Blizzard Restarts "Titan" Project, Won't See Release Until 2016

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Steven Bogos

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Jan 17, 2013
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Blizzard Restarts "Titan" Project, Won't See Release Until 2016


The hundred man team working on "Titan" has been cut down to thirty, who will start everything over from scratch.

If you've been waiting for Blizzard's unannounced next-gen MMO project "Titan," you may want to stop holding your breath. Despite apparently being in development since 2011, when Blizzard said it had assembled "Some of our most experienced developers" for the project, it now seems that the team has been drastically cut back, development completely reset, and the game's estimated release delayed until 2016 at the earliest. Blizzard chief operating officer Paul Sams once told us that "Titan" will "blow people's minds." I guess our minds will remain intact for quite a while longer.

"We've always had a highly iterative development process, and the unannounced MMO is no exception. We've come to a point where we need to make some large design and technology changes to the game," Blizzard spokesman Shon Damron told Venture Beat [http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/28/blizzard-delays-unannounced-mmo-until-2016-resets-whole-project-exclusive/]. The team of one hundred developers who were working on the project have been cut down to just thirty, with Damron assuring us that "We're using this opportunity to shift some of our resources to assist with other projects while the core team adapts our technology and tools to accommodate these new changes."

Blizzard's current MMO, World of Warcraft, is notoriously referred to as the company's cash-cow, generating over $1 billion annually for several years. However, the cow seems to be drying up, with a significant decline [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123855-World-of-Warcraft-Loses-1-3-Million-Subscribers-in-3-Months] in the game's playerbase over the last few months. Will this considerable delay of "Titan" affect World of Warcraft? Or will more people sign up if they think Blizzard's next MMO is still quite a while off?

One thing Blizzard's teams are not known for is their speed, second only to Valve in lengthy delays of its flagship games. Blizzard has restarted and even cancelled games in the past if it didn't think they were working out. The "Titan" project has never been officially announced by Blizzard, the codename itself was leaked by an insider, and the estimated 2014 release date was due to a leaked Blizzard release schedule. Could "Titan" become the next Starcraft: Ghost?

Team members shifted away from "Titan" will be put to work World of Warcraft, Blizzard All-Stars, the as-of-yet-unnamed Diablo III expansion, cinematics and Battle.net.

Source: Venture Beat [http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/28/blizzard-delays-unannounced-mmo-until-2016-resets-whole-project-exclusive/]

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Aeshi

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Dec 22, 2009
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Oh goddamnit, I was actually looking forward to seeing what Titan turned out to be. Guess we'll never know now.
 

dragongit

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Feb 22, 2011
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Well now that they've admitted that Titan sort of existed instead of "we don't know, maybe it does" we'll see even a tease of it at Blizzcon? They've announced things at conventions that never came to be for years to come before, why not now? Even a few concept art to tease the idea. I think Diablo 3 was announced at Blizzcon 2008, 4 years before it was released, why not this one too? Something to go along side their other announcements. New expansion for all 3 main titles and their little pet projects.
 

LetalisK

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May 5, 2010
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Eh eh eh! I just wanna know wtf it is! Take all the time you want, just tell me!
 

Boris Goodenough

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Jul 15, 2009
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LetalisK said:
Eh eh eh! I just wanna know wtf it is! Take all the time you want, just tell me!
Well it's a "causualised" sci-fi mmorpg, so take that for what you will :eek: but yes more info would be nice.
 

Gregg Johnson

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Jul 25, 2012
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Hm. So, basically, midway through production they decided it was going to be utter shit, and had to start over from scratch?

For the Blizzard of today, this does not surprise me.
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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Wait. I thought 'Titan' was the Marvel thing they made...

And if they've got 70 developers off the project what exactly are they working on? Hats for Marvel Heroes?
 

Gregg Johnson

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Jul 25, 2012
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CriticalMiss said:
Wait. I thought 'Titan' was the Marvel thing they made...

