The Unreleased Blizzard MMO That Was A Huge Letdown For The Company
On one hand, Blizzard is known for producing smash hit after smash hit. From turning the poorly received Diablo 3 into a critical success to the massive sales numbers Overwatch achieved in its first year of availability, Blizzard has more or less defined itself as a company by a generally high level of quality shared across its releases.
On the other hand, meeting that standard of quality has meant that some of its planned projects over the years have ultimately been shelved prior to their completion. This includes two shooters set in the StarCraft universe: a third-person stealth adventure called StarCraft: Ghost and a Battlefield-like first-person shooter code-named "Ares."
The list of canceled Blizzard titles also includes Titan. Blizzard had already created a massively successful and genre-redefining MMORPG with World of Warcraft, so following it up with a new MMO set in an original fictional universe would have been an understandable progression for the company. Rather than becoming yet another smash hit, however, Titan was relegated to the company's ever-growing list of titles canceled midway into development.
Ambition doesn't always equal success
On paper, the premise for Titan sounds unlike virtually any other single game. Its gameplay was described in an article on Kotaku by author Jason Schreier, who was able to glean some details from anonymous sources who worked on the game, which was split into two distinct types. It was life sim of sorts that would see players working everyday jobs during the daytime, while at night, players would enter into combat against enemy forces in its sci-fi world.
Titan's development ultimately lasted for seven years before employees at Blizzard decided that it was overall not the game they wanted to be creating.
Though Titan was ultimately scrapped, elements of its design were carried over to Overwatch. Without official word from Blizzard employees, it's impossible to know just what percentage of Overwatch was originally intended for Titan. However, given that some assets were morphed into Blizzard's latest hit rather than shelved entirely, it's unlikely that Titan will ever undergo any sort of revival, remaining a mere what-if in the company's history.