It would make sense for Blizzard to build "a new generation" of tools and servers, that can also enhance his current game. 

I mean... a very conservative option is to make incremental enhancements of the wow tools and servers. Not create something from scratch.   This will limit what a new "unanounced MMO" can do, but also mean any dollar invested in that unanounced mmo is also invested in wow, so is not wasted, even if that unanounced mmo is not released. 

This may also helps mantain his people "sharp" and intelligent.  It would be sad (for a company) see his more bright people rot and become obsolete.  

But thats is a "worst case scenario".

Three bits I've read before on this:

1. Blizzard iirc started recruiting talent for their new MMO nearly two years ago.

2. Blizzard has come out on record (well, someone there has) that the next MMO will be designed to focus on a broader cross-gender appeal. It was basically Blizzard saying, "wow, look at the number of women playing our game. If we managed to make it appeal more broadly, we might be able to snag even more female gamers." Which has left me wondering what the next MMO is going to look like, because the only thing they need to add to get my wife playing is male elves without shirts. She, however, is not your typical gamer grrl, so Hello Kitty and farmville do not appeal to her (much).

If the next-gen MMO even smells like farmville touched it I will be very unhappy, let me tell you...

3. The new MMO will be a new property, and will be unrelated to their existing franchises (WoW, Diablo and Starcraft).

Anyway, that's absolutely the only info I've seen in the last year and a half on Blizzard's new MMO. I'm not holding my breath, though. Their development schedule is so slow I expect to see the first previews sometime around 2013 or so.

With many rumors floating about, I've read more than once that the next Blizzard mmo will be more of a TPS...similarly styled as Global Agenda or Tabula Rasa. Of course, I always take all rumor with a grain of salt, but if they are indeed making a TPS style game and if it's combined with Palladium's Rifts game (which may also be why Palladium is going after that other "Rifts" mmorpg), then it would meet two of the standards Blizzard has stated.

New IP, for Blizzard at least.

Reach a wider audience: Rifts blends sci-fi and fantasy quite well, in setting. High technology and high magic along with classic mythology of vampires, werewolves, dragons, demons, etc. Palladium's Rifts touches on a little bit of everything. What wider audience could you reach by blending sci-fi and fantasy? High tech enough for those who seek a sci-fi experience, but also heavy fantasy for those who want to be in a world of magic.

Again...this is all speculation until we see something concrete, but it is interesting to ponder. I'd love to be a Glitter Boy in a mmorpg ;)

Sex and the City Online...

Mostly girls play, and you know that guys are only playing because their girlfriends make them.

Originally posted by Hydeke

Sex and the City Online...

Mostly girls play, and you know that guys are only playing because their girlfriends make them.

Nah, that's too old to market anymore.

I think they would probably go with Gilmore Girls, where you have to type faster than 80 words a minute, and none of it is allowed to make sense or be funny.

Then again, maybe Grey's Anatomy... but that would require men to tuck their balls back in prior to playing. Not to comfortable that.

House MD Online.

I'll be the reason you get patients.

Originally posted by Gythe1st

 

Now this is rumor till I hear some sort of confromation but, There was a blurb my friend had discussed with me that Blizzard had a Mr. Kevin Siembieda at their offices with open arms and praised him like a king. FOr those of you who don't know who that jolly chap is he is the Creator of the Table top rpg known as Palladium also Rifts, Nightbane(nightspawn) Heroes unlimited.

Now kevin years ago had sworn out Electronic rpgs in the sence that he would never sell out his franchise to any gaming company. Well times change and things change too. If he did in fact change his mind and is in fact making a pact with Blizzard I see many many years of money out the door and into a virtual world. This rumor would be a sci-fi world as also a rumored genre in production by blizz. Kevin's compatible worlds would make for a system so Vast and potentially huge it would provide a game system large enough to go on for 20 years at least.

I do really really want this rumor to be true.

Is there anyone out there that may have heard this or could validate any of this information?

Please let me know your thoughts. 

