Yeah I reckon they are going to announce WoW2 or Titan or whatever its called, to try and quickly position themselves as a rival to EQN. They did this with EQ2 as well.
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
I'm stunned by how many people think this has anything to do with EQN.
Even by MMORPG.com standards that's taking the EQN hype to stupidly insane levels. Frankly I doubt you could find how little Blizz, or much of anyone else outside these forums, cares about EQN at this point with a scanning electron microscope.
Originally posted by Precusor sorry guys.. WoW ain't going F2P anytime soon.
You say that expecting us to ignore the fact that there is in fact a Cash Shop being implemented. Trion also said Rift wouldn't be going F2P only a year ago. That was right after they implemented a Cash Shop that was only supposed to have the same services offered from the web site.
Sorry, But I'm of the "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck swims like a duck......don't tell me it's a chicken" school of thought.
Originally posted by Purutzil Honestly just by that text, it sounds far more Diablo 3 related. My assumption is a D3 expansion in an attempt to gain back players. Something not to many probably will pay attention to unless there is sweeping changes, and even less for US players unless something is done to remedy the fact the economy is broken after they refused to roll back from their glitch leaving things over inflated like no tomorrow due to that excess gold.
Except that D3...a year later...has 1 million unique logins per day, and 3 million unique per month...im sure many people will pay attention to it.
There's a ton of players who do not play actively D3 but who will buy the xpac. You dont have to play a game every day after its launch until the next xpac in order to want to buy it.
Since they rerolled Titan development, maybe they did not believe an original title with a bit outdated game mechanics to do so good (Titan), and now it's time to present us Diablo MMO since they wont run F2P WoW alongside WoW 2 in the future, but they could run F2P WoW along Diablo MMO since they are not set in the same universe. Titan was too big a gamble with it's weird real life mythos connections (the rumours at least).
Gonna have to agree with others here and say it's going to announce a F2P model or some modification or deviation from the sub model.
There is no denying that WoW is in decline, while it is still strong supposively (debatable with the accounts in Asia that are not paying subs) any fool can see that there is a great shift to F2P with newer and fresher MMOs that even as P2P would be some serious competitors against WoW. WoW is a dated game and people are growing very tired of the game. Even my brother who never tries other MMOs and is insanely loyal to WoW (the only MMO he has tried out since vanilla WoW was SWTOR and that was only because a good buddy of his is a SW fan) is giving Wildstar a serious twirl.
WoW's fate has reached that of EQ as being a dated MMO whose prime is long past.
This is exciting news. I'm really looking forward to "Loot 2.0" and tye "endless dungeons" Theyve been squeaking about lately. I believe they have a chance to turn D3 around. But it's going to be hard work. But with Jay Wilson gone, anything could happen!
Monster Hunter since '04! Currently playing: MHW & MHGU
This article is under D3 news. MMORPG.com knows something already that we don't....?
I hope it's a D3 expansion though. I enjoyed D3 for what is was and if they can put in some proper random generated content I'll be all over it. I don't care about the economy of the game and the PTW argument. I play with only my family members.. game politics matters very little.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
-game is going f2p with a sub option and a cash shop
- they will also announce a new expansion available as DLC, part of this expansion there will not be only new areas but also dynamic events all trough the world, to make it even more attractive, there will be a forced downleveling procedure when you are to high level
- there will be 2 new races, and several new hero classes. But they are not free with the expansion.
- they will announce that the game will get harder, more challenging and that players wil get more choice... This might be seen in normal leveling zones and dungeons. The classes wil get another overhaul and they might even add an AA system. To top thing off, players can have more then 2 specs ( if they pay real money) and even change between them in PvE combat.
- there will be a major overhaul to PvP with the new expansion.
- player housing ( instanced) will be added.
As i said before, blizzard realises that currently the big money is not with noobs anymore, but with experienced mmo players. On top of that, going f2p will bring more noobs then ever before and they will eat the harder content like cookies.
wit Titan being further away then ever before, And the current financial situation, Blizzard needs more income and they need it fast.
lololol what are you smoking and can I please have some? WoW going F2P is about the only thing you said that appears to hold any weight.
Why do you think Vivendi has been trying to get rid of Blizzard/Activision for 2 years and no one has wanted to touch the company? Who do you think made all of those terrible decisions at Blizzard? While they have had massive layoffs that have largely gone under the radar no one that matters on their staff has changed hands. Let's look at their recent history which is full of failures when it came to meeting the company's expectations:
WoW - declining subs
D3 - failed to retain players
SC2 - god they have got to be embarrassed that Brood War still pulls in higher numbers than it's sequel.
