The Daily Grind: Blizzard's next MMO?

Uh, do your research? "Mike Morhaime" is moving on?

Click on your own link and try again.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. I can't imagine them making an MMO based on something other than StarCraft as opposed to rolling the dice on creating a whole new IP that people may or may not even be receptive to.

Hopefully we'll find out in August.

World of Daventry (king's quest themed)

:O

I'm personally voting for Steampunk/Weird West. Possibly the Deadlands license, but I'll take a close approximation. :D

You know.. I'm thinking a totally new IP might be the only way for Blizzard to make a new MMO that is not a WoW clone. However, in the last 2 or 3 years it seems that the best MMOs come out of established IPs.

What would make most practical sense ? Probably the StarCraft MMO, but it'd be quite similar to WoW, with a different take on ranged weapons (a-la Tabula Rasa, but much more polished, since this is Blizzard).

Why gamble at all? Why launch a space MMO (even StarCraft) into a market where (a) the biggest one yet just fell on its face; (b) the received wisdom is that fantasy is factors more popular than sci-fi; and (c) several other sci-fi/futuristic contenders are poised to gum up the works (Earthrise, SW: ToR, Jumpgate, Fallen Earth, Global Agenda -- along with present-day-ish contenders like WOD Onine, TSW, The Agency)?

I always bet on a wondrous and profitable failure of the imagination at large, successful corporations. My bet is therefore WORLD OF WARCRAFT II: THE CRAFTWARING.

All the great WoW taste you love. Now with 30% more blue crystals.

Didn't somebody from blizzard already say it was an original IP?

I say look at what others are developing. There are vast amount of sci-fi mmo's coming out in the following years 2009-2011 SWTOR - Fallout - Jumpgate - StarTrek - WAR40k - Stargate

Why create another fantasy game to compete with WoW? We can't say for sure it will be Starcraft but many mmo's developers are moving away from the Fantasy setting. I will the make the bet it wont have anything to do with Warcraft or Diablo.

Announcement 2010
First gameplay 2012
Release 2013

Blizzard has already announced that it won't be an old IP. So no Starcraft (yay!), no Diablo (sad!), and no Lost Vikings (thank goodness!).

I hope it's either sci-fi or steam punk. I hope it isn't the watered down played out, boring EQ style of gameplay that just about every single MMO uses, instead I hope it's something new or not used very much and done well. Finally I hope it isn't raid driven and more sand box'esc.

Those are just some of the things that will have me giggling like a girl.

What will sale me straight away is if it's PvP driven, but I wont put too much hope on that seeing as PvP doesn't sale as well as PvE. I will however probably not be giving it a second look if it is very raid heavy.

Things I know I will like is the art. Their artists are my favorites in the industry.

As far as the title, it's really anyones guess because they've already said it's a brand new IP.

Whatever it is, Blizz has had the good notion of staying tight lipped, and not over hyping to early. I fully expect them to release a total and complete game.

Not b/c of Wotlk or BC or WoW, but b/c they have a nearly unlimited budget, more rank then any other developer w/in a company, and the good fortune of seeing what players want out of a game at it's launch.

I think whatever it will be, it'll be successful. Not 80 hundred gabagillion, likw WoW, but successful.

Does anybody have a link to Blizzard saying it's a brand new IP?

Aside from the 'new IP' talk (which I'd really like to see a source on, my Google-fu is weak) I'd say it would almost have to be Diablo 3. Starcraft currently has a huge fan base but it's one game and an expansion, with a sequel in the works. They've already laid out their expansion plans for SC2 in the form of campaign expansions that are basically stand-alone games; that arc'll carry them years out before anything else can happen with the IP if they follow their formula for WoW. Diablo, on the other hand, has two full games with expansions already on the table with a third incoming, similar to Warcraft prior to the release of WoW. It establishes a history and a world in the same way, it makes sense not to deviate too much in that sense.
Also the new skill-rune system would be amazing for a largely level-independent MMO and the expectation for random dungeons is already set.