World of Warcraft is one of the most enduringly successful video games of all time. It’s been up and running–and generating monthly subscription revenue–for 20 years this month. But could developer Blizzard ever release a sequel instead of updating and expanding upon the existing game?
Game director Ion Hazzikostas told GamesRadar that at some distant point in the future, Blizzard might consider wiping the slate clean with a new game. But World of Warcraft 2 is not happening anytime soon, if it ever does.
“Theoretically, at some long, distant point down the line, that may be a question we grapple with seriously,” he said about the possibility of needing to start over with a sequel for the benefit of the game and community. “But, for the time being, we have a huge, vibrant, and growing player community that we’re excited to serve.”
Hazzikostas went on to say that what makes World of Warcraft so successful is how it’s reinvented itself again and again over the years from a technical perspective.
“We’re constantly tearing out some old foundational system and replacing it with something that will scale to support our new server architecture, to support new graphics pipelines, to support new aspects of multiplayer interaction that the original game couldn’t have imagined,” he said.
The priority for Blizzard right now is to “keep serving” the millions of players as best they can. “We are making the improvements that we think suit the modern audience best,” he said.
Plenty of live-service-style games have come out with sequels, including Overwatch, Destiny, and Counter-Strike, but World of Warcraft is sticking with what works for the time being.
Blizzard did, at one point long ago, attempt to make another MMO via its Titan project. It was ultimately canceled, however, and some of the work went on to materialize in Overwatch.
In addition to a sequel, some are wondering if Blizzard might bring WoW to console. Following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a Blizzard developer said the team was thinking about the possibility of putting the game on console. “It would be very insincere to say that we’re not, like… of course we’re talking about that,” WoW executive producer Holly Longdale said. “We are Microsoft now.”
WoW’s tenth expansion, The War Within, was released in August and GameSpot called it one of the game’s best yet. The War Within’s next major update goes full goblin mode.
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