Blizzard’s long-held prestige project Titan has failed. Blizzard does not want to be just an MMORPG company; it wants to try its hand in other fields, but hopes to continue operating World of Warcraft for a long time.
In an interview with Polygon, Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaine was almost a bit poetic, although the reality was rather mundane. They got entangled with Titan. It simply didn’t come together, the spark didn’t ignite, it was a head-heavy stillbirth, as the interview reveals.
Titan: A Brainchild Without Passion
Titan was planned as the next “right step,” conceived on the drawing board as a logical evolution of World of Warcraft. The next big MMORPG from the company that knows better than anyone how big and how MMORPG can be. Yet, they never found the fun in the project, never discovered the spark, nor the passion. A few good approaches, certainly, yes. But nothing beyond that. They eventually asked themselves: “Do we really want to be this? Do we want to be the company that makes MMORPGs? Do we want to start this with our lives and careers?”
Apparently, they found the answer, and it is “No.”
For Blizzard, the era of big MMORPGs is over; World of Warcraft should continue to live on
For years, the project “Titan” haunted the media world as a massive endeavor. Everything that bears Blizzard’s name is three floors larger than elsewhere. Websites for Titan have been reserved for years – one could say a brilliantly made investment. Much more than a bit of speculation and mumbo-jumbo will likely be read on those pages.
What has not been interpreted into Titan? World of Warcraft 2 was often mentioned. The WoW that was supposed to replace WoW when Father Time would finally win, and people would have enough of Azeroth. “World of Starcraft” circulated as a not particularly innovative alternative theory through the forums.
Officially, there were snippets: Next-Gen, broader target audience than WoW, post-apocalyptic, historical, science-fiction-like, would take place in the near future, and then maybe would rather be free-to-play. At times, it was incredibly fun, then it was just the shell of a game. Eventually, Blizzard decided to restart development completely to see what could be salvaged.
And what was it then? Polygon wasn’t told that either. Only that the time for such a large MMORPG prestige project is probably over. Smaller games in other genres like Heroes of the Storm or Hearthstone are expected to shape Blizzard’s future.
In the MMORPG sector, they stick with World of Warcraft. “Personally, I would hope that we can continue WoW forever,” says Mike Morhaine in the interview.
