14 DAY TRIAL // World of Warcraft is the biggest subscription-based MMO in the world of videogames at the moment and it's bringing a lot of money in for Activision Blizzard. The company is not giving up on it, as expressed by the announcement of a new expansion called Cataclysm, but for some time now, it has quietly been working on a new MMO project, and Bobby Kotick, the Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, shared a few things about it at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco.
While talking about the new and improved Battle.net service, Bobby Kotick said that “What we've announced at Blizzard is that we have Starcraft coming, Diablo has been in production […] and a new, unannounced MMO that has a little more broad appeal.” Initial reports that Blizzard was putting together another MMO appeared as early as 2007 and a confirmation from the company followed.
Earlier in 2009, Jeff Kaplan, who has been the game director for World of Warcraft, moved to the new project that is now getting his full attention.
On the topic of Battle.net, Kotick mentioned that it would be featuring things like “cash play and prize play and better rewards and recognition systems that come through the Internet.” If we couple this comment with that made above about the new MMO project, we get the picture of a company looking to expand its audience beyond the traditional hardcore gamer one.
At the moment, even Blizzard is probably still testing ideas and seeing what works and what does not but ruling the subscription-based world probably means that the developers are looking for another business model, one based on micro payments. Also, the broader appeal mentioned by Kotick might mean an experience easier to comprehend and requiring less dedication than World of Warcraft.