For those who didn't figure it out by the Next-Gen Job Openings over on Blizzard's website, we finally have confirmation from an interview that Blizzard has a fourth dev team now, and it's the one working on the Next-Gen MMO.
"We have another development team that is still very early on," Pardo said during the interview. "There's still one 'unknown' project." What's even more interesting is that earlier this year during GDC, Pardo hinted that their next MMO will not be fantasy-based.
Rob Pardo had a tinge of palpable disdain for the question. He reminded everyone that in the 1970s, people thought sci-fi couldn't be successful on TV or in the movies. “Then a little film called Star Wars came along and it revolutionized everything.” According to Pardo, a big, successful sci-fi MMO simply hasn't been seen yet. You just have to have the right product, and it could easily be just as succesful as WoW.
With the announcement of Diablo III this weekend, it likely means we won't be seeing a Diablo MMO in the near future. That's not to say they'll never create a Diablo MMO, but it's highly unlikely to be this Next-Gen project Blizzard is working on. So what does that leave us with? Considering Pardo's comments mentioned above, along with Paul Sams commenting in this interview, it probably isn't World of Warcraft II either -- nor anything fantasy-related.
So the next question is, if it's not fantasy-related then it's likely going to be sci-fi... so is it StarCraft related, then? Obviously Blizzard is intrigued by the success of EVE Online since they're exploring the possibility, but one has to question how set in stone this is. They're definitely in the concept phases for the game now -- since they're still hiring many of the programmers, designers, and artists required to actually get a game like this off the ground -- but using the StarCraft universe as a basis for the title would help to speed up the process.
Granted, Blizzard isn't afraid of introducing new franchises, according to Paul Sams. "What I will say, though, is that the idea of a new franchise is very intriguing to employees of the company. 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." But would this Next-Gen MMO be their new IP? They'll no doubt explore it at some point, but it's hard to swallow the thought of it being a new IP with the potential a StarCraft MMO has.
Then again, it could be a Blackthorne MMO; Blizzard released that game way-back-when, in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and then did nothing else with the IP -- other than releasing it on other platforms over the next 9 years. They also developed other non-fantasy titles like The Death and Return of Superman, Justice League Task Force, RPM Racing and Rock N' Roll Racing, so even though World of Warcraft and its fantasy setting has become their favorite child, they're no stranger to games with non-fantasy story settings.
But, Blizzard is definitely building the story of the StarCraft franchise up something fierce with StarCraft II -- similar to the way they built up the Warcraft story with Warcraft III and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne -- so what are your thoughts? We have a while to speculate on this, since it more than likely will not be announced at BlizzCon, but do you think their next MMO is StarCraft-related? How does "StarCraft Universe" sound to you?
