Blizzard makes tough decision to cancel next-gen MMO 'Project Titan'

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Blizzard has dealt gamers some bad news as its mysterious next-generation massively multiplayer game known only as Project Titan has officially been canceled.

During a recent interview with Polygon, Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime was quick to remind gamers that the company never officially announced Titan. But after creating World of Warcraft, the team was confident they knew how to make MMOs so they started work on the most ambitious thing you could possibly imagine and it simply didn’t come together, Morhaime said.

Elaborating a bit more on the subject, the executive said his team simply didn’t find the fun and couldn’t find the passion in the game. They put it through a reevaluation period at which point it became clear that it wasn’t really the game they wanted to be making.

Chris Metzen, Blizzard’s senior vice president of story and franchise development, added that the decision was excruciating. Morhaime echoed those sentiments, saying it is always hard to make those kinds of decisions. It was hard when they canceled Warcraft Adventures and it was hard when they canceled StarCraft Ghost but doing so has always resulted in better-quality work.

Metzen wisely pointed out that the discipline of knowing when to quit is important. It’s a trait we’ve heard others in the industry touch on as well.

Such news shouldn’t be terribly shocking considering the game had been in development for at least seven years with some massive changes (a project reset, allegedly) taking place last year.

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Seven years of vaporware cost them $200 million but it's ok, they make that back in one month with Hearthstone.


R.I.P. Project DestinyTitan.
 
"...they canceled StarCraft Ghost but doing so has always resulted in better-quality work."

Better work?! Like they did with Diablo 3?!
D3 launched in 2012 and just a month or 2 ago they finally patched it to a state where its close to competing with D2 in terms of loot&gem quality.
Other than that with gameplay and gear variety and build choice the game is bland and not the same quality as D2.

I'm not sure what these guys mean with quality work, maybe because we grew up with games and expect the games to evolve as we grow up and keep pace us older gamers expect too much?
 
Cataclysm and Mists were yawns compared to Burning Crusade and the god of all expansions, Wrath of the Lich King. With WoW still doing quite well and people excited about another 10 level expansion, they would only be doing battle with themselves.
Warlords looks to be legit.
 
Well... at least blizzard does address issues, maybe late but does try and fix them... unlike EA.
 
I agree with Blizzard in one thing. And that is that if they do not have a passion for the game they will not make it.
 
Cataclysm and Mists were yawns compared to Burning Crusade and the god of all expansions, Wrath of the Lich King. With WoW still doing quite well and people excited about another 10 level expansion, they would only be doing battle with themselves.
Warlords looks to be legit.

I really liked Cataclysm more than wotlk, maybe it was due to the fact that I actually raided Deathwing.

Sad that I stopped at hard mode.
 
Cataclysm and Mists were yawns compared to Burning Crusade and the god of all expansions, Wrath of the Lich King. With WoW still doing quite well and people excited about another 10 level expansion, they would only be doing battle with themselves.
Warlords looks to be legit.
I think we liked tbc because it was the first expansion and brought many of the things we loved about expansions (like piles of new gear with tons of stats). But it was also before the group finder was around, and that was rough.

I'm not really bummed about Titan... I wasn't planning on playing it, but I was very curious to see what Blizz could do with an MMO they built from the ground up after learning so many lessons from WoW. They probably tried to make it as big and comprehensive as WoW and it lead to exponential scope creep.
 
They probably tried to make it as big and comprehensive as WoW and it lead to exponential scope creep.
I was thinking the same thing. I don't know how true it is, but I was thinking it. Makes you wonder if Blizzard will survive, if they ever suffer a selfesteem hit from their current game series dying. But then again that may be what it takes, to get them motivated and hyped for the creation of a new game title.
 
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