This is the first part of our “Warcraft 4 rumors” series. In the next weeks we feature the hottest Warcraft 4 rumors available on the net.

In his detailed article Alex Taldren speculates about Blizzard’s future after World of Warcraft and the announcement of Starcraft 2. Futhermore he pictures interesting patterns in Blizzard’s development:

• It spends roughly 1-2 years between releasing games, expansion packs, and sequels
• It releases expansion packs to all of its games with the exception of only two
• It fully develops its story through sequels of the same genre type before switching genres
• Its franchises represent the “if it ain’t broken, then don’t fix it” motto
• It sticks to its PC gaming platform well while catering to Apple gamers

He thinks very pessimistically about another Warcraft sequel. From his point of view there isn’t a good chance for Warcraft 4, because of WoW and it’s characteristic as an MMO. He compares a MMO to “a series finale for a television show” and WoW is such a finale. Further he does a queer statement: “It would be hard to return to a franchise that currently has an ever-changing and continuing game.” But he seems not to think of, that a RTS game is completely different from a MMORPG.

This is definitely going to be a stretch, but what are the chances of Blizzard revisiting Warcraft with another RTS? Well, in reality, the chances are very, very poor. If they do revisit the Warcraft series it will probably be in the form of a World of Warcraft 2, but that won’t be until they draw out WoW with expansion packs.
I have one major and convincing reason as to why they won’t and can’t make another Warcraft RTS game, even if it is just for an extended period of time. The MMO is, without a doubt, an interesting genre to approach. One of the reasons for why World of Warcraft is so successful is because of the franchises development from Warcraft to Warcraft III. It is in my opinion that MMOs that are released as stand alone franchises that have no prior development are practically doomed from the start. While some MMOs get their development from movie franchises (Lord of the Rings Online and The Matrix Online), others get theirs from previous games (World of Warcraft), and the rest — the ones that do poorly overall — have no prior development. Regardless of this fact, however, the MMO genre should be classified as “the end genre.” Why? Well, think of it as a series finale for a television show. A series finale brings closure, but also brings an open-ended feeling. MMOs are usually defined as open-ended RPGs on a massive scale. The very nature of an MMO corresponds with that of a series finale. It would be hard to return to a franchise that currently has an ever-changing and continuing game.

source: Alex Taldren