Blizzard's next MMO won't be a World of Warcraft sequel

Posted Oct 16th 2008 4:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: MMO, World of Warcraft

Blizzard's launch of their fantasy MMO World of Warcraft nearly four years ago surprised everyone, including Blizzard with it's success. Nearly 11 million players later, Blizzard is into early development on their next MMO game (they have been hiring for it on their jobs page for some time now). But what will it actually be?

Wired's chat with Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime has him state, "I can answer that. It's not going to be a World of Warcraft sequel." When pressed he said, "So let's just say it's going to be different and it's not going to be a sequel to World of Warcraft. It will be different. We're not trying to replace World of Warcraft with this new MMO. We're trying to create a different massively multiplayer experience, and hopefully World of Warcraft will still be going strong when that one is released." Let the speculation begin.

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What MMO should Blizzard make next?
A Starcraft based MMO	555 (31.3%)
A Diablo based MMO	244 (13.7%)
Something completely original	765 (43.1%)
Screw this; we want a WoW sequel	212 (11.9%)

Tags: blizzard, world-of-warcraft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

World of Starcraft confirmed. Either that or an MMO expansion to Diablo III.Posted at 4:37PM on Oct 16th 2008 by Amy Fairchild

Hey hey I am excited to hear this news from Blizzard. My money is on "World of Star Craft" simply due to the lack of sci fi MMOs out there and StarCraft is the kind of game that can capture a lot go MMO fans casual and experienced.Posted at 8:10PM on Oct 18th 2008 by sonubhai

I love the fantasy based world within WOW and other MMO's out there. But sometimes it is felt that. That is all the big Developers concentrate on.

sonubhai
www.wanderinggoblin.comPosted at 8:14PM on Oct 18th 2008 by sonubhai

Actually they also said it will be a new IP (so... no Starcraft, Diablo or Lost Vikings MMO).
I don't have a link to that but it was mentioned in some interview.Posted at 5:26AM on Oct 19th 2008 by ahac

If they shut World of Warcraft down, where customers of www.WotlkPowerLeveling.com will go for, ha haPosted at 3:29PM on Oct 19th 2008 by WotlkPowerLeveling.com

i could have sworn at one time they tried to create a Starcraft MMO, am i wrong or wasnt it Starcraft Ghost??Posted at 12:53AM on Oct 20th 2008 by Hike

Starcraft Ghost was a third/first person shooter style game that was canceled. There was an April Fools joke about a World of Starcraft on Gamespot.com a few years back. That may be what you are thinking of. They took a few screenshots of WoW and photoshopped Starcraft Ghost characters into them as a joke. Though a Starcraft MMO would be kinda cool, i like Starcraft being an RTS and that's all. I would like to see Blizzard come up with a new franchise. I'm am somewhat over most of their worlds as of right now.Posted at 1:26AM on Oct 20th 2008 by Cypho

I think a post-apocalyptic or cyberpunk style MMO would be very very cool. I can't speculate what blizzard is planning, but cyberpunk could kind of become a "high-tech" WoW.

Posted at 10:00AM on Oct 20th 2008 by derf

The only problem with a "World of Starcraft" mmo is that it would pretty much be a clone of WoW but with Starcraft. Of course, it would be in space, etc, etc... But we already have EVE Online for scifi space combat, so what else is there? Scifi melee? Spaceships are mounts? Thats very close to being WoW with a graphics change as a veneer. And if you want scifi melee (playing as a person running around on foot or even in a vehicle) you can play Tabula Rasa, the Firefly mmo that is coming out (eventually) or even Anarchy Online and the Stargate mmo Stargate Worlds.

The fact is, most scifi mmo's that have been around are based upon their fantasy equivalent. You know something is wrong when people call their units "mages" when theyre not even playing a fantasy game. Games like EVE online set the standard by which others will be judged in the case of scifi mmo's. While in EVE you pilot a ship in space, content additions are coming forth that will let your character exit your ship in stations, even enter planetary atmospheres, land, construct bases in an RTS fashion. This opens the possibility of first person shooter action. Give EVE a few years and it may contain every gametype known to man.

My point is, a Starcraft mmo would be redundant, unnecessary and would almost certainly fail. The ONLY reason to play it is for the pure thrill of playing a character in space armor instead of orc armor. Im sure people would play it and praise it beyond all reason, but it wouldnt succeed and would be more of a drain on the genre than anything else.

btw, im not a hater. i love starcraft but in mmo form? not so much.Posted at 3:25AM on Oct 20th 2008 by dmhorus

Great article.

http://free-xbox-360-elite-free.blogspot.comPosted at 12:08PM on Oct 20th 2008 by Free Xbox 360 Elite

Considering their wonderful development of WOTLK, I'm putting my money down this whatever MMO nonsense they'll make now is gonna be a big flop. Just my opinion.Posted at 6:03AM on Oct 20th 2008 by Shawn Q

EVE sucks. Real time space travel? Comon!Posted at 2:49AM on Nov 16th 2008 by Zero Gravity