Blizzard Thinks Diablo 3 Might Poach WoW's Players

Logan Westbrook

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Feb 21, 2008
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Blizzard Thinks Diablo 3 Might Poach WoW's Players

Players moving on to greener pastures is a concern for Blizzard, but the studio is quite happy for them to move to another of its games.

Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce says that Blizzard isn't really worried that its new MMO, codenamed "Titan," is going to cause World of Warcraft players to jump ship. It's biggest concern right now, he says, is the effect that Diablo 3 could have on WoW's subscriber figures.

Pearce said that although the gameplay in Diablo 3 wasn't quite the same as in World of Warcraft, it had a similar enough feel that it might lure some WoW players away. Pearce said that Blizzard was ok with that, however, as something was eventually going to cannibalize the WoW audience, and at least this way, they stayed Blizzard customers.

He also attacked the idea that WoW had essentially sucked all the air out of the MMO market, and no one could compete with a subscription based game anymore. He said that players ploughed through content in WoW at a phenomenal rate, and he thought that there was scope for people to play another MMO alongside it. He said that if studios built great games, the market would always find room to accommodate them.

This isn't the first time [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108273-Blizzards-New-MMO-Will-Blow-Peoples-Minds] that Pearce has said that there was room for WoW and Titan, but it's the first time that Diablo 3 been thrown into the mix. Sources suggest [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105892-Blizzard-China-Resignation-Fuels-Launch-Leak-Rumors] that Diablo 3 won't be out until the end of the year, however, and that Titan won't be ready until the end of 2013, so WoW seemingly has very little to worry about at the moment.

Source: Gamasutra [http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/33623/Blizzards_Pearce_Diablo_III_Could_Cannibalize_WoW_Before_Titan.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+%28Gamasutra+News%29]



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RA92

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So far, every attempt at making a WoW-killer has ended in disaster. Now even Blizzard is trying to create one? Will this end in WoW consuming... Blizzard itself?

Mindfuck!
 

EmperorSubcutaneous

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Oh my God, here we go again. We always have some studio saying that they're going to be the ones who beat WoW, and it always ends up backfiring on them horribly. I mean, you just can't go up against Blizzard! The only company who...

Wait...

Blizzard said that?

...Never mind.
 

hudsonzero

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Raiyan 1.0 said:
So far, every attempt at making a WoW-killer has ended in disaster. Now even Blizzard is trying to create one? Will this end in WoW consuming... Blizzard itself?

Mindfuck!
TB and other people has said it before the, only thing that will kill WoW is blizzard its self, ether through bad design or another game

OT: i will be buying diablo 3 when it comes out but my wow account will most likely remain active
 

pretentiousname01

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The simple answer is to make D3 subscription based!

No really please don't stone me I was joking!

As much as I look forward to D3, I try to not get excited about it due to the grey mist of unknowing. Perhaps the fog of war surrounding its release details.

Also captchas suck
relaxed toodec
 

LawlessSquirrel

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Of course WoW is sapping the MMO subscription market...they're not about how long it takes to finish, it's about the community keeping you there. It's just going to keep going until the community moves on to something else en masse...which may end up being Diablo 3, in small numbers if it really does feel similar.

Which is a common complaint, good job reassuring the sceptics that the potential issue is still there.

I am so playing devil's advocate tonight...
 

TilMorrow

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Errmmm wait what? Blizzard are afraid that Blizzard are going to take them down? By releasing their own game they will be distracting people from their other games to pay more money? I'm sorry but this one great big

Raiyan 1.0 said:
Mindfuck!
Took the words right out of my mouth.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Im still hoping someone pushes blizzard down the stairs for the inheritance money
 

Ne1butme

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I find all this 'Titan' talk to be annoying and pretentious. "Oh, we've got this great new game. It's amazing and we're already playing it. But you can't know what it's called!!!!"

Code names might be useful for internal memos, but once the code name becomes public and is actively being used in interviews, it's time to stop the act and just tell us the damn name.

We didn't hear about "Hydra" for months before Blizzard announced SC2.
 

Baresark

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There isn't any reason that Diablo 3 should threaten WoW subscriptions, perhaps for a month, but not in the long run. People return to WoW for a lot of reasons. There isn't that much new content with each new expansion of WoW, yet the number of subscribers stays high, go figure.

"Titan" is gonna be the WoW killer? Why? Because they made it? Probably not. The only reason that would kill WoW is because they will switch all the big resources to that and start to neglect WoW.

Besides, since when is a WoW killer necessary? Last time I checked, there is are a bunch of MMO's out there that people still pay for. There are also a bunch of FPS's, RTS's, Platformers, etc., that exist side by side with each other. There is plenty of room for other MMO's. I get that they want to emulate the success of WoW, but it's not necessary from any view except a financial one. More money is better for business, but making money is good to.
 

Zeraki

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pretentiousname01 said:
The simple answer is to make D3 subscription based!

No really please don't stone me I was joking!
Do not give Activision any ideas, because I'm sure if Kotick had his way that would probably be the case.
T.T

On a more serious note, it is kind of funny for Blizzard to be saying that. They must have enough money to buy a small country by now don't they?
 

Veloxe

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For some reason I can't help but think of this as like: "Okay, Okay, this is how you make a WoW killer people!"
 

tehroc

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Diablo 3 is a solo based game through and through. Of course it will steal WOW subs as most WOW players are only in it for a solo based experience.

Plus people are unhappy about Cataclysm even though I enjoy it for what it is, a timesink.
 

rsvp42

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LawlessSquirrel said:
Of course WoW is sapping the MMO subscription market...they're not about how long it takes to finish, it's about the community keeping you there. It's just going to keep going until the community moves on to something else en masse...which may end up being Diablo 3, in small numbers if it really does feel similar.
Seems like the similar feel is in the genre and aesthetics, that high-fantasy setting. I don't know much about Diablo, but I don't think it's designed with the same focus on player retention that WoW and other MMOs have. Kind of like how SC2 was awesome and fun, but isn't really designed to keep people logging in every single day for long periods of time. A few matches here and there, then done. Not to mention that cross-game chat through battle.net will keep people tethered to their WoW buddies and prevent them from leaving the fold completely.

They're probably more at risk of losing players to other new MMOs like GW2 and TOR, mainly because they offer more robust experiences than people are likely to find with Diablo.
 

Prof. Monkeypox

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Headline: Blizzard to make more money. Consumes further lives with loot drops.

I don't really see how this is big news...
 

Naheal

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The only WoW killer will be something that was brought up by Blizzard themselves. We've known this. Hell, most of the early WoW players only started playing WoW because we thought it'd be a good distraction while we wait on Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 comes out? Of course we're going to jump ship.
 

Mr Ice

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Mar 21, 2011
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I hope it does poach WoW players, with real ID the community feel shouldn't be completely lost and I for one hope I can sink as many hours into D3 as I did D2.

Plus it might loosen the stranglehold on the MMO market and we can all go play Old Republic :D