[Megathread] Titan Speculation

[Doylez]

I can't help but think that it'd be a good idea for Blizzard to make an MMOFPS. I mean you get to compete against PS2, and might reap some of the console gamers at the same time.[COLOR="red"]

PS2 is too much FPS and not enough RPG imo. Everything is based around good aim, I don't think that's what Blizzard has in mind.
Imo third person view is a must so you can look at your shiny armor. Not everything can be based around good aim or highpingers/baddies/casuals will stay away.

Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer would be a good example of how the game should look like, 3rd person view, you have some aiming going on but also abilities that automatically hit if you just aim in the general direction of the enemy.

What it really boils down to is a lot of players would love to get something for free, so they want to believe that all games will be F2P in the future.

apparently not only the players

EA
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/...-inevitability

Ubisoft
http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/08/...f2p-the-future

Crytek
http://www.gamespot.com/news/all-fut...o-play-6382131

[Gothicshark]

Not saying you're wrong but I'd like to see a source on that.

Not Counting Chinese language MMOs because they have a few F2P's with stupid high numbers. Sort of like Runescape before the purge.

MapleStory - 5 million Subs
RuneScape - 200 million Subs (pre ban purge they banned all but 10 million for using hacks and bots)
dofus - 10 million













http://maplestory.nexon.net
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming...7551?artc_pg=1
http://press.ankama.com/en/press-rel...threshold.html

---------- Post added 2013-01-21 at 10:43 PM ----------

Yeah, I don't see a full subscription MMO model as viable any longer. They need to find a more flexible payment model. It doesn't have to be F2P (although that certainly makes it more accessible) but I won't be shelving over 15 Euros a month for an MMO anymore.

By the way, League of Legends is the most popular PC Game on the market currently and has many times the active players of WoW.

People often forget 2 things about WoW when comparing it with other games.

1. WoW is the only big subscription based MMO left. Other MMOs may easily have more players but generate less revenue.

2. WoW really "only" has about 5 Mio. players in NA and EU...the truly profitable markets. Compare that to 3 Mio. GW2 players or 2 Mio. SWTOR players gives you a little perspective. WoW is still the biggest MMO but it's not the behemoth some people seem to think it is.

Actually most F2P games make more per customer than $15 a month, the average is something like $50 a month on in game purchases. Which means games that have 2 million players could easily make more than WOW does.

[Edge-]

Actually most F2P games make more per customer than $15 a month, the average is something like $50 a month on in game purchases. Which means games that have 2 million players could easily make more than WOW does.

Those numbers seem awfully high. I would assume that would be ARPPU (average revenue per paying user) rather than ARPU(average revenue per user) when speaking of the broader market. ARPU is generally pretty low, but it's made up for by the fact that the userbases are generally pretty big.

[Darksoldierr]

Those numbers seem awfully high. I would assume that would be ARPPU (average revenue per paying user) rather than ARPU(average revenue per user) when speaking of the broader market. ARPU is generally pretty low, but it's made up for by the fact that the userbases are generally pretty big.

Agreed, i never ever payed money in any F2P games, ever, be it LoL, Lotr or Eden Eternal.

[stellvia]

Yeah, I don't see a full subscription MMO model as viable any longer. They need to find a more flexible payment model. It doesn't have to be F2P (although that certainly makes it more accessible) but I won't be shelving over 15 Euros a month for an MMO anymore.

The problem isn't with the payment model, it's with companies who use it when it's a poor fit for the type of game they're making. Saying they make "more money with F2P" means nothing if their revenue was in the gutter to begin with. $15 is 50% more revenue than $10, but another company could be making $100 with subscriptions.

To make a "South Park Bad Ski Instructor" meme: If you're a small game developer releasing a theme park MMO with no end-game content, you're gonna have a bad time.

The market is saturated with SO MANY MMOs these days, that you just aren't going to be able to hold someones attention enough to demand a subscription fee if your game is based around the standard WoW theme park model. Especially with a far smaller budget, so you probably don't have nearly as much content.

IMHO the ideal MMO in today's market would be a hybrid MMO that has a strong backing of sandbox elements like housing, a comprehensive crafting system that rewards dedication (IE: SWG), and theme park elements. Supported by subscriptions AND gametime cards that can be bought from players with in-game money that don't want to pay/have the money for the subscription. And then a cash shop for fun/cosmetic items.

You are going to need to have that sandbox foundation to keep players engaged between content updates and it will dissuade them from jumping ship to another game until that comes, etc.

---------- Post added 2013-01-22 at 02:11 AM ----------

Actually most F2P games make more per customer than $15 a month, the average is something like $50 a month on in game purchases. Which means games that have 2 million players could easily make more than WOW does.

That has to be average spent per paying user. The numbers I've seen posted related to F2P say that only something like 20% of users pay anything at all, but those that do pay are likely to spend more than $15/month. Sometimes significantly more.

For example, I remember in Eden Eternal's NA launch, some guy spent like $600 on gems the first week, it was nuts.

[Gothicshark]

For example, I remember in Eden Eternal's NA launch, some guy spent like $600 on gems the first week, it was nuts.

It's sort od what happens 1-2% of F2P players essentially pay for the game. Obviously the more players you have the greater the odds that some rich idiot will buy everything.

