Kod:
http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/activision_blizzard_slips_plans_for_more_diablo_games/#comments
Cytuj:
Activision Blizzard released their Form 10-K Annual Report for the fiscal year ended on December 31, 2009 to inform their investors several strategies to milk [increase the revenue] of all the franchises across their portfolio.
While not all players know much of finances, NASDAQ, or Exchange Commision babble, this fiscal year report slipped an interesting clue at what's cooking behind the neosteel-reinforced walls of Blizzard Entertainment.
The overview section of this Activision Blizzard investors document might imply the Irvine studios has more than one Diablo game on its tinker table. In short, Diablo III might not be the only Diablo game in development, or there are early plans for more in the future. Here is an excerpt from the report released on March 1, 2010.
"Blizzard has released two expansion packs to World of Warcraft; World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard is currently developing new games, including a new expansion pack to the World of Warcraft franchise , Cataclysm , StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, which will be released with the new and improved Battle.net, and [sequels] to the Diablo franchise."
There is another quote that commits to produce more MMOs in order to retain the customer base amd to prevent them from moving on to one of the competitors.
In the past, some players have theorized Blizzard would never cannibalize their own MMO flagship, World of Warcraft, but more than cannibilize, they would be retaining and recycling their own subscribers; while at the same time cross-promoting their porfolio of games through the new Battle.net built from the ground up to interlace all their game communities into a single solid one with social-networking in mind. Here is another quote from the Activision Blizzard report:
"To remain the leader in the MMORPG category, it is important that we continue to refresh World of Warcraft or [develop new MMORPG products] that are favorably received by both our existing customer base and new customers."
Blizzard Entertainment is currently developing a Next-Gen MMO that hasn't been officially titled nor unveiled. It's likely to be announced in a future Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. Both, Starcraft II and Diablo III, were formerly unveiled there, and Blizzard offered a playable demo at BlizzCon.
The nature of the Next-Gen MMO is unknown, but Blizzard has stated its experience and gameplay differs from what players are accustomed in World of Warcraft, enough to make them two different beasts that would hardly compete with each other.
Blizzard Entertainment is currently developing five games:
1. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
2. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
3. Diablo III
4. Untitled Next-Gen MMO
5. Brand-new IP game (unofficially confirmed to IncGamers a few months ago to be using the World of Warcraft engine for testing purposes until they hire a programmer to craft its own engine. Some might speculate it's a third MMO).
Blizzard Entertainment, among other things, is known for expanding the experience immersion of their customer base by licensing their IPs and co-developing the stories. Blizzard's Creative Design team, led by Chris Metzen and Mickey Neilson, and companies such as Pocket Books, TOKYOPOP and Wildstorm work together to bring the WarCraft, StarCraft and Diablo universes to the novels, mangas and comic books markets.
These are not products based on stand-alone stories separate from the games. Blizzard actually make these stories tie-in with the games' upcoming content. Once these novels go on sale, months later the developers introduce the characters and plots of these books into the game.