The Agony of Cancellation

Image courtesy of Blizzard 

Last week, news broke that Titan, Blizzard's long in development MMO, was finally cancelled. Many fans of the developer were disappointed at the news, though not entirely shocked, as very little was revealed about the game following its unveiling back in 2007. Perhaps the most striking news to come out of Titan's cancellation was the fact that it will end up costing Blizzard over $50 million, a result of the company halting development so late into its development cycle.

For most development companies, canceling a major project as far along as Titan would spell certain doom, but Blizzard is a large and profitable enough company that a $50 million loss will barely leave a dent. Canceling a major game is nothing new to the industry; in fact, it has happened at Blizzard before. It was obvious that Blizzard was putting a lot of faith and resources into Titan, and to have it see this end is a major letdown for the company and its gaming faithful. Titan was poised to be the next big MMO from Blizzard, following in the hugely successful shoes of World of Warcraft. There is no doubt in my mind that Blizzard will eventually try its hand at making a new MMO in the future, but for now, they should take a step back and start over.

According to Blizzard co-founder and President Mike Morhaime, the company set out to create an incredibly ambitious game, and after years of development felt that nothing came together the way the team intended, thus prompting its cancellation. I totally can agree with the decision to cancel a game if it does not match the developer's ambitions and goals, no matter how much money and time was put into it. I just cannot believe that it took seven years for Blizzard to realize that the game they were making was not up to their standards. Perhaps they started over numerous times or tweaked aspects of it multiple times to try to salvage it, but they should have seen the signs much sooner. I feel the worst for the development team behind the game, as it must feel awfully terrible to have all of hours upon hours of hard work they put into a game be wasted. I am sure that they will lick their wounds and start over again, but the sting of a failed project is something that will stick with them for awhile.

Chris Metzen, Blizzard's Senior VP of Story and Franchise Development, said that the team "lost perspective" and had to allow themselves to take a step back and reassess why they were making the game in the first place. Metzen added that canceling a game is never easy, but that all of their failed projects resulted in the team learning from mistakes and delivering higher-quality on the next go-around. Even in the wake of Titan's cancellation, there are signs that Blizzard is putting things into perspective. Their free-to-play collectible card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has been received extremely well and serves as a prime example that Blizzard can make great games on a smaller scale, and that they do not have to swing for the fences every time.

Blizzard thought that they had to make a game comparable to World of Warcraft, but ended up biting off more than they could chew. This is a lesson all game development studios should take note of: ambition is always great, but never let it get in the way of making a great game. If you know deep down that the game you are making is not good, please do not hesitate to cancel it. Releasing a bad or unfinished game is much, much worse than not releasing one at all.