Does this mean we can have Warcraft 4 now?

warcraft3
Just looking at this makes me want to re-install.

Now that Blizzard officially cancelled Titan, a game they never officially announced, does this mean we can have Warcraft 4?

Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime says they’re not going to work on another MMO at this time. They’ll continue working on stuff like Hearthstone for sure, and now my hopes are as high as possible that they’ll finally decide to go back and try to revive the strategy genre they helped define. What about Starcraft, you say? Warcraft strategy games are so very different. Warcraft 3 specifically focused on a very small unit count in order to maximize micromanagement. Hero units created a significant mechanic that I haven’t seen used the same since. They feel like night and day to me — and I’m good at Warcraft strategy games and horrible at SC.

In a way… I’m excited to see what Blizzard does now. I don’t want Blizzard to focus on MMOs.  Less MMOs the better. Bring on the other games that’ll actually deliver a full and complete experience!

  • A damn good idea, I just hope they don’t break it into 2-3 parts as they did with SC2.

    Make 1 fully-featured game and sell it to me in one lump!

  • Will be interesting to see what they come up with. My guess is Warcraft 4 isn’t a top priority but could be a possibility. The whole hero class mechanic seems to be well captured in MOBAs, and clearly Blizz is focusing heavily on Heroes of the Storm right now. Btw, I play Heroes fairly regularly and enjoy it as a less hardcore MOBA.

    On the MMO front, totally agree that there is little need for a new MMO, particularly ones centered around quests and gear grinds. IMO, the next great MMO will bring community involvement and interaction to a whole new level.

    And quickly touching on Titan, man it must have really sucked to scrap it all together. My guess is it was a crappy Destiny like FPS/MMO, and with how Destiny has gotten panned, despite its strong sales, they smartly pulled the plug.

  • @JJ Robinson: I really wish I could get into Heroes of the Storm’s alpha/beta/whatever. I’m anxious to give it a try.

    @Intruder313: Agreed, but I do like expansions. For example, WC3 and Frozen Throne.

    @Wilhelm: Tons of possibilities with the lore. Replay through, continue from where they’re at, scrap it all and reimagine, etc.

  • @Keen: I think you will really enjoy Heroes. It has removed the hardest game mechanics of LoL and DOTA, last hitting and item builds. While the hardcore MOBA fans might not like that, I enjoy it as it makes group fighting and teammates all that more important. I do believe they will add more mechanics, ie an artifact system they hinted at for a little while, as the game progresses.

    Hopefully you can get in after there big update in the next few weeks.

  • They are a brilliant company but I think the best they could MMO wise in the current environment is a 3 monther. I also highly doubt they would exceed or equal the long term success of WoW. WoW is not on its way out, instead its basically just fossilized into tradition. Every few years a new expansion will release. The numbers will bounce around a little, a little higher, a little lower, but its here to stay and is not going quietly into the night.

  • Titan seemed to just turn into a huge money drain for Blizzard. Honestly I don’t seen any need for them to focus on yet another IP. With Diablo, Starcraft and Warcraft they have plenty of IPs to avoid the risk with a new one. Also Warcraft 4, Hell Yes!!

  • I don’t like the current direction because I’m no longer the target audience. They specifically cited recent small games such as Hearthstone and all stars which I don’t particularly care for. This means, presumably, that Diablo 3 and starcraft are excluded from their recent small games list. Doesn’t that mean they will release more games that focus on small scale interactions and have no campaign mode and story (things that are important to me)?

  • @invinciblegod: I hear you that campaign and story modes are great, but why do you need to rely on Blizz for that? For story/campaign games, now is the golden age of indie developers. Developers who grew up on the type of games we want, are now putting out great games under indie titles.

    Don’t despair because Blizz is focusing on smaller, micro transaction rich games. There will be others to fill our needs.

  • In my opinion they either develop a new ip or they go into the single player rpg experience. They have done rts to death, mmo done, action rpg done. Logically they should do an elder scrolls type of world in the warcraft universe.

  • I’d love for them to scrap WoW’s lore and continue from WC3, but fat chance of that happening. I think any attempt at a WC4 would be to drum up more interest for WoW, since that’s where the real money is at. While vanilla WoW was a great companion to the RTS series, everything since has pretty much butchered it.

  • I’d actually like to see Blizzard take a crack at some other genres.

    While I appreciate both SC and Warcraft share some mechanical differences, I think RTS has really been done to death of late.

    No one in the space has had much new to add in a looong while. I’m not sure Warcraft 4 would be much different.

    I wonder what a co-op/single player RPG woule like? With a strong focus on story and world building, outside of the MMO tropes.

    Blizzard *really* needs a new IP. An FPS might be an interesting thing for them to tackle.

  • Oh, I hear Space Sim’s are the new hotness. Maybe Blizzard could take a crack at an EvE online style game, but with a more approachable, open focus.

  • Whatever they do, I’m sure it will take them 3-5 years to get it to the point they want to announce the project. These are the type of things that happen when an organization becomes bloated with cash. Like, who else can blow millions of dollars in 7 years worth of work and then just flush it all down the toilet and say, “Nah, we’re not gonna do that anymore.”?

  • @Balthazar: Yeah, it’s not a great situation to be in, but what’s the alternative.

    Lose 50 million now?
    Or lose 500 million later when it all goes to hell in a hand basket and flops, damaging your brand.

    I guess the thing about being successful is you want to keep being successful. That makes you increasingly cautious about mistakes and risk taking. I guess it’s the cost of success.

  • @Quietwulf

    I’m not necessarily disagreeing with the decision to not move forward with the game. Just kind of pointing out the company culture issue that I think Blizzard is suffering from. Assuming it was the right decision, I don’t think very many other companies would have gone on for so long or spent so much money before making that decision. Or, if they did, that they would be in business anymore. Perfect is the enemy of good.

    It is easy to ignore problems or look the other way or constantly pound your chest and point to your supposed “higher standards” as you push the release date back yet again, when there is still a mountain of cash in the vault. If they had stayed disciplined and focused with those resources, they could be consistently putting out great products, like other companies have with far fewer resources, year after year.

  • Yeah yeah.. warcraft 4, but what about a new rock and roll racing with the same love and detail made as hearthstone? Yes pls…

    “Jake is in another timezone”

  • Balthzar I would think just the opposite. Because they are not trying to resource skimp and have had such great quality games they are able to spend so long on games.

    Game mechanics and innovation comes with lots of wasted resources and trial and error.

  • @Binh: I haven’t tried Pathfinder Online yet. I think it’s only available to backers right now, and I haven’t seen enough to get me to want to back it.

  • Can’t wait to see what Blizzard’s going to do. It would be amazing if they launch Warcraft 4… I enjoyed the game since Warcraft II came out and still play it sometimes these days.

  • So how does the Titan decision affect your opinion on Blizzard’s roadmap for WoW, specifically with regards to the phasing out of the franchise?

  • @Gankatron: No impact. If anything, their emphasis on more games like Hearthstone will be an even greater impact on WoW’s gradual decline.