Announcing a release date "would be irresponsible for two really good reasons", Riccitiello said. "One, the competitive marketplace. Putting a window out there creates a window of opportunity for our principal competitor to put out an expansion pack or an ad campaign et cetera around our launch window. Bad move at this point in time."

 EA's CEO John Riccitiello shared this at E3, pin-pointing obvious concern about Blizzard's marketing strategies. This would explain why TOR has a beta and is already accepting pre-orders but does not have a release date.

So, of any of the numerous MMOG's due to release in the coming year(Q4 2011, Q1 & Q2 2012), prominent one's being Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, and The Exiled Realm of Arborea(TERA), which MMO would "principle competitor" be more likely to aim this sort of business strategy towards, and why?

Some thoughts on the four I mentioned...

While TOR will most likely employ a similar business model (subscription based), it is science fiction and while being relatively more traditional than some of it's competitors, is standing to expand market share entirely by pulling single-player RPG/Bioware fans into the MMO scene rather than stealing market share from the "principle competitor". (If you don't look at the 800 pound gorilla in the room, maybe he'll just go away? lol)

While Guild Wars 2 is using a buy-to-play (buy the box and any expansions, no subscription fee, cash shop has non-game-changing and vanity items only) business model, it shares with WoW a high fantasy theme and stands to challenge the game design of traditional MMO's and the standard of subscription fees.

err... The Secret World's garnering a lot of hype. It's definitely not a game that anyone should ignore. It also does have a release date now, so "principle competitor" has a lot of time to prepare for snuffing this little guy out.

TERA, while apparently failing in it's country of origin, Korea, has been gaining steam for it's westernized release in North America by En Masse Entertainment. En Masse has some serious names behind it, and if TOR can be heralded for rehauling the 3 pillars of themepark MMOG's by adding story to create the 4th, then TERA can certainly recieve the same credit for rehauling combat. It is, truly, something that hasn't been seen in MMOG's quite as polished as it's been done in TERA and this is attractive to a lot of players who're fed-up with hotkey based MMO's, further worry for "principle competitor". 

Possible MMO's are not limited to this list, these are just some of the giants that are due to release at least within a year from now.

The question is not which would kill WoW, but rather, which Blizzard would more likely try to keep from recieving attention for any number of reasons. I would aslo like for this not to devolve into a flame-war between the games.

I'm not gonna poll in-case someone has another MMO they want to mention, and I really want an actual discussion.

Also: I looked, and I can not find a similar thread, but if this is a repost, sorry

I'm praying for either a Cyberpunk/Shadowrun type game or hardcore SciFi game.  EVE comes close to the latter and what it does, it does well, but it's far too narrow in scope to keep me interested.  I really hope that Blizzard dives into one of those genres and completely owns it.  If they release another fantasy game, I think I'll puke.

Originally posted by Unlight

I'm praying for either a Cyberpunk/Shadowrun type game or hardcore SciFi game.  EVE comes close to the latter and what it does, it does well, but it's far too narrow in scope to keep me interested.  I really hope that Blizzard dives into one of those genres and completely owns it.  If they release another fantasy game, I think I'll puke.

I think we're all praying for something like that, but that's not what we're going to get. I recall reading somewhere that Blizzard said their Titan project will be a 'social gaming experience'. This will likely stick it in the realm of Facebook games, though likely not on Facebook itself.

he gave two reasons   you only listed his 1st reason

his 2nd reason i believe is the REAL reason for no announcement

-- SWTOR is still being fine tuned in beta

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/306422/ea-revealing-the-old-republic-release-date-would-play-into-blizzards-hands/

Originally posted by Nadia

he gave two reasons   you only listed his 1st reason

 

his 2nd reason i believe is the REAL reason for no announcement

-- SWTOR is still being fine tuned in beta

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/306422/ea-revealing-the-old-republic-release-date-would-play-into-blizzards-hands/

 

 

Uhh, well, yeah, but I just sort of wanted to point out that kind of attack on other games due to release as a possible issue. Also, I didn't put the link, which I now feel stupid for but thank you for doing so.

A RvRvR MMO named world of starcraft!

The only game i will ever get from blizzard is starcraft 2. But, that is for a different thread i guess. I say any mmo will give it competition, the one it will aim to beat is well... every other one out there.

i understand EA's caution may be valid but there's nothing blizzard can do to eclipse the SWTOR launch

-- unless they gave early open beta access to Diablo 3 heh

IDk, but was HOPING they'd (Blizzard) would release a new MMO around the same time as SWTOR and GW2 so all the WoW players would flock there and not to SWTOR and GW2. Millions of subscriber's are not necessary to be successful...despite popular belief.

Originally posted by MorbidCurio

Originally posted by Unlight

I'm praying for either a Cyberpunk/Shadowrun type game or hardcore SciFi game.  EVE comes close to the latter and what it does, it does well, but it's far too narrow in scope to keep me interested.  I really hope that Blizzard dives into one of those genres and completely owns it.  If they release another fantasy game, I think I'll puke.

I think we're all praying for something like that, but that's not what we're going to get. I recall reading somewhere that Blizzard said their Titan project will be a 'social gaming experience'. This will likely stick it in the realm of Facebook games, though likely not on Facebook itself.

The term 'social gaming' is enough to make my stomach turn.  I hope this is incorrect and that Blizzard isn't really planning on selling their souls to the Facebook proles (angry poetry alert).  But I'm realistic/cynical enough to realize you're probably right.