PLease let it be true I'll so I can take my Miscreant Head hunter or Glitter boy on the road!

There is a problem with this theory is that blizzard been working on this new MMO.

 

Originally posted by MMOExposed

Originally posted by Gythe1st

 

There is a problem with this theory is that blizzard been working on this new MMO.

shouldnt be a problem to work on a games mechanics for 2 years, then decide for the skin its going to wearlater ;
 

Originally posted by MMOExposed

Originally posted by Gythe1st

 

Now this is rumor till I hear some sort of confromation but, There was a blurb my friend had discussed with me that Blizzard had a Mr. Kevin Siembieda at their offices with open arms and praised him like a king. FOr those of you who don't know who that jolly chap is he is the Creator of the Table top rpg known as Palladium also Rifts, Nightbane(nightspawn) Heroes unlimited.

Now kevin years ago had sworn out Electronic rpgs in the sence that he would never sell out his franchise to any gaming company. Well times change and things change too. If he did in fact change his mind and is in fact making a pact with Blizzard I see many many years of money out the door and into a virtual world. This rumor would be a sci-fi world as also a rumored genre in production by blizz. Kevin's compatible worlds would make for a system so Vast and potentially huge it would provide a game system large enough to go on for 20 years at least.

I do really really want this rumor to be true.

Is there anyone out there that may have heard this or could validate any of this information?

Please let me know your thoughts. 

PLease let it be true I'll so I can take my Miscreant Head hunter or Glitter boy on the road!

There is a problem with this theory is that blizzard been working on this new MMO.

 

 It would be highly unlikely that Blizzard didn't aleady have a setting, direction and design team working on a unique property. Even if it feels derivative, I don't see Blizzard wanting to pay out licensing fees to Palladium Games, which in this industry would be comparable to George Lucas signing a contract with youtbue's "Star Wars Guy."

Think of it this way: Blizzard made WoW a success without licensing anything, and WoW is an unadulterated pastiche of Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer (the tabletop version). Hell, the original Blizzard founders based the RTS lore off of their D&D campaign, as I understand it. There are a million "borrowed" elements in WoW from D&D....but it's still sufficiently different that it was doable without a license. So who knows....maybe Blizzard's MMO #2 might be a bit "Rifty" if we're all lucky enough...

But yeah, I'd love to play a Rifts MMO too...Glitterboy ftw!

It's probably something quite unlike WoW or other popular actual MMO's out. What if it's more like Free realms? lol :(

Maybe Blizzard are making Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Online!

Originally posted by gandales

Imho, there is no actual new blizzard mmo, at least nothing concrete. Blizzard has little to win and a lot to lose by releasing another mmo.

1. If it is actually good, it will probably suck most of its subscribers from wow. 

2. If by chance is bad, it will hurt blizzard reputation and even take a chuck of wow subscribers off. 

So, until wow shows clear signs of serious declining I think they won't go seriously to work on another mmo project.

They have already stated that they are working on a new mmo that will be a unique IP.

Also, if you follow WoW, you probably already know that much of their "A" team that worked on WoW have already been moved from WoW to the new mmo project.

Blizzard has never really been the type to just sit around and let the money flow in.  They always have had games in development.

Originally posted by TheHavok

Blizzard has never really been the type to just sit around and let the money flow in.  They always have had games in development.

Yes, but i don't know any other developer that takes it's sweet time on anything like they do. Methinks they are all too busy in their private gym, basketball courts and other things to do any actual work. It's what happens when you treat your employees like prized kobe beef.

I figured the activision merger would expedite the process, but they probably cry like union workers over everything. EA would be seething if one of their developers couldn't pop something out in a 1-2 year timeframe, and here Blizzard hasn't released anything non-WoW related in many, many years. The work put into WoW doesn't even justify how much they make from it.

I know it's been trounced as not being in the cards for them to make a Starcraft mmorpg still seems surprising to me that they wouldn't consider it.

