Tech and Talk > Gaming > PC gaming GAMES > Project Titan Rumors

Titan is not entirely a brand new IP and is also coming on XBOX + more. [rumor]
Jan 01 2013 05:43 PM | mynsc in News

We parse through many rumors / "leaks" on the Titan Focus forums, ranging from some that are completely bonkers, to a few that actually make us wonder "what if". This next one went through most of the stages in the few days we've been discussing it and since it proved to be quite solid and big, we thought it would be time to make it more visible.

As with any rumor, please keep in mind that this may be very well be false info, even if the evidence we've dug up seems to suggest otherwise.

Rumor contents (All credit for finding these messages goes to Slayer)

The following four quotes come from the NeoGAF forums and are made by a user there with the nickname alphaNoid. Over the last two - three years he has made many comments related to Project Titan. You can find all of them here, I'll just highlight the more interesting ones (although they're all worth reading for sure!)

alphaNoid
I will end with this tidbit though, Blizzard has been on record saying that Titan would be a new IP. Its not, its a spin off of an existing franchise ... and they're playing into that to allude to a new IP.
Its going to be what Blizzard fans want.

alphaNoid
All I'm going to say is Titan isn't technically a new IP, it is.. but it isn't. Its a spinoff of an existing Blizzard IP. Titan is the next Blizzard MMO, but its not Warcraft.

alphaNoid
FYI Titan just left the framework stage not long ago. Level designers and artists just got their hands involved recently. You probably won't see anything Titan related until closer to 2014.

alphaNoid
Nobody has dev kits? Thats 100% bullshit, considering my insider at Blizzard who is working on the Titan framework has had access to a near final "next Xbox" dev kit since November. He wont tell me the details, he can't and even eluding to the dev kit in general was a dog and pony show because he is under NDA personally signed. Next xbox dev kits are in the wild, whether or not they are final and the specs are another discussion but they are out there that I can say.

Summary + extra details:

•Titan is not a brand new IP, but a spin off based on one of the existing franchises (not Warcraft though). On HardForum (see next section for clarifiction) he actually mentions a "World of Diablo-like ... spin off", but this seems to be just his opinion and not something based on direct info. I think it's worth keeping in mind that BlackThorne resembles in a way the Diablo universe, so this might be an option too.

•Besides the PC version, which Rob Pardo confirmed during Blizzcon 2011 to be the main focus of the team, Titan is also being prepared for a launch on the next-gen version of the XBOX console. Here's another quote from Noid suggesting this.

theNoid
Also, what I'm getting at in a stealth manner is that the team working on Titan at Blizzard, the successor, the next MMORPG after WoW is now working on writing framework for the next Xbox in addition to PC. The only other thing I was told was that the SDK for the next Xbox is the best SDK they have ever worked with.

•Most of his messages point towards a late 2014, early 2015 launch. He was quite accurate when it comes to the Diablo 3 release date, even way back in 2010, so we should keep an open mind to his Titan prediction too.

As a small bonus, here's quite an interesting Starcraft 2 tidbit:

theNoid
No, incorrect. Starcraft 2 was delayed because they're reworking the code since they decided to remove LAN play. My coworker lives with one of the programmers at Blizzard, so this is legit info. Blizzard operates like a factory, step 1 in game development is the programmers coming in to build to groundwork for the game. When they're done, artists, level designers etc.. come in next, and then those programmers are moved to the next project.

In Starcraft 2's case, programmers were pulled from 'other' projects to come back to Starcraft 2 to rework the network design. Its coming Q1 2010.

Why do we trust alphaNoid? (All credit for finding this info goes to Rhaiden.)

Turns out he also frequents HardForum under the nickname theNoid. We know it's the same person thanks to a few of his posts on neoGAF, in which he mentions using theNoid as a nickname earlier on and also that he's an old user on HardForum.

And now for the interesting part. In July 2009, on HardForums, he had this to say:

theNoid
I can't go into too much detail, but a guy on my team lives with a code monkey who's working on Project Titan at Blizzard. This is their rumored successor to WoW, and is located in the Diablo wing of the building, higher security locked doors. Think Willy Wonka level access. Nobody comes in, nobody comes out.

Anywho, apparently the majority of the underlaying 'code' for Diablo 3 has been done for quite some time. Blizzard runs development like a factory line, where programmers hop from project to project as soon as that portion is done. Apparently the design team is now working on Diablo 3, where many of the Diablo 3 programmers have moved into the Project Titan area to begin working there. This means (or so I'm told) that the core work is done, Blizzard is layering in the other teams to finish the game.

My coworker told me about Starcraft 2 not having LAN over a year ago, and said the Diablo 3 decision was in place before the game began production. Blizzard is going to give you every excuse they can, but the bottom line is that the purposely left the feature out of the games to combat piracy and FORCE gamers to you know ... buy their game.

Also, expect subscription tiers for Battle.net over the next 5 years eventually leading to no free to play model in the far future.

My sources are nothing I can directly link, so don't believe them if you don't want to. It doesn't matter to me who cares, all I know is I haven't been led incorrectly yet. I've met, and shaken hands with the man.

This is now by far the first ever public mention of the "Project Titan" codename in relation to Blizzard's new MMO, coming way before the December 2010 product slate leak that clued us in. The post has not been later edited and has also been quoted at that time by others, so it's obvious that theNoid / alphaNoid does indeed have valid inside sources.

What we can't know is how accurate is the info he himself transmits to us. By analyzing some of his other remarks, mostly related to the people working on the framework of Titan, and comparing them with our known and quite trusty Timeline, we did find some inconsistencies. For example, at Blizzcon 2010 we've been told by Blizzard that there are around 50 people working on it, while he is mentioning

Its going to be what Blizzard fans want.

There's a ton more, but you'll have to read the rest over at TitanFocus.info

Lost Vikings MMO... I'm pumped!

After diablo 3 Im not holding my breath for anything blizzard ever makes anymore. Their games are bad until proven good, now.

I'd definitely play a StarCraft MMO.

I was so sad when they cancelled Ghost.

Anything Modern, combat-wise versus the ol' Board and Sword would be nice.

That sounds God awful knowing how MMO players work. You know that Dark Templar & Firebats will bitch about not having enough range, meanwhile Medics will complain that their Optic Flare doesn't do enough DPS.

marine + dragoon are ranged

zealot + firebat are melee basically

medic + templar are healer/magic caster

Dark templar + ghost are your stealthy rogues, one is ranged one is melee