Blizzard going MMO only?

Post by **King of Creation** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 4:06 pm

Vivendi Universal Games gave a presentation to Wall Street today. Too much to report on everything said, but the big one was:

"All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs."

All. They claim they have a model now to develop an MMOG in 3 years for $50 million. WoW cost 50 million euros and took 4 1/2 years.

They have bifurcated the MMOG market into two parts: long session games (more than two hours per session) and short session games (less than two hour sessions.) They will also be rolling out a bunch of short session games under the Sierra Online brand. An example is FreeStyle, a pick-up basketball online game scheduled for 2007 release. No details on pricing model for the short session games.

Shiznitz sent this in this morning and all I can say is good for them. Apparently splitting what will probably end up as 8-10 million customers (maybe more, asian gamers are unpredictable about things like STARCRAFT) across 3 games isn't a concern to them. They're lucky stock brokers know nothing about video games.

Frater Perdurabo · Post by **Frater Perdurabo** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 4:22 pm

I'm boycotting Diablo III.

Mr. Teatime · Post by **Mr. Teatime** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 4:57 pm

I recently stopped playing WoW, made some friends there including someone who had just left his job in france as a senior GM for the game. I saw his Blizzard email address, he got us sorted out with some uber quick tech support with his GM friends when necessary, so it was pretty obvious he was telling the truth.

Anyway, he said Blizzard have been working hard on World of Starcraft as their next big game (not sure where Diablo fits into this).

As for Blizzard and MMOs, WoW is an excellent game up until the endgame when you are forced to socialise with the bnet kiddies in 40-man raid groups, and that's when I decided to quit.

Koki · Post by **Koki** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:17 pm

Fucking dickheads.

Spazmo · Post by **Spazmo** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:27 pm

Blizzard Denies MMO Rumors [June 14, 2006, 12:17 pm ET] - Post a Comment
The WoW Forums (thanks Worthplaying) offer a couple of responses from Blizzard to rumors that their future development plans are focused solely on MMOGs (story), unequivocally denying that this is the case. Here is one of the posts from Blizzard on the topic:

Nothing in that rumor is true in regards to Blizzard. If I had to guess, there was some confusion between what Vivendi has planned for its its game division versus what Blizzard has planned. While Blizzard is owned by Vivendi, their game division operates seperately from Blizzard.

http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board. ... adid=68190

What have we learned here today?

Koki · Post by **Koki** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 5:36 pm

...Ok so they are not fucking then, just regular dickheads.

Smiley · Post by **Smiley** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 6:19 pm

Mr. Teatime wrote: Anyway, he said Blizzard have been working hard on World of Starcraft as their next big game (not sure where Diablo fits into this).

This was what I was screaming for when I first saw the trailer for WoW.
I hope you or your friend aren't bullshitting =/

St. Toxic · Post by **St. Toxic** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 8:35 pm

Zergrush lvl 30 lowl.

Aonaran · Post by **Aonaran** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:20 pm

Smiley wrote:
Mr. Teatime wrote: Anyway, he said Blizzard have been working hard on World of Starcraft as their next big game (not sure where Diablo fits into this).
This was what I was screaming for when I first saw the trailer for WoW.
I hope you or your friend aren't bullshitting =/

Of all the franchises i'd say Diablo has the most potential for an MMORPG. The reason I say that is instead of traveling horizontally into a million and one generic fantasty rpg settings you would get the feeling of going deeper and deeper into the earth as your level and the game progressed. I think atmospherically that could prove to be interesting and immersive. Still, fuck MMORPGS.

boywoos · Post by **boywoos** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:21 am

What's that jazz about Sierra Online. Will I finally get to become a lvl 60 Janitor in a Space Quest MMORPG?

Scorpion · Post by **Scorpion** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 7:11 am

Heh, 400-man Zergling rush...

yummy

Smiley · Post by **Smiley** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 8:26 am

Aonaran wrote: Of all the franchises i'd say Diablo has the most potential for an MMORPG. The reason I say that is instead of traveling horizontally into a million and one generic fantasty rpg settings you would get the feeling of going deeper and deeper into the earth as your level and the game progressed. I think atmospherically that could prove to be interesting and immersive. Still, fuck MMORPGS.

You're undoubtedly right, that Diablo has the most chance of "making" it.
I'm just sick and tired of swinging some melee weapon over and over.
I'd like to see some ranged combat MMO done by blizzard.

It'll be hard as fuck probably.. and I don't really see it comming, but here's to hoping

St. Toxic · Post by **St. Toxic** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 1:34 pm

If you want ranged weapons in an mmo, you need to remove the skill factor. There's no difference between "fantasy lowl mele weapons" and "ohgod lazergun bonanza" if all you do is select the target to attack, and gay rolls decide wether you'll hit or miss for 40 pokÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â©mon points of firedamage.

Jesus Christ · Post by **Jesus Christ** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:21 pm

Smiley wrote:I'm just sick and tired of swinging some melee weapon over and over.
I'd like to see some ranged combat MMO done by blizzard.

It'll be hard as fuck probably.. and I don't really see it comming, but here's to hoping

MMOFPS? That could be fun. A huge battlefield with thousands of badguys and thousands of goodguys and you can choose to be either. As long as they didn't screw it up by trying to add some RPG ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…â€œelementsÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬? into what has zero potential of being a descent RPG. I do not sanction MMOs but a giant Nam simulator I could handle.

Mandalorian FaLLouT GoD · Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:38 pm

Mr. Teatime wrote:As for Blizzard and MMOs, WoW is an excellent game up until the endgame when you are forced to socialise with the bnet kiddies in 40-man raid groups, and that's when I decided to quit.

Big surprise. Thats exactly why I left a long while ago.

boywoos wrote:What's that jazz about Sierra Online. Will I finally get to become a lvl 60 Janitor in a Space Quest MMORPG?

We could only hope. Just as long as they don't go overboard with the people eating mushrooms/trees and the random pixelated grass traps.

JohnPnP · Post by **JohnPnP** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:47 pm

Hey JC, you're looking for Planetside, already been out for years.

Jesus Christ · Post by **Jesus Christ** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 3:52 pm

JohnPnP wrote:Hey JC, you're looking for Planetside, already been out for years.

Is it worth my time?

Post by **King of Creation** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:08 pm

Jakkar plays it constantly. I can only assume it's worthwhile if someone devotes that much time to it.

Nicolai · Post by **Nicolai** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 4:45 pm

Everquest.

St. Toxic · Post by **St. Toxic** » Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:08 pm

Operation Flashpoint.