Why can't Blizzard just release a next gen World of Warcraft?

[JeffMD]

There is no financial incentive yet. Plenty of people paying into the current generation wow still.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

You know... WoW was originally designed with a player base in the 400-800k range. Their primary competition was EQ, which was waning slightly due to craptacular expansions released (Planes of Power to a lesser extent, and GoD to a greater extent), which had a sub base of around 400k at it's peak in Velious and around 250-300k during the time when WoW open beta hit full swing.

The fact that they're still sitting at anything in the millions is probably a good indication that they aren't doing terribly, at least from a business standpoint. Now, from a gaming standpoint I completely agree, however I feel that they dropped the ball by not implementing features from *beta*, but that's neither here nor there.

Blizz won't likely make a WoW 2 until something comes along that makes them want to wipe the slate clean. Iterative expansions and engine changes can take them for a long time, easily another decade if they choose. Hell, if anything they'd create a 'WoW 2 VR' or something that is just a complete redesign of the concept of an MMO (naturally, after someone else does it first). The engine changes have done good things, expanding the quality of the game textures and resolutions, and still taxing current gen equipment fairly well if you max everything out. Everything else they do is game design which changes from patch to patch. I don't have phenomenally high hopes for Legion, but they didn't destroy the game in one expansion, so they probably won't fix it in one.

And for the record they are creating 'new stuff', Overwatch being an entirely new IP, and the content in each of their old IPs (while debatable on quality) are indeed 'new', by varying definitions of new. Some iterative, some evolutionary, but it's not like they're just refreshing textures on molten core (not that I'd argue against it).

 

[Fingolfin269]

I hate to say it but I resubbed yesterday just to get my twice a year need to play for a few days before realizing why I don't play anymore fix in. I can safely say that the reasons I don't play are not related to the graphics.

 

[gus6464]

I have always felt WoW peaked at Burning Crusade. I played the living crap out of that expansion and IMO Shattrath was the best dual faction hub. Starting with WotLK Blizzard got lazy and after that it was just wtf. It looks like with Legion they might be trying to bring that BC magic back but I doubt it.

Also do you remember back in the days when a regular instance required you to engage a group of mobs with strategy and cc? And then heroics were actually hard with raids kicking it up a notch even more. There was no such thing as pugging raids in BC.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

They tried that with Warlords, and dropped the BC ball there as well (Shattrath as a stupid daily hub? Absolutely nothing relating to Netherstorm whatsoever? Really?). I've had a lot of talks with the GF/brother in law and the conclusion we've come to is that we are not Wow's playerbase anymore. As such we are not who Blizzard is designing this game for. I personally feel that they had a superior game in the Vanilla-WoLK era, but that is just my opinion. 80% of current WoW players may disagree, who knows. I don't know if there are other MMOs out there that really are 'wow killers' on the horizon or otherwise, but until something can shake up the genre as much as WoW did, it's probably going to be more of the same.

Expect Garrison facebook games in our class halls, more instancing, more isolation, more queuing, more gutted tradeskills, more solo content, and a reanimated construct of nostalgia lumbering pathetically for two years until we find out what the next thing they try to resurrect is (I'm betting a wrath comeback. Ghost of Arthas 5man! Those weird viking things as a new playable race! MAYBE A BLUE DRAGON TO FIGHT?! REMEMBER WHEN YOU DID THAT?!)

 

[clok1966]

Whilst they can still milk the cash cow there's no real need for innovation on their part.

I'm sure that when subscribers hit a certain point then they'll consider making something new but until then it's milk, milk milk.

