Blizzard Cancels Next-Gen MMO Titan....oh so what's next?

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/blizzard-cancels-next-gen-mmo-titan/1100-6422508/

World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment has canceled its next-generation MMO, Titan. Mike Morhaime, the co-founder and president of Blizzard, confirmed the game's cancellation today.

"We had created World of Warcraft, and we felt really confident that we knew how to make MMOs," Morhaime told Polygon. "So we set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine. And it didn't come together."

"We didn't find the fun," Morhaime added. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."

"It was hard when we canceled Warcraft Adventures. It was hard when we canceled StarCraft Ghost. But it has always resulted in better-quality work" -- Morhaime

Titan has been in development for years, though Blizzard has never actually announced the game in an official capacity. Despite that, the company confirmed in December 2010 that it was indeed called Titan, though this was believed to only be a working title.

The game's official cancellation today comes after Blizzard removed all mention of the game from its careers page back in August 2013, suggesting the company was moving away from the project.

Blizzard senior vice president of story and franchise development, Chris Metzen, said the decision to cancel Titan was "excruciating." Morhaime agreed that shutting down development on the game was a "really, really" hard decision to make. However, he says he's made these decisions before, and the end result is always positive.

"It was hard when we canceled Warcraft Adventures. It was hard when we canceled StarCraft Ghost," he said. "But it has always resulted in better-quality work."

Metzen added: "The discipline of knowing when to quit is important. We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place."

Though Titan is canceled, Morhaime said Blizzard hasn't closed the door entirely on making another MMO someday. "I wouldn't say no to ever doing an MMO again," Morhaime said. "But I can say that right now, that's not where we want to be spending our time."

Blizzard will continue to support World of Warcraft, of course, which is now in its tenth year of continued operation. "My hope personally is that we'll support it forever," Metzen said.

At the end of May 2013, Blizzard confirmed that Titan was undergoing "large design and technology changes." Later that summer, Morhaime said during an Activision Blizzard earnings call that Titan may not be subscription-based, or even an MMO.

"We're in the process of selecting a new direction for the project and re-envisioning what we want the game to be," Morhaime said at the time. "While we can't talk about the details yet, it is unlikely to be a subscription-based MMORPG."

Blizz best days are behind it. Probably be out of business in five years. Ah, well.

Out of business in five years? That's just ridiculous....if you're being serious.

first part yes, last part....lol

Fun my ass, £££ deciding factor.

I don't think so. That game had been in development for almost 7 years from what I understand...they could have spit it out and collected a ton of cash even if it would have died quick. They chose to do the right things though.

I am a bit concerned with where they go in the future though and I am thinking their best days might be behind them as someone else said...maybe.

And nothing of value was lost. I would rather just have them focus their resources on projects that are actually working out, rather than spreading resources too thin, on projects that are clearly going nowhere.

So this is good news overall.

Oh ho ho. Man, this one must sting all the suckers they had drooling over a game they were or weren't making. Honestly these guys need a new IP, I'm so bored of their shit it's mind-boggling.

I agree and was thinking the same thing about a new ip. They have been living off of warcraft and starcraft too long.

Well, glad to see Blizzard still has their standards. Must be hard to make the decision to cancel a project that has seemingly been in progress for what seems like ages.

You have to wonder when an unpopular game is put out where the general consesus is it's not fun, do the developers just pretend they are having fun with it before turning it loose?

I think Blizzard did the right thing. Cancel the project rather than "drinking the Kool Aid" and pretending it's good.

Well I would think after years of spending cash on a game developing it, telling upper management it's not fun might get you in hot water.

I really wished we could have seen what it actually was like or what it was about. I guess now we will never know, locked and hidden away in blizzard's company archives.

OH NO, what would other devs do? they couldn't make clones of their new MMO!

"We didn't find the fun"

You also lost that years ago with WoW....

I would put money on it that they have started a WoW sequel. The games getting old and they make too much money to let it die off.

It probably would've just been like WoW anyway.

Going against the grain of the usual lolBlizzard, lolWoW sentiments that pop up when discussing this.

I honestly think this news is absolutely terrible. For one, it's less competition. And another is that MMOGs are incredibly iterative, so this is one less game that could have potentially improved on, set a bar or groundwork for another game to improve on it.

I think what really happened is that they just didnt have it in them to persue in releasing another MMOG. Hearthstone was a big hit for them and their MOBA is on their way to being a great success also. Both of which were likely less demanding in terms of resources than releasing another MMOG (which would probably cut into their existing service: WoW).

i agree that they did the right thing. i don't think even blizzard can make a "wow-killer" MMO.

i still think blizzard can make heroes of the storm an excellent game, though.

I think it just flat out didn't hit the mark. They are looking for something to eventually take WoWs place I think. From a money point of view I think they are looking at the future and starting to panic. WoW pulled in over a billion last year...that is a crap ton of money. But that will not last forever and you can bet they didn't make that much in 2014. Something HAS to fill the gap when WoW starts to really fall off.

IMO a WoW sequel is where they will be looking next. The real question is can they recreate that magic....I really don't think so anymore. I hope I'm wrong but it remains to be seen.

They wouldn't cancel something with seven years of development if they didn't have something in the pipe.