The main reason for my opinion is simple. They are not going to make direct competition for their own game. WoW is still a highly profitable game. And it is still, after 20 years, the top 1 or 2 MMO on the market. For Blizzard to develop, produce and launch a WoW II they would realistically be competing with themselves.
There would be players who dont have a PC that can run the next gen MMO. Or the people who are too tied to their WoW chars to leave. There would be the players who simply prefer WoW over a new MMO to not start from scratch. Then the comparison factor. Which WoW is the better WoW? There is no real way to answer that.
Add on the expansions. Well are you going back to WoW to play the new expansion, then coming back to WoW II to play its new expansion?
To see how this would play out, we need only look at Everquest and EQII to correlate. WoW was coming out. Everquest devs saw the writing on the wall on that competition. They pushed development on EQII and designed it to compete with WoW. They had a buggy launch, and only ended up splitting their gaming community between EQ and EQII. And that resulted in both games, not having high population numbers. In addition to many players going to WoW. It ultimately only hurt that game and IP, and sadly the IP never recovered.
Now we look at Blizzard and Riot. Riot is making a huge next gen MMO. We still dont really know anything about it. But it is coming. Why would Blizzard design a competition to that game right now? Allow it to succeed or fail. Accept that it could hurt the revenue generation of WoW, but will give critical insight into what the next gen MMO needs to be. Then if the profitability is there, they develop their next MMO.
I would wager they are working on their next gen MMO. But in a conceptual way. Story and Lore. The ground work. But the smart move is to see what Ashes of Creation and Riot’s MMO bring. Then learn from those to tailor their MMO to the new generation of MMO players… if that even exists.
It’s simpler than that.
MMOs are a colossal investment, and not hip anymore. No money in it.
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Look at blizzards modern games. All have come under heat for being bad. Making wow 2 just opens them up to scrutiny. People forgive a lot of wows problems because its so old no one in their right mind would expect more from it. The games age is an achievement I’m sure they aren’t ready to give up yet.
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I wouldn’t say any of this is compelling against a hypothetical WoW sequel. Just because Blizzard sinks money into a new, competing title doesn’t mean it won’t net positive for them.
This is already playing out with WoW versus WoW classic. What about other Blizzard games? Those are also competing for their customers’ attention.
There’s a conceivable reality in which this new title exists and Blizzard makes money because of it.
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It is too much for a very bleak looking future. MMOs are rocketing back into a niche market, and it’s not a smart or sane investment to attempt to double dip. Even trying to create a new MMO right now is not something investors are going to look kindly on.
I just want a lore reset with an entirely new team of people who care and aren’t up their own butt, unlike the people currently running this franchise.
Inept apathy. Too lazy and/or unskilled.
October is the next deadline for the Microsoft buyout. They are not purchasing actiblizz for blizzard’s studio, they are buying it because of KIng studios.
I doubt they will continue to maintain high-maintenance games when they own Candy Crush.
I’m predicting the dissolution of Blizzard Studios and a few devs from there moved to King.
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One thing is for sure, their massive fumbling, controversial, and frankly unneeded putting down of Overwatch 1 Old Yeller style… It’s got me a bit more nervous then usual. If Blizzard would do something so hamfisted and short sighted for a IP that frankly made more money the last few years then WoW did, I can’t honestly say WoW is totally safe.
I just hope they learned the lesson there. Blizzard really doesn’t need their own ‘New Coke’.
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hopefully not.
I wont be starting all over again. lol.
They get enough complaints with the game as it is…a new wow isnt going to be any better.
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No but they will probably announce WoW classic plus at Blizzcon, and that will put the final Knife in the back of Retail…It’s Blizzards way of doing a reboot and getting rid of years of terrible decisions.
Call it the Coke Classic, after the disaster that was new Coke way back in the 80’s
The Lich King will remain on the Throne, a constant Boogieman There will be no flying other than the Gryphon Mounts, but a steady stream of new quest, new dungeons, and new raids will be added to the game.
It’s the original vision of WoW when it was first conceptualized.
Pretty much - - OP could of saved themselves all that writing lol
I mean, there’s money in it – if they cut corners and monetize the hell out of it from the start. Like every modern eastern MMO that gets ported over. There’s a reason we see so much of that and so little in the way of western MMOs. It’s been such a dry spell since like… Wildstar over here.
I appreciate that Amazon is trying with MMOs, but given New World, I don’t expect much from them and their upcoming LOTR thing.
Maybe Riot’s MMO will change my opinion in however many years that takes to release?
I expect zilch from Ashes. While not as poor of a game as something like Bless Online, it has the same sort of atmosphere around it. People hyping it up because they’re starved for a decent new MMORPG, when it’s not really pushing any boundaries worth mentioning. It looks fairly bland to me from everything I’ve seen. Between that and the PvP-centric design choices, idk man. I think it’ll do okay, but I also think it’s going to disappoint a lot of people, especially given how long folks have been talking about it.
You are on some serious copium, lmao. Retail is their cashcow.
I’d play both and stick to the one I like better.
The only way I ever see a WoW 2 coming out is for WoW players count to dip significantly, say into a sub 500k players range, off the top 5 MMO leaderboard. As you said, there is absolutely zero incentive to reengineer and compete against their own product so long as that product is still a market leader.
A different studio might be driven by desire to push tech and explore a fresh blank slate after 20 years, but that’s not what drives modern Blizzard anymore.
Actually it isn’t…and hasn’t been for a very long time