Originally posted by Goatgod76

IDk, but was HOPING they'd (Blizzard) would release a new MMO around the same time as SWTOR and GW2 so all the WoW players woudl flock there and not to SWTOR and GW2. Millions of subscriber's are not necessary to be successful...despite popular belief.

Optimally, they would release a month later.  That way we both could get the box sales and the gibbering masses would leave for their promised land just a few weeks later.

Odds are likely Blizzard will be boosting promotions around every major title as they are released.  Be it free offers for returning players, extra rewards for those who stick with them, to new content or even F2P options.

They''ll agressively target MMO's such as SWTOR and GW2 for sure, SW is not nearly the player at this point in time though that could change next year.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Odds are likely Blizzard will be boosting promotions around every major title as they are released.  Be it free offers for returning players, extra rewards for those who stick with them, to new content or even F2P options.

They''ll agressively target MMO's such as SWTOR and GW2 for sure, SW is not nearly the player at this point in time though that could change next year.

SW ill be released during holiday season they've said.

Blizzard also stated that Deathwing will be the last boss of the expansion, and that is on 4.3 (they on 4.2 patch) since last raid patch was 4.2 in June,(21 june or something) Its pretty acceptable that they would release deathwing during holiday season, first patch lasted 6months and a half, looking more less at the same timeline here.

Originally posted by Fir3line

Originally posted by Kyleran

Odds are likely Blizzard will be boosting promotions around every major title as they are released.  Be it free offers for returning players, extra rewards for those who stick with them, to new content or even F2P options.

They''ll agressively target MMO's such as SWTOR and GW2 for sure, SW is not nearly the player at this point in time though that could change next year.

SW ill be released during holiday season they've said.

Blizzard also stated that Deathwing will be the last boss of the expansion, and that is on 4.3 (they on 4.2 patch) since last raid patch was 4.2 in June,(21 june or something) Its pretty acceptable that they would release deathwing during holiday season, first patch lasted 6months and a half, looking more less at the same timeline here.

I think he meant The Secret World. lol Which has a release date like April 21st or something?

Originally posted by Fir3line

Originally posted by Kyleran

Odds are likely Blizzard will be boosting promotions around every major title as they are released.  Be it free offers for returning players, extra rewards for those who stick with them, to new content or even F2P options.

They''ll agressively target MMO's such as SWTOR and GW2 for sure, SW is not nearly the player at this point in time though that could change next year.

SW ill be released during holiday season they've said.

Blizzard also stated that Deathwing will be the last boss of the expansion, and that is on 4.3 (they on 4.2 patch) since last raid patch was 4.2 in June,(21 june or something) Its pretty acceptable that they would release deathwing during holiday season, first patch lasted 6months and a half, looking more less at the same timeline here.

i think what Ky meant by SW was The Secret World.

But when it comes to any new game entering the market, no matter how trivial the release is to Blizzard, they always have something up thier sleeves to attempt grabbing some spotlight and grabbing the attention of players who may be looking for a new game.

Originally posted by fyerwall

Originally posted by Fir3line

Originally posted by Kyleran

Odds are likely Blizzard will be boosting promotions around every major title as they are released.  Be it free offers for returning players, extra rewards for those who stick with them, to new content or even F2P options.

They''ll agressively target MMO's such as SWTOR and GW2 for sure, SW is not nearly the player at this point in time though that could change next year.

SW ill be released during holiday season they've said.

Blizzard also stated that Deathwing will be the last boss of the expansion, and that is on 4.3 (they on 4.2 patch) since last raid patch was 4.2 in June,(21 june or something) Its pretty acceptable that they would release deathwing during holiday season, first patch lasted 6months and a half, looking more less at the same timeline here.

i think what Ky meant by SW was The Secret World.

But when it comes to any new game entering the market, no matter how trivial the release is to Blizzard, they always have something up thier sleeves to attempt grabbing some spotlight and grabbing the attention of players who may be looking for a new game.

Yes, I meant Secret World and you did a much better job than I did stating that Blizzard will attempt to meet all new launches with marketing responses which EA most defintiely realizes hence they're keeping the launch date a big secret.

World of Sanctuary...

Blizzard has been sitting on the Diablo 3 beta for over a year now, waiting for an opportune time to open it to the general public to pull attention away from SWTOR.

Originally posted by fyerwall

when it comes to any new game entering the market, no matter how trivial the release is to Blizzard, they always have something up thier sleeves to attempt grabbing some spotlight and grabbing the attention of players who may be looking for a new game.

I dont recall Blizzard doing anything when RIFT launched

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by fyerwall

when it comes to any new game entering the market, no matter how trivial the release is to Blizzard, they always have something up thier sleeves to attempt grabbing some spotlight and grabbing the attention of players who may be looking for a new game.

I dont recall Blizzard doing anything when RIFT launched

There was a patch I believe that came a bit after the launch of Rift, but Rift did launch within a few months of Cataclysm, for which Blizzard did send out a bunch of "Come Back and try Cataclysm free" emails. 

Usually with Blizzards giant gaps in expansions, they do tend to time major content updates to coincide with the launches of newer MMOs. When an MMO launches near the release of a WoW expansion, Blizzard assumes the expansion will have enough pull on its own to sway players from leaving. It usually works, it did with BC and Wrath, but Cataclysm seemed to fall short in many peoples eyes and was pretty much 'old' once Rift hit shelves.