In yet another “no kidding” news item, Blizzard is working on some new MMO says Paul Sams, Blizzard COO, in an interview with videogaming247. This new MMO is going to be “cool, new, different,” he says but doesn’t give any details into it except that it’s not going to be easy.
With Lich King arriving, gamers should be looking forward to a few more strong years with World of Warcraft. Considering Blizzard’s ability to kick out a new expansion every year or so, we’ll know the new MMO will be launching because their expansion road map will go dry.
Much like Apple “dries the channel” when a new device is arriving, allowing stores to post their “sold out” signs, Blizzard will probably invest heavily in their new MMO and allow WoW to die down when they’re ready to make a transition. Or, will they?
Is there any advantage in leaving World of Warcraft as the clear contender if Blizzard is to hype a new MMO style game? Perhaps, if the game is in a completely different genre it might be possible, but some folks will no doubt cancel their Warcraft subscriptions to try out Blizzards next big thing. They’ve said nothing as to the property they’d be driving their next MMO to market with… will it be Diablo or perhaps a Starcraft MMO or something truly “new” and something really “different.”
If anyone in the market today is to begin development of a new MMO, it would seem Blizzard is going to be the most suited to developing another successful venture into this space. They have learned a lot over the years and can apply that knowledge to their next “different” online gaming franchise.
Watch out startups, Blizzard may be working on something even better than World of Warcraft.
It’s clear publishers like Electronic Arts hate to take risks on video games. They’re not alone in their opinion, look how many sequels we’ve got for the holidays compared to new creative titles like Little Big Planet, or how publishers push out sequels to hot titles until we can’t take it anymore; how many Guitar Hero titles will arrive before we scream “enough!”?
There has been many debates on the graphic level of Diablo 3 and how it should be different. Finally a developer comes out and says “um, no.” Their reasoning is fairly simple, it’s one thing to photoshop up a screenshot with some filters but it’s another to get the texture and lighting to run at that detail on a standard computer.