Activision: Warcraft could become 'obselete'

Activision has warned that World Of Warcraft could become 'obsolete' due to advances in the way consumers play games.

[Raf1k1]

A bit silly IMO. Warcraft is a game franchise which can go in any direction the developers want it to go. I don't see how it could go 'obsolete' TBH.

If you're talking about a specific feature in a game then sure it could end up obsolete in the future but as a game there's very little chance that would happen as long as it continues to be fun to play. The same is true for any game whether it's a computer game or a play-ground game.

[toaster]

10 million WoW players disagree.

[ProjectVulcan]

Activision heres a message for ya, YOU could become obsolete ya morons

[darkmurder]

Just like Infinity Ward?

[Noctis Aftermath]

Your a bit slow Activision, why do you think blizzard has been working on a new MMO for a while now?

[Letros]

EQ style MMO's are on the way out, Blizzard knows this and wouldn't want to clone their own game anyway.

[Handhelds_FTW]

EQ style MMOs went out the second that WOW was release, its one of the primary reasons that it was so successful. Casual MMOs where unheard of until WOW should up.

Say what you will about WOW, but it offers the best PVE raid experience anywhere, WOW will be around for a very long time unless they pull the plug on it.

[Letros]

Casual or not WoW is an EQ clone in itself...not sure what you're smoking, you do know who Tigole is right? When I say they are on there way out, people are trying new things to reach new players, APB is one example, not everyone wants to do autoattack and 2223 all day long. SW:TOR is another example, some people actually play games for a story and not binary code items. And lolPvE now, its a joke and free loot, try raiding in vanilla when you had 40 mans.

[nycredude]

Activison talks a lot about other games and other companies and blah blah blah. IMO they should just STFU and concentrate on making game that are worth buyer and not Modern Glitchfest and casual music games every 6 months.

[moe84]

Yeah, I don't think Activision is giving Blizzards cash cow enough respect. WoW won't be going anywhere anytime soon. There isn't an mmo out there now, or in the near future that will make a dent worthy of reporting about in it's player base. True, nothing lasts forever. The only thing that will kill WoW, is WoW. My guess is, this will be a Blizzard decision.

[Corrwin]

Good luck to them, I'm not sure the average WoW Zombie would notice.

[Darkfiber]

Stupid thing for the company to say, but I personally hope it does. I'm sick of the only MMOs out there being WoW clones because that's what companies think MMO players want. It's not what MMO players want idiots, it's what WoW players want. Wake up and do some research. 90% of people who play WoW ONLY play WoW and have never and will never play an MMO. There are not that many MMO players out there, there are a lot of WoW players. Make games catering to the 10% of WoW players who actually will play other MMOs in their life time and stop wasting your time making sh*tty games trying to suck the other 90% of WoW players in. News flash: THEY AREN'T INTERESTED. They don't care about your game, they only care about WoW. The sooner you get that through your heads, the sooner we can have GOOD MMOs come out.

[moe84]

OT:
I've played a lot of mmos over the years. I can't honestly think of one that's a "clone" of WoW.

Please, don't tell me you're one of those idiots that are like "zomg, this new mmo has it's auto-attack button one the "1" key. Just like WoW... CLONE!!!!!!!"?

[silencedisturber]

I think what Darkfiber was trying to say, is that many MMO's out there are heavily based on the base of WoW. Only he forgot to mention WoW itself is ofcourse based on other games such as Ultima Online and EverQuest. (Or just check out the MMORPG-page on wikipedia for a full history on MMORPG's)

Then again, Darkfiber isn't really right about all MMORPG's being a copy of that concept. A game as EVE Online is different from a game as WoW. And a game as Age of Conen tries to bring innovative elements, although not executed too well. Besides this, there are always tekst-based MMORPG's that try to be creative such as Mafia Wars. (Although I've never played that game myself, so not too sure about the RPG-element herein).

OT:
I think it's only natural a company like Activision tries to think ahead and together with Blizzard, to sum up some risks their franchises may encounter. It helps making a game or franchise even better.