And if they've got 70 developers off the project what exactly are they working on? Hats for Marvel Heroes?
I have never heard of Titan being related to Marvel at all, ever. Got any sources?

EDIT: THIS Titan is the one they're talking about. Not sure if you have it confused with something else.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Blizzard_Entertainment_project)
 

CriticalMiss

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Jan 18, 2013
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Gregg Johnson said:
CriticalMiss said:
Wait. I thought 'Titan' was the Marvel thing they made...

And if they've got 70 developers off the project what exactly are they working on? Hats for Marvel Heroes?
I have never heard of Titan being related to Marvel at all, ever. Got any sources?

EDIT: THIS Titan is the one they're talking about. Not sure if you have it confused with something else.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Blizzard_Entertainment_project)
Oh I definitely have it confused.

I was under the impression that Titan was the Marvel game since I hadn't heard anything of the project after they had revealed Marvel Heroes. And in my mind it made sense to link 'Titan' with 'meta-human' and it is kind of an MMO, so that was good enough for me.
 

DugMachine

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Apr 5, 2010
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god dammit

I was very much looking foward to seeing what this game was all about and now we've got to wait another year or two. Sigh
 

deadish

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Dec 4, 2011
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Gregg Johnson said:
Hm. So, basically, midway through production they decided it was going to be utter shit, and had to start over from scratch?

For the Blizzard of today, this does not surprise me.
This isn't new. They have done this for quite a few projects in the past, e.g. Starcraft.
 

Cartographer

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Jun 1, 2009
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The conspiracy nut side of me thinks someone in ActiBlizz's board of directors has decreed XBone support is required and they have had to start from scratch.
 

mrhateful

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Apr 8, 2010
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Good move on blizzard part, it is very normal for software products to need iterative process that they are willing to commit the time shows they haven't lost themselves.
 
Mar 5, 2011
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Well, I haven't enjoyed a Blizzard game since Diablo II and that Blizzard is long dead. Titan probably was turning out crappy so they scrapped it.
 

Alar

The Stormbringer
Dec 1, 2009
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Whelp, seems like we're not going to be hearing about Titan this year after all. That leaves the next WoW expansion, the Diablo 3 expansion, and the next Starcraft 2 expansion, though. Announcing all three would be fantastic.
 

Colt47

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Oct 31, 2012
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The problem with Titan is that from the way it sounds on the developer end, they are building this game on the basis of how they can make the most money. World of Warcraft was a labor of love when it came out, unlike what some people might believe, as it was Blizzards first foray into Massive Multiplayer Online Games when the genre was still fairly new. Money was on the mind, but it was also about building an enjoyable game from both the player and developer perspective.

In a way, extreme financial success in the gaming industry is both a goal and the kiss of death for studios it seems.
 

Sixcess

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Feb 27, 2010
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I'll be very surprised if 'Titan' even is an MMO in the current sense of the word. The last thing Blizzard should ever do is invite comparisons to their other MMO.

Because, really, how would you follow up World of Warcraft? How would you follow up an MMO that's been so uniquely successful that its very existence distorts the expectations of the entire genre? No other MMO has come close to being the fabled WoW-killer, and no other MMO ever will, except by accident. Not even one made by Blizzard.

That aside, there's a real risk now that this project will be quietly killed if WoW's decline isn't reversed, or at least halted. By any normal standard it's still doing extremely well, but I imagine Acti-Blizz have a very different idea of what constitutes 'success' for WoW. If they start panicking about losing money then the first thing to go will be expensive, unproven, stuck in development projects.
 

WanderingFool

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Apr 9, 2009
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Aeshi said:
Oh goddamnit, I was actually looking forward to seeing what Titan turned out to be. Guess we'll never know now.
You know, back when this was announced, I figured something would cause them to either delay or just postpone it. I wish I would have actually said it back then, just so I could post this:


[sub]obviously, I didnt have the video in question at the time, but I would have put something there...[/sub]