Blizzard is not even thinking about making World of Warcraft II
Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, News items
If you were hoping the next-gen Blizzard MMO currently in development would turn out to be World of Warcraft II, prepare to be disappointed. Blizzard's Frank Pearce told videogamer.com that the folks at Blizzard "haven't even started to think about a sequel" to World of Warcraft. So, we can knock one potential title off the "could be the next Blizzard MMO" list.We're not surprised. MMO sequels have had an uninspiring past. Ultima Worlds Online: Origin was canceled before it even reached the beta testing stage. EverQuest II and Lineage II have both been fairly successful but they've failed to attract anywhere near as many players as their predecessors. There's also the whole "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" thing. World of Warcraft is still growing in terms of global numbers (though that growth is probably mostly thanks to China). People numbering in the millions across all continents are still playing WoW. It might make sense to make another kind of MMO with a different sort of motif so as to expand your current base, but as for a sequel to WoW; what would be the point of spending millions of dollars to challenge your own throne?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Errantdreams said on 12:44PM 11-16-2007
IMO, they'd have to be fools to put out a WoW II before they start seeing noticeable falloff in their subscriber numbers; otherwise they'd just be acting as their own competition. They're far better off developing new content to keep the subscribers they have and bring more in.
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Schad said on 12:45PM 11-16-2007
In a discussion about failed MMO sequels I don't see Asheron's Call2?
For shame!
I actually miss that game :[
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Coherent said on 3:03PM 11-16-2007
Nobody wants to compete with themselves, and only a gang of idiots would release another MMO in the same genre while the first one was still going strong. [Sony, I'm looking at you]
I wouldn't want them to anyway. Their expansion strategy for WoW allows them to add new territory, new rules, new game mechanics, whatever as they like. There's no compelling reason for a completely new game.
I would hope that any new MMO project (if they're working on one) will be a completely different genre than WoW, like science fiction(great!), horror(meh), post-apocalyptic(awesome!), adventure(interesting!), or something completely off the wall like World of Strip Poker(WoSP???) or Kung Fu CB Mamas vs the Aztec Motorcycle Wrestling Nuns(KFCBMvAMWN??????)
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Matt Warner said on 9:46PM 11-16-2007
Bah, there goes my tinfoil hat conspiracy.
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Bildo said on 9:59PM 11-16-2007
I'm betting it'll be one of the big other licenses they have, Diablo or StarCraft. You know the Eastern culture's would quite literally kill for a Starcraft themed MMO. Hell, so would I. But a new Diablo would always be great. Not steampunk lik Hellgate either, but a nice bloody , brooding, and extravagant online Roguelike would always be nice.
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