Would now be a good time for Warcraft 4? [Spoilers]

[Jar-Mon]

It is wishful thinking,

That's pretty much where it is, and that's it IMO.

I used to believe they would do a WC4 for the longest time. Hell, i even theorycrafted how they could tie it in directly with an expansion and have a way to bring your "Character" in as a hero unit, ect.

But recent history has changed my opinion on that.

First piece of evidence WC4 won't happen: Battle for Assrot - They're calling that pathetic series of skirmishes "The fourth war". I mean, it's right there in black and white. BfA WAS Warcraft 4.

Second piece of evidence WC4 won't happen: Warcraft III Reforged. Everything from how half-assed it was shat out in the end, to it getting review bombed - it's pretty much guaranteed that working on RTS games isn't in Blizz's future anymore.

[Nerovar]

How strong are RTS games going right now for WC4 to be profitable, though?

It might be that the sheer WoW and WC communities might be enough to make it a success. Who knows?

RTS games definitely have their niche. The Total War series seems to be doing really well (though they're a mix of RTS and turn based).

[StillMcfuu]

How strong are RTS games going right now for WC4 to be profitable, though?

It might be that the sheer WoW and WC communities might be enough to make it a success. Who knows?

It would sell on name alone. Using Diablo 3 as an example, ARPG is more of a niche genre and yet the Diablo series routinely shows up on most sold games/fastest selling games, etc... WC4 would sell because it's a WC game and because people have waited nearly 20 years for another one.

[Jester Joe]

I would LOVE for Shadowlands to be the final WoW expansion. This "timeskip" would be the PERFECT time to launch a Warcraft 4.

After Warcraft 4, launch WoW 2. We need a reset, and squishes aren't doing it.

The squishes are resets.

There's nothing about making a WoW 2 that would make it immune to squishes any moreso than WoW could be already. But Blizzard continues to drastically scale gear between things so upgrades feel more powerful and then that all gets squished again.


I don't see Warcraft 4 ever being a thing until WoW is done though. And it would be more messy than putting the story into books, because at least the books are only covering some points for a specific situation. They're not overarching stories like what would be needed for a warcraft 4.

[Tyris Flare]

There's never going to be a Warcraft 4 (at least, not one that is anything like the old ones).

The RTS genre is dead, ironically consumed by the MOBAs they spawned. Smaller studios could probably justify making a niche game but an AAA one isn't going to do that.

[Airlick]

How strong are RTS games going right now for WC4 to be profitable, though?

It might be that the sheer WoW and WC communities might be enough to make it a success. Who knows?

Total War is a wildly successful series (at least going by Steam average players count from the last 30 days, the whole series would make it into top 10 on Steam, Warhammer 2 itself is in top 20), though it's not strictly an RTS. There is a market for RTS games, it's not just WC and WoW fans, it's all of the starved strategy games players, that are now basically stuck with Total War, Civ or replaying old games. It may not sell 100 million copies, but it would certainly go into double digits.

Though unless Blizzard has been hiding WC4 development for years, it's not going to come out before SL. If the time skip is significant enough, it might release later and tell the story of what happened in-between some time in the future. Wouldn't be a bad idea.

[dope_danny]

Why would you trust modern Blizzard to do it justice? they are as reliable as Bethesda or Bioware nowadays after the severe upper position brain drain.

[Monoxide]

Now that we know time works differently in the Shadowlands, our characters will be gone from Azeroth for an unknown period of time. That amount of time is not know to us at this point, but will progressively be expanded upon as we receive more content patches.

It is wishful thinking, but I believe the time skip would be an excellent time for blizzard to create and develop Warcraft 4. There is an explanation as to why the adventurers are gone and it would be a good time to establish new hero’s and villains in the expanding WoW universe. Warcraft 4 is exactly what WoW needs to create new characters that players can get attached to and kill off some of the old characters. Essentially, it would bring the lore together and pave the way for future expansions just like Warcraft 3 did.

Would you like to see a Warcraft 4?

Every time I see speculation about this it's always leaning one way and I'm puzzled by that. Everyone is taking what Ion said to mean that while we're in the Shadowlands, time may be slower than Azeroth, and we could come out of Shadowlands years into the future.

What if it's the other way? What if years in the Shadowlands is only days in Azeroth? Why couldn't it be that 10ish years have passed on Azeroth since Arthas was defeated, but to him, in there, it's been hundreds or thousands of years?

[Daedius]

RTS games have become such a niche in the mainstream of gaming, doubt Activision would allow Blizzard to take the risk of wasting investments... more so after the whole WC3Reforged fiasco.

And nevermind the fact Blizzard today are a husk of their former glory days, the company's become a hasbeen with its once good name ridden through the dirt.

[Jonnusthegreat]

The squishes are resets.

There's nothing about making a WoW 2 that would make it immune to squishes any moreso than WoW could be already. But Blizzard continues to drastically scale gear between things so upgrades feel more powerful and then that all gets squished again.


I don't see Warcraft 4 ever being a thing until WoW is done though. And it would be more messy than putting the story into books, because at least the books are only covering some points for a specific situation. They're not overarching stories like what would be needed for a warcraft 4.

The squishes aren't resets. You still carryover progress from previous expansions. There's too much in the game. We need a new game.

