Blizzard Thinks Diablo 3 Might Poach WoW's Players

[DarkhoIlow]

I really don't see a problem into playing both Diablo 3 and WoW.

I won't jump the WoW ship when Diablo 3 comes around,because you can't really compare a Hack&Slash dungeon crawler with a MMO,it just stupid.

I really don't see Titan even how it will be a WoW killer as they claim,because they stated that their new MMO won't have anything to do with Starcraft/Warcraft universe.

I wonder how many people will leave WoW for something completely different and new.

 

[scw55]

I agree. WoW has existed for almost 6 years now. Players who have been playing since the start are now bored/will get bored. Diablo 3, if it still has the same feel as WoW but a different mechanic will of course consume WoW players who were thinking of quitting anyway.

 

[Mr.Amakir]

The only thing i care about is if Diablo III will have LAN-support and if it will be regionlocked or not. Blizzard pretty much ruined Starcraft 2 by removing LAN and regionlock the game and to top it all the campaign was bad. Hopefully this game will be the return of the glorious Blizzard of the past and if not i am done with them.

 

[MrGalactus]

Why do they keep saying this about everything?

 

[Bad Neighbour]

Wait wait wait wait wait...

Blizzard is aware of Diablo 3?

 

[Jumwa]

"Titan" is gonna be the WoW killer? Why? Because they made it? Probably not. The only reason that would kill WoW is because they will switch all the big resources to that and start to neglect WoW.

That's already happened, if you ask me.

Mike Morhaime and others there have already made it quite clear that the development team on WoW has completely changed, and are now working with their third-tier developers, as the bigshots moved onto Starcraft II and Titan.

And you see the fruits of that in the game. Content slowed down dramatically in WoW part way through Wrath, and players were left waiting a solid year without anything worth mentioning after the final battle with the Lich King was added.

Cataclysm was a rush of enthusiasm--at first. However--and this is anecdotal I don't claim it to be a universal truth--I've seen far more friends and associates leave WoW in the past few months than I ever have. And it's not just "flavour of the month" MMOs drawing them away. Most of them aren't leaving for ANY game, they are just bored and unhappy with the game now (many citing the backstep the game took in design, returning to older style MMO norms of frustrating game mechanics, longer dungeon times, etc.). And whenever I've talked to other people they've told me they've noticed the same.

Once again, purely anecdotal, I'm just forming some basic opinions on my own observations. It'll be hard to know if WoW's userbase is actually taking a genuine hit, because I doubt Activision-Blizzard will rush that news out to hurt stock prices, especially as they'd be likely to think it another temporary decline like they get whenever a new "flavour of the month" MMO comes out.

 

[Baresark]

snip

That's already happened, if you ask me.

Mike Morhaime and others there have already made it quite clear that the development team on WoW has completely changed, and are now working with their third-tier developers, as the bigshots moved onto Starcraft II and Titan.

And you see the fruits of that in the game. Content slowed down dramatically in WoW part way through Wrath, and players were left waiting a solid year without anything worth mentioning after the final battle with the Lich King was added.

Cataclysm was a rush of enthusiasm--at first. However--and this is anecdotal I don't claim it to be a universal truth--I've seen far more friends and associates leave WoW in the past few months than I ever have. And it's not just "flavour of the month" MMOs drawing them away. Most of them aren't leaving for ANY game, they are just bored and unhappy with the game now (many citing the backstep the game took in design, returning to older style MMO norms of frustrating game mechanics, longer dungeon times, etc.). And whenever I've talked to other people they've told me they've noticed the same.

Once again, purely anecdotal, I'm just forming some basic opinions on my own observations. It'll be hard to know if WoW's userbase is actually taking a genuine hit, because I doubt Activision-Blizzard will rush that news out to hurt stock prices, especially as they'd be likely to think it another temporary decline like they get whenever a new "flavour of the month" MMO comes out.

Even better news I guess. The truth is, I hate hearing about any game from Blizzard because when we hear about it, we are years and years away from seeing anything worth while.

I thought this might have started happening. The truth is, my friends stopped playing it and we put up a minecraft server, haha. That is all consuming for the moment. I figured that an end to WoW would have to be coming. And I love how they throw up the smoke screen for the investors now, instead of waiting till it actually comes out. Soon they'll say that account renews have declined "in anticipation" of Diablo 3. I am not looking that forward to it for the simple reason I am tired of hearing about it. And tired of seeing play videos for something they won't verify a release of this year. Hell, I love Star Craft, but I never bought 2, I played a demo and was like, meh. I'll wait till it drops in price and then pick it up.

