WC4 definitely needs to come before they decide to do something drastic. I mean lets look at it:
Diablo 3 --> Follows series' formulaic approach to hack'n'slash-type action, standard online RPG with single player, no monthly fee
SC 2 --> Sequel to the most acclaimed RTS of all time. They try not to mess with the formula too much, and add maybe a few units as not to make a carbon copy of SC while keeping it easy to balance.
Unknown Next-Gen MMO --> Not much to say here, but just something to notice. The WoW team is the WoW team and they've got their own thing to do, at all times. There's developers who are responsible for the monthly material while some are strictly always working on the next expansion, and I'm sure the WOW team is extremely expansive by now. This MMO is being developed by yet a different team, we are told its not from an existing Blizzard franchise, so its new and "next-gen" is all we have to go on.
--WHAT'S NEXT?--
There next project can't be an MMO. With WoW at its peak (11 million subs?) and possibly still climbing, they can squeeze out like 10 more expansions before starting to feel a decline, but Blizzard isn't stupid. All their expansions have been pretty massive, and their not even going to put any serious pre-production development into WoW-2 until the numbers actually look like their starting to wince. 11 MILLION subscribers world-wide. MMO's that have like 250,000-500,000 are considered profitable and successful. WoW has 62.2% of the world's MMO market. Lineage and Lineage II together own 13% of the world share. Everquest I and II have only 2.3%. So forget WoW-2, because WoW is simply too successful to start diverting resources to WoW-2.
WC4: Warcraft-3 is also one of the highest rated RTS games. Its still played competitively worldwide. Of the average 150,000 users still playing on battle.net at any one given time, half of those are on Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. In a few years, when D3 and SC2 are both out and done with, WC-4 I think has to be the logical move for Blizzard. With WC4, they have top-notch games from their 3 franchises along with the world's biggest MMO (by a LONG shot) with another MMO in development and pretty much the freedom to do anything they want. Diablo 3 will rejuvenate the old D2 crowd. SC2 is the sequel to a still-popular RTS thats 11 years old. You can bet anyone who has ever played Diablo will be interested in D3. Tons of ex-WoW'ers (like me) are looking forwards to playing it. It will likely draw tons of new-comers as well who were maybe too young during the D2 prime and will discover the series.
After WC4 you say? Probably the release of the Next-Gen MMO they're working on (MMO's have huge dev cycles). After that? I really can't even speculate.
-
- Zarx
- Registered User
-
Member for 15 years, 9 months, and 28 days
Last active Tue, Jun, 30 2009 02:28:47
- 0 Followers
- 136 Total Posts
- 0 Thanks
0
0
I doubt they will release content patches ala WoW or any other MMO like that, but definitley I think after a while if the gameplay becomes stale, expect to see some additions made to the game that will increase its longevity. I also expect at least 1-2 expansions. Perhaps more.
0
0
DII had gold literally worthless and with no bound items, anything could be traded, meaning an infinite amount of items could potentially enter the economy with none of them being spit out (but they were due to players leaving, items rotting on expired chars, etc...) and I think it could likely be a problem if DIII gains mass popularity and then you have people flooding the markets with tons of items that have no way to be flushed out.
Gold should have value, but at the same time I think there is an allure to the bartering system of D2 where items were the currency. It was fun, even for a noob like me who would trade crappy items I got for free off somebody for more crappy items, eventually making my first IK set off nothing but grabbing free items and slowly trading and bartering. I was so happy back then
0
0
0
0
0
A little rude, no?
Firstly, the OP states he has a PC configured for approximately $900.00 which at the time of Diablo 3' release will be more than enough to buy 3GB of RAM as well as a Quad Core and a decent video card. When I bought my system, Quad Core wasn't out and the 8800GTX was the best card on the market. That's why my now almost 2-year old computer is going to still run Diablo 3 on max settings in 2-3 years' time.
Secondly, sure you can buy a cheap computer in 2-3 years that will likely be better than top of the line today but if you spend a little more, you can get a lot more bang for your buck and increase the longevity of your computer.
0
0
Good to see a fellow Serb on the boards!
0
Agreed 100%. No reason to remove it. Yes it can be a frustrating ruleset of the game but at the same time, Blizzard gives ample warning about how lag, latency or any factors can lead to your character's death. I wouldn't do it but those who want to should be able to.
0
0
0