A WoW 2 will have squishes. But they will be done in a better way from all the lessons WoW taught them.

[Mister K]

No, not with blizzard's current form.

Also, there is a less than zero percent chance of Acti-blizzard ever releasing a story focused RTS on the PC as a flagship title ever again.

As sad as it is, this is probably very true. RIP.

[Mojo03]

That's pretty much where it is, and that's it IMO.

I used to believe they would do a WC4 for the longest time. Hell, i even theorycrafted how they could tie it in directly with an expansion and have a way to bring your "Character" in as a hero unit, ect.

But recent history has changed my opinion on that.

First piece of evidence WC4 won't happen: Battle for Assrot - They're calling that pathetic series of skirmishes "The fourth war". I mean, it's right there in black and white. BfA WAS Warcraft 4.

Second piece of evidence WC4 won't happen: Warcraft III Reforged. Everything from how half-assed it was shat out in the end, to it getting review bombed - it's pretty much guaranteed that working on RTS games isn't in Blizz's future anymore.

They can call it something other than WC4.

Reforged wasn't bad, it was mostly just miscommunicated what it was supposed to be, which is what pissed people off. They expected it to be more of a remake, which is how they sold it at Blizzcon. Then it came out and its literally just WC3 with updated graphics. I was fine with it, it was all I really wanted.

Blizzard still has an RTS team. They literally were THE RTS company for about half of their existence as a company. I'd wager it'll always be something they have a stake in. Then again, all those older people are gone now, so who knows.

[Hyral]

Without Morhaime, Samwise, Metzen, etc? No. I hope they never make a Warcraft 4. May the bloodied crown stay lost and forgotten.

[Gnasnimadan]

After the PR disaster that is Warcraft 3 Reforged there won't be anymore RTS from Blizzard until they have a huge shift in management (And as long as Kotick or any of his cronies are at the wheel that ain't happening)

Management didn't see "We fucked up, we should do better" they see "Well guess the market doesn't like RTSes anymore"

[Puupi]

RTS's are an archaic genre. They should never make Warcraft 4, or Starcraft 3.

[Jar-Mon]

They can call it something other than WC4.

Reforged wasn't bad, it was mostly just miscommunicated what it was supposed to be, which is what pissed people off.

From everything I've seen it wasn't a "miscommunication". A Misscommunication would suggest that they intended from the start to make it nothing more than WC3 with basic updated graphics. We all know that's not what happened - what happened was the team got gutted halfway through production. There was a reason for that gutting, and that's what I'm talking about. Blizzard seems to really have no faith in RTSes anymore. I realized I should toss HotS up there as well as evidence, since that's a pseudo-RTS that they've put that game into maintenance as well.

Yeah, they have an RTS team - but clearly it's not big enough to produce another Tripple-A RTS game, but rather it is just enough to let the genre dwindle down into its twilight years while still providing a little extra income for it to be worthwhile to the company.

[Mojo03]

From everything I've seen it wasn't a "miscommunication". A Misscommunication would suggest that they intended from the start to make it nothing more than WC3 with basic updated graphics. We all know that's not what happened - what happened was the team got gutted halfway through production. There was a reason for that gutting, and that's what I'm talking about. Blizzard seems to really have no faith in RTSes anymore. I realized I should toss HotS up there as well as evidence, since that's a pseudo-RTS that they've put that game into maintenance as well.

Yeah, they have an RTS team - but clearly it's not big enough to produce another Tripple-A RTS game, but rather it is just enough to let the genre dwindle down into its twilight years while still providing a little extra income for it to be worthwhile to the company.

It was originally sort of a remake, then got changed to just a remaster "due to user feedback" after Blizzcon, but was very poorly communicated that was the case. That team literally didn't communicate at all from Blizzcon 18 to 19 and at 19 they barely talked about the fact it was much different than originally announced, not to mention their effing website still had the original information at Reforged release, so they also failed to tell marketing too. Hence, "miscommunication".

You seem to have a lot of insider information. Evidence the team got gutted? Evidence they don't have a RTS team big enough to produce a AAA RTS?

[Kallisto]

How strong are RTS games going right now for WC4 to be profitable, though?

Dead basically. Even the C&C stuff is just a new coat of paint remaster. There's not been a brand new rts that's sold well in years.

Market might come back but now isn't the time for rts.

- - - Updated - - -

Total War is a wildly successful series (at least going by Steam average players count from the last 30 days, the whole series would make it into top 10 on Steam, Warhammer 2 itself is in top 20), though it's not strictly an RTS. There is a market for RTS games, it's not just WC and WoW fans, it's all of the starved strategy games players, that are now basically stuck with Total War, Civ or replaying old games. It may not sell 100 million copies, but it would certainly go into double digits.

Though unless Blizzard has been hiding WC4 development for years, it's not going to come out before SL. If the time skip is significant enough, it might release later and tell the story of what happened in-between some time in the future. Wouldn't be a bad idea.

Total war are not rts games.

[matrix123mko]

It is a terrible time for Warcraft 4. Sadly, Warcraft 3 fans are to pissed off to trust Blizzard right now.

[Zmagoslav]

RTS as a whole isn't exactly a prospering genre at the moment to start with.

Lorewise it opens a great opportunity for it, but after the W3:R fiasco... well it's the worst time to try something like that.