Will Carbine Studios produce another WoW?
by Amanda Rivera 
Oct 7th 2007 at 7:00PM
We have often speculated about who will step up to dethrone World of Warcraft in the MMO gaming market, and it appears that we finally may have a contender: Carbine Studios. What makes this particular Aliso Viejo-based development studio so unique isn't what they are working on -- another MMORPG with what appear to be sword-wielding aliens-- but who they are.
The dev team is made up of some of the best and brightest in the industry, including Kevin Beardslee, a lead designer on WoW. In fact, there are now 17 former Blizzard employees working under the Carbine label, and this bodes well for the creation of a game strong enough to rival the WoW powerhouse. NCSoft is very proud to have these guys working for them, and if the concept work is any indication, this might finally be the game that could become the next king of the MMO mountain.
The dev team is made up of some of the best and brightest in the industry, including Kevin Beardslee, a lead designer on WoW. In fact, there are now 17 former Blizzard employees working under the Carbine label, and this bodes well for the creation of a game strong enough to rival the WoW powerhouse. NCSoft is very proud to have these guys working for them, and if the concept work is any indication, this might finally be the game that could become the next king of the MMO mountain.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Baluki Oct 7th 2007 7:09PM
It's possible, but so many games have made the same claim over the years that I've lost count. In the end, I'll believe it when I can try it out.
Also, why the hell does NC Soft keep creating new competition for its own games? It boggles my mind.
Baluki Oct 7th 2007 7:14PM
Oh, and also...this game doesn't even have a NAME. It's probably about 5 years away. I doubt that WoW will remain the powerhouse that it is for all that time. It may be more accurate to call this a next-gen MMO-killer. Again, IF it's any good. The games it'll be potentially competing with will probably be the firmly-entrenched Tabula Rasa and Warhammer Online, and maybe Age of Conan, and WoW: Orcs In Space.
Amagoi Oct 7th 2007 7:22PM
The concepts look good and the team sounds interesting but as they say, the proof is in the pudding. We'll see when it comes out and we have something more solid to look at.
Arras Oct 7th 2007 7:47PM
neat...but, will this be a wow-killer like Vanguard, Guild Wars, City of Villains, Tabula Rasa, and all the other also-rans? I'm not saying WoW is invincible, but it seems like every new MMO with high-res concept art with lots of gamma is the new wow-killer. Try playing it first, then declare it the next best thing.
NeuroMan42 Oct 8th 2007 7:22AM
It is very possible that ANY studio could pull this off. It is simply a matter of time before boredom and/or other interests dwindle interest in WOW. I left WOW 4 months ago, and don't miss it at all. I have more time for solo PC/Console games, and frankly I am glad I left. Will I check back into WOW, maybe and maybe not. Time will tell.
Sherp of Ahrotahntee Oct 7th 2007 9:01PM
Me, I'm looking forward to Star Trek Online. That'll be out in a year or two.
raverach Oct 7th 2007 8:03PM
in that drawing the grass is leaning to the left, but the smoke is being blown to the right.
Zilog Instantaneously Mojo Oct 7th 2007 8:26PM
Meh. Claiming to have 17 former Blizzard employees onboard is all well and good, but who were they? The guy who delivered the mail? Cleaned the toilets? The guy with the grudge who was fired because of the threats he made to his team members? Carbine studios indeed.
Matthew Rossi Oct 7th 2007 8:39PM
Okay, people, TIM CAIN is on that team.
TIM FALLOUT CAIN.
If you can't get excited about the idea of Kevin Beardslee and Tim Cain working on an MMO, then you should seriously rethink your priorities. Stop distracting yourselves with things like love and family and careers! TIM CAIN!
I'm sorry, but Fallout was the first computer game I ever really loved, so this is seventeen different kinds of exciting for me. I don't care if this game is a WoW killer or not, it's going to BE killer.
Will Oct 7th 2007 8:46PM
As long as they have a Mac client, I'll give just about anything a whirl.
Medros Oct 7th 2007 8:49PM
Guild Wars had a lot of WoW developers and former Blizzard employees too... look where they are.
Andrew Oct 7th 2007 11:16PM
WoW won't be going down ANYTIME soon, and that is thanks to WOTLK.
And I am definitely someone who is looking for a WoW killer, but I fear it won't happen in my lifetime, lol.
avery Oct 7th 2007 9:05PM
While I admit that the graphics look nice and it sounds interesting, I honestly don't think either of those are the reasons that WoW has become such a powerhouse.
