Titan: All current information, news and speculation

[farfel]

Since we seem to have a new Titan thread float by every few days, largely with the same questions and information, I’ve tried to put together a complete Titan resource thread with currently know information and links to relevant sites and information. I will try to keep this updated as new information becomes available. Hopefully this will reduce the number of new Titan threads.

To be fair, most of the information here came from titanwatch.net but I did follow all the links to the original interviews with people from Blizzard to verify all of the information listed here as being factual.

If anyone learns of any NEW information about Titan post it here and I’ll update. Any other suggestions just let me know.


Update Log

6/30/2011 - Added speculation bullet about Titan being 'caual mmo'.


Useful Websites and Links

Official Site

There is currently no official Blizzard site for Titan since the game is not officially announced yet.


Fan Sites [yes there are already Titan fan sites out there]

http://titanfocus.info


Links to Interviews and Other Primary Sources Mentioning Titan

October 2008 – Jeff Kaplan – Interview with MTV

August 2010 – Robert Kotick – Company earnings call

December 2010 – Frank Pearce – Interview with Destructoid

March 2011 – Paul Sams – Interview with Gamasutra

March 2011 – Paul Sams – Interview with VentureBeat

March 2011 – Mike Morhaime and Frank Pearce – Interview with MCV

Blizzard Job Postings for Titan (Next-Gen MMO)



What We Currently Know for Sure

Everything else is just speculation at this point.

Fact - Titan is the code name for Blizzard’s next-gen MMO project.
This was confirmed by Frank Pearce in an interview with Destructoid in December 2010.

Fact - Titan has not been officially announced by Blizzard yet.
There is no official information about the genre, setting or release window for the game.

Fact - The Titan project has been active since 2007.
Blizzard began posting jobs for the project in 2007 as reported here on Gamespot. Keep in mind that at the time there was speculation the new MMO would be based on Starcraft which we now know is not true. In his March 2011 interview with Gamasutra Paul Sams stated that they have been moving some of their most senior level people from World of Warcraft over to Titan for a number of years now.

Fact - Titan will not be based on the Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo franchises.
Several high level Blizzard people have stated publically that Titan will be a band new IP. Robert Kotick said this during the company's Q2 2010 earnings call. Mike Morhaime also confirmed this during a March 2011 interview with MCV.

Fact - Titan is not meant to compete directly with World of Warcraft.
Paul Sams said Titan would be more complimentary rather than competetive to World of Warcraft during his March 2011 interview with VentureBeat.

Fact - Blizzard is ramping up staff for Titan
Blizzard currently has 17 job openings listed for their Next-Gen MMO (a.k.a. Titan). They have been recruiting for years and the number of job postings has been increasing.



Additional Information and Speculation

Common speculation about Titan with at least some basis in fact.

Speculation – Titan will be released in late 2013 or early 2014
The leaked Blizzard product slate has Titan set to release in Q4 2013. We’re not certain this document is real but given the subsequent firing of the general manager of Blizzard’s China operation the leak appears more credible. TitanWatch also put together an article comparing the release schedules for Blizzards last 3 new titles and estimated a release for Titan in early 2014.

Speculation - Titan will be set on near future Earth
TitanWatch speculated on this based on some Blizzard job postings. The unnamed sources that claimed Titan would be a MMOFPS (see below) also indicated it would be set in a post-apocalyptic Earth.

Speculation – Titan will be a MMOFPS
There are two articles on French gaming sites NoFrag and FactorNews which claim to have an unnamed source that told them Titan would have an MMOFPS component as well as a large social component. There is no way of knowing if these sources are legit.

Speculation – Titan will be a casual MMO
A new analyst report on Activision Blizzard is claiming the game will be a 'casual mmo'. This fits in with Blizzards previous statements that the game will not compete directly with WOW and will appeal to a wider audience.



Notable Quotes About Titan

"And remember, we have two enormous investments: one in Bungie and the other in another project at Blizzard that we haven't given a lot of visibility to. Those are going to be entirely new intellectual properties." -Robert Kotick – 2010 Earnings Call


"I believe [it's] the most ambitious thing we've ever attempted" -Paul Sams – Gamasutra


"As it relates to that other [MMO], we think that it's going to be very impactful in our industry and, we hope, very impactful to the world" -Paul Sams – Gamasutra


"We're very confident in that product. It's an awesome one," Sams added. "We're playing it already. It is a total ball to play. We think that the reach of that product is greater than anything that we've done before." -Paul Sams – Gamasutra


"As to our new unannounced game, we believe that it will be more complementary than competitive" [to WOW] -Paul Sams – VentureBeat


So is Blizzard's new MMO going to be sci-fi, near-future, post-apocalyptic or historical? "All of those combined!" he said, laughing. -Jeff Kaplan – MTV

[PACOX]

Titan is a Defiance clone. (I'm joking).

