5 Reasons to get excited about Blizzards Next-Gen MMO

1. The Blizzard Enigma

Blizzard is renowned for creating high quality games, almost every game they come out with is a roaring success. Why is this? Well for starters Blizzard are their own publisher. Other game companies are put under tight schedules to get their game completed and put on the market. Blizzard can take as long as they like and this is iterated by their well known philosophy that their games will be released "when they are ready". Warhammer Online, Age of Conan, and Aion, are all prime examples of games that were pushed to market too soon, the initial rush of players were plagued by design flaws and they lost huge portions of their initial player base.

2. A loyal following

Blizzard has a massive community of loyal fans ready to jump in to whatever they throw at them. What this means is that upon release, there will be a massive influx of players that are already familiar with Blizzard games, and know what to expect. Blizzard fans are very diverse, from hardcore gamers willing to play all night with no sleep, to the casual gamers that only have a few hours a day to spend playing. Blizzard knows how to cater for every crowd and there will always be something in their games for you to do, regardless of how much time you can afford to dedicate.

3. The infrastructure is already in place

Blizzard have been moving all of their games onto their Battle.net platform. This will allow players to communicate with each other between games. What does this mean? Well you could be playing Starcraft 2 when your friend pops up in game and asks if you would like to run a heroic in World of Warcraft in half an hour. You will be able to friend people and see their experience at any Blizzard game from their Battle.net profile in game. All games will have the same login details, preferably using a Blizzard Authenticator for added security. Battle.net is destined to become a massive social network of gamers all around the world, connecting people of similar gaming skill.

4. Not just a game company

There is an increasing trend with MMOs. The game companies are now providing more features outside of the games themselves. An example would be the World of Warcraft Armory, the latest edition to which is the ability to preview players characters from the game in 3D from your web browser. An example can be seen by clicking here. Blizzard is paving the way with this technology, not many other game companies come close to the level of information provided by the company on the internet. They have even made an app specifically for iPhone users.

5. World of Warcraft

This list wouldn't have been complete without mentioning World of Warcraft. Nobody can deny that World of Warcraft has been a massive success. It has maintained the title of the most popular MMO for over 5 years. At one point boasting 12 million active subscriptions. However, there have been many hiccups along the way. No other MMO producer will have tackled and overcome as many technical issues as Blizzard, this puts them in a slight advantage when creating their next big MMO. This time round they will be able to avoid many of the issues that plague first time producers.

In light of the recent rumours that Blizzards' next-gen mmo may be a sci-fi FPS, I have put together a collection of evidence from the last few years that points towards Starcraft Ghost, or at least the sci-fi FPS that we recently heard of, really being under development.

We know that Blizzard are working on a new IP. We also know that they are working on a 5th game. What we don't know is which game the new IP applies to, apparantly not the next-gen MMO. The new game was temporarily running on the World of Warcraft game engine in early 2009. At this point it is unknown outside of Blizzard whether or not they have moved to a new game engine. (source: http://www.incgamers.com/News/15620/Blizzard-Working-On-New-IP)

At the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference, Activision Blizzards CEO Bobby Kotick said that Blizzards new MMO would be designed to have "broader appeal". Your average gamer doesn't want to spend hours working out the best gear or rotations for his class, he would rather pick up a gun and start shooting. He went on to say "We love dragons, orcs and pointy-eared casters as much as the next guy, but let’s face it: there are a lot of gamers who just don’t dig the high-fantasy setting that many MMO’s employ.  It is possible that Blizzard may set their next gen MMO in a world that is interesting and appealing but doesn’t limit it’s audience by re-treading the whole “dragons and guys in robes” thing."

In 2009, 4 years after Starcraft Ghost was supposedly put on hiatus, the China Court Network rejected an application by Blizzard to register "Starcraft Ghost" as an E-Sport trademark. The application was declined because upon translation into Chinese, Starcraft Ghost becomes "astrology" ghost which supposedly incites feudal superstition. (source: http://www.chinacourt.org/html/article/200902/13/344450.shtml)

In 2008 Caijing Magazine reported that Netease will be operating a foreign game for Blizzard Entertainment titled "Starcraft Online". (source: http://news.filefront.com/rumor-chinese-game-operator-being-licensed-for-starcraft-online/)

In 2007 one of the lead developers at Blizzard stated that they hope to one day return to, and finish Starcraft Ghost saying "I still believe in that game and the characters but we were not able to execute at the level we wanted to. Rather than work on that, we had to focus on our other games. We're hoping one day to return to it."

Blizzcon 2010 is the most highly anticipated gaming convention of the year for World of Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo fans.

What can you expect at Blizzcon 2010?

Lots of media, including all the big gaming websites, will be present to see what Blizzard has to offer this year.

When is Blizzcon 2010?

The release date and location for Blizzard 2010 has not yet been confirmed. We can expect to find out around May-June 2010. This webpage will be updated with the information as soon as it becomes available.

How much are the tickets?

You can expect the tickets to cost around $125, as they did last year. When the tickets go on sale you will need to be quick to purchase, last year the first batch of tickets sold out in just 30 minutes.

I can't make the convention. What are my options to get in on the action?

If you can't make it to the convention, do not worry, lots of the panels will be streamed live accross in the internet in HD. DirecTV will also offer a pay to watch service for around $40. More information about the streams will be provided nearer the time.

Can you notify me when tickets become available so I don't miss out?

Yes! Click here to register and we will send you an email the moment we have more information regarding the purchase of tickets.