Massively^™

I still think that Starcraft II will set the stage and story for a Starcraft MMO that will eventually be the successor to WoW.
It doesn't mean it's coming out any time soon, probably not even going to get announced until 2010. But it will be happening. The SC2 story will show that. They've already hinted at it.

Diablo was never meant to be an MMO, it's design is more along the lines of GuildWars and Hellgate, and so will always be free.

But I would bet a kidney that SC2 sets up a SC MMO. WoW won't go on forever, and the future fantasy MMO market is ripe for more content. Especially with a Warhammer 40K MMO in the works, and the huge popularity of Starcraft and MMO's in the Asian market, especially Korea, it's going to happen. This isn't a question, it's just logic.

So when you see more characters in SC2 like Sarah Karrigan, that Zerg Humanoid, you know what the playable race for Zerg's will be like. And it will rock.

Reply

It's rather naive to think that the approaching release of SC2 means the new MMO won't be based on Starcraft. Both WC3 and WoW were in development at the same time, and it's clear that WC3 was meant to set up the story for WoW. They even made a clear attempt to familiarize WC3 players with WoW by way of the Rexxar campaign. Didn't really work at the time, but once WoW released it became clear what they were shooting for.

I doubt Blizzard would start development on a new Fantasy MMO while WoW was growing in subscribers at an obscene rate. It takes a long time to make a good MMO, yes, but WoW isn't going to fizzle and die any time soon. Starcraft seems the most apparent choice for an MMO, but I think people are discounting the possibility of a new IP too quickly.

Reply

The next big thing of Blizzard will be.... TATATATA release one of that damn projects to the people!!! :)

Reply

I'm pretty sure their next MMO is going to launch their next big franchise, and that franchise will be...

"HeroCraft", Blizzard's entry into the superhero MMO game, going against CoH, Champions Online, DC Universe, etc.

Reply

I'd agree that discounting a new IP is a bit naive, so who knows what Blizz has up their sleeve.

I'd also agree that a Starcraft MMO is a logical possibility, although I wouldn't excpect anything similair in gameplay mechanics to WoW - its called a next gen mmo for a reason (thats one) and what would be the point in copying the WoW mechanics, it would only drag away the WoW fanbase form... well from WoW :-)

I think that no matter what Blizzard throws at us, it will be a different ball game from World of Warcraft, something that will attract new players, appeal to old school MMO players and still seem fresh in terms of mechanics comapred to WoW - its the ideal solution.

Reply