People just don't get it, 20 WOW killers have came out and all failed, in the respect that they cant get 1/10th the subscribers. There is little doubt WoW has aged graphics, but the day it came out they where aged, that wasn't the point, and still isn't, they upgrade it a bit here and there, but they want WOW to run on almost anything and it will, it wont be long till there is a Phone that will run it (I am exaggerating, not enough storage). WoW was the Perfect Storm, A few MMORPG had paved the way, none where casual friendly, some where downright anal in time required to play (most Asian ones still are). Blizzard made the MMORPG game accessible to your MOM (not a mom joke). So what up to that point was a million subscriber (best of times) genre went to a 10 million subscriber base. While everybody wants to say "WoW is dead" its not even close. Its down to 6.8 million (last i heard, this could be off now) but when new expansion comes out it will pick 2-3 million up for 5-6 months. You know, all those "WOW is dead" people who will resub, give Blizzard $90 for a few months subs, and the $50 for the expansion.. take that by 4-6 million. WoW inst dead, not even close. that is why a NEW WOW is not in the pipe, all the people who have tired failed to even make a dent, Blizzard knows this, there will never be another WOW, another 10 million + MMORPG with the current formulas, there might be one, but nobody has come close to an idea on what it is. F2P has eliminated the giant killer game, WOW would be dead becuase of F2P but it keeps adding time sinks that keep the people who cant let go going (i am one, unsub, it gets a new expansion i sub for a few months till i did all the time sinks, and unsub)as nothing else even has 1/20th the content.

back in the GLORY days when a new MMORPG was coming out every day it was stated a sub base of about 60-70,000 was a break even point (this was the smaller ones) i would guess WOW is higher (2-3X) to keep it updated and content patches.. at its current rate of decline it will be 10 more years till its close to that break even point.

I very much doubt there will ever be another MMORPG like WOW, from blizzard or anybody else. That time is gone, but we can hope something better comes along.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I know little about this game but just took a look at some screenshots. Holy crap, that looks bad even for the year it was released in.

But then again, Minecraft looks like something from 1995 and look how popular that is.

 

[Blue_Max]

A "WoW2" would die like a fish out of water after cannibalizing sales and likely kill both. You just can't split the existing market when they're having a hard enough time keeping their existing clients as it is!

There should just be a completely optional graphics upgrade patch/upgrade so people with fancy computers can still play with all the millions of others still on IGP's and potato PC's.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

A "WoW2" would die like a fish out of water after cannibalizing sales and likely kill both. You just can't split the existing market when they're having a hard enough time keeping their existing clients as it is!

There should just be a completely optional graphics upgrade patch/upgrade so people with fancy computers can still play with all the millions of others still on IGP's and potato PC's.

I've often thought that the only way to keep MMORPGs graphically up to date and up to date with other new features that are available, would be for MMO makers to strategically plan the game's end of life. For example, target 5 years or 10 years or whatever, but plan the end so that by the time that point is reached, everyone's had a couple of years since the last major content upgrade and there are no surprises.

But no game like WoW will ever do that while it's profitable, and thus, so it continues with 2004 technology.

 

[Sheep221]

I have always felt WoW peaked at Burning Crusade. I played the living crap out of that expansion and IMO Shattrath was the best dual faction hub. Starting with WotLK Blizzard got lazy and after that it was just wtf. It looks like with Legion they might be trying to bring that BC magic back but I doubt it.

Also do you remember back in the days when a regular instance required you to engage a group of mobs with strategy and cc? And then heroics were actually hard with raids kicking it up a notch even more. There was no such thing as pugging raids in BC.

I pugged dozens of times in BC. It very much depended on the server.

They tried that with Warlords, and dropped the BC ball there as well (Shattrath as a stupid daily hub? Absolutely nothing relating to Netherstorm whatsoever? Really?). I've had a lot of talks with the GF/brother in law and the conclusion we've come to is that we are not Wow's playerbase anymore. As such we are not who Blizzard is designing this game for. I personally feel that they had a superior game in the Vanilla-WoLK era, but that is just my opinion. 80% of current WoW players may disagree, who knows. I don't know if there are other MMOs out there that really are 'wow killers' on the horizon or otherwise, but until something can shake up the genre as much as WoW did, it's probably going to be more of the same.

Expect Garrison facebook games in our class halls, more instancing, more isolation, more queuing, more gutted tradeskills, more solo content, and a reanimated construct of nostalgia lumbering pathetically for two years until we find out what the next thing they try to resurrect is (I'm betting a wrath comeback. Ghost of Arthas 5man! Those weird viking things as a new playable race! MAYBE A BLUE DRAGON TO FIGHT?! REMEMBER WHEN YOU DID THAT?!)

I don't know what more you expect from MMORPGS? There is not much to do there beside killing time.

