As someone who grew up with Blizzard games being a staple of my childhood gaming experiences, the story behind Titan has always intrigued me. I remember hearing whispers about this mysterious MMORPG project back in the day and eagerly awaiting its release.
Around the middle to late 2000s, Blizzard Entertainment began developing a project called Titan. This upcoming game was intended to be another massively multiplayer online role-playing game from the creators of World of Warcraft (WoW), but it would feature an entirely unique and original game world.
Several accounts detail the game’s creation process, hidden challenges, and its surprising termination. However, much of this information was based on rumors.
Now, courtesy of Jason Schreier’s upcoming book “Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment,” we gain additional insights into the project’s history. In anticipation of the book’s release on October 8th, Polygon has shared some intriguing details from a chapter focusing on Titan and its development challenges, which will be published soon.
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The book indicates that Blizzard didn’t wish to wait for another game to emerge as a potential “WoW killer”. Instead, they aimed to create their own MMO to accomplish this feat while maintaining the same player community. There were discussions about developing a World of StarCraft game, but internally, it was believed that StarCraft could be adapted to fit within an MMORPG environment.
The decision was to then try something new.
Titan Team Started Small At Blizzard
Under the leadership of Blizzard Vice President Rob Pardo, the initial group working on Titan began modestly as a select band of top-tier developers. The ambition was to gradually attract the finest programmers, artists, and others to join this project. After a couple of years in development, it evolved into what could be considered an “elite team” or “dream team”.
The game was set on an alternate version of Earth in 2070 and was said to be “two games in one.”
According to the story in Polygon, players assume roles of characters who lead ordinary lives during the day but transform into superheroes fighting evil at night. An early demonstration featured a player character, a professional chef, putting a meal in the oven before departing on a secret assignment. Upon returning, the dish was perfectly cooked and ready to serve.
Playtests Had Concerns
During the playtesting phase, the game initially offered enjoyable solo experiences, yet finding its core gameplay loop consistently eluded the Titan team. The combat, featuring superhero classes and unique abilities, failed to maintain player engagement over time. Moreover, technical issues stemming from the custom technology built for Titan caused frequent lag or halts in development altogether, hindering the game’s progress.
Additionally, it wasn’t beneficial that during this period, Riot Games were recruiting developers from the project to focus on developing League of Legends, a game that was being developed around the same time (released in 2009).
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Concerning the game’s layout, it was mentioned that elements would frequently shift or be repositioned drastically. Additionally, there was a problem with an oversized database of artwork where artists might work on pieces unaware that they had previously been finished by someone else.
Finger Pointing From Titan Developers To Blizzard Leadership
During the challenging development process, team members on Titan eventually accused Pardo of being the cause. They described him as an “uninvolved project leader” because he was simultaneously managing StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3, leaving him with minimal time to guide the fresh IP.
During the course of the project, Pardo’s presence and absence seemed to fluctuate. When he was present and engaged, it frequently resulted in months of work being discarded because his involvement ceased after extended periods. This inconsistency left the development team feeling disheartened as Pardo would reject concepts for the game without providing explanations or suggestions for alternative directions.
2013 saw an internal announcement about the game’s planned reboot, which was later terminated in 2014.
A Costly Endeavour For Blizzard
Following the termination of Titan by Blizzard, it was reported that Pardo tended to place blame on others for the game’s shortcomings instead of acknowledging his own responsibility. This behavior eroded trust among higher-ups at Blizzard, causing several executives and directors to call for Pardo’s removal from a leadership role. Ultimately, Pardo took a break from the company after Titan was discontinued. However, he did not return, as he resigned from Blizzard upon request by then-CEO Mike Morhaime.
Essentially, the abandoned Titan venture set Blizzard back around $80 million. But instead of squandering all the work put into it, they reused several components and eventually transformed them into the game known as Overwatch.
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2024-10-02 18:48