Unreleased:
Titan - scrapped and back to the drawing board
Hearthstone - cash grab
Blizzard All-Stars - not even on the radar sounds like a battle.net game for casuals.
SC2: Protoss expansion - Who knows?
Conclusion - they haven't made a game that met expecations (investor/company not player) in almost 10 years.
Point being all of this has nothing to do with Blizzard realizing everything you've (and every other "old school/hardcore/whatever" mmo player) posted on the forums in the past is true and they need to change. It was all about netting them some immediate cash on the announcement of their separation from their parent company because they're floundering. Very similar things happened with Trion and their exploration of venture capital. For example, Rift F2P was on the wall years before it happened based on watching the financial decisions of the company.
OT: Announcement will clearly be D3 related - X-Pac/PvP, etc. I wouldn't get too excited. WoW F2P is possible but I don't think they have the entire framework in place to shift over yet as much of it only just hit the test server. Also the stupid possiblity that they will maintain sub model and just add a full blown CS on top which would not surprise me given their recent track record.
-game is going f2p with a sub option and a cash shop
- they will also announce a new expansion available as DLC, part of this expansion there will not be only new areas but also dynamic events all trough the world, to make it even more attractive, there will be a forced downleveling procedure when you are to high level
- there will be 2 new races, and several new hero classes. But they are not free with the expansion.
- they will announce that the game will get harder, more challenging and that players wil get more choice... This might be seen in normal leveling zones and dungeons. The classes wil get another overhaul and they might even add an AA system. To top thing off, players can have more then 2 specs ( if they pay real money) and even change between them in PvE combat.
- there will be a major overhaul to PvP with the new expansion.
- player housing ( instanced) will be added.
As i said before, blizzard realises that currently the big money is not with noobs anymore, but with experienced mmo players. On top of that, going f2p will bring more noobs then ever before and they will eat the harder content like cookies.
wit Titan being further away then ever before, And the current financial situation, Blizzard needs more income and they need it fast.
lololol what are you smoking and can I please have some? WoW going F2P is about the only thing you said that appears to hold any weight.
Why do you think Vivendi has been trying to get rid of Blizzard/Activision for 2 years and no one has wanted to touch the company? Who do you think made all of those terrible decisions at Blizzard? While they have had massive layoffs that have largely gone under the radar no one that matters on their staff has changed hands. Let's look at their recent history which is full of failures when it came to meeting the company's expectations:
WoW - declining subs
D3 - failed to retain players
SC2 - god they have got to be embarrassed that Brood War still pulls in higher numbers than it's sequel.
Unreleased:
Titan - scrapped and back to the drawing board
Hearthstone - cash grab
Blizzard All-Stars - not even on the radar sounds like a battle.net game for casuals.
SC2: Protoss expansion - Who knows?
Conclusion - they haven't made a game that met expecations (investor/company not player) in almost 10 years.
Point being all of this has nothing to do with Blizzard realizing everything you've (and every other "old school/hardcore/whatever" mmo player) posted on the forums in the past is true and they need to change. It was all about netting them some immediate cash on the announcement of their separation from their parent company because they're floundering. Very similar things happened with Trion and their exploration of venture capital. For example, Rift F2P was on the wall years before it happened based on watching the financial decisions of the company.
OT: Announcement will clearly be D3 related - X-Pac/PvP, etc. I wouldn't get too excited. WoW F2P is possible but I don't think they have the entire framework in place to shift over yet as much of it only just hit the test server. Also the stupid possiblity that they will maintain sub model and just add a full blown CS on top which would not surprise me given their recent track record.
If getting 1 million unique logins per day, and 3 million per month, over a year after its release = "failed to retain players"....i'd hate hear your view of GW2 and SWTOR.
And in what world does a game selling 12 million copies = "not meeting investor expectations".
The only PC game to beat D3 in sales in any quarter since its release, was the SC2 expansion.
I hope to god I read this wrong, because otherwise MMORPG.com has hit an entirly new level of insanity.
If getting 1 million unique logins per day, and 3 million per month, over a year after its release = "failed to retain players"....i'd hate hear your view of GW2 and SWTOR.
It's worthless to see it relative to other games, it's like saying EVE isn't successful because it has relatively few subs.
This is Blizzard we're talking about. They're huge. Their company function depends on them being continuing to be huge and continuing to generate the money that they generate. If they lose, it doesn't matter how much they had to begin with, they are most probably not counting on it and that will be enough to create problems for a company. They are not making SCII, Diablo, or WoW with tiny budgets. So whenever one of those doesn't give a return that's equal to what was projected, Blizzard may be in trouble.
