While Blizzard's World of Warcraft is still a big part of the company's plans, they are working hard to get their next big MMO, Titan, off the ground. The game is still rather mysterious, but in a financial call, Mike Morhaime, the head of Blizzard, shed some new light on the game. Eurogamer is reporting that Morhaime told investors that the game is moving forward in a new direction, and that the MMO will most likely drop the subscription model that World of Warcraft uses:
"We're in the process of selecting a new direction for the project and re-envisioning what we want the game to be...And while we can't talk about the details yet, it is unlikely to be a subscription-based MMORPG. I also want to reiterate that there has not been an official announced or projected release date. What I can say is that the commitment to quality has always been at the core of Blizzard values. And we've gone through this type of iterative development process several times in the past on the way to creating genre-defining games. As we continue our assessment, we have shifted some of the resources from the team to our other franchises, including World of Warcraft and Blizzard All-Stars, which we believe will add immense value to those projects."
It seems as though subscription-based MMO's are rapidly fading away as free-to-play games continue to gain popularity among MMO players. World of Warcraft is one of the last big MMO's requiring monthly subscriptions, which may be why the game has been losing subscribers at a fairly rapid pace. Blizzard is hoping that more frequent content updates, as well as potentially adding an in-game store to World of Warcraft, will help bring back customers.
Any World of Warcraft players concerned about Titan replacing the long-running MMO still have several years to play the game, as Titan is still far from being released. Blizzard is shooting for a 2016 launch for the game, so we are far away from getting even a little glimpse into Blizzard's new MMO.
Blizzard is very busy at the moment, as they prepare a special announcement for Gamescom in Cologne, Germany. Many gamers are hoping for news on Diablo 3, the smash hit on PC that will be coming to consoles sometime in the near future. Perhaps Blizzard will have news on an expansion for the game, or they might have a big surprise in store for gamers.