While we’re being all mainstreamy this morning, it’s worth nodding over at BlizzPlanet’s canny sniffing around the Blizzard haunches. We already know they’ve a mystery MMO in the works as well as Starcraft II and Diablo III, but if this direct quote is gen-ooo-ayne, it seems the king o’polish has a fifth game up their sleeve…
1. This brand-new game is not a World of Warcraft expansion, and it is not related to the Next-Gen MMO.
2. In the present, the brand-new game is using the World of Warcraft engine merely for testing purposes.
3. The Client Software Engineer job opening is to hire the person that will have the responsibility to develop an engine from scratch for this game. This new engine will be built depending on the skill and interest of the person hired for this position.
Whether this game is based on the three major franchises (Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo) or a new IP, that remains unknown.
Warcraft IV? World of Starcraft? World of Warcraft For Kids? Speculation Rangers, GO!
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“The greatest problem with the idea of Warcraft IV is that it would effectively freeze the advancement of the “plot” in World of Warcraft. The next Warcraft RTS, I deem, will herald the end of expansions in WoW”
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
I suppose whether it’s a bad thing depends on whether you like WoW and/or whether you want Warcraft 4, doesn’t it?
I’d love it to expand the direction of warcraft into something I can play. A- an rts or even better, an rpg. I’d love to play a single player blizzard rpg. I’ve always enjoyed blizzard’s plots (even if the structure of starcraft and w3 are hilariously similar), and was ever hopeful that they’d make an rpg which would be fun, rather than an MMO…..
I do agree that creating a new warcraft title would be problematic for blizzard- wow is such a huge cash cow for them they’d be mad to mess that up, especially with the competition pretty much spectacularly failing to compete…
BooleanBob wins the M.P Quadricentenial Most Extended Metaphor Award. The last winner was Edmund Spencer for The Faerie Queen.
Still, I don’t see this being a new IP, because Games Workshop haven’t released a new game setting for years now :p [ducks flame throwers]
Unless they plan to
steal(shit) find inspiration in the long-canned Dark Future setting?Awww… where did edit go?
/sadface
Blackthorne 2 would be amazing. Just think, it will have a Killswitch style cover system, which is appropriate too considering the original had a cover system. Also, it was set in the Warcraft universe so you would be fighting orks.
Come to think of it, Gears of War…
Your must login again on the forum. Maybe is posible to set the forum cookie to live forever, and that would fix that edit problems…
I don’t think I ever bothered registering to the forums, and in any case it’s too late now so my mistagging will live for the ages! :p
Jazmeister won the thread way back up there with “Warkart”
Related info was also published in the SDL mailing list http://lists.libsdl.org/pipermail/sdl-libsdl.org/2009-March/069087.html
I’m going to agree with BooleanBob on this one, they are in a tremendous position right now in terms of making a ridiculous amount of cash monthly, they just released an expansion for WoW, and Diablo3 and StarCraft2 will be out within 12 – 18 months. That means every major IP they have (I’m including all things WarCraft), has been hit within a 2 year period, AND they have a new MMO on the way. So, what is a game company with Blizzard’s talent, unlimited resources, and zero risk going to do? I think they’ll brave brand new territory and try either a new genre or a new IP. If they’re “testing” using the WoW engine, maybe they’re going to create a single player RPG with the size and scope of WoW, that would be pretty remarkable and something I would love. An RPG as big as WoW where you can actually impact the world you’re in, instead of simply waiting for the next respawn, sign me up! There are major problems with that idea, but we’re speculating right now and this is my dream game :)
Most likely, Warcraft 4. Less likely, new IP. Least likely, a new Lost Vikings.
I thought the phasing technology in Wrath of the Lich King was quite interesting. Makes you wonder what they could do if they went all out with it in a brand new game rather than have it bolted onto good old WoW.
So that’s where Blizzard diverted it’s talented people to. Couldn’t possibly have been the latest expansion. I’m all for Dungeon Keeper III. Amazing, really, that nobody has stolen that format and called it Dungeon Creeper or something.
StarCraft vs. Starcraft.
The former is the proper spelling. But CamelCase is silly when you’re not talking in programming-speak so the proper spelling is, therefore, silly. (And yes, I also think Apple’s iBlank product names are silly, too.)
OK. So there’s the new-MMO, Starcraft, Diablo 3, mystery-title-X AND the next WoW expansion?
That’s a LOT of AAA titles to be developing concurrently.
I smell this year’s April Fools joke…
Didn’t they get the license to Redneck Rampage?
World of Redneck Rampage?