Blizzard Cancels Project Titan, Developers 'Didn't Find The Fun'

Blizzard Entertainment Inc. officially announced Tuesday that “Titan,” the code name for its second massively multiplayer online game, is no more. The Irvine, California-based video game developer canceled the title after at least seven years in development.

"We didn't find the fun," Blizzard co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime told Polygon. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a re-evaluation period, and actually, what we re-evaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."

Blizzard never actually confirmed the development of “Titan,” though it’s discussed the game at various points during the past seven years.

"We had created ‘World of Warcraft,’ and we felt really confident that we knew how to make MMOs," Morhaime added. "So we set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine. And it didn't come together.”

Crafting a second, next-generation MMO was a reasonable next step for Blizzard, especially after the massive success its first MMO, “World of Warcraft,” received. The 2004 game has been going strong for more than a decade, with more than 100 million accounts in 244 countries and territories.

"The discipline of knowing when to quit is important," Chris Metzen, Blizzard’s senior vice president, said during the same interview. "We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place."

One of the main factors in the game’s cancellation has to do with the success of “World of Warcraft,” which continues to be the most lucrative MMO game of all time.

"We were trying to do the right thing and build the right, smart product, and keep it all moving," Metzen explained. "The opportunity to get that perspective and dust off a little bit, scraped knees and all, stand back up and re-evaluate as a team, as leaders, as a culture — it was a big blessing."

Blizzard is also known for a number of other popular games, such as “Diablo III,” “Starcraft,” and “Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.”

"Is this really who we are?" Metzen asked. "Is this really what we want? Is this really what we want to burn our passion and our work lives, our careers on, for years on end? Are we that MMORPG company?”

Metzen also felt that the company’s creative difficulties with “Titan” may have been a sign that the game just wasn’t working.

"We took a step back and realized that it had some cool hooks. It definitely had some merit as a big, broad idea, but it didn't come together. It did not distill. The music did not flow. For all our good intentions and our experience and the pure craftsmanship that we brought together, we had to make that call,” he said.

Once the news broke, a number of users expressed their disappointment on Twitter.

Will Blizzard eventually be interested in creating a second MMO?

"I wouldn't say no to ever doing an MMO again," Morhaime said. "But I can say that right now, that's not where we want to be spending our time."