1 million is pathetic for what the Diablo franchise represents. Path of Exile has like 2 million and it's an unbalanced pseudo-hardcore indie game. And SW:TOR is an epic flop of about Diablo proportions, which was rumored to cause EA financial problems, what's your point?
WoW, they're losing subs due to their own errors. How many people don't leave WoW due to investment only, and how many people don't come to WoW because it doesn't appeal to the uninvested? You think I wouldn't play WoW if it was fun? I don't care how old it is.
These are not some sort of natural things going on, this is Blizzard consistently screwing up over and over. Whatever's changed inside the company has lost their touch.
Favorite MMO: Vanilla WoW Currently playing: GW2, EVE Excited for: Wildstar, maybe?
If getting 1 million unique logins per day, and 3 million per month, over a year after its release = "failed to retain players"....i'd hate hear your view of GW2 and SWTOR.
It's worthless to see it relative to other games, it's like saying EVE isn't successful because it has relatively few subs.
This is Blizzard we're talking about. They're huge. Their company function depends on them being continuing to be huge and continuing to generate the money that they generate. If they lose, it doesn't matter how much they had to begin with, they are most probably not counting on it and that will be enough to create problems for a company. They are not making SCII, Diablo, or WoW with tiny budgets. So whenever one of those doesn't give a return that's equal to what was projected, Blizzard may be in trouble.
1 million is pathetic for what the Diablo franchise represents. Path of Exile has like 2 million and it's an unbalanced pseudo-hardcore indie game. And SW:TOR is an epic flop of about Diablo proportions, which was rumored to cause EA financial problems, what's your point?
WoW, they're losing subs due to their own errors. How many people don't leave WoW due to investment only, and how many people don't come to WoW because it doesn't appeal to the uninvested? You think I wouldn't play WoW if it was fun? I don't care how old it is.
These are not some sort of natural things going on, this is Blizzard consistently screwing up over and over. Whatever's changed inside the company has lost their touch.
3 million players per month a year after release is terrible because its a Blizzard game and should have more...and 12 million copies sold did not provide a projected return.....those are the greatest statements I have seen made on these forums...
If getting 1 million unique logins per day, and 3 million per month, over a year after its release = "failed to retain players"....i'd hate hear your view of GW2 and SWTOR.
It's worthless to see it relative to other games, it's like saying EVE isn't successful because it has relatively few subs.
This is Blizzard we're talking about. They're huge. Their company function depends on them being continuing to be huge and continuing to generate the money that they generate. If they lose, it doesn't matter how much they had to begin with, they are most probably not counting on it and that will be enough to create problems for a company. They are not making SCII, Diablo, or WoW with tiny budgets. So whenever one of those doesn't give a return that's equal to what was projected, Blizzard may be in trouble.
1 million is pathetic for what the Diablo franchise represents. Path of Exile has like 2 million and it's an unbalanced pseudo-hardcore indie game. And SW:TOR is an epic flop of about Diablo proportions, which was rumored to cause EA financial problems, what's your point?
WoW, they're losing subs due to their own errors. How many people don't leave WoW due to investment only, and how many people don't come to WoW because it doesn't appeal to the uninvested? You think I wouldn't play WoW if it was fun? I don't care how old it is.
These are not some sort of natural things going on, this is Blizzard consistently screwing up over and over. Whatever's changed inside the company has lost their touch.
The above poster gets exactly what I'm saying. It's about degree here. Blizzard is a huge company. 3 million logins per month does not meet their expectations on any game. Ex to a company on a similar level: LoL (Riot) has 5 million unique logins per day, these were the sorts of numbers Blizz/Vivendi wanted and were expecting. They touted D3 as a service more than a game prior to launch planning frequent updates, etc. Remember D3 was made from the scrapped Diablo MMO that was planned and they intended to maintain a customer base similar to an MMO with D3. This is all info available on the net. I didn't draw the conclusion myself that it "failed to meet the company's expectations" it's in every financial report and news article about them that they've had. The writing is on the wall that this move made by Blizzard was due purely to their financial struggles, but you can believe it or not.