 

[rh71]

^ the technology upgrade thing is a big reason for Blizz IMO. I had been playing PVZ GW1 which my Q6600 had no problems with. GW2 came out and I'm immediately under system reqs (though it still runs). It would cost me over $600 to build/upgrade a machine around a modern CPU, just to play a $50 game. I don't otherwise need the extra power on a desktop at all.

You know the irony is with how long people have been paying for WoW in monthly sub fees, they could've built a new machine with it. But obviously there hasn't been a need.

I'm really glad I was able to escape the addiction. A few times I've thought about going back, but GW has my nights occupied enough. No more midnight and beyond bed times out of obligation, which is the best part. If they announced a WoW2, I would instantly think - I'm glad I'm out, because if you're still playing, you would immediately want to flock to it.

 

[redrider4life4]

How can people say that D3 wasn't a success, it sold over 30 million copies as of last year, any game would die to sell that many copies. The release may have been botched, but it didn't matter, the game is one of the top selling games of all time.

 

[digiram]

They need to make world of starcraft with 3 factions to kick it up a notch. 2 faction mmos are so 1999.

Agreed..

I never got into WOW actually, but I would definitely give World of SC a go.

 

[TidusZ]

How can people say that D3 wasn't a success, it sold over 30 million copies as of last year, any game would die to sell that many copies. The release may have been botched, but it didn't matter, the game is one of the top selling games of all time.

They were probably referring to the game being a turd which is true, but it was successful financially at the cost of losing some fans.

 

[Ordy]

They're just a larger corporation now. Hence the far less imaginative products/investments.

There are very few corporations that are also imaginative.

This is the best explanation of todays gaming world on all platforms. Perfectly stated. It's sad but true. From someone who started with Atari I've seen the gaming world change in so many ways. Regardless of what the corporate suits at these companies are shoveling in PR, things are not good in the gaming world (on all platforms).

 

[Majes]

How can people say that D3 wasn't a success, it sold over 30 million copies as of last year, any game would die to sell that many copies. The release may have been botched, but it didn't matter, the game is one of the top selling games of all time.

There are a number of reasons it's considered a huge failure. While it was a record setter for sales, it was also a huge disappointment in almost every area... Here are a few reasons why it's considered a failure.

1. It lost ARPG market share. There are now ARPG's that are played just as much as D3, in fact Path of Exile often surpasses D3 on Twitch.
2. They lost their fan base for the game. The players playing now for the most part are not the players that loved Diablo 2. The story was TERRIBLE. The itemization was terrible. Character development was terrible. When they fixed these things with the expansion they took out the economy...
3. The game they delivered at release was a lesser version of a game they demo'd YEARS before...
4. There are still features promised on the box that are not in the game... (RMAH, Competive PvP)
5. It was a worse game on release than Diablo 2 LoD. http://dbzer0.com/blog/how-diablo-3-is-worse-than-diablo-2/ (and it's so different now it's nearly a different genre)

So yes, it set records, and the expansion even did okay. But it should have been so much more! Instead of being an all-time good game it's now merely okay, and on release it was terrible...

 

[Anubis]

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/world-of-warcraft-unreal-engine-4

 

[Blue_Max]

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/world-of-warcraft-unreal-engine-4

"But when you see a WoW screenshot you instantly know that it's WoW."

Good article... and good point. It's what made this so instantly funny the second you saw it on South Park:

 

[Crusty]

I have always felt WoW peaked at Burning Crusade. I played the living crap out of that expansion and IMO Shattrath was the best dual faction hub. Starting with WotLK Blizzard got lazy and after that it was just wtf. It looks like with Legion they might be trying to bring that BC magic back but I doubt it.

Also do you remember back in the days when a regular instance required you to engage a group of mobs with strategy and cc? And then heroics were actually hard with raids kicking it up a notch even more. There was no such thing as pugging raids in BC.

We pugged a few raids in BC () Did Karazhan weekly with a PUG and the occasional Mag and Gruul kills. Also did ZA a few times with a half/half guild/PUG.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Pugs weren't terribly uncommon later in BC, for like you said, things like Kara/ZA, Mag/Gruuls. Didn't normally see any outside of that unless a raid was picking up a few scrubs for a Warglaive run or something. Most of the larger raids required more co-ordination from players which didn't get to see them very often than raid leaders would allow, usually. Now you kind of get coasted in from LFR -> normal -> heroic though. Plus you see a lot of the mechanics in zones/dungeons/raids prior, instead of being surprised by new mechanics in the raid.

