Blizzard planning a new MMO -- but which one?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Apr 27th 2007 at 2:10PM
Hot on the heels of rumors that Blizzard might be announcing a Starcraft 2 in the near future, job postings are springing up on Blizzard's web site seeking people for a "Next-Gen MMO" project. World of Starcraft, maybe?World of Warcraft 2? (Though it seems early for a sequel, with Blizzard's development cycle you never know.) World of Diablo? There's no details of yet, which just leaves plenty of room for uninformed speculation. But f you think you have what it takes to work for Blizzard as a Lead Engine Programmer, Lead Tools Programmer, or Lead Technical Artist, it's time to polish up your resume.
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sorrows Apr 27th 2007 2:25PM
World of Diablo would be nice!
barb dybwad Apr 27th 2007 2:25PM
i know Blizzard is already swimming in a ton of their own IP, but please god, make it Battlestar Gallactica! ;)
jasonlotito Apr 27th 2007 2:31PM
An Engine is what you build games on top of. So, taking their job openings at face value, they aren't working on a new game. Rather they are working on a new engine so they can build new games with. I'd imagine they are taking what they learned with WoW, and putting together a new engine. This is the engine they will use for the next generation of MMORPGs they put out. Worlds of Starcraft would be first, I'd imagine.
Building a solid engine isn't easy, and will take some time to finish. Of course, this is all just speculation.
Spindle Apr 27th 2007 2:32PM
World of Diablo being a fantasy game just seems to close to WoW. My money would be on them making a start on WoW2 with a target date of 2010.
Dracula Jones Apr 27th 2007 2:43PM
World of Warcraft I think encompasses Diablo. WoW gameplay is closer to Diablo than the Warcraft series.
Perhaps "next-gen MMO" means they're porting WoW to the "next-gen" consoles? Xbox 360 has that keyboard addon for a reason, and I doubt it's just for MSN Messengering.
Jeff Apr 27th 2007 2:53PM
It would be nice if they were working on some "regen" for the current Engine... Man I would like to see water in the style of the water rendering we saw in the game Far cry, it was good looking, and this isnt a newly released game. The water in WoW is the weak point IMO. Booty bay would look so better with a shader reflection of the sky at the water surface.
All the newer video card have a hardware call that's supposed to increase the Polygon count with the spare power not used, dont remember the name of the technology, but it has been there since Half Life 2. Everyday that passes the WoW engine show its age, but nonetheless its an incredible engine performance/quality wise.
IMO We would need some more checkmark that hardcore computer user want to activate to have nicer effects :)
juztuzp Apr 27th 2007 3:05PM
It must be...
World of Lost Vikings!
Ty M. Apr 27th 2007 3:15PM
If there really is truth to any religion, and there are some kind of benevolent deities that watch over us, if all of that is true in any sense of the words... then World of Starcraft... Screw you Diablo. I don't need to rapidly click in 3-D. Screw you WoW 2. Go make more Warcraft rts' to tell the story.
But World of Starcraft... now there's an orgasm in a box.
Hybrys Apr 27th 2007 3:19PM
Or, maybe they are doing what Sony did with EQ, updating the graphics engine from scratch in an expansion. Also, they've been calling WoW(1) a "next-gen" MMO forever.
sonic Apr 27th 2007 3:27PM
UNIVERSE OF:
Warcraft VS Starcraft
/shrug
James Apr 27th 2007 3:29PM
I find it exceedingly hard to believe that Blizzard would be doing any sort of brand spanking new MMO in the near future. WoW's subscription base right now is what, 8 million? They have around 50% of the MMORPG market. Introducing a new a MMO anytime in the next couple of years is going to do one thing--erode the subcription base of WoW. Especially if its World of Starcraft, or Diablo for that matter. Blizzard won't see many *new* subscriptions, they'll just see people drop WoW for the new game they release. From an economic standpoint, they'd be spending millions to develop a new game when they could spend less and keep rolling out expansions for WoW.
Of course, this being Blizzard, they're probably hiring now with a target release date of 2010 or something, so by then WoW will have faded (maybe).
Larawen Apr 27th 2007 3:32PM
I completely agree with #8, World of Starcraft would be absolutely amazing. "You could no more evade my wrath than you could your own shadow." Yea, that would be pretty kick ass.
wei Apr 27th 2007 3:36PM
to # 10:
lol. magic vs technology? nice.
imagen a bunch of orcs rushing at a siege tank.
Robert Apr 27th 2007 3:52PM
Well, we're hearing rumors of Starcraft 2's imminent announcement, which means it's probably been under development for a while. Blizzard's smart enough to realize that a lot of WoW's success springboarded from WC3. It makes sense they'd repeat that strategy by launching a Starcraft MMO 1-2 years after the RTS game. If they're just now starting to build the engine for it, the timeline fits perfectly...
Starcraft 2 in 2008
Starcraft MMO in 2010 (after 2 more expansions for WoW, which sounds about right).
It's fun to speculate.
Quoi Apr 27th 2007 4:33PM
World of Starcraft would be stupidly awesome. Protoss vs. Zerg vs. Terran? Or maybe Protoss vs. Terran, a la Horde/Alliance, with the Zerg as a Scourge-like bad guy? Where do I sign up?
Dan Apr 27th 2007 4:02PM
@James: "Blizzard won't see many *new* subscriptions, they'll just see people drop WoW for the new game they release."
Even if people shift their $15/month from WoW to WoW2 , they will also see 8 million people pony up $50 for the WoW2 install discs ($70 for the collector's edition). Plus some portion of those would probably keep their WoW1 subscription up, especially if Blizzard releases another expansion for it, and starts offering some sort of bundle, $25/month gets you access to both. There's definitely a way to make this a profitable exercise.
@A lot of people about upgrading WoWs engine - have you compared WoW to LoTR or EQ2 or anything else out there? It's already got them all beat, technically. Now, if you don't like the cartoony aesthetic that's another thing. But technically speaking, their engine is pretty damned good.
I agree that World of Diablo would be way too close to WoW and I am crossing my fingers for a World of Starcraft that appears sometime in the next five years.
That said, I agree
Chadwick Apr 27th 2007 4:28PM
I'd rather them retool WoW1 and come out with WoW2 with a better engine, updated interface, etc, etc.
Make Starcraft2 RTS and make it good. Then maybe many years from now have a Starcraft MMO.
Kahja Apr 27th 2007 5:16PM
I'd put my money on this scenario.
Blizz has an announcement
Blizz needs MMO people
Blizz would most likely take their existing team lead and directors and stuff and put them on the new project they are announcing.
Thus their jobs would become available and would go to internal staff. Then the internal staff positions become available and may be filled by outside sources.
So the new MMO guys they are looking for are most likely to work on WoW while the mastered hand works on the new project
Adam Apr 27th 2007 6:58PM
They could always be hiring more people to work on the next WoW expansion. They said they want to try for one expansion a year, and with how long it took them to develop BC, they could simply be hiring more developers to help get the next wow expansion out sooner.
And my prediction for the "product" they're announcing on May 19th is that they will announce the next WoW expansion.
Just my opinions...
way2trivial Apr 28th 2007 11:31AM
world of starcraft... hmm.. I think I'll play two zergs and rush.. seriously, how many solo'd adventures can you do in a starcraft universe? do you wanna be a siege tank and just sit? (although I would love to see it, I can't imageine the translation, and I'd be very happy to be proved wrong)