Here's where my opion starts rather than the facts: I think Blizzard is awesome and have 0 hate for their games (I own WoW, D3, SC2, etc and all the earlier titles from my youth). I'm actually shocked that they're currently in the position that they're in and hopefully they're able to turn it around. I just don't think that it's very likely. I also don't think a hardcore, OW PvP, sandbox, MMO will do the trick either. To be honest their best bet is probably to lay off a ton of staff and scale back their expectations of profits to reasonable levels. At this point they should probably scrap Hearthstone and Blizzard Allstars as those 2 games only exist so they can enter the F2P market 5 years to late. Their efforts would probably be better rewarded by focusing on the development of WC4, the 3rd SC expansion, and I guess Titan although I am highly skeptical of said title. Oh and get rid of Bobby Kotick cause he's a moron.
Oh yeah I'm going to call a Blizzard Kickstarter coming soon as well. No doubt in my mind that they'll clean house with Blizzard being Blizzard. I'd be willing to bet quite a bit on that.
Blizzard has sent out a cryptic notice that a 'special announcement' will be made at this year's Gamescom in late-August. "We're making a special announcement that's sure to capture the attention of the Heavens, Burning Hells, and all the shadowed places that lie between."
The event itself will take place on the first day of Gamescom, August 21, at 11:30 a.m. local time. Gamescom takes place August 21-25 in Cologne, Germany.
Oh. Oh no no no. :covers face with hands: And just when the last hype choochoo might be finally pulling into the station.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Comments
this most likely
"When people don't know much about something, they tend to fill in the blanks the way they want them to be filled in. They are almost always disappointed." - Will Wright
I'm stunned by how many people think this has anything to do with EQN.
Even by MMORPG.com standards that's taking the EQN hype to stupidly insane levels. Frankly I doubt you could find how little Blizz, or much of anyone else outside these forums, cares about EQN at this point with a scanning electron microscope.
You say that expecting us to ignore the fact that there is in fact a Cash Shop being implemented. Trion also said Rift wouldn't be going F2P only a year ago. That was right after they implemented a Cash Shop that was only supposed to have the same services offered from the web site.
Sorry, But I'm of the "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck swims like a duck......don't tell me it's a chicken" school of thought.
There's a ton of players who do not play actively D3 but who will buy the xpac. You dont have to play a game every day after its launch until the next xpac in order to want to buy it.
Gonna have to agree with others here and say it's going to announce a F2P model or some modification or deviation from the sub model.
There is no denying that WoW is in decline, while it is still strong supposively (debatable with the accounts in Asia that are not paying subs) any fool can see that there is a great shift to F2P with newer and fresher MMOs that even as P2P would be some serious competitors against WoW. WoW is a dated game and people are growing very tired of the game. Even my brother who never tries other MMOs and is insanely loyal to WoW (the only MMO he has tried out since vanilla WoW was SWTOR and that was only because a good buddy of his is a SW fan) is giving Wildstar a serious twirl.
WoW's fate has reached that of EQ as being a dated MMO whose prime is long past.
Monster Hunter since '04!
Currently playing: MHW & MHGU
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Hey...did this thread title always have "Diablo 3" in its title? I thought it said "Blizzard" before...
So I guess it is a Diablo 3 announcement for sure now.
You say that expecting us to ignore the fact that these "cash shop items" are not being released in the western world....
So is every other genre, especially themepark f2p mmos
"EVE is likely the best MMORPG that you've never really understood or played" - Kyleran
Titan got a reboot, it's going to be another decade before we even get a sneak preview
This is probably preview of the other features to come with loot 2.0
Blizz would save an xpac announcement for their own Blizzcon coming up soon
This article is under D3 news. MMORPG.com knows something already that we don't....?
I hope it's a D3 expansion though. I enjoyed D3 for what is was and if they can put in some proper random generated content I'll be all over it. I don't care about the economy of the game and the PTW argument. I play with only my family members.. game politics matters very little.
Ummm.......yeah, prettymuch.
May not be in 2013, but it will be. Just like I've seen in Anarchy and then in Rift.
lololol what are you smoking and can I please have some? WoW going F2P is about the only thing you said that appears to hold any weight.
Why do you think Vivendi has been trying to get rid of Blizzard/Activision for 2 years and no one has wanted to touch the company? Who do you think made all of those terrible decisions at Blizzard? While they have had massive layoffs that have largely gone under the radar no one that matters on their staff has changed hands. Let's look at their recent history which is full of failures when it came to meeting the company's expectations:
WoW - declining subs
D3 - failed to retain players
SC2 - god they have got to be embarrassed that Brood War still pulls in higher numbers than it's sequel.
Unreleased:
Titan - scrapped and back to the drawing board
Hearthstone - cash grab
Blizzard All-Stars - not even on the radar sounds like a battle.net game for casuals.
SC2: Protoss expansion - Who knows?
