Chris Faylor @ Shacknews writes:
Despite ongoing efforts with StarCraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III, PC developer Blizzard has confirmed that it has another MMO in the works.
“There is still one unknown project,” Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo revealed to OnlineWelten during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. “We have another development team.”
Pardo affirmed that Blizzard’s recent job listings for an “unannounced next-gen MMO” were not related to Diablo III. The company had previously stated that the project was not a World of Warcraft expansion either.
Fans have long speculated that Blizzard may follow the ultra-successful World of Warcraft with a World of StarCraft MMO. The three-faction scenario and multi-world setting would seem to lend itself well to the MMO format.
Others believe that the project could be a new franchise, as Blizzard has not created a new property since StarCraft’s release in 1998.
“The idea of a new franchise is very intriguing to employees of the company,” said Blizzard chief operating officer Paul Sams to Gamasutra in a recent interview. “Are we ever going to release a new one? I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don’t know when that day will be quite yet.”
And as for a release date on any of the three known titles? “We ship the games when they’re ready,” Pardo commented. “You guys know this.”
Now, I am hoping, and willing to put money on; that they are developing an MMOFPS. Activision is notorious of their FPS games produced by ID Software (Quake series). If you take a company like Blizzard (MMO gods) and combine them with the FPS knowledge of Activsion, you potentially have the best MMOFPS ever developed. There has not been a popular FPS since Planetside in 2003, and although HUXLEY is on the horizon; as I have said many times before, it is NOT an MMO. The market where you buy weapons and clothing is, then you queue up some place to join a room of 16, 32, 64, etc. players. Not at all a seamless world.
Planetside has continents which you can land on via the HART (can’t remember the acronym, but its a giant space ship that lets you choose a fighting location, and drops you off.) — From there, the battle ensues with at peak hours is anywhere from 50 vs 50 to 300+ vs 300+ - And that’s just one continent.
If there was an FPS like WoW, with that massive seamless world, I think they would dominate the global market, for years and years to come. No other company has the resources to produce what they could, and I think they are sitting on yet another potential gold mine.