WoW can run on just about ANYONE's machine. (Yeah I know there are exceptions, but just work with me here). You can easily turn the graphics down and have some fun. Several of my buddies and I were planning on switching over to Vanguard when it came out (we enjoyed the beta) but the biggest problem was that out of the 6-8 of us, only 2 people could run the Vanguard beta on our computers. Better graphics are awesome if your system can handle it, but how many people want to upgrade their machine just to play a MMO?
Which brings me to the second point - WoW has what, 9 million subscribers now? Almost all of my RL friends that play WoW are on the same server together. We set aside times to help eachother out (some of us raid and some don't) and enjoy joking around in WoW. If I switch MMOs, I'd be leaving that behind. In all honesty, probably half of my friends were "peer-pressured" into playing WoW vs several other MMOs.
Barachiel Oct 7th 2007 9:10PM
*sighs* Another "WoW-killer." Uh huh. Sure.
You know what will kill WoW? World of Starcraft. Or a Star Wars MMO that doesn't suck. Or maybe even Star Trek Online.
Why do I believe this? Two reasons
1) i believe that the majority of players are SICK of fantasy MMOs. I love fantasy. I think its wonderful. I cut my teeth on D&D back in '90 when I was just starting high school. Does this mean the only genre of MMO I want is Fantasy based? No, and I've seen alot of others on the net make similar complaints.
2) what drew 8-9 million players wasn't just that it was a "Blizzard" game but that it was a WARCRAFT game. Unless you come up with a FANTASTIC original setting, you're going to need to go with a world that millions of gamers are already fans of and give players the chance to hop into it. And even that isn't a sure sell, because the game has to be good. SWG and LotRO are two examples of what should have been mega-hits that are barely hangin' on and doing decent, respectively.
Does a solid gameplay experience matter? Yes. Does ease of use matter? Yes. But ANY successful game needs those. But to actually REPLACE a game THIS successful you need a special blend of magic that Blizzard got lucky and hit upon, just like Everquest did when it was first released.
Will WoW fade one day? Yes, certainly, but the REAL question is, will another MMO be as successful as it was ever again?
Janessriel Oct 7th 2007 9:16PM
@11
"Guild Wars had a lot of WoW developers and former Blizzard employees too... look where they are."
4 million units sold, 3 campaigns and an expansion and Guild Wars 2 due out soon? I'd say that's a good place to be, personally.
Just because you don't play it doesn't mean others don't either.
Dave Oct 7th 2007 10:09PM
@1:
someday, most of the rest of the people will realize that the idea of "competition" amongst your own products -does not exist-. You're never competing with yourself, this is a very very old world way of thinking. There are always new subscibers of some sort somewhere, and not all of them are subscribing to your existing product. This is why the idiotic argument "lol bizz won't make a new MMO game cause it would take away from WoW" doesn't hold a drop of water.
You only add, you never subtract when you create a product that keeps people in your brand. If that were the case, there wouldn't be Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, as it would be a bad business move for Dr. Pepper to dilute their customer base by offering 23 different varieties of beverage. They'd stick with their single beverage and if people didn't like it, they could drink a competitor's beverage right?
No, that's a plan for failure. Business diversify their product offerings to attract the widest possible net. Even if half of the customers of your initial game go to your second game, you've lost absolutely nothing, and you've most likely added plenty of people who didn't like game #1 for whatever reason. I'm personally shocked that Blizzard has waited as long as they have to even announce development of a second MMO property.
Competition only happens when someone else makes something more popular than what you have or takes away customers from your base. You don't make competition between your own products since if money's coming to you, you win regardless of which flavor they buy.
Argent Oct 7th 2007 11:27PM
my first reaction when i read about all these wow devs working for carbine?
'i'm sure they'll ensure paladns and shaman suck, first and foremost.'
ratmaggot Oct 7th 2007 11:36PM
GW has/had a lot of ex blizz, and important blizz employees. Successful as it is, GW didn't out WOW, WoW.
Lets face it, the one game that wil get the attention of most WoWers is... the next mmo blizz do.
joerendous Oct 8th 2007 12:08AM
@18
i lol'ed irl
Rexigar Oct 8th 2007 12:23AM
Story line! WOW has a much longer story line then these other MMO's. Let's face it, lots of people play WOW to escape real life and enter a fantasy world temporarily to mearly "forget", or, enjoy a time or Orc and Humans. i.e. medival times. LOTR was a great movie and I bet if blizz made a movie ( 6 3 hour dvd's) it would put LOTR to shame. Just as it did to LOTR online :)
People want to play a story and WOW is the best thing, I don't beleive another MMO could possibly match WOW. What other medival stories can there be? Orcs and Humans are taken :)