Conclusion - they haven't made a game that met expecations (investor/company not player) in almost 10 years.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Point being all of this has nothing to do with Blizzard realizing everything you've (and every other "old school/hardcore/whatever" mmo player) posted on the forums in the past is true and they need to change. It was all about netting them some immediate cash on the announcement of their separation from their parent company because they're floundering. Very similar things happened with Trion and their exploration of venture capital. For example, Rift F2P was on the wall years before it happened based on watching the financial decisions of the company.
OT: Announcement will clearly be D3 related - X-Pac/PvP, etc. I wouldn't get too excited. WoW F2P is possible but I don't think they have the entire framework in place to shift over yet as much of it only just hit the test server. Also the stupid possiblity that they will maintain sub model and just add a full blown CS on top which would not surprise me given their recent track record.
Steam: Neph
- Heartstone release date.
- D3 Expac + Console.
- WoW new servers with a totally revamped version. Or "WoW2"
- SC2 next expac.
Just sayin'
STFU n00b !
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
If getting 1 million unique logins per day, and 3 million per month, over a year after its release = "failed to retain players"....i'd hate hear your view of GW2 and SWTOR.
And in what world does a game selling 12 million copies = "not meeting investor expectations".
The only PC game to beat D3 in sales in any quarter since its release, was the SC2 expansion.
I hope to god I read this wrong, because otherwise MMORPG.com has hit an entirly new level of insanity.
It's worthless to see it relative to other games, it's like saying EVE isn't successful because it has relatively few subs.
This is Blizzard we're talking about. They're huge. Their company function depends on them being continuing to be huge and continuing to generate the money that they generate. If they lose, it doesn't matter how much they had to begin with, they are most probably not counting on it and that will be enough to create problems for a company. They are not making SCII, Diablo, or WoW with tiny budgets. So whenever one of those doesn't give a return that's equal to what was projected, Blizzard may be in trouble.
1 million is pathetic for what the Diablo franchise represents. Path of Exile has like 2 million and it's an unbalanced pseudo-hardcore indie game. And SW:TOR is an epic flop of about Diablo proportions, which was rumored to cause EA financial problems, what's your point?
WoW, they're losing subs due to their own errors. How many people don't leave WoW due to investment only, and how many people don't come to WoW because it doesn't appeal to the uninvested? You think I wouldn't play WoW if it was fun? I don't care how old it is.
These are not some sort of natural things going on, this is Blizzard consistently screwing up over and over. Whatever's changed inside the company has lost their touch.
Favorite MMO: Vanilla WoW
Currently playing: GW2, EVE
Excited for: Wildstar, maybe?
3 million players per month a year after release is terrible because its a Blizzard game and should have more...and 12 million copies sold did not provide a projected return.....those are the greatest statements I have seen made on these forums...
The above poster gets exactly what I'm saying. It's about degree here. Blizzard is a huge company. 3 million logins per month does not meet their expectations on any game. Ex to a company on a similar level: LoL (Riot) has 5 million unique logins per day, these were the sorts of numbers Blizz/Vivendi wanted and were expecting. They touted D3 as a service more than a game prior to launch planning frequent updates, etc. Remember D3 was made from the scrapped Diablo MMO that was planned and they intended to maintain a customer base similar to an MMO with D3. This is all info available on the net. I didn't draw the conclusion myself that it "failed to meet the company's expectations" it's in every financial report and news article about them that they've had. The writing is on the wall that this move made by Blizzard was due purely to their financial struggles, but you can believe it or not.
Here's where my opion starts rather than the facts: I think Blizzard is awesome and have 0 hate for their games (I own WoW, D3, SC2, etc and all the earlier titles from my youth). I'm actually shocked that they're currently in the position that they're in and hopefully they're able to turn it around. I just don't think that it's very likely. I also don't think a hardcore, OW PvP, sandbox, MMO will do the trick either. To be honest their best bet is probably to lay off a ton of staff and scale back their expectations of profits to reasonable levels. At this point they should probably scrap Hearthstone and Blizzard Allstars as those 2 games only exist so they can enter the F2P market 5 years to late. Their efforts would probably be better rewarded by focusing on the development of WC4, the 3rd SC expansion, and I guess Titan although I am highly skeptical of said title. Oh and get rid of Bobby Kotick cause he's a moron.
Oh yeah I'm going to call a Blizzard Kickstarter coming soon as well. No doubt in my mind that they'll clean house with Blizzard being Blizzard. I'd be willing to bet quite a bit on that.
Steam: Neph
Oh. Oh no no no. :covers face with hands: And just when the last hype choochoo might be finally pulling into the station.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.