Justariuss

"At this point, does anyone really want another MMO? They're a dime a dozen, they're not really all that different from one another. If there's one thing Blizzard doesn't do, its innovation. Each iteration of their 3 franchises (StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo) didn't really change the playing field at all.  If they were to start another MMO, they'd be building it on brand recognition and Blizzard fanboys' game-chubs alone. That'd probably be enough to carry them, but you'd think eventually someone would catch on to the fact that they're not the most creative bunch of people (ripped off Games Workshop, by the way)"

"tekmojo said:

"In terms of a business stand-point, it would be stupid not to have a WoW 2."

That isn't true whatsoever. They're making way too much money on World of Warcraft already. You obviously don't remember how Everquest died along with 2."

In any case, Blizzard is making a new mmo. I would like to hear what people think that is instead. If its not a follow up to WoW, I think it's definitely Starcraft. I know a WoW follow up is inevitable though and I can't see them running 3 MMO's...

Take into account that Kaplan came over from EQ and brought a lot of that to WoW's endgame. This new game will have the same mark on it, I believe. Is that possible with Starcraft? Starcraft II will really have to do the same thing Warcraft 3 did to flesh out the structure of an MMO. Someone is going to have to convince me how player's could possibly be Zerg or that Blizzard would make a SC MMO with Zerg NPCs.

...

I've never said once that this hypothetical game is coming out tomorrow. I was thinking more like 2013. WoW with another major expansion in between.

And again, companies don't force consumers to consume.

"I can't think of one good reason why Blizzard would ever want to make World of Warcraft 2. People got pissed off enough when Blizzard changed the PvP system. I can't imagine what people would do if they were forced to start all over again."

I never said it would be in the next couple of years. I said it could be under development already. MMO's take a long time to develop and this is a Blizzard MMO. WoW was in development for over 5 years.

WoW 2 launching in 4-5 years would not be "in the next couple of years".

"I really don't see this happening soon. Blizzard can milk the original WoW for a lot longer with more expansions and really it would probably be more profitable because they won't need to put in as much development money for a whole new game.Blizzard probably has the idea of WoW 2 in the background but I don't think they are going to be leaving WoW anytime soon. Everquest 2 proved that a sequel won't always catch on as well and the original can last a lot longer then many people think."

Would they have to upgrade their pc's? When WoW was released in 2004, it ran fine on midrange hardware of the day. There is no reason that would not repeat itself.

They would start over. There will be a market for WoW2 and at some point in time, as WoW fades, it will be bigger than that of WoW. Just the natural way of things.

True and on my mind as well. I tried to stay away from too much speculation about business though. It's common sense that Activision-Blizzard will want to continue this money printing press that they have - and that they can't do that if they never make a sequel. WoW1 absolutely will decline at some point.

It sounds crazy to some degree, but I think it's in the works. I think the unnamed Blizzard MMO confirmed to be in development is WoW 2. There are reasons against this, obvious ones, so I will keep this brief by excluding them. I will also say this upfront : I'm probably wrong - I just have this hunch...

We know Starcraft 2 and Diablo III are already in development. I think this supports the WoW 2 theory. Would Blizzard really develop a Starcraft or Diablo MMO at the same time as both franchises are undergoing development on new titles in the original lines? WoW's development did coincide with Warcraft 3, but I think the situation was a little different. Warcraft 3 was as much setup for WoW as it was it's own game - the vast majority of the lore for WoW was fleshed out in Warcraft 3. They could be doing that again, as Starcraft 3 is planned to have a set of 3, massive campaigns. I just have a hard time imagining Blizzard doing a Starcraft MMO though. There would be challenges presented because of the theme. The Zerg would almost have to be relegated to non-player status, unless Blizzard pulled something completely out of thin air. A Diablo MMO would be even more unlikely, I think. Diablo being a co-op RPG in the first place means it's too similar to an MMO to bother with it. It was possible before Diablo III's announcement, I guess. Not now. I am actually surest of this than anything.

WoW has made Warcraft the most valuable IP Blizzard has, by far. They're making an estimated $100,000,000 a month from subscriptions alone. Will they let development sag on a brand new game in this IP, like they did with DIablo and Starcraft after this success? I don't think people believe that - they believe Warcraft 4, an RTS, is in the future. I do not. How would they merge the plot and story events in a supposed Warcraft 4 with WoW? I think there is more motivation for any new Warcraft storylines to take place in World of Warcraft (or a WoW2) than a Warcraft 4 RTS. The formers are undeniably more lucrative and it just makes sense. I fear that many will be disappointed with this, but I think the Warcraft line has shifted fully into an MMORPG. In this day and age, I don't think Blizzard will be developing 2 real time strategy games. I believe they've redefined their properties. Warcraft:MMORPG, Starcraft:RTS, Diablo:RPG.

Then there is how all of this ties with World of Warcraft. Well, I think WoW is really winding down. After Arthas - is there really something to base multiple, full expansion packs? There are a few nooks and crannies in Azeroth as yet unlocked, like Gilneas, Hyjal, Grim Batol, and Kul Tiras. There are some more significant locations like the Maelstrom (oceanic areas like Undermine included here) and the Emerald Dream that create possibilities, but none of these really compare to Draenor and Northrend. I think they'll probably get a few of those nooks in the game via content patches but I believe they could be saving the Emerald Dream and the Maelstrom for WoW2. Remember, they originally had the Emerald Dream in the game but it was scrapped because it wasn't up to quality. I don't think Blizzard believes the current client is technically able to do the ED justice, the same could be said for the Maelstrom. They've also just shifted Jeff Kaplan (Tigole) over to this unnamed MMO. Kaplan was responsible for WoW's end game raid content. This move comes at an interesting time. Arthas is still months away from being in the game, but Kaplan's work on the encounter design is probably complete and with that, Blizzard wants him working on the new game? Nothing says more to me about WoW coming to something of a conclusion than this.