[Deleted]

Nice Thread Fartel, Good idea to keep everything in one place.

[Otaka]

i hope titan will be something interesting.

[chemicader]

Good stuff mate.

[Lilcheeks]

mmofps... sounds kinda like 10six, from back in the day on heat.net

[sharpyx]

Great Thread! I haven't looked yet but I guess you are the same guy who is doing the Star Wars one, if so I really appreciate the effort you are going to

[farfel]

Great Thread! I haven't looked yet but I guess you are the same guy who is doing the Star Wars one, if so I really appreciate the effort you are going to

I'm not doing the STOR thread but that's what gave me the idea for this one.

[Arrowstormen]

MMOFPS seems odd. But I guess they don't want to fight WoW themselves.
Still, I won't take anything before Blizzard says it.

[Theleklol]

Thanks for the thread. Glad to see a Titan thread with actual links.

Other threads:



I find this thread delicious.

[Djuntas]

Nice read, do update if anything comes around. All Info is spot on from what we know.

[Gámbller]

This game obviously will be something fantastic. Considering its a Blizzard (SC, WoW, Warcraft, Diablo etc.) doing it there is just no doubt about it. Also, they have been working on this since 2007 and it still wont be out for next few years. Development of the WoW took roughly 4–5 years so thats almost double development time for Titan. They also took senior staff members from WoW to Titan in 2007, TBC was released in 2007 which is considered by most of us to be the best expansion ever.

My expectations are really, really high for this game and I am very sure this game will still mind-blow me. Meaby THIS might be the WoW-killer? Most likely not, but it will take a big chunk of subscribers from WoW and if this game will be MMOFPS it will definetly attract more new subscribers for Blizzard. Meaby 10M subscribers in first year and still rising?
Better start buying Blizzard shares already! iisi monei. (Diablo 3 coming out soon too so it would be pretty good investment)

[Deleted]

MMOFPS seems odd. But I guess they don't want to fight WoW themselves.
Still, I won't take anything before Blizzard says it.

Seeing as FPS is one of the highest (if not the highest) grossing genre currently, MMOFPS makes A LOT of sense.

[pateuvasiliu]

"We're playing it already. It is a total ball to play. We think that the reach of that product is greater than anything that we've done before." -Paul Sams – Gamasutra

i'm rather suspicious about this

[Syce]

Fact - Titan will not be based on the Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo franchises.
Blizzard has confirmed that Titan is based on a totally new IP.

its funny that people still don't understand this.

[farfel]

Seeing as FPS is one of the highest (if not the highest) grossing genre currently, MMOFPS makes A LOT of sense.

I guess the question is though, can you make an FPS into a good MMO and make it deep enough that people will continue paying to play it for years. I agree they could attract a huge audience with an FPS but I'm not so sure that audience would stay and continue paying a monthly fee for multiple years like people typically do with fantasy MMO's.

[captainchaos]

I've heard that Titan will be connected to Facebook in some way. Is there any truth to this or just a rumor?

[ptwonline]

I wish Blizzard the best of luck, but I do think they are playing with fire here. There are FPS fans and MMORPG fans, and some are fans of both, but I am not sure the two will mix very well.

I also worry that if Titan does end up not really being a successor to WoW that WoW players could form a mass exodus to a more modern MMORPG. WoW is really showing its age already, nevermind how it will be in 2-3 years. I think people would stick with it if they knew it would just be a bridge to Titan, but without that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow will they be willing to stick with it? I'm guessing the answer for a lot of people is no.

[Deleted]

I hope it will be something like this.

-Players can great their own story about what happend before the earth would be destroyed etc (if its about the earth and stuff), wich would be amazing for RP, and if they made an awesome way to have quests/stuff you do accualy makes the world beter/suckyer it would be pretty sweet for making a good back ground story for your character.

- A lot of world PvP (would be cool if their would be no side's like horde and alliance). but you could accually clan up with peopple and expore/fight with those peopple.

- A lot of difrent ways to fight, Guns/spells/swords the wholl thing, would be cool to have some difrent things to use.

- world events, Make it worth it to visit zones so peopple wont sit on the same spot all the time.

Would be cool

[captainchaos]

I wish Blizzard the best of luck, but I do think they are playing with fire here. There are FPS fans and MMORPG fans, and some are fans of both, but I am not sure the two will mix very well.

I'm thinking the same thing. Everyone is talking about this being a MMOFPS but I really don't understand how you turn an FPS into an MMO. FPS is all about immediate action and is really a short term game. Get in, shoot a bunch of stuff and get out. But a typical MMORPG is as much about long term character building as it is about action and gameplay. Personally I'm hoping for something more sci-fi along the lines of Eve.