Sequels are certainly not without their problems, but I think with proper execution and good release timing a lot of the risk can be mitigated. I’ve never touched anything related to EQ, but from what I’ve read EQ2 had a number of missteps that put it in a bad spot to start, and then WoW swooped in and ate its lunch.
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Why do people always bring up EQ when talking about WoW 2, its apples to oranges.
Sony screwed up big time with EQ because its launched in 99 and launched its sequel 5 years later while it still had room to grow, thats like Blizzard making WoW2 when Wrath launched, not 17 years later. Look at classic that split the playerbase and yet Blizzard wouldnt go back and change anything because its a moot point at this stage and it made them more money.
A new MMO would be risky for sure but it would also allow the game to grow again with a younger audience, WoW has been on downward spiral since cata thats more than 50% of its life trending down. WoW should have ended at Legion no later.
If they cant make Wow 1 a good game with the bad leftover staff. What make you think making a Wow 2 is going to be better ?
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This is the real question if they did make a new MMO. Is there enough talent , passion and vision to do it and will upper management let them make the game they want? Highly doubt it myself. Just look at D4.
You can bang on the devs all you want, they might not be as good as the devs who came before them but they are hand cuffed by upper management and everyone knows it.
Would you want Ion to be the lead? I wouldnt and there is only one person left who could, that i know of take a project of this scale on and thats Tom Chilton and he spent 20 years working on MMO’s and MOG’s so doubt he would want to go through it again.
Obviously a classical Cynic, in the style of Diogenes. 
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Next expansion max level will be fifty and we will lose even more spells. Oh and cooking and fishing will be removed just like first aid! All professions still useless, no new character customization… Another source to grind since you all enjoy that. Sylvanas will still not be killed off and will be the main character…
An entirely new “WoW 2” would cost, what, $500m+ to make, given the incredible burden of expectations on the big mother MMO maker in crafting a sequel? That kind of investment isn’t simply “risky”, in light of the state of the MMO market, but foolish. And it’s why Blizzard specifically decided not to make a new MMO when they scrapped project Titan – it’s way, way too risky, with far too little benefit.
WoW was a case of catching lightning in a bottle, and Blizzard realizes that – right thing at the right time, largely based on factors beyond Blizzard’s control at the time. No way that lines up again, and given the incredible cost of making anything that would not be utterly trashed by the entire gaming world as a worthy successor to the big mother that WoW has been … it makes no sense.
WoW is what we are getting, and it will be their entry in the MMO space – and not a ridiculously expensive, and ridiculously risky, brand new MMO project.
Id say more in todays market but lets say 500 mill, thats chump change for them (thats one COD game in box sales alone). Blizzard has 3.3 billion dollar debt but has 9.5 billion offset they could pay their debt off tomorrow and still have 6 billion to play with.
100% of everything I’ve collected over the years 
Not 99.999999999999%
Not ‘this one cloak couldn’t be transferred over but we made a new cloak just like it’
100%
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It is, but it’s still not something that is cost-justified for a massive risk like a new MMO would be. They have public shareholders to answer to.
Its why they will milk Wow to death as they are doing, Blizzard will not make another MMO and its got nothing to do with risk or the cost of making it. Seasonal products make them more and they know it.
I’d rather they come out with another new MMO or game and just keep tacking on expansions to WoW and slowly improving the engine and tech as needed.
Well, but those two things aren’t both true.
If it makes more money for them to make seasonal products, then spending the additional outlay for a new MMO isn’t, in fact, cost-justified. If it would make more money than the seasonal approach does at an acceptable risk, it would be cost-justified to do so.
Whatever they judge will make them more money at an acceptable risk profile is what they will do – whether that’s making a new MMO or milking WoW.
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Maybe do what Elder Scrolls does, have regular smaller game updates, either DLCs or true expansions. If they did that lots more people would probably sign up and hang around. If they made the expansions half the price of WoW’s full expacs that would look a lot more attractive too.
Making a WOW 2 is equivalent of making a new expansion but on a lesser scale.
In making a new expansion, most of progress made by players are kept and what’s lost are level and gears.
In making a new WOW, what’s lost is essentially everything that a player has invested.
The upside is one gets to play WOW with a completely new engine, system and etc., but is it really worth it to throw away everything that we have invested on the hope that WOW 2 is gonna be better with the current Blizz leadership and team?
It seems a risky bet at best.
Blizzard has a operating cost of about 300million a quarter so 1.2b a year once the products that they make dont get close to making a profit they will walk away from them.
Then they will make new products, maybe new Ip’s who knows but they wont make a MMO again as there are easier ways to make more. They are not afraid to throw money around when it make sense, they will spend billions and take risk if they think its worth it.
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Yeah I don’t disagree with that. I just don’t see them judging that the cost/risk/benefit of making a new MMO is worth it.
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Things like this are more likely, to me, than a new MMO would be, but the thing here is that the entire internal business model for the product would need to be changed. Right now they are pretty deeply dug into a model that is based on 2-year massive box sale revenue cycles (and the deployment of development assets to achieve that), coupled with work on store assets. It would be a significant shift to rejigger that to more frequent periodic content, and likely more work on store assets than they do now (like ESO has).
Still, it seems more likely to me for WoW to change the business model to be more like that (which has worked very well for ESO) than it is for Blizzard to make a new AAA MMO.
I would love them to take the plunge and have another go at a MMO, i just think they are interested in other options, like mobile as an example or COD style products that make as much money for less. But if they really wanted a MMO because they just want an MMO on their portfolio they would have no problems convincing the shareholders and spending the cash.
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I wouldn’t want a WoW 2.
If they are going to end wow, End it.
don’t drag it over to a brand new MMO and force people to rebuy it and have to migrate.
I’m not going to a WoW 2.