Blizzard Delays "Titan" Next-Gen MMO

Blizzard Entertainment, developer of the long-running "Warcraft," "Starcraft" and "Diablo" series, announced that its next-generation MMO, codenamed "Titan," would be delayed until 2016 at the earliest, according to VentureBeat.

Blizzard is essentially starting from scratch, after reports indicate that the number of staff working on Titan was slashed from 100 to 30. Blizzard spokesperson Shon Damron addressed the issue in a statement.

"We’ve always had a highly iterative development process, and the unannounced MMO is no exception. We’ve come to a point where we need to make some large design and technology changes to the game. We’re using this opportunity to shift some of our resources to assist with other projects while the core team adapts our technology and tools to accommodate these new changes. Note that we haven’t announced any dates for the MMO," Damron said. At this point, Blizzard has seven openings for a project labeled "Next-Gen MMO" on its job page.

Back in 2011, Blizzard COO Paul Sams stated that the new MMO was already playable.

"We're playing it already. It is a total ball to play," Sams said. "We think that the reach of that product is greater than anything that we've done before. We're very excited about that. I believe that it's the type of game that will have a very long life, much like World of Warcraft has."

Considering the amount of time and money that Blizzard has invested in "Titan," it will have to lean on "World of Warcraft" more than ever. Blizzard intends to do just that, with Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick stating that the company plans to create new "WoW" content faster in an earnings call on May 9.

What do you think of Titan's delay? Are you upset? What do you think Titan could be? Could it be a sequel to "WoW?" What about a "Starcraft" or "Diablo" MMO? Sound off in the comments below.