World of Warcraft faces wily new opponents

Orcs, elves and 10 million paying subscribers: World of Warcraft is a PC gaming phenomenon. Three years since its release and the online game is still riding high, but could 2008 finally see it face some competition?

Blizzard, the creators of WoW, and their cleverly designed virtual world have blown the Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) genre wide open. Previously a niche gaming offshoot, it is now worth more than $1bn in the west alone.

World of Warcraft is primarily responsible for this growth, adding polish and accessibility to the rough template originally developed by pioneers like Everquest.

[Jen5en]

A lot of my fellow WoW'ers are talking about jumping on the Warhammer Online bandwagon when it arrives, but I really doubt it will even make a scratch in the Blizzard armor. WoW is so easy that a chimp could master it.

[KYU2130]

while it is still a few months off there is Stargate Worlds due out 3rd quarter with a beta starting early summer.

[Pain]

Will Get its Slap up side its head when Wahammer (the Real IP that blizz copyed) get released,

LOTS of fans and i mean LOTS play WoW for the likeness but will leave it faster then a chick with cooties~

600K+ is just for beta~

just watch WOW 'Will Be' a Shadow of what it was when WAR hits.

Believe It its Not even funny.

[Voiceofreason]

The Real IP they copied was Diablo2. Almost everything in Warcraft comes from Diablo2, except the classes. Skill trees were Diablo. How you repair and trade was diablo. ? and ! for quests was from Diablo.All they really did was take Diablo2 gameplay and add it to an open 3D world. Also dude I seriously doubt even 5% of wow gamers have even heard of Warhammer let alone play wow because of some resemblance. D&D is far bigger than Warhammer and that couldnt put a dent in WoW..600k for a beta is pretty low also.