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WoW 2(?)
Man1ac
Member Posts: 1,428
I was just thinking the other day, how long will Blizzard wait until they decide to produce another MMO. I know one thing nowadays a lot of gamers are getting picky on graphics hence making WoW's graphics heavily out dated, but here's the thing.
- They got 12m subs (lets assume 4m are goldfarmers so 8m perhaps)
- The expansions so far have proved to be flawless, BC was apparently great and so was WoLK, and they got another exp. coming up
Also there have been fairly unsuccessful releases of MMOs this last couple of years, and even the successful ones have a fraction of the subs of WoW.
So I'm just thinking, WoW is seriously probably gonna stay as a very popular MMO for so much longer that the next MMO by Blizz will be in about 10 years, what do you guys think?
We're all Geniuses. Most of us just don't know it.
Comments
2013.
And here is a thought ...
The new Blizzard MMO will have a combo subscription with WOW, rendering WOW practically free to play by then, along with D3 and SC2 and whatever they have in the pipeline on BattleNet.
I don't see anyone publishing another P2P game after this.
EA is the last one taking a shot at the massive subscription MMO market (the famous 1M western market).
If SW:TOR will fail to achieve anything above 600 K long term subscriptions, we can say the P2P market on an individual game basis will be dead.
Blizzard was just lucky to be the first and fill in the void of polished game design in MMO's.
As a 29 year old who has seen a lot of this type of stuff unfold in various markets. (I watch art trades, don't judge me.)
I bet we hear concrete news by March of next year. The 2013 date's a good date for a release. I'm feeling they're comfortable with Nov. Winter's rolling in and a lot of paying customers are indoors more and the nights are longer.
Sounds good.
I'm interested in what they're doing.
I dont k now about a wow 2, but since Blizz keeps launching expansions every 2 years I dont think that by the end of 2012 the game can get another expansion without at least a total revamp of the engine.
It is funny how the rumors of Blizzard's next thing back in Jan on Massively in retrospect sounds a lot like APB...
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
I'm honestly hoping for Rock N Roll Racing Online. R3O is such a great acronym.
I think that the expectation that P2P will die off is greatly exaggerated. Especially be those companies pushing toward F2P and wanting to look like they are ahead of the curve. Some games are simply better suited toward a subscription model. Some games work well with a hybrid model like EQ2 before extended. I simply don't see all games going this direction from here on out. The majority doing this, however, is likely, just not everyone. The market will always have room for some variety in payment models.
I think we will continue to see a handful of games that are simply better suited to a subscription model simply stay that way with a few new ones doing similarly. Games such as EVE and ATITD would fall into this catagory. ATITD especially is an incredibly small community based on a very niche game and would seem to be ripe to become a F2P but even with only a few thousand players it still doesn't. Why? Play the game for a while and you tell me how you would work a cash shop into that game.
Another group I see sticking with this model would be the big, multigame mmo companies. I can very much see companies like EA, Blizz, Sony, NCSoft , and an outside chance for Turbine to continue to use subscriptions to some degree and very likely support multi game subscriptions. Some people simply prefer paying by way of a predictable subscription.
Of course most all of these subscription companies will likely also have some amount of "things" you can by for in game. The question will be, how much impact will they have?
But back on topic. Blizzard is working on something. All they have said so far about it is that it is based on different IP so who knows what it will be. I think WoW will continue to run for a very long time if they keep adding to it. Look at EQ and their 11 years. But I don't see WoW going past lvl 100 in content. I also doubt that we will see any more new races. I think the game has 3 more mini expansions. They will be a little bigger than normal content updates but smaller than the expacs we have seen. These smaller 5 lvl, 2 or 3 zone updates will happen on one year intervals and will probably be significantly cheaper, online only sales. A number of companies are now looking at selling parts of there games in smaller more affordable portions. Warhammer will be trying this soon with its coming RvR expansion being sold in 3 parts. You pay for the parts of the game that you are interested in. We also see this in some free to play models where, instead of an items shop being the main focus, they rather sell access to higher zones and further content. I am not so sure you can actually describe this as free to play since you can't play the whole game for free but It is and interesting development.
The mmo industry is shifting. Just don't be so sure that it will land squarely on free to play. There are developments coming that we don't even see yet.
I could see Blizz using a multi game subscription model like Sony's Station Pass. I perfer that sort of thing. That's why I can see 3 or 4 companies basically taking over the subscription mmo market with a few oddball little ones struggling along. I see EVE possibly being bought by one of these bigger entities.
All die, so die well.
Actually the way they handled cataclysm pretty much says they are not looking at a WOW 2 anytime soon.
I mean they are revamping the whole old world and have changed the talent trees to essentially make thru the new cap, like the game just released.
It is essentially WoW 2 without releasing a new game.
Blizzard has already been making their next MMO for some years. It is not WoW 2, it will be new IP. They are creating new game engine for it.
Not much else is known.
There are a lot of rumors floating around. I have a feeling that it is going to be first person view.
If Blizzard is clever, they could potentially charge $20/month for online access to all their games. Sounds crazy, but if they advertise it as access to WoW, SC2, D3, and the new MMO, it sounds like a steal of a deal. And honestly... I'd do it.
Isn't blizzcon this weekend? Maybe a trailer or news or something at it?
It would have a lot of consequences too. Pay $15 / $20 and play the new MMO's and get access to WOW free.
The individual subscription issue would be replaced by a revenue statement. Making the threads of fans and haters useless.
And playing SC2, D3, Wow along with one paid subscription for the new MMO would make it impossible to launch a single P2P game against that market.
I think Activision will ask the permission to add the new COD_on line (upcoming) to the service.
I don't know if Morhaime would agree, but in this way they would certainly make their future P2P games still possible.
It is either this or going to a so called "free to play" (I would call it free to buy and win) mechanic, which I find disgusting.
I certainly hope that CCP does not sell out to EA or Activision. I dont think I could stand them getting their casual dumbing down philosophy of gaming tendrils into another small developer. I hope P2P stays somewhat profitable for small Indie devs who manage to make something worthwhile and turn a profit, however small, as long as its enough to keep the suits at bay.
correct.....this weekend is Blizzcon.....hopefully SC2 next campain and a release date for D3