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Business Analysts say Titan cancelation cost Blizzard 50 million or more
ElRenmazuo
Member RarePosts: 5,361
"Development costs for Titan may have amounted to tens of millions, perhaps $50 million or more. This is not an unusual event, however. Blizzard has cancelled several games in various stages of development in the past. Costs for unreleased games can be significant, but launching substandard games can harm the reputation of a successful publisher such as Blizzard. Expenses for development can be considered R&D, and benefits can include invaluable training, IP and technology that can be applied to other games," explained independent analyst Billy Pidgeon.
Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter estimated an even higher amount lost: "My guess is 100 - 200 people at $100,000 per year, so $70 - 140 million sunk cost. It's pretty sad that it took so long to figure out how bad the game was. I expect them to go back to the drawing board."
"They realized that unless a big MMO is out-of-this-world unbelievable it won't work in today's market where it competes against a bunch of low cost options. If they felt that it just wasn't getting to that point it makes sense to cut your losses," he noted. "Also, you see games like League of Legends and their own Hearthstone which are doing very well on a much lower budget."
Comments
Bah...
They didn't lose anything.
They just write it off on Research and Development
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
honestly, we dont even know if this is a clever move set up by blizzard to spring something on us, if WoD fails.
Hey everybody we shut down Titan! OH NOES
(WoD Fails)
Hey everybody we working on a brand new MMO called NOT-TiTAN
(Show people what you been working on with Titan)
See how cool this is you all?! And GUESS WHAT!!! ITS COMING OUT NEXT YEAR!! We Build QUALITY MMOS FAST unlike other developers....
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
They must really be flooded with cash to just casually divert their attention without trying to make it work. it seems they don't want their next project to be in their own shadow.
In that case they should do other things such as develop gaming engines and selling them.
Buying other companies. Single player games, coops maybe other mmos etc
they obviously don't want to take any risks so what else can they do? Maybe start a bank with its own currency? Better than can canceling a huge project
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
Why is this Titan thing such big news here?
It's hard to make me care about a game that there's 0 actual information on.
I'm glad they didn't start hyping the game, then maybe it would suck to hear it won't be worked on, but they didn't, so I really don't care about it lol.
Because it may signify a new trend that big companies are no longer interested in MMOs (the classical types) and are now more interested in investing in other types of online games.
D3 made tons of money.
Hearthstone is becoming a big success.
Even WoW still have millions of subs meaning a lot of money.
So yeah ... they can abandon projects that costs $50M with no problem.
Idk.. I guess, did they say they're stopping because it's an MMO?
I can totally see how traditional MMOs are dying though, you don't need a game cancellation to see that.
Every single hyped MMO that released recently has failed, majorly, some failed so bad that they even had to go F2P.
With these card games and MOBAs being ridiculously played for whatever reason, I find it pretty hard to even want to invest in a regular MMO, it has to either have "Indie Sandbox" written all over it, or it needs to be a MOBA/card game imo.
50 million?
How many raid tiers is it?
If he did any kind of research Blizzard stated that they had a real small team working on Titan. My guess (probably better than his) is at most they had 25 people working on it with as few as 10.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
A write off or whatever you call it doesn't erase the millions of dollars of wasted money.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I dont think most of the money went to waste, I think the resources from Titan just got diverted to their new Project that they code named Overwatch
That also could be the reboot of Titan they were talking about.
What makes you think they didn't try to make it work or that cancelling it was a casual decision?
Cancelling a project happens a lot in this industry, and there are many reasons for it. More than likely the game wasn't going where they wanted it to go or they didn't see a profitable future in it, so they cut it now rather than sink tons more cash into it and still deliver below expectations.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
If your curious here is what Titan was supposed to be before it got scrapped http://kotaku.com/heres-what-blizzards-titan-actually-was-1638632121
With the amount of Hype surrounding Titan and the expectations the players and Blizzard put on the title, it was quite literally, impossible for the game to succeed. With hearthstones success and them still being able to ride the WoW, Diablo and Starcraft train, if they keep their development small, well, smaller than Bungie's or Biowares, they can still deliver a very competitive product, especially since all their games seem like they are wrapped in bubble wrap and dumbed down these days.
Appeal to the masses and not the hardcore, just make the simple 'hardcore' enough, and addicting, for people to feel competitive and they have a winner.
Plus, focused games are a lot cheaper and easier to make than a MMO. Even a big game like D3 .. only have a pve small group co-op mode, and they don't have to balance for pvp (which they tried and failed).
What are you saying? Any write off is a loss. Or are you trying yo come up with some new way of accounting for profit
Blizzard games were NEVER overly complex. Now don't get me wrong, they seem simple on the surface but are usually way more competitive and balanced than the other "complex" crap. It may sound cheesy but their game are incredibly easy to pick up but difficult to master. And since when is Starcraft dumb down. I am pretty sure it shits all over any strategy game you can think of in terms of skill required.
Your last sentence is what describes Blizzard games. Simple but very competitive and take ages to master.
I am glad BLizzard decided not to jump on the MMO train. They still have WoW. They don't need another MMO.
They have Starcraft 2 which is awesome, Diablo 3 which is really good, WoW which makes other MMO cry cause it's still the top dog by a looooong shot, Hearthstone has been very successful and I am sure Heroes of the Storm would be very popular too.
They should just release Wacrraft 4. That game will dominate the industry and will probably get instant 20 mllion preorders
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
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First thing i thought of.
An even smarter way would be to change the name and let another of Activisions companies release it.
No bad name for Blizzard but Activision Blizzard would still get some use of all the money they sunk into the project. That wouldn't really have worked on Starcraft: Ghost because it still would affect the Starcraft IP but Titan is a new thing anyways.