[Deleted]

I'm hoping it's World of Starcraft (call it whatever you will) so much so that i'll be disappointed if it isn't.

[Markluzz]

Yeah, it's going to be impossible to get concrete numbers out of anyone, as subscription based MMO's have and continue to count "fringe" accounts as active, WoW counts Chinese accounts the same as Western (they use different payment models), and there's no way to count "unique" accounts in the case of people who own multiple accounts.

Most of these games that exceed 10 million + active users are Asian, with heavy followings in China and Korea. They're not quite as popular in the West, but they have a presence here.



That's the thing, it's damn hard to make a game good enough to justify a subscription nowadays. They have to provide something that no other existing game does, and then the rest of the game has to be damn good as well. That's touch, especially when competing with a game like WoW which has so much inertia going in its favor that I doubt we'll see anything really "dent" it too much and rather see it slowly decrease in size over time.

Subscription model isn't officially "dead", but for all intents and purposes it is. It's an extremely difficult model to make viable on a large scale (not counting the niche games like Perpetuum or Darkfall) and see profits that aren't outpaced by a F2P/freemium model.

Something you didn't take into consideration is in game advertisements, although unless the game is based in modern times or later it would be harder to really put in advertisements, but those would make a lot of money.

[Oekss]

New HotS cinematic has me really wishing Titan is a futuristic MMO.

[Erolian]

RuneScape - 200 million Subs (pre ban purge they banned all but 10 million for using hacks and bots)
.

Err.. Not to nitpick or anything but they just sort of recently had a big deal about 200 million accounts being created over the games lifetime including F2P accounts not subs alone>.<

[Notamonk]

Borderlands meets starcraft and they have a love child named Titan.

[Edge-]

Something you didn't take into consideration is in game advertisements, although unless the game is based in modern times or later it would be harder to really put in advertisements, but those would make a lot of money.

Yeah, they definitely seem to be investigating different monetization models at Blizz. Between in-game advertisements and RMAH, they're looking into some unique revenue generation sources.

I'm not claiming this to be 100% accurate, but last I heard it was set in the future, so it would stand to reason that they could put billboards/other traditional forms of advertisement in the game without making them too overt. The only other alternate I can think of is what Ubisoft did with...forget the name of the MMO they had some years ago, where they converted it to F2P and ran video ads when you logged in and when you died...but that didn't end well.

I'm really curious as to how it will be monetized though, Blizz seems pretty good at finding new monetization avenues, so it could be interesting.

[Deleted]

I can't help but think that it'd be a good idea for Blizzard to make an MMOFPS. I mean you get to compete against PS2, and might reap some of the console gamers at the same time.

Oh god I hope not...

[DeadmanWalking]

My impression is due to creating an overarching villain in Star CraftII akin to the old gods then it could very well be a star craft MMO. If in Heart of the Swarm the story explains how the Zerg develop an individualistic nature (instead of being mindless puppets of the hive) then I would say thats a key part of Titan becoming a Starcraft MMO with 3 factions instead of wows 2 factions. If you see more Kerigan like Zerg operatives being created in Heart of the swarm then I would say that this is the telling story arc that explains how a player could play as a zerg rather than a mindless killing machine.

[Celista]

They've already said it's going to be a new IP.
I don't understand why people keep saying it's going to be a "DIABLO, WARCRAFT, STARCRAFT, HALO MMO!".

Because what Blizzard says should sometimes be taken with a grain of salt...

http://wow.joystiq.com/2011/08/31/to...dly-overhyped/

From the article:

Speculation swirled recently regarding Blizzard's decision to trademark "Mists of Pandaria," as many thought it may indicate the name of the next World of Warcraft expansion. Pandaria, in Warcraft lore, refers to the home of the Pandaren, basically humanoid war pandas you may remember making an appearance as neutral heroes in Warcraft III. Chilton said the speculation was, "wildly overhyped." He added, "if you look at traditionally how we've handled that race it's been in those secondary products because we haven't realized it in the world. Most of the time when we do anything panda-related it's going to be a comic book or a figurine or something like that."

[unholytestament]

They've already said it's going to be a new IP.
I don't understand why people keep saying it's going to be a "DIABLO, WARCRAFT, STARCRAFT, HALO MMO!".

Put simply, because people took Blizzard's usual non-commital stance on answering whether or not Mists of Pandaria was the name of the expansion as a 100 percent iron clad promise that it wasn't.

You know, the same old sensationalist misrepresentation of statements from Blizzard that we have been seeing for years.

[Celista]

Put simply, because people took Blizzard's usual non-commital stance on answering whether or not Mists of Pandaria was the name of the expansion as a 100 percent iron clad promise that it wasn't.

You know, the same old sensationalist misrepresentation of statements from Blizzard that we have been seeing for years.

It was deliberately misleading; he could have said "no comment" or something to that nature, but he didn't.

[unholytestament]

It was deliberately misleading; he could have said "no comment" or something to that nature, but he didn't.

But nowhere did he state that it wasn't the title.

[Flaks]

But nowhere did he state that it wasn't the title.

Blizzard has done a 180 on things they've said many times. I wouldn't be surprised if this was another one.

[Celista]

But nowhere did he state that it wasn't the title.

It doesn't matter because it was still misleading.