[Megathread] Titan Speculation

[MoanaLisa]

My theory about all of this is that the development team probably got too large too soon and some sort of bloat/scope creep got into the process. The normal response to that is to send people off temporarily to other things while the design core concepts get reset and stuff that was proposed to be added is cut back by a great amount.

That and mobile gaming happened. That was probably totally unforeseen in the beginning. Blizzard getting back into console gaming may have played a part as well.

In any case, it's not hard to imagine that when they started this up during Wrath the game they thought they would release now or next year isn't the right game to release into today's market. Add some or all of that up and it makes perfect sense.

Just a theory though but one based on having worked on large software projects in the past with large development teams. Stuff like this happens.

[Ausr]

Don't know how or why people would get upset about an mmo we know literally nothing about. Truthfully, you should be happy Blizzard can look at a game in development, see something wrong or want to change something drastically and is willing to scrap it. Nintendo can do this (not always successful ...sticker star story) as well.

Least people can't complain WoW suddenly doesn't have enough devs now.

[tenzing21]

My theory about all of this is that the development team probably got too large too soon and some sort of bloat/scope creep got into the process. The normal response to that is to send people off temporarily to other things while the design core concepts get reset and stuff that was proposed to be added is cut back by a great amount.

That and mobile gaming happened. That was probably totally unforeseen in the beginning. Blizzard getting back into console gaming may have played a part as well.

In any case, it's not hard to imagine that when they started this up during Wrath the game they thought they would release now or next year isn't the right game to release into today's market. Add some or all of that up and it makes perfect sense.

Just a theory though but one based on having worked on large software projects in the past with large development teams. Stuff like this happens.

Titan was in development since before the "annualization" and eSports became big, and big enough in Activision's eyes to make it so all of their forthcoming revenue expenditure will only go towards eSports, or annualizible endeavors. Look at all of their announced projects, they are all of this sort.

Titan didn't have those concepts built in, so they shelved it.

[Collected]

Just a theory though but one based on having worked on large software projects in the past with large development teams. Stuff like this happens.

I think the landscape changed as you suggest. The MMO market isn't as competitive as they perhaps feared it might be now. Several "WoW Killers" came and went. So that has given them some flexibility and some time. Plus they've worked out that the player base does appear to keep coming back when expansions are released which has led them to conclude that if they release rapid expansions, they can perhaps keep a reasonable level of account activity. Plus the number of subscribers now is still very very good for such an established and old game. So why rush out a new MMO.

And another main point, the MOBA scene has exploded and "Blizzard All Stars" is now a big priority for Blizzard and has to be a success for them to try and get a slice of the big League pie. So resources will have been shifted there.

All of this gives Blizzard the time to perhaps come up with a new game engine and perhaps a re-write of the lore of the new world etc and do some of the things they thought of during the initial development process, ensuring if they do eventually release a new MMO.. it will be the best they can produce.

[Darksoldierr]

And here i tought, my grandchild will atleast live long enough to see the reveal trailer

[Mortezu]

So now they have to compete against World of Darkness and EQNext...hm...well it's going to be interesting

[Edge-]

So now they have to compete against World of Darkness and EQNext...hm...well it's going to be interesting

At this point, WoD will come out in 2020 -_-

[Deleted]

So now they have to compete against World of Darkness and EQNext...hm...well it's going to be interesting

Untill Blizzard realise that Titan wont be better than those games and make another "reset".
It is a difficult situation they are in. Everybody expect that Blizzard is the company who finally will come up with a WoW successor.
But when you look at the list of capsized attempts, made by some of industrys most talented companies - the odds of them getting 5-10 millions sub with a new franchise doesnt look good.
Its kinda odd if they haven`t started developing on WOW 2 yet. New graphic, new physics, new combat mechanics - old players could export their characters from wow. Seems like a safer bet than a whole new franchise.

[unholytestament]

*snip*

Except Blizzard has stated that Titan will be aimed at a different audience than WoW, so they will not directly compete with each other. A sequel to WoW would either compete with WoW or require WoW end, neither of which are appealing.

[Deleted]

Except Blizzard has stated that Titan will be aimed at a different audience than WoW, so they will not directly compete with each other. A sequel to WoW would either compete with WoW or require WoW end, neither of which are appealing.

Titan have been resat - and from the sound of it, not even Blizzard knows exactly what Titan will be. All we know is that it will be a next gen MMO, which at least on some level is bound to compete with WoW.

A Wow 2.0 on the other hand - would not compete with WOW at all- it would just improve the game on every count. Make it more attractive for current players to stick around - and make it more competetive against upcomming mmo`s. And sell alot of boxes.
Celebrating the ten years aniversary with a completely new engine, beautiful new graphic - and a combat system with focus on playerskill instead of hotkey bloat would be a big tribute to the playerbase tbh. I wouldnt even think twice about returning to wow if that was the case. The thing is - with Blizzards speed of doing things, we wouldnt see a wow sequel for the next 4-5 years if they started development now.

[unholytestament]

Titan have been resat - and from the sound of it, not even Blizzard knows exactly what Titan will be. All we know is that it will be a next gen MMO, which at least on some level is bound to compete with WoW.

