Blizzard Has a New MMO With a New Universe in the Works?

[Thalraxal]

MMO Champion is reporting that Blizzard has apparently said that their current secret project is a new MMO based off of new IP.  Anyone else heard anything more about this yet?

Considering that the StarCraft Universe is their youngest piece of IP, it's been a while since Blizzard's done something that wasn't a sequel or spin-off of an pre-existing franchise.

[IskatuMesk]

Why doesn't the MMO fad just die already

[UntamedLoli]

They even listed the Job for it as NEXT GEN MMO.

[Thalraxal]

Oh, well.  It was news to me.

Why doesn't the MMO fad just die already

It won't as long as one or two of them can still make tuckloads of money.

[Marco]

Interesting news.  I was wondering when they would finally get the guts to do something brand new (in terms of universes).  Although their limited number of intellectual properties is definitely one of their strengths.

[wibod]

MMO's have been around a lot longer then most genres guys. Or do none of you remember MUDS?

[Thalraxal]

MMO's have been around a lot longer then most genres guys. Or do none of you remember MUDS?

I think most of the complaints are directed at the "Pay-To-Play" models that have come to dominate the genre and the fact that there are so many out there, and so many more in development.

[IskatuMesk]

MMO's have been around a lot longer then most genres guys. Or do none of you remember MUDS?

Well, MUDs aren't really comparable to modern/pre-modern MMO's in that they weren't pay-to-play and didn't generally revolve around consistent grinding. But I know what you mean.

[Aekenon]

Such whimsy.

[Thalraxal]

Mostly I'm just curious to see if anyone else has heard more about this.  This is the first I've heard about it, and Blizzard launching a new franchise is news-worthy.  I figured they'd go for World/Galaxy of StarCraft before launching a new franchise for an MMORPG.

[Hercanic]

Except I don't see how Blizzard expects this to work without tearing into the WoW playerbase.

They would have to target a different market to avoid competing with their own product. As such, we can rule out a Fantasy MMO, unless the gameplay and/or theme is significantly different. An example being Warcraft and Diablo both being fantasy, but whose themes are different (high fantasy and dark fantasy).

Starcraft is Sci-Fi, Warcraft is High Fantasy, and Diablo is Supernatural/Dark Fantasy. I am deeply curious to know just the genre of their new IP. Will it be past, present, future? Historical, fictional, or alternate? Humorous or serious? What perspective? First person, third person, side-scroller, top-down? Ah well, patience is a virtue.

[IskatuMesk]

Well I heard something about Lost Vikings but given that there is opposing information saying it's a new franchise entirely kind of defeats that. So who knows.

I bet it's final fantasy 42.

[Lavarinth]

We knew it was an MMO, but that's all. Nothing else, they didn't confirm new universe, either, and this can also mean yet another WoW Expansion.

[UntamedLoli]

Its a seperate MMO altogether because they wouldn't have had jobs up with the description as "Next-gen MMO" if it was just another WoW expansion, they have also stated they don't know if they can make anything that can compete with WoW that will pull in the player base it has.

[PineCone_Vodka]

I could see this as a way of getting into console market... as I personally beleive another MMO for the computer would hurt WOW. Downside to this is that they would have to update the game and overhaul with every "new" console realease... which is.. what, every 8 years? Don't ask me how they would set this up, but somehow, I could see it being possible.