World of Starcraft or Diablo MMO by 2009?

[DigiQ8]

Source: The independently owned and operated gaming blog F13.net.

The official story: Due to the story surfacing after office hours, Blizzard had not responded as of press time.

What we heard: As is this case every year, April 1 saw many gaming sites post joke news stories and features. This year, a major outlet for game news and information pulled a major prank in the form of a parody "exclusive preview" of World of Starcraft, a sci-fi massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the vein of World of Warcraft.

While World of Starcraft was the subject of fiction, an unconfirmed report surfaced late today that indicates such a project may indeed soon become a reality. "Schild," one of the proprietors of f13.net, claims to have heard from an associate who was in attendance at a presentation Blizzard Entertainment parent company Vivendi gave "to Wall Street today."

According to Schild, the Vivendi rep told the audience that "All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs," and the developer-publisher has "a model now to develop an MMOG in three years for $50 million." According to the report, Vivendi's plan is to have two types of MMOGs--"long session games (more than two hours per session) and short session games (less than two hour sessions)." That means that, in theory, a World of Starcraft or Diablo MMOG could be ready as early as 2009, if it was started this year.

So is the report legit? Well, as an example of short-session MMOGs, Schild mentions Freestyle Street Basketball, the Korean-developed massively multiplayer sports game that Vivendi will publish in North America through its Sierra brand next spring.

And, while not proof of anything, Schild's skepticism about the project is also refreshing. "Apparently splitting what will probably end up as 8-10 million customers ... across three games isn't a concern to them [Vivendi]," Schild notes. "They're lucky stock brokers know nothing about video games."

Bogus or not bogus?: Obviously, Vivendi wants to duplicate WOW's runaway success in the MMOG market. And Blizzard has made no secret about its expanding recruitment efforts. But is it official? As of now, not yet.

Sounds true

 

[Gargantou]

Dear god no! I hope suddenly not all devs decide to start making their games into MMOs!
World of Half Life, World of FEAR.. World of Resident Evil!
I do admit the thought of a World of Starcraft does make my cat spin.

 

[VirusType2]

Well, you have to remember that if they release another MMORPG, they will be competing with themselves. Not many people are going to have an active account on two or more games. So if they spend "$50 million" to make another game, who is to say that half of their WoW customers don't switch to this game.. effectively, they have gained no new customers, and lost $50 million dollars in the creation of the new game. The question is, are there any new MMORPG players out there that this new game could attract? Well, of course, but is there enough to make it worth it for them?

 

[Javert]

Screw this. Give me Starcraft 2.

 

[Ludah]

I wonder if they're referring to this.

Any way, I'd appreciate anything StarCraft at this point. I have to admit that the prospect of taking part in large, sci-fi, PvP battles between all the factions is... well... ****ing sexy beyond all hell. If an SC MMO were to be developed, I would hope its gameplay mechanics would be very different from WoW. Something more fluid. 3rd/1st person shooter as its core with RPG attributes. Would be sweet.

 

[spookymooky]

Starcraft might make a better MMFPS, like Planetside.

 

[Ludah]

That's still an MMO.

 

[boglito]

Sounds true

Well, my initial thought is "this BETTER not be true", but that said, as long as it is wastly different from WoW, then who knows? It might actually be good? However, seeing as WoW is the most profitable game ever it is possible that blizzard will stick to its formula when making any new mmorpg. Which almost would make me cry.

.bog.

 

[VirusType2]

Well, by 2009 or so, I think there will be even more people using the internet; lots more. And, not everyone likes Orcs, Dwarves and Gnomes, etc., so I think it's a good idea. I think there will be many more people on-line willing to pay.

I think that Blizzard will make future MMORPG's better in many areas, an advantage of learning from their past experience, common in programming.

However, they might intentionally nerf something for the new game, so there's that one good part about WoW that keeps this game hot.


Hmm, by this time, they may have updated WoW so much with expansions.. I can't guess where they will take the graphics from here. Stay with the same basic engine and keep adding things or recreate a new WoW game while still supporting the old one, effectively having 2 WoW games on-line?

To be perfectly honest, while WoW has so much going for it, there is much I don't like about the direction of the game, and therefore I am hoping a better MMORPG comes along, by Blizzard or otherwise, it makes no difference to me.


I still think a Grand Theft Auto style MMO game would just plain rule.

 

[$kelet0r]

wasn't world of warhammer meant to be out yonks ago or have I missed something?

 

[Cole]

that isn't a Blizzard Franchise.....

 

[Lucid]

Starcraft 2... THEN... World(s) of Starcraft, plzthx.

 

[Icarusintel]

Build additional pylons

 

[Agent.M]

Screw this. Give me Starcraft 2.

As much as I would like to see Starcraft 2 over any other RTS or really any other game for that matter, I would still like to see a World of Starcraft more. The potential for that game would just be phenomenal and I think blizzard knows that.

 

[Agent.M]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6152718.html

 

[Cole]

UPDATED http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3151483
"UPDATE: This morning, Blizzard officially responded to last night's reports: "No, that rumor is not true in regard to Blizzard. We believe that the rumor circulating about this subject is based on a misinterpretation of information provided to industry analysts. We do not currently have any MMO development plans beyond the upcoming expansion for World of Warcraft, and furthermore, we don't have any intentions to focus on only one genre or platform with our future games."

It's better than a "we don't comment on rumors and speculation," denial, that's for sure. Their comments put us firmly back in a "what's next for Blizzard?" state of mind, which in the game industry is right where publishers and developers want gamers to be."


THANK GOD

 

[Bad^Hat]

Hmm...

That said, a World of Starcraft/Diablo, if rapidly different/"better" than WoW, could serve to bring some players who've quit WoW back "into the fold". I've noticed a trend while playing that many players are growing tired of WoW's raid-heavy endgame, and the new content/raids they keep piling on is only helping marginally. A fair few players I've known have quit this year, and others are just hanging around until a better alternative comes out (myself included ). Unless they make some changes in regards to the games focus in the expansion, I doubt many of these people will be sticking around for 3 more years, and many more will have had their fill by then. So one of these "short-session" games (what I percieve as more "casual") made by a developer they trust, and based on a franchise they know, could be just the thing to bring these players back as Blizzard customers, no?

Anyway, forget World of Starcraft or Starcraft 2, what in hell ever happened to Starcraft: Ghost?