As we all know, Drysc (aka Bashiok) first "officially" referenced Blizzard's Next Gen MMO on December 2007 (while recruiting had put out job postings during the previous April.)

"No, it is an unannounced next-gen MMO," said the rep. "And that doesn't mean an expansion for World of Warcraft either."

Sam "Slouken" Lantinga was hired as a technical lead "on a small unannounced project that was getting underway" in January 2009.

He never mentioned "next gen MMO" or "Titan" of course, but the next mystery "Untitled Project" was rumored to have started in 2009 as well.

During March 2009, Sam mentioned on his blog that he started hiring for the most urgent engineering positions.

On March 9, 2009, Sam posted on the SDL Mailing List that he was the Engineering Lead on a new Unannounced Project, and that they were looking for developers.

Hey guys, I'm engineering lead on a brand new unannounced project and we just opened two positions:
http://www.blizzard.com/us/jobopp/programmer-client-software-engineer.html
http://www.blizzard.com/us/jobopp/programmer-software-engineer-gameplay.html

We're using the WoW engine at the moment, and it doesn't use SDL, but if you have experience in the industry and are interested, I'd love to see your resume.

Please follow the instructions on the job postings if you want to apply.

See ya!
-Sam Lantinga, Lead Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment

This indicates that the project he was working on was the other mystery project.

However, on March 6 2009, the Client Software Engineer job position was for for "an unannounced next-generation MMO." It changed to "unannounced title" by or before March 21.

On March 10 2009, the Software Engineer Gameplay also changed to "an unannounced title" even though it showed "Next Gen MMO" for a couple days after March 6. :)

The mystery "Unannounced Title" game was not discovered by news media on the job boards until March 22 2009 when it no longer referred to the "Next Gen MMO."

And finally, Sam Lantinga's resume (previously sourced here) claimed that he started work on this project in January of 2008 (and the blog said that work didn't pick up pace until 2009). January 2008 was the right time for Titan, and the Untitled Project didn't start until 2009.

So, was it another iteration of Titan (like I've mentioned in the past) or the actual "mystery" Untitled Project?

Thankfully, we've received an official confirmation from Michael Sacco!

Like this post http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/10/team-titan-timeline-and-tribulations.html that extrapolates Sam's work on a "small project" to be Titan. He was not working on Titan. It's false.

Sacco is a Writer and Editor for Joystiq.com, a former Blizzard employee, and someone who has "internal sources" and connections within Blizzard. So, this is a "very reliable source of information" on Blizzard's secret projects. (I'm also being a little facetious here since some of you are aware that Mike Sacco and I actually go back a ways, and he's a frequent reader of this blog. Still, despite his issues he's still an "official source" making "factual claims".)

He has confirmed for us that Sam "Slouken" Lantinga was working on the other mystery "Untitled Project", so we now know that Sam's blog is confirmed, the information is true (no longer a rumor), we know it's timeline, how far along it is, problems they have been experiencing, that they used the WOW engine as the prototype, and we know a great deal more information thanks to our new Blizzard source. :)

Sacco has also confirmed that Sam's resume (which he updated after leaving Blizzard) is incorrect. Even though it said he started on the Mystery Project in January 2008 (which indicates Titan), it was in fact January 2009 (according to Sacco) which would change the project from Titan to the other "Mystery 5th Project". So, Sacco is essentially confirming that his work must be on the upcoming World of Warcraft online card game. Apparently, it has been in development for a lot longer than I expected.

(Can't wait to find out what more he is going to share with us about Blizzard's secret projects. Thanks Mikey!)

Who would have thought that Joystiq would create a rumor mongering post about Blizzard layoffs, then try to scapegoat the entire affair onto a much smaller blog, only to turn around later and give them a wealth information on Blizzard's mystery game by confirming a rumor. Must be karma.

Resumes, blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn have been proven to be a great source of information on (confirmed) leaks.. but apparently Facebook is not a reliable source of information.

I've never used Facebook before for sleuthing, but apparently that's the opinion of many. Blizzard employees (Zarhym, Bashiok, and Rob Pardo) and many many others found it laughable and ridiculous that Facebook could ever be used as a reliable source of information.

