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nomadiannomadian Member Posts: 3,490
in The Pub at MMORPG.COM

http://f13.net/?itemid=167


Vivendi Universal Games gave a presentation to Wall Street today. Too much to report on everything said, but the big one was:

"All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs."

All. They claim they have a model now to develop an MMOG in 3 years for $50 million. WoW cost 50 million euros and took 4 1/2 years.

They have bifurcated the MMOG market into two parts: long session games (more than two hours per session) and short session games (less than two hour sessions.) They will also be rolling out a bunch of short session games under the Sierra Online brand. An example is FreeStyle, a pick-up basketball online game scheduled for 2007 release. No details on pricing model for the short session games.

Shiznitz sent this in this morning and all I can say is good for them. Apparently splitting what will probably end up as 8-10 million customers (maybe more, asian gamers are unpredictable about things like STARCRAFT) across 3 games isn't a concern to them. They're lucky stock brokers know nothing about video games.

Comments

  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,414
    Several mmo companies had large conferences over the last 2 weeks in New York for some reason.  All of them announcing blockbuster mmo budgets. I think it has something to do with greater network lines in more countries and the announcements on the PS3 and Wii.
  • GameloadingGameloading Member UncommonPosts: 14,182
    well I geuss it cant be a surprise..World of Warcraft broke all mmorpg sale records..Blizzard name is now a HUGE name in the gaming industry, even more then before...they don't have a single product that gives them as much money as WoW does..they would be foolish to step away from the mmorpg genre after WoW.

  • EindrachenEindrachen Member Posts: 211

    I can't help but feel that the decision to surrender the RTS market that made Blizzard what it is today is just a really poor business decision.  There's every historical indication that MMOs will not maintain the popularity they currently enjoy, and for a company to invest tens of millions of dollars trying to continue dumping the same products on the market just doesn't seem wise.

    I don't know.  I'm thinking that this will, in hindsight, be the decision people point to and say, "Here's what killed Blizzard."

    But hell, what do I know?  We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose...

  • darktravestydarktravesty Member Posts: 199
    Great, looks like we'll be seeing more crap on the MMO market. But, who knows, maybe Bilzzard will surprise me with something good. I could definitly go for a Diablo online type of thing, or Starcraft.

  • Havoc01Havoc01 Member Posts: 113

    Originally posted by Vendayn
    starcraft will be the best mmorpg ever! Here is why

    After waiting in a 102,012,831 player queue you will finally be able to get in during that wait you do other stuff. Okay so you get in and do a bunch of cool quests for a few months and finally hit endgame. So instead of world pvp which I know EVERYONE hates. There will be starcraft battlegrounds! It will be amazing! Just a 200,000 queue to get in, but that is no big deal because you do other stuff in the meantime. So you get in and all of it is fast paced and fun. Hate PVP? What about the 1000 different types of raids you can do? What is cool about this is the same exact alien will be in each of the 1000 different types of instances but with a few changes maybe to color something...this will be sooooo cool.

    Man I can't wait! Starcraft!

    It would have to be a MMOFPS with RTS and RPG elements. The main focus should be PvP with some PVE (But all areas have PVP). No huge 3 hour PVE raids to end up getting one item for some guy who has raided more than you. An all out war between the three races, none of this weak WoW pvp crap. The battles should be unlimited and NPCs should be added to a side with less players to balance things or a stat/exp/loot increase like in Planetside.
  • JenuvielJenuviel Member Posts: 960

    Originally posted by Eindrachen

    I can't help but feel that the decision to surrender the RTS market that made Blizzard what it is today is just a really poor business decision.  There's every historical indication that MMOs will not maintain the popularity they currently enjoy, and for a company to invest tens of millions of dollars trying to continue dumping the same products on the market just doesn't seem wise.
    I don't know.  I'm thinking that this will, in hindsight, be the decision people point to and say, "Here's what killed Blizzard."
    But hell, what do I know?  We'll just have to wait and see, I suppose...
    This assumes, of course, that they'd be doing away with non-MMOG games, which isn't necessarily the case. They certainly have the money now to just add a new online development section to their business without cutting loose their offline properties. This might even work wonders for them, bringing them even more business by exposing online customers to offline games with tie-ins. It'd be easy enough to put ads, even coupon codes, for Starcraft in a launcher for "Starcraft Online," and ads for "Starcraft Online" in the Starcraft splash screen to boost sales for both. I see no reason they couldn't follow that strategy for all of their titles.
  • MW2KMW2K Member UncommonPosts: 1,036

    They should've made World of Diablo to begin with. That's one I actually will play.

  • r0guyr0guy Member Posts: 115

    Originally posted by nomadian

    http://f13.net/?itemid=167




    "All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs."
    All. They claim they have a model now to develop an MMOG in 3 years for $50 million. WoW cost 50 million euros and took 4 1/2 years.
    They have bifurcated the MMOG market into two parts: long session games (more than two hours per session) and short session games (less than two hour sessions.)

    TBH i don't particularily think this is good news. While i'm happy that Starcraft and Diablo style MMOs are likely to appear somewhere down the line.... I've played WoW for 10 months before i quit, i'm assuming that it goes under the "long session games" category?

    If so, As far as i understand this, Blizzard is never going to attempt a decent sandbox-type MMO like EVE or UO, a darn shame if you ask me, and < 2 hour game sessions sounds pretty shallow/watered down.

    And no more RTS? Tssk Tssk, what an awful idea... 

  • SkidbagSkidbag Member Posts: 13
    Wow isn't all that good really
  • baffbaff Member Posts: 9,457

    It isn't really all that bad either.

    It's not much of a surprise they are chasing the MMO $.

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