Blizzard Product Release Slate leaked

[Flux]

Incidentally, I just posted this in the news and as I said there.... the date for Titan is no way believable. Rob Pardo said at Blizzcon this year they would not even be announcing their next gen MMO until 2012 at the soonest.

Hence there's no way it would be released in 2013. 2015, more like it, given Blizzard's usual time from announcement to release.


Also... the one nice thing about this rumor/image is that we'll find out if it's got any veracity soon enough, thans to whatever SC Phoenix is, set for release in less than a year. If it's something big enough to be included on this list (where none of their books, comics, mangas, board games, are...) then Bliz has to be planning an announcement for it fairly soon. If there's nothing about any new SC side project, mobile phone ap, tv show, whatever... this list was fake.

[Autti]

Why do people say you can't release SC2 and Diablo 3 in the same quarter?

There is no basis that it will hurt each others sales.

For a start, they are entirely different game TYPES. Secondly, Blizzard fans will buy both anyway because hey, its a Blizzard game. Thirdly you can still release them 2 months apart in the same quarter.

The games aren't mutually exclusive, and lets face it, if people want them they will buy it eventually. It doesn't matter WHEN they buy it, just that buy it eventually.

Titan could be pencilled in for the announcement date, as Blizzard don't even know how long it will take to finish as they have barely begun work.

[fnwc]

Why do people say you can't release SC2 and Diablo 3 in the same quarter?

There is no basis that it will hurt each others sales.

There are people out there who do not have discretionary income and/or are dependent on others for buying games (e.g., children/teenagers).

As a result, they may only be able to get one or the other. As to whether or not they eventually buy both, who knows. A lot of people I know tend to buy only newer games... once the game has passed that initial threshold of being "newly released", the sales tend to drop off.

There is a reason that smaller publishers avoid releasing games on certain big release dates (COD, Halo, etc) even if their game has nothing in common.

[Autti]

There are people out there who do not have discretionary income and/or are dependent on others for buying games (e.g., children/teenagers).

Rubbish.

For a start, children and teenagers will just nag their parents until they buy it.

Secondly, its a one off purchase. 11 million people can afford their monthly wow subscription, yet you say they can't pay for 2 games in a quarter? Hah. Good joke.

[Sass]

15 dollars doesn't really compare to 120.

[fnwc]

Rubbish.

For a start, children and teenagers will just nag their parents until they buy it.

Secondly, its a one off purchase. 11 million people can afford their monthly wow subscription, yet you say they can't pay for 2 games in a quarter? Hah. Good joke.

So what you're saying is that when publishers don't stack release dates they're just.... stupid?

Ok.

[Autti]

So what you're saying is that when publishers don't stack release dates they're just.... stupid?

Ok.

Yes thats clearly what i said. Sigh, don't be an idiot and make a strawmen.

What im saying that 2 months apart won't affect sales in the long run.


15$ over how many months Sass?

[Darkmere]

Boub doesn't post unfounded data, I'm fairly certain at this point that he's a company sanctioned info leak, so it's plausible that the data was *reasonably accurate* for when this chart was made.

Really though, apart from a couple of related products that haven't been unveiled (Phoenix and ToG or TCG or whatever) all of this was stuff that's been hinted at before, with the same caveat that Blizz will release everything whenever they feel like it.

Don't get hyped for D3 until Flux is posting beta stuff after the NDA is lifted.

[Sass]

Yes thats clearly what i said. Sigh, don't be an idiot and make a strawmen.

What im saying that 2 months apart won't affect sales in the long run.


15$ over how many months Sass?

Doesn't matter. It isn't a lump sum like dealing with two titles is.

[CatchTwentyTwoRox]

A lot of people are claiming that Blizzard would (and by that, I don't mean just on this forum):

A) Not announce their NGMMORPG within a year and a half of its release, and
B) Release their NGMMORPG alongside WoW.

I would assume that the argument is that because no company wishes to cannibalize its product, the thought that Blizzard would cannibalize its WoW playerbase with "Titan" must be absurd. However, it isn't as absurd as you might think. Let me explain.

The gaming industry as a whole is highly competitive, as we all know. The MMORPG market is much more competitive, as developers are competing for consumers who are likely to only play one MMO at a time, and therefore the market requires a strategy which differs from, say Bioware's strategy with its RPGS. For example, Bioware would probably not release 2 RPGS at the same time, because each consumer who is interested will likely only purchase one of the two.

Now, how many MMOs have come out since WoW's release? Somewhere between 50 and 100, I'll guess. How many were successful? Maybe 4? And those were only mildly successful. This is why so many MMORPGs are coming out with free-to-play options. Most consumers are saying, "I don't want to pay $15 a month for that, but I'll play it if it's free, and if I get hooked enough I might purchase some of your additional content or store items."

Blizzard is already working on its NGMMORPG, and it realizes that in order to be successful, it must cannibalize its WoW sales. Anyone who thinks otherwise need only to realize that Titan is already in development and has been for some time, and that therefore, Blizzard will not be waiting until WoW is completely dead and gone to release Titan. If Blizzard does not cannibalize its own product's player base, the real WoW killer will step in and dominate the market for years to come.

Furthermore, Blizzard has an audience to which it will advertise Titan in many creative ways. They will show WoW players that the WoW killer has come. I am also fairly confident in saying that the focus groups Blizzard puts together will include mostly WoW players, because those are the people they want to immediately adopt Titan. Everyone else is icing on the cake.

The reasoning behind releasing Titan and a WoW expansion pack at the same time is that they will force players to choose between an old and dying game and their new and fresh game, with many more bells and whistles. Those WoW players whose computers can handle the NGMMORPG will likely switch, while those who don't have the hardware will purchase the expansion pack. This accomplishes a major goal, in fact. Blizzard won't have to worry about having to peel WoW players from a recently released expansion to a new game. If when I played WoW an expansion was released, and then shortly after something that could be considered a WoW killer was released, I would stick with the expansion pack, because I wouldn't have played through it to my satisfaction. Most WoW players, I think, would do the same. That's how MMOs die.

People might also not understand the reason for such a short time between announcement and release of Titan. It's all about the market. In the general video game (as in non-mmo) market, it might be difficult for a competitor to match another game and compete with it. General video games are more about the feel of the game, its features, graphics, play style. If a game is announced 3 - 4 years in advance, a competitor will have a difficult time matching features of the game. In the MMO market though, an early announcement which details features will result in every competitor, which is also in the development process at the time, attempting to match or improve upon certain features. A competitor will have a difficult time matching, improving upon and implementing features, in a playable way, in only a year and a half. One and a half years from announce to release is actually a GREAT strategic move on Blizzard's part.

I'm not saying that Blizzard is doing any of this, because my explanation of this strategy is based entirely on the assumption that the release schedule is legitimate. However, IF the schedule IS legitimate, this is a possible strategy to explain their reasoning. What I do want everyone to realize, though, is that there is more to strategy than the age old golden rule of "never cannibalize your company's product." In fact, there are plenty of instances of cannibalization in markets that would baffle those who don't understand the strategy behind the decision.