[rumor] Is Blizzard making a Diablo MMO?

[Talvindius]

Diablo 4 is more likely. A Diablo MMO at this time is a stupid idea.

[Ashrynn]

Diablo does have MMO elements in it right? I never got into it, but it'd make sense to want someone with MMO exp for D4. As someone said earlier if they are working on an MMO, I'd guess they could be gearing up for an MMO around Overwatch. Although, I thought Overwatch was what became of the Titan MMO, but maybe that's me mixing up my rumors or something??

[dope_danny]

Considering a bunch of other hires related to 'first person content' the general consensus seems to be Diablo 4 being a first person affair ala battleborn.

Only without the memes, cringe nonemedy and randy bo bandys desperation.

[TheWindWalker]

It would basically kill Diablo 4 in much the same way that ES:O titanium-cockblocked ES:6.

[Dystemper]

If they did a Star Craft mmo, the subs from Korea alone would drive their profits through the roof

[plaits]

Diablo 4 is more likely. A Diablo MMO at this time is a stupid idea.

Agree. I don't think it's a Diablo MMO per se. I think they just value MMO game development experience, for a variety of reasons.

[Baelic]

Technically Diablo 3 is a MMO by current standards, especially when you take Destiny into consideration.

[McFuu]

Yes, I think they will be making a Diablo MMO. WoW isn't so much in decline as it is out of stories. Unless they continue to throw filler expansion in the mix like Pandas and WoD which neither are very well received by most of the community, then "concluding" the story is bound to occur soon. We are going to Argus, safe to say the Legion will be done or dealt with this expansion, Void Lords/Old God's and then that's it. Naga are old hat, they aren't even a threat, they won't get an expansion, I wouldn't be surprised if they left the story with them hanging, or gave them a patch to get mid-tier raid killed (again).

It's possible we might see a Diablo MMO in a Neverwinter, Ultima, style game world. Still locked at that overhead position, to maintain the Diabloesque appearance. But it isn't necessary. Nothing says it can't look like WoW.

Lore wise, at the release of WoW, Diablo had about as much "lore" as Warcraft. Now Diablo has a huge world of lore. I also think the Diablo world is better for an MMO. It's not locked into that ridiculous this side and that side mechanic. It doesn't have "races". It's just a better place to start a new game from. More directions to go.

[Moozart]

No, that's for the Diablo 2 remake or Diablo 4. They already thought about Star Craft and Diablo for an mmo when Titan failed but for obvious reasons it does not have enough content or variety to make an mmo.

The only possible IP they can make an mmo out of now is Overwatch, and judging from the way they're fleshing out lore now, it looks like that's what they're gearing up for.

Well considering thats the way it was supposed of have been from the get go. Over watch was already part of a larger game that was never created. Go GO Titan

[Deleted]

Highly doubt it. WoW already has enough competition out in the MMO field as it is now. Why would Blizzard want to add to said competition?

Course, the original D3 (by the now-shuttered Blizzard North) was planned to be a MMO, so who knows.

Saying Wow has competition on the MMO market is like saying League of Legends has competition on the MOBA market.

[Severance]

No one is crazy enough to make new MMOs - there's no market

There probably won't be another WoW level phenomena, but the market is fine as long as your company isn't trying to do just that. The only company right now that can "dethrone" WoW is Blizzard itself. But Elder Scrolls, Star Wars, Final Fantasy, Black Desert, etc, are all making money just fine.

[Deleted]

There probably won't be another WoW level phenomena, but the market is fine as long as your company isn't trying to do just that. The only company right now that can "dethrone" WoW is Blizzard itself. But Elder Scrolls, Star Wars, Final Fantasy, Black Desert, etc, are all making money just fine.

I haven't seen any financial reports from those games, so I wouldn't know. MMOs are a niche market. The good old "magical" 500k sub threshold is still a mark of a smashing success and not many games reach that. WoW with it's ~12M was just a crazy edge case and has been slowly declining towards normality ever since. All other MMOs have failed horribly trying to replicate that - because it can't be replicated. The market is not there. Blizzard just managed to catch the zeitgeist 12 years ago.

Blizzard knows this. That's why they cancelled their "new" MMO, Titan. They're not crazy enough to try to build another one.
But they might make a game that has "mmo-like" features (like levels or persistance) but not the massively-online world.