[dtalon3]

why the hell do these guys open their mouths about these kind of things...even more so when that franchise makes you TONS of money. Care to put anymore nails in your coffin activision?

BLIZZARD PLEASE GET THE F*CK AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY ASAP.
thank you.

[moe84]

Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the merger either. But what can you do?

[Mutley416]

yah...11 million subscribers, I`m sure they will figure out how to keep it going :D

It`s to bad StarTrek online got such bad reveiws-

[Montrealien]

Actually its to bad Star trek online is such a broken un finished mess.

[Llama]

silencedisturber, "WoW itself is ofcourse based on other games such as Ultima Online and EverQuest."

Don't bullshit me. Ultima is not based on grinding xp for levels like eq. Wow is a Eq clone. Ultima clones are few and far between, unfortunately.

[silencedisturber]

I didn't say Ultima was based on WoW. I just said that WoW was based on a game like Ultima. I even didn't say anything about that base being grinding or xp, 'cause there's a lot more to it. Ultima has certain aspects that are used in games like WoW. The skill tree is in some form based in the skill-based progression in Ultima Online. And I didn't even mention (any form of) PVP and the presence of a virtual economy.

Of course these games aren't one and the same, but there are just certain elements in Ultima wherein they were far ahead of Blizzard's WoW, and possibly far ahead of their time as well.

[Schade]

Blizzard is owned by Vivendi/Activision. They are commenting on a product in their portfolio and marketing research they have done regarding the long term viability of their product.

The merger with Vivendi and Activision happened in 2008 and at that time Blizzard was a subsidiary of Vivendi.

http://www.answers.com/topi...

[Montrealien]

you almost got it.

Blizzard is owned by Vivendi, Activision is owned by Vivendi, both Activision and Vivendi games who where owner of Blizzard, where merged in 2007 by Vivendi to form Activision Blizzard. They are both subsidiaries of Activision Blizzard who is owned by Vivendi.

sorry, I just did not like seing someone say that Blizzard was owned by Vivendi/activision when in truth both Activision and Blizzard are owned by Vivendi and they are both seperate Subsidiaries of Activision Blizzard.

[mittwaffen]

GO fuk yourselves

[Senden]

Someone tell me how activision are such big players in this industry? If they think world of warcraft is going to become obsolete, they really are stupid. It's just obsolete in their plastic shovelware mind.

[Volomon]

That's about as dumb as saying cars are going to be obsolete because a lot of people are using planes. The only thing they have in common is they are means of travel. Just like casual games and MMOs the only things they have in common are they are some form of entertainment. I have a hard time believing they even said something so dumb.

On another note though this is a fiscal report, they often say really dumb things like this. In order to manipulate the investors into believing in lower than expected results, then bam it's on quo or above, then that means Activision is doing the right thing in investors eyes. Otherwise they are just dumb.

[aGameDeveloper]

No, it's more like saying (in the 80's) that mainframes are becoming obsolete because a lot of people are buying personal computers - smaller, cheaper, easier to maintain, just as casual games are smaller, cheaper, easier to maintain...

Sure, mainframes stuck around for quite some time and were a profitable business, but their dominance over the computing market dwindled.

[aGameDeveloper]

If planes became smaller, cheaper and easier to drive (safer), I'd predict a loss of dominance of automobiles, as well.

[e-p-ayeaH]

lets hope right? i hate mmo´s

[swice]

Really? Maybe in like 5 or 6 years. Or never. And I don't even play it. It's an MMO staple and is paving the way for more. Remember EverQuest? As far as I know that series is still going...Fukc you Bobby K.

[magicwalnuts]

What Activision is talking about is dead on correct. Think about games on Facebook like Farmville, and games like it that also have iPhone counterparts. There are more and more persistant browser based online games popping up out there and in a few years they will most likely get sophisticated enough to rival WoW. Thus their fears of the game becoming obsolete.

However none of those games are designed by developers as dedicated to quality as Blizzard, and I think there will always be a sizeable market for not only Blizzard games in general, but for WoW and its successor... it just wont be the size that Activision would like it to be.