The game isn't my cup of tea but considering the following Starcraft has it seems like it would be a guaranteed success for them if they did make one.

Originally posted by Tyrranosaur

Originally posted by MMOExposed

Originally posted by Gythe1st

 

Now this is rumor till I hear some sort of confromation but, There was a blurb my friend had discussed with me that Blizzard had a Mr. Kevin Siembieda at their offices with open arms and praised him like a king. FOr those of you who don't know who that jolly chap is he is the Creator of the Table top rpg known as Palladium also Rifts, Nightbane(nightspawn) Heroes unlimited.

Now kevin years ago had sworn out Electronic rpgs in the sence that he would never sell out his franchise to any gaming company. Well times change and things change too. If he did in fact change his mind and is in fact making a pact with Blizzard I see many many years of money out the door and into a virtual world. This rumor would be a sci-fi world as also a rumored genre in production by blizz. Kevin's compatible worlds would make for a system so Vast and potentially huge it would provide a game system large enough to go on for 20 years at least.

I do really really want this rumor to be true.

Is there anyone out there that may have heard this or could validate any of this information?

Please let me know your thoughts. 

PLease let it be true I'll so I can take my Miscreant Head hunter or Glitter boy on the road!

There is a problem with this theory is that blizzard been working on this new MMO.

 

 It would be highly unlikely that Blizzard didn't aleady have a setting, direction and design team working on a unique property. Even if it feels derivative, I don't see Blizzard wanting to pay out licensing fees to Palladium Games, which in this industry would be comparable to George Lucas signing a contract with youtbue's "Star Wars Guy."

Think of it this way: Blizzard made WoW a success without licensing anything, and WoW is an unadulterated pastiche of Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer (the tabletop version). Hell, the original Blizzard founders based the RTS lore off of their D&D campaign, as I understand it. There are a million "borrowed" elements in WoW from D&D....but it's still sufficiently different that it was doable without a license. So who knows....maybe Blizzard's MMO #2 might be a bit "Rifty" if we're all lucky enough...

But yeah, I'd love to play a Rifts MMO too...Glitterboy ftw!

I agree with this. Blizzard said their next gen MMO will based on new IP,

and they stated that its best for their new MMO's IP be based on something that can be Designed for a MMO unlike how WoW started (Which many Retcon had to take place because of past lore that didnt fit a MMO)

Basically we know

1. Blizzard has their topguns (including Tigole as lead designer) working on it
2. they want an even broader audience --> endless dumbed down
3. not based around Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo
4. Kotick wants a fee based CoD-MMO

Originally posted by DerWotan

Basically we know

 

1. Blizzard has their topguns (including Tigole as lead designer) working on it
2. they want an even broader audience --> endless dumbed down
3. not based around Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo
4. Kotick wants a fee based CoD-MMO

 

Based on that my bet would be on a Call of Duty MMO with cash shop and monthly fee.

No, they would hand it off to Treyarch and have the WoW's IT team hop in.

Besides, they wouldn't let their IP's jump ship like that, and it's already stated it will be something new (even though I find that hard to believe seeing how Blizzard only knows how to remake their original flagship games).

They need to officialy announce this game by this year's Blizzcon before WoW becomes stale.

Originally posted by DerWotan

Basically we know

 

1. Blizzard has their topguns (including Tigole as lead designer) working on it

Tigole is a moron and an mmo ruiner.  He came in and basically turned WoW to crap.  If this is true then I have little hope for this new mmo.  It will just be a gear treadmill and 50 elitist snobs pretending to be important while screaming server first and looking at purple text.

Originally posted by Terikan3

Originally posted by DerWotan

Basically we know

 

1. Blizzard has their topguns (including Tigole as lead designer) working on it

Tigole is a moron and an mmo ruiner.  He came in and basically turned WoW to crap.  If this is true then I have little hope for this new mmo.  It will just be a gear treadmill and 50 elitist snobs pretending to be important while screaming server first and looking at purple text.

Turned WoW to crap? He worked on WoW from the very beginning.