Blizzard has confirmed its next-generation MMO. It’s currently called, or at least referred to as, Titan, and it was first noticed in the leaked roadmap that surfaced a few days ago. The company isn’t too happy that the project’s existence leaked (a Blizzard China manager resigned in wake of the leak), and that it’s currently working on recruiting “the best talent in the industry” to help work on it. Hmm…
The MMO isn’t expected to draw upon previous Blizzard lore (or “IP,” in the cold language of the new video game industry), so this is a brand new adventure.
It’s also probably the most important video game in the history of the world. Well, provided you’re an Activision Blizzard stockholder. What happens to the current World of Warcraft fanbase when Titan comes out? Will we be expected to subscribe to two MMOs? Who even has that kind of time? Will WoW die a death in the face of the shiny new toy? Will Blizzard split the WoW fanbase, with a number of WoW players leaving Azeroth for good for Titan Land? And what if Titan stinks on ice? You’ll have run off your existing fanbase for no particular reason.
But these are questions that will be addressed in the coming years. The game isn’t “scheduled” for release until 2013, and who’s to say how many times until then the project will be re-shaped, torn down then built up again, delayed, and so on?