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Post by Oatik on Sept 23, 2014 18:22:07 GMT -5
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Post by Morreion on Sept 23, 2014 18:54:50 GMT -5
It had been in production for years...my guess is that what was a revolutionary game 4 years ago is not longer cutting edge- maybe Landmark undercut it, or some other game. AAA MMO production cycles are long!
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Post by dortmunder on Sept 23, 2014 21:23:46 GMT -5
Can't open that here at work. Does it say anything about what it actually was? Would be cool if they showed the work that went into it, what type of game, what it was looking like etc.
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Post by Morreion on Sept 24, 2014 9:55:32 GMT -5
Here's more background on Titan- Rumor: Blizzard embracing F2P for unannounced game (Massively)Rumor has it that Blizzard is hopping on the free-to-play crazy train. Develop reports that the company "will embrace free-to-play and will apply the model in an upcoming, as yet unannounced game."
The website says that Blizzard has declined to comment in an official capacity, and the site's source could not provide more details. It's been speculated that World of Warcraft's recent subscription losses, the fact that DOTA is free-to-play, and the game's unlimited free trial though level 20 all indicate a shift in Blizzard's business model mindset.
COO Paul Sams also paid lip service to F2P at BlizzCon last October, saying that F2P "certainly is possible, if we find ourselves in that circumstance, or if we come up with a game where we think that's the right business model, the most appropriate for players to experience it."
Could the long-awaited Project Titan MMO be Blizzard's first F2P offering, or is a completely new title in the works? We'll update you as the story develops.Rumor: Titan might be a time-traveling, earthbound MMO (Massively)The folks over at Project Titan claim to have a huge leak on Blizzard's upcoming Titan project from a reliable (and unnamed) source. While we are certainly wary of rumors, particularly on this scale, the author says he is "extremely confident" about the leak in particular.
So what is Titan, according to this post? Several bullet points sketch a picture of an MMO that is based on Earth, is big into historical mythology (including Greek, Roman, and Viking myths), and involves "a lot" of time travel. The leaks says that Titan will play from a third-person view, has a new game engine, could also be headed to consoles, and has a strong e-sports emphasis. The leak purports that over 150 developers are working on Titan, including Jay Wilson. Apparently we'll be seeing a teaser of Titan at BlizzCon before it goes into friends and family testing in early 2014.Project Titan: A brief history of a game that doesn't exist (Massively)Rumors regarding Titan go back as far as 2007. Savvy fans of World of Warcraft noticed a job listing for "Lead 3D Character Artist - Next-Gen MMO" on Blizzard's careers site and took to the WoW forums in hope of finding an answer. Community representative Drysc answered, explaining that Blizzard was on the hunt for new talent to help with the company's "unannounced next-gen MMO." Drysc confirmed that the new game was not a World of Warcraft expansion but offered no details. Blizzard, as you might imagine, provided no further comment...
As the hypothetical 2013 release date approached, a clearer vision of Titan's development cycle began to emerge thanks to Blizzard's increasing willingness to talk about the project. Mike Morhaime discussed Titan in February of 2011, noting that Blizzard had "some of [Blizzard's] most experienced MMO developers" working on the project. Morhaime stated again that Titan was not a WoW sequel and claimed that "people who spent years working on the World of Warcraft team" were focused on its production. He briefly mentioned core MMO concepts like playing in guilds and making new friends but did not reveal anything previously unknown or unsuspected...
If the fall of 2012 marked the high point of anticipation for Titan, spring of 2013 marked the crash. May brought rumors that the entire Titan project had been rebooted, with all existing work being scrapped in favor of starting anew. Blizzard spokesperson Shon Damron explained, "We've come to a point where we need to make some large design and technology changes to the game," revealing that some developers had been pulled off the project while the "core team adapt[ed Blizzard's] technology and tools" to the new changes...
Over the last seven years, Blizzard has ducked, dived, and dodged questions related to Titan. Fan rumors pegged it as a StarCraft spin-off, an MMOFPS, a WoW sequel, and anything else that seemed to fit. Meanwhile, no official art was ever revealed, no trailer ever shown, and no release date ever mentioned. With rumors now hinting that Titan's earliest launch window is 2016, it appears as though we are no closer to concrete information on the project now then we were seven years ago.Death of a 'Titan': Why Activision axed long-awaited game (CNBC)"After completing our re-evaluation, we determined that 'Titan' just wasn't the game we wanted to make. We've always been about working on the things we're the most passionate about, and not just doing what was expected," an Activision spokesperson said. |
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Post by Regolyth on Sept 27, 2014 14:24:07 GMT -5
I read a comment that kind of sums it up for me:
I wonder how much of this was Blizzard's decision and how much was Activision's pushing?
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Post by Morreion on Oct 3, 2014 11:39:08 GMT -5
Perfect Ten: What Titan's death means for the industry and you (Massively)4. Blizzard probably couldn't figure out how to replicate its success with World of Warcraft.
Why World of Warcraft was such a monster hit is a subject for many other articles, but many analysts agree that it was as much the game's well-timed arrival on the MMO scene as it was its accessibility, polish, and built-in fan base. I think that if Blizzard put out another MMO, it would do well whether or not it was good, but it would be hard to see it exploding into the same sort of phenomenon, which would ultimately look bad for the company. Blizzard's isn't dumb, so I'm guessing the devs knew that it was better to pull the trigger than fail against their own game.
9. It might be a sign that big MMOs may be on the way out... at least for now.
If there's one aspect of Titan's demise that could reinforce a current trend in the industry, it's that there's an increasing willingness for studios to be bullish on big-budget, full-feature MMOs. Titan was one of a dwindling number of major upcoming MMOs, but now that we've seen several of those cancelled or launched over the past couple of years, there haven't been many to spring up to replace them in development.
Listen, MMOs are a financial risk with plenty of corpses left in the trenches. Some are profitable, but some are not, and it's a risk that studios don't want to wager a hundred million on so much these days. The larger market acknowledges and responds to what behemoths like Activision Blizzard do, and right now those behemoths are playing it safer than ever.
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