On some level every game competes with every other game, but you don't often see people comparing who is playing Halo versus who is playing Starcraft. And you can assume Blizzard's goals for the game has changed all you want, but until someone actually clarifies it then it will be NOTHING but an assumption.

A Wow 2.0 on the other hand - would not compete with WOW at all- it would just improve the game on every count. Make it more attractive for current players to stick around - and make it more competetive against upcomming mmo`s. And sell alot of boxes.
Celebrating the ten years aniversary with a completely new engine, beautiful new graphic - and a combat system with focus on playerskill instead of hotkey bloat would be a big tribute to the playerbase tbh. I wouldnt even think twice about returning to wow if that was the case. The thing is - with Blizzards speed of doing things, we wouldnt see a wow sequel for the next 4-5 years if they started development now.

WoW is competing with new MMOs right now. It's still doing better than they are.

[mvaliz]

Except Blizzard has stated that Titan will be aimed at a different audience than WoW, so they will not directly compete with each other. A sequel to WoW would either compete with WoW or require WoW end, neither of which are appealing.

No offense... but that was seven years ago. A lot can change in 7 years (Hell, look at WoW's game design philosophy itself in that time)... especially now with a "design reset" for Titan and a release date delay. :P

Honestly - that concept of "won't compete with WoW" may not even be in the cards or an issue come 2016...

[wombinator04]

Remember folks, we all could be dead by 2016.

[unholytestament]

No offense... but that was seven years ago. A lot can change in 7 years (Hell, look at WoW's game design philosophy itself in that time)... especially now with a "design reset" for Titan and a release date delay. :P

Honestly - that concept of "won't compete with WoW" may not even be in the cards or an issue come 2016...

You know what? You're right. A lot can change in seven years.

The game is now about pink elephants working under British secret intelligence!

Now according to mvallas if anyone steps forward and points out how stupid that is I can give a completely condescending and completely POINTLESS dismissal so long as I preface it with "no offense".

[mvaliz]

You know what? You're right. A lot can change in seven years.

The game is now about pink elephants working under British secret intelligence!

Now according to mvallas if anyone steps forward and points out how stupid that is I can give a completely condescending and completely POINTLESS dismissal so long as I preface it with "no offense".

...well, that was certainly a mature response. :P

It might surprise you , but when I said "no offense", I literally meant it... I didn't mean to offend at all.

My point was that a lot can change in that time frame... and that idea of "won't compete with WoW" may be one of those things that changes.

Kinda like that product slate that people acted as if it was the blueprint of a building that cannot be shifted. Things can change, particularly with time and - more importantly - changing staff/people/ideologies/generations.

Methinks you read a BIT too much into me saying "No offense.."? Would my point have gotten across better had I deleted those two words? I wasn't trying to offend at all... it might surprise you that some people DON'T come here to pick a fight. :P

[Deleted]

I speculate they're done with Titan and will just wait with release until WoW becomes unprofitable. That's my hypothesis.

[Mormolyce]

Man, eeeeverybody thinks they know what this Titan rescheduling means and its implications for Titan, WoW and the MMO genre...

Back in the real world nobody even knows what kind of game Titan is and we're all just pulling wild guesses out of our asses.

Lost vikings mmo, here we go!!!

That would be awesome! Dibs on Erik!

[mvaliz]

I speculate they're done with Titan and will just wait with release until WoW becomes unprofitable. That's my hypothesis.

Unfortunately I can't accept that as their logic... or, at least, that's REALLY piss-poor business sense.

The idea is to have Titan up and running WHILE WoW is still profitable so that they can have a buffer zone to gauge/improve Titan to get it stable.

The point is there's a chance that Titan itself may not be profitable/accepted upon release. If they did that AFTER WoW's profits dried up, they'd be in asset-selling mode instead of game-creation mode. :P

[Fencers]

No publisher or developer would "sit" on a multi-million dollar developed game in preparation for another franchise to become unprofitable.

Such a "hypothesis" is utter fantasy divorced from any sort of economic or practical logic.

[Deleted]

Unfortunately I can't accept that as their logic... or, at least, that's REALLY piss-poor business sense.

The idea is to have Titan up and running WHILE WoW is still profitable so that they can have a buffer zone to gauge/improve Titan to get it stable.

The point is there's a chance that Titan itself may not be profitable/accepted upon release. If they did that AFTER WoW's profits dried up, they'd be in asset-selling mode instead of game-creation mode. :P

Perhaps not, I don't know. To me it seems more illogical to scrap 6/7 years of development in what seems like a blink of an eye.

---------- Post added 2013-05-30 at 04:56 AM ----------

No publisher or developer would "sit" on a multi-million dollar developed game in preparation for another franchise to become unprofitable.

Such a "hypothesis" is utter fantasy divorced from any sort of economic or practical logic.

They wouldn't, yet scrapping/reworking the entire project is more profitable and more logical? Maybe they're not waiting for WoW to become unprofitable, maybe they're just waiting for a better time to release it.