Blizzard's Next MMO to change MMOs, again

[vlad321]

Blizzard Says New MMO Will Be "Cool, New, And Different"

Discussion during Wrath of the Lich King launch also reveals that new MMO is still early in development.

By Kat Bailey, 11/13/2008

The Wrath of the Lich King launch is getting all the buzz, but that hasn't stopped Blizzard from slipping in a few more mentions of its new, as-yet unannounced massively multiplayer game.

Blizzard Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams told videogaming247 that their next-generation MMO will be "something that's cool, and new, and different" as well as a "challenging endeavour." Perhaps something of a departure for a company that has played it relatively safe with its two sequels to StarCraft and Diablo respectively.

Sams also said that the new MMO was still early in development, adding that he "doesn't know" when we'll be seeing an official announcement. Instead, Blizzard prefers to keep the game under wraps until the gameplay and the player experience have been fleshed out.

As for the game itself, Sams said that Blizzard has learned alot from the past four years of World of WarCraft, also pointing out that they were the "world leader in online gaming with Battle.net" even before that. Nevertheless, Sams said that they expect a lot of "bumps and bruises" along the way.

There still no word on what universe the MMO will actually cover. But with Blizzard dropping code words like "new" and "different," it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine that this might actually turn out to be their first new IP in ten years. But that of course begs the further question -- would a new IP ever be able to escape the long shadow of Blizzard's billion dollar MMO?

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They already changed the way mmos are played with WoW, I don't see why they can't do the same again with their next MMO. Kudos to them. I'm also dying for a new IP from Blizzard. Of course I'd much rather not have it be an MMO, but still it's a new IP.