 

[Subyman]

MMOs are dead as a genre going on all the failed launches we've seen. WoW has been losing about 1.5 million subs for every expansion they've released since WOTLK.

I think the genre is running out of a gas, unless some developer pulls off something revolutionary, once WoW dies out, that will be it for that typical quest/grind/raid format.

I think a lot of casual gamers that got hooked on wow have grown up. Wow didn't do a good job attracting new young gamers to fill the late-20's early 30's that made the game HUGE back when it came out. Middle schoolers and high schoolers are increasingly moving toward mobile games and don't give MMOs are second look.

 

[Subyman]

There are a number of reasons it's considered a huge failure. While it was a record setter for sales, it was also a huge disappointment in almost every area... Here are a few reasons why it's considered a failure.

1. It lost ARPG market share. There are now ARPG's that are played just as much as D3, in fact Path of Exile often surpasses D3 on Twitch.
2. They lost their fan base for the game. The players playing now for the most part are not the players that loved Diablo 2. The story was TERRIBLE. The itemization was terrible. Character development was terrible. When they fixed these things with the expansion they took out the economy...
3. The game they delivered at release was a lesser version of a game they demo'd YEARS before...
4. There are still features promised on the box that are not in the game... (RMAH, Competive PvP)
5. It was a worse game on release than Diablo 2 LoD. http://dbzer0.com/blog/how-diablo-3-is-worse-than-diablo-2/ (and it's so different now it's nearly a different genre)

So yes, it set records, and the expansion even did okay. But it should have been so much more! Instead of being an all-time good game it's now merely okay, and on release it was terrible...

I definitely got my money's worth out of D3, but I can see why people would want more. I think they should have had more procedural content. Not just randomizing pathing and secondary dungeon layout. After the third time through the story it gets really old. I like the adventure mode they added. It is refreshing to bounce around the game instead of hitting it linearly.

 

[Anubis]

There are a number of reasons it's considered a huge failure. While it was a record setter for sales, it was also a huge disappointment in almost every area... Here are a few reasons why it's considered a failure.

1. It lost ARPG market share. There are now ARPG's that are played just as much as D3, in fact Path of Exile often surpasses D3 on Twitch.
2. They lost their fan base for the game. The players playing now for the most part are not the players that loved Diablo 2. The story was TERRIBLE. The itemization was terrible. Character development was terrible. When they fixed these things with the expansion they took out the economy...
3. The game they delivered at release was a lesser version of a game they demo'd YEARS before...
4. There are still features promised on the box that are not in the game... (RMAH, Competive PvP)
5. It was a worse game on release than Diablo 2 LoD. http://dbzer0.com/blog/how-diablo-3-is-worse-than-diablo-2/ (and it's so different now it's nearly a different genre)

So yes, it set records, and the expansion even did okay. But it should have been so much more! Instead of being an all-time good game it's now merely okay, and on release it was terrible...

#4 was in the game for well over a year, and then it was removed, because it was a cancer

 

[Sonikku]

There are a number of reasons it's considered a huge failure. While it was a record setter for sales, it was also a huge disappointment in almost every area... Here are a few reasons why it's considered a failure.

1. It lost ARPG market share. There are now ARPG's that are played just as much as D3, in fact Path of Exile often surpasses D3 on Twitch.
2. They lost their fan base for the game. The players playing now for the most part are not the players that loved Diablo 2. The story was TERRIBLE. The itemization was terrible. Character development was terrible. When they fixed these things with the expansion they took out the economy...
3. The game they delivered at release was a lesser version of a game they demo'd YEARS before...
4. There are still features promised on the box that are not in the game... (RMAH, Competive PvP)
5. It was a worse game on release than Diablo 2 LoD. http://dbzer0.com/blog/how-diablo-3-is-worse-than-diablo-2/ (and it's so different now it's nearly a different genre)

So yes, it set records, and the expansion even did okay. But it should have been so much more! Instead of being an all-time good game it's now merely okay, and on release it was terrible...

Not to mention a lot of those copies were given away for free to people such as myself, for submitting to be Blizzard's bitch for a whole year. :'(