 

[fundayz]

Pearce said that although the gameplay in Diablo 3 wasn't quite the same as in World of Warcraft, it had a similar enough feel that it might lure some WoW players away.

Just great, not only does Diablo 3 LOOK like WoW apparently it PLAYS like WoW now too...

 

[reddfawks]

Why does this feel like the serpent eating its own tail...?

 

[Jandau]

Diablo 3 isn't going to poach WoW's players because by the time Diablo 3 finally comes out all the WoW players will be long dead (and their children, and their children's children, etc.)...

 

[Mad1Cow]

WoW can't be dominated because as subscription based games go, mainstream markets aren't going to pay 2 subscription fees to play games unless they're wearing gold plated trousers. For an MMO to dominate WoW it has to look into other means of pay. The LotR model seems pretty good if the game wasn't so mediocre. WoW will never be dominated, it will merely just fade away. It's player base is already diminishing since players are getting bored with the overall formula that's been for the past 6 years. WoW players will die down, the servers will be turned off and MMO's will either be large in number or forgotten about for a few years...personally I see the latter happening.

 

[Jumwa]

Even better news I guess. The truth is, I hate hearing about any game from Blizzard because when we hear about it, we are years and years away from seeing anything worth while.

I thought this might have started happening. The truth is, my friends stopped playing it and we put up a minecraft server, haha. That is all consuming for the moment. I figured that an end to WoW would have to be coming. And I love how they throw up the smoke screen for the investors now, instead of waiting till it actually comes out. Soon they'll say that account renews have declined "in anticipation" of Diablo 3. I am not looking that forward to it for the simple reason I am tired of hearing about it. And tired of seeing play videos for something they won't verify a release of this year. Hell, I love Star Craft, but I never bought 2, I played a demo and was like, meh. I'll wait till it drops in price and then pick it up.

No matter how much I might like a companies policies and products, I don't ever want to see a market so dominated by one giant as Activision-Blizzard does gaming in general and subscription based MMOs in particular.

Competition is good for the consumer, the more the merrier. And I've been yearning to see more new ideas in the MMO market, not just a parade of WoW-clones.

And on the issue of overhyping a long-off product: yeah, tell me about it. The bluster about "Titan", a game that wont be out for a few years at best, and about which we know absolutely nothing of consequence, has already gotten very old.

I like how Bethesda does things. They tend to wait until they have something to show us before they begin hyping their product, and it's generally within a year of the products release.

 

[Baldr]

They already said at the last Blizzcon in October it could be 2012-2013 before they may even release information about project Titan, and not be released until 2014.

 

[MR T3D]

If only they could make the game, like, different looking, and maybe also play differently... but then, is that possible, blizzard?

 

[BabyRaptor]

Not really interested in Titan, other than wanting to kill it with fire for taking every singe person with any talent from the WoW team.

No, what's causing you to lose customers isn't another game. It's the constant nerf/buff train, the lack of actual new (as compared to rehashed) content, general lack of content all around...Yeah, sorry. I'll stop.

I'm anxiously awaiting D3. But it's not what's going to cost WoW my 30 a month. WoW itself will do that eventually.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

Honestly if a game did kill WoW, it'd be no big deal. Granted i have sickening amount of hours invested on that damned game, but i would love a new universe to explore. Its a shame that too many of these MMOs are dead before launch, because there aren't a large enough community.

 

[DracoSuave]

Diablo 3 is going to be played in 2020. Blizzard doesn't make games, they make revenue streams. People are STILL buying StarCraft, the WarCraft series, and both Diablos. It's just what Blizzard does.

They don't release A-list titles that break a monthly record and then wane into obscurity... they make titles that will sell for as close to forever as they possibly can. Somewhere out there, right now, someone is buying a brand new copy of Diablo 1.

That's why they can be a major game company while only releasing 10 games not named WoW. In 30 years. Cause every one of those games sells today. Except for the SNES ones. But if people still had their SNESs, those games'd sell. Rock'n Roll Racing was the bomb.

 

[Warbandit]

Why does this feel like the serpent eating its own tail...?

I was actually going to say the serpent sucking it's own phallic legendary sword, if you catch my drift.