Blizzard, the video game powerhouse behind World of Warcraft, has officially canceled its next-generation MMO Titan after seven years of development.
Polygon broke the news in an interview with Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime. Blizzard never officially announced project Titan and details on the title have been scarce, but the developer did say last year the project was going back to the drawing board. According to Morhaime, going back to the drawing board meant deciding on whether or not Blizzard wanted to continue making the game at all.
"We didn't find the fun," Morhaime says in the interview. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."
Titan came about after the immense success of World of Warcraft, which is still going strong as the most successful MMO in video game history. Chris Metzen, Blizzard's senior vice president of story and franchise development, says in the interview Blizzard realized it didn't have to be a "MMORPG company," with Morhaime adding, "We don't want to identify ourselves with a particular genre. We just want to make great games every time."
Blizzard isn't a stranger to axing projects that have long been in development. The company scrapped the anticipated Starcraft: Ghosts, as well as Warcraft Adventures, in years past. Metzen says each time the company has decided to kill a project, it resulted in better quality work.
"The discipline of knowing when to quit is important," Metzen says. "We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place."
Though Blizzard is canceling Titan, other smaller-scale Blizzard projects like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, as well as World of Warcraft, are keeping the developer busy. Metzen says games like Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm in part contributed to scrapping the ambitious Titan.
"I think the lesson that comes around again is just making damn sure that the things we commit to do and the things we burn calories on and the things we commit to our community that we will do are coming from a place of focus and inspiration," Metzen said.
For now, Blizzard will continue to work on expansions for World of Warcraft, which Metzen says he hopes Blizzard will support "forever." Though the idea of a second MMO isn't off the table, the company says that for now it won't be where the company is spending its time.
