Call Of Duty RTS and ‘sci-fi Diablo’ amongst 17 cancelled Blizzard games you’ll never get to play-Kenneth Andersen-Entertainment – Metro

The Blizzard headquarters (Blizzard Entertainment)

Warcraft 4 is probably never happening, but far more games than that have been cancelled by Blizzard over the years, including a Call Of Duty real-time strategy title.

Previously unknown details about Activision Blizzard have been pouring out all week, as industry insider Jason Schreier promotes his upcoming book about the company.

Schreier recently revealed that there is a StarCraft shooter in the works, and also talked about the ridiculous ambitions of former CEO Bobby Kotick, who wanted a new Guitar Hero launch every month.

The revelations keep coming though, as the insider has given new details about a huge list of cancelled Blizzard games, and why Warcraft 4 is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Why doesn’t Blizzard make RTS anymore?

In an interview with YouTube channel MinnMax, one of the hosts went through a long list of cancelled or rumoured Blizzard games, while Schreier gave his input about what he knows about them.

After Schreier had also added other titles he knew about, and which had been axed, the list grew to a total of 17.

The most interesting ones included a Call Of Duty real-time strategy game, a Star Wars project that eventually transformed into Starcraft, and a project that was in development for two years that was basically Minecraft but in the Warcraft universe.

Now imagine Minecraft in the Warcraft universe (Mojang Studios)

Schreier said that when production director on Starcraft 2, Tim Morten, realised that Blizzard wasn’t going to do more content for it, he pitched ‘all sort of ideas’ for a new real-time strategy game.

‘Including at one point, I think out of desperation, he was like, ‘Hey, I want to make a RTS so badly we can do it on Call Of Duty if that’s what it’ll take to do this thing.’

Schreier revealed that the reason Blizzard didn’t greenlight another real-time strategy game during that time was partly because the executives had ‘lost faith’ in the genre.

He also mentioned an ‘opportunity’ Blizzard had to do a Star Wars game, but said that the CEO of LucasArts told him he didn’t remember such a thing. Schreier also said that the project got to the point of concepting AT-ATs ‘in Blizzard isometric form’, but didn’t go much further.

Schreier also mentioned a previously unknown, cancelled game called Avalon, which was essentially Warcraft and Minecraft put together, and described to him as ‘incredibly fun to play.’

It was axed in 2015, after two years in development, and, without going into further detail, Schreier thought it sounded like Dragon Quest Builders.

Another game that never materialised, at least yet, is a Warcraft 3 sequel, and Schreier was asked on Reddit about how likely it is we’ll see Warcraft 4 any time soon.

Again, he mentioned that there was little appetite for real-time strategy games among the executives, but that there was hope a sequel could happen if Warcraft 3: Reforged did well.

That was the opposite of what happened, but Schreier added: ‘Maybe under Xbox there’s room for a small team to work on a RTS and release it on Game Pass or something, but these days, who knows.’

This leaked concept art is thought to be for Project Titan but it does sound anything like Schreier’s description (TweakTown)

What was Blizzard’s Project Titan?

The most famous of all cancelled Blizzard games is the massively multiplayer online project codenamed Titan, which Schreier said would’ve been a cosy game style experience like The Sims or Animal Crossing during the day and would have had you fighting crime as a superhero at night.

It was intended as a rival to World Of Warcraft, so that Blizzard didn’t end up with all its eggs in one basket, but in the end it wasted not just money but time.

‘It cost the company $80 million, as well as six or seven years of opportunity costs, and potential other projects that were lost along the way,’ reveals Schreier.

Although 17 (18 if you include Titan) is a lot, none of this is very unusual for a developer of Blizzard’s size and it’s true that for the industry as a whole far more games are cancelled than are ever released, although few make it into full development before being shut down.

Will there ever be another Warcraft sequel? (Blizzard Entertainment)

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