a very bad WoW clone, and they realized they had managed to accomplish nothing new, so they just gave up on it. We don't need a clone of WoW, we need a brand new concept. And BLIZ is not poised to deliver on that, considering the only game they make right now that shows any sincere signs of having an intelligent team working on it, is Diablo III. .

I'm pretty when he said they weren't used to failing was BEFORE they started development for Titan which was before 2010 AKA before Cataclysm. And it's a little coincidental that the golden days of WoW as people like to claim was before Cata. I think at this point Blizzard decided that WoW was going to succeed WoW so they shoved the development aside and is perhaps why the game is doing so poorly now.

[Flurryfang]

OK, it wasn't fun; so it was so bad that there were no changes to be made to make it fun? That's pretty much a cop-out answer to be honest. They're such bad developers that they couldn't recover and redirect the game in some way, that they had to cancel it? Come on now.

A lot of games are canceled in the gaming industry, more then you would think. Titan was canceled because it was going nowhere. When they last talked about Titan, they said that it was not working right and that it simply was not a fun experience to play. That is a legit reason to cancel a game; when it is not having the effect which you aim for.

Anyway, we don't even know how much of a game they had. Maybe there was little control in it, maybe there was only some models and basic UI in the game. The game might have taken 2-3 more years to make... That is a long time, for a game, which ground ideas are not fun. Sometimes developers must just admit, that what they were working on is not heading in any positive direction and that the final product will not live up to standards, and therefore you cancel and start fresh.

If you think this is still a horrible thing and work of bad designers, try going to youtube and search for "Fail faster: Extra Credits". They will explain why this happends so often in the world of gaming, and why it is not that bad of a thing.

[Thirstblood]

I never understood why they would try it out first place and gave up later.. Seriously they should know Pros and cons and risks..

[Angel of Justice]

It's amusing hearing them try to claim Overwatch had anything to do with Titan. I mean, was their new MMO that was meant to succeed WoW, really going to be a COD clone? That's a ridiculous public claim. No MMO was going to turn out like Overwatch. The only thing that came from TITAN was some of the arenas that are now featured in Overwatch, so it's likely the setting of Overwatch was the backdrop of the new MMO but that was the only likely thing these two "titles", have in common.

Yes because YOU know more of whats been used from the scraps of Titan to make Overwatch BETTER then the team that worked on it in Blizzard. ROFL
Also Overwatch = CoD clone? not even close,only thing in common is that it has some FPS features.

Futhermore, I'm confused how they say they're not used to failing, considering how badly WoW is doing. It's not really surprising that with WoW's constant decline, that they couldn't manage to create a new MMO. It was likely a very bad WoW clone, and they realized they had managed to accomplish nothing new, so they just gave up on it. We don't need a clone of WoW, we need a brand new concept. And BLIZ is not poised to deliver on that, considering the only game they make right now that shows any sincere signs of having an intelligent team working on it, is Diablo III.

When they started Titan it was 2010,the golden age of wow (sub wise at least). And if you payed attention in the video he was specifically talking about the people working on Titan,not the whole of Blizzard. That team was old blizz people + new blood = none of them made a failure/got their stuff canceled before.


Blizzard canceled Starcraft : Ghost,aswell as some RTS game back in like 99' or so,might've been earlier,but it was their most recent cancelation,with alot of people that never "failed" at making a game before with Titan.

[Flurryfang]

I never understood why they would try it out first place and gave up later.. Seriously they should know Pros and cons and risks..

Sometimes, your idea goes places you did not foresee when you started out.

[corebit]

Cancelling Titan was a smart decision. MMOs' popularity is on the decline and no one has time to grind stuff for hours on end anymore.
I think the main reason was the ATVB higher-ups calculated (correctly) that Titan wasn't going to be successful as an MMO, and so they scrapped it.

[Steve French]

This seems like blatant PR.

[gamingmuscle]

It's amusing hearing them try to claim Overwatch had anything to do with Titan. I mean, was their new MMO that was meant to succeed WoW, really going to be a COD clone? That's a ridiculous public claim. No MMO was going to turn out like Overwatch. The only thing that came from TITAN was some of the arenas that are now featured in Overwatch, so it's likely the setting of Overwatch was the backdrop of the new MMO but that was the only likely thing these two "titles", have in common.

It had no overlap with WoW. Rumor was an FPS mmo, so character design and maybe maps and other art assets may have easily been transferred over.

Futhermore, I'm confused how they say they're not used to failing, considering how badly WoW is doing. It's not really surprising that with WoW's constant decline, that they couldn't manage to create a new MMO. It was likely a very bad WoW clone, and they realized they had managed to accomplish nothing new, so they just gave up on it. We don't need a clone of WoW, we need a brand new concept. And BLIZ is not poised to deliver on that, considering the only game they make right now that shows any sincere signs of having an intelligent team working on it, is Diablo III.

WoW eventual death does not make them a failure. Things change. Ideas that once worked will stop attracting people. WoW is and always will be a huge success, even after it dies.

Specific ideas within WoW may have failed.


Cancelling project is nothing new to blizzard. D3 got completely scrapped at one point and restarted.