It's entirely possible that one day a indie MMO might catch similar zeitgeist like WoW did 12 years ago. But I very much doubt a tripple-A company will see the financial business case to produce a high-cost MMO

MMOs are back to being a niche market. And Blizzard won't make another MMO. I'll eat my hat if they announce Diablo MMO.
I'm almost sure they'll announce something eSpor(y) instead. Because.. meh...

[Biomega]

I've been saying for years that the future will lie in ARPGs with MMO elements. It takes the dynamic combat and bite-sized content model of ARPGs, and combines it with the persistence and multiplayer longevity of MMOs. Basically, you take the good and leave the bad out of both worlds.

What I would expect is a semi-open world as the starting point. Sanctuary has its zones and continents, well established by the lore, and you use that as a setting. You basically go continent -> kingdom -> area in terms of granularity for open-world maps. Then come finer levels of details that are instanced, possible generated as pseudo-random maps. This would be things like dungeons, possibly small area maps (think Southern Highlands, etc.). Going the full Diablo route of making everything generated is, I think, too much for a more densely populated world; but as soon as you control group size, random generation has an enormous appeal.

Content would be tiered into various group sizes, durations, and levels of ambition. Scaling would be used throughout, meaning you can easily group up in various group sizes and character levels to cooperate on appropriate content. Scaling will be tweaked on higher levels of ambition, which will likely show a fairly differentiated structure from very casual to very hardcore.

The same would be true for the type of content. Structured by expected time investment, it would cover anything from 5-15 minute map clears ("speed runs") to more involved ~30 minute pieces ("dungeons") to hours-long massive content ("raids") - each, of course, differentiated internally based on challenge level, group size, and so on. Group sizes will probably go all the way from 2 to about 15-20 (more towards 15 rather than 20).

I think trifecta will be gone, preserved only in vague notions within character specialization. Everyone will be DPS first and foremost, with pure support (of various kinds) the exception based on the challenge level of the content. "Class" identities will be strongly emphasized, but based around comparable base models. Old classics will make a return ("Barbarian" etc.) but there will be much more class variety than in D3. Character customization will be strongly emphasized, in particular cosmetic.

The game will feature microtransactions from the beginning, but only cosmetic/non-power. There will be mounts and various vanity items, and the appearance of every character will be highly customizable in many different ways. It will be buy-to-play but not have a subscription, expansion packs will also be buy-to-play and come out regularly.

Feel free to quote me in a two years' time when we know more.

[stgeorge78]

Well, if anyone can create the next successful MMO, it would certainly be Blizzard.

They tried already and failed with Titan. But Blizzard recovered by turning it into Overwatch. So lesson learned is... don't bother with the MMO or story elements or anything remotely single player - just go straight to putting out another eSports game.

[Guyv3r]

Legion might as well be a Diablo MMO.

Wowhead patch notes 7.3:

Lesser and Greater Rift Keystone

Charged Riftstone: "Allows entry into Lesser Rifts and Greater Rifts."
Depleted Riftstone: "Allows entry into Lesser Rifts."



Might as well change WoW's name...

[Kazgrel]

Saying Wow has competition on the MMO market is like saying League of Legends has competition on the MOBA market.

Denial: Not a river in Egypt.

[Vorkreist]

Diablo 4 is more likely. A Diablo MMO at this time is a stupid idea.

Anything Diablo is equally stupid after Path of Exile took a giant shit all over Blizzard.
What are they gonna come up with ? Jay Wilson 2.0 ? More full-retard design and overpriced to scam the droves of fanboys ? 99.99$ to unlock the next class?

[ro9ue]

I think it will be a Elder Scrolls type first person Diablo game. Open World and full of dungeons.

I very much so hope this.

[tikcol]

WoW is ending soon. Mark my words right here right now.

They're shifting to a Diablo MMO and putting World of Warcraft on hold for the moment/a while.

Prophet tikcol at your disposal any day, any time.

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What competition does wow realistically have? It's crushing everything

It isn't getting new players, they're effectively not crushing anybody, they just have an higher player base to bleed over time

[Low Hanging Fruit]

If I had to guess Blizzards next game will be something along the lines of massive open world explore type game like the new Zelda game or Horizons. This is pretty much what Blizzard always does. They let big hits come out and figure out what was good and bad about them and then stacks the good ontop of it and often makes it more accessable to a wider audience.