"pretty sad how if someone makes a facebook post to their friends how it can turn into rampant internet rumors about mass lay-offs lol"

Is it really that far fetched though?

I would assume that Facebook would be just as reliable as any resume, profile site, blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Wikipedia entry. What's different about Facebook though, is that it's an open forum with your friends and family, you feel more comfortable, and you're more likely to be honest with your feelings and thoughts. After all, how many people have been fired for saying something on their FB profile that they shouldn't have? How many people, upon being fired or breaking up with their S.O., login immediately to their Facebook profile to update their status?

Look at Cameron Dayton's Twitter and LinkedIn slips about Titan for example. Two mistakes on two separate profile sites. TOD even warned Blizzard and other developers about FB profiles specifically. Where do you think many of his (fully confirmed, mind you) leaks and discoveries came from over the past year? :)

"On a related note, if you're in the game development field: get rid of your entire global internet footprint. You shouldn't have a Twitter account, a blog, a YouTube account, participate in any forums, play online games with people you don't know, share art or pictures, take pictures within your workplace and post them online, have a Facebook account, share details with OPEN Facebook accounts, or even have a Google account w/out making sure your Docs and Buzz are completely disabled. I don't even know where to get started.. I know way too much now."

Facebook profiles with high resolution pictures taken at work.. showing LCD monitors and whiteboards in the background.. with concept art, gaming design flow charts, and in-game images. Yeah.. Facebook photos alone can't be used as a reliable source of intel.

I don't know if any lay offs have happened, or how many, all I know is that Blizzard said that the "majority" of names listed on the blog entry were still employed with Blizzard. (Tweeted when about half the names were listed by the way.)

Zarhym: The vast majority named in that article are at work today. FB profiles can't be used to confirm anything, especially a mass trend

There are 3 ways an organization can respond to questions: Confirm, deny, or no comment. Blizzard's official policy is "no comment", but they didn't in this case which is highly unusual. And, there was no denial of multiple lay offs at Blizzard. They only said that the wild speculation and rumors were untrue (e.g. rumors of 1000 people being laid off are untrue). Tom Chilton recently did the same.. the wild speculation and rumors about Mists of Pandaria were also untrue. :) And, has anyone forgotten that Blizzard lost 10% of their subscribers.. but yet are still employing the same quantity of support staff?

So how about Facebook though.. is it a good place for leaks or reliable information?

Well, let's check. Hmm.. Assassin's Creed Revelations was recently leaked on Facebook. Dishonored gaming details were leaked on FB (Magazine cover scan) too. Killzone 3 gaming videos.. MW3 gaming details.. DNF concept art and screenshots.. hundreds of car concepts leaked, new technology or gadget concept art and hardware specs, iPad apps, concept drawings on new gaming systems, studio clips of songs and upcoming albums leaked, Facebook leaking its own code, leaked names of violent offenders, accused underage murderers, pictures of murder scenes, murder investigations, communications between violent groups or individuals, celebrity personal details leaked.. holy crap, there are a lot of legitimate leaks and investigations into Facebook.

Even the Israeli military called off a raid in Palestinian territory after a soldier posted details on Facebook about the time and place of their raid.

Al Jazeera reporters use it, investigations by CNN, Reuters, Washington Post, etc. Even NPR finds it an "invaluable" source of information.

“There hasn’t been any query that we haven’t gotten good sources for,” Peralta said. From finding high school dropouts to people who have recently been laid off from their jobs, Peralta said the organization regularly posts inquiries for sources as status updates on its page and receives hundreds of valuable responses.

It doesn't end there. Even Governments and authorities use it as a reliable source of information.

"Government authorities rely on Facebook to investigate crimes and obtain evidence to help establish a crime, provide location information, establish motives, prove and disprove alibis, and reveal communications."

It all depends on the data, who wrote the data, and what they wrote or did.

I think Facebook it's about as reliable as any other site out there. Some is real, some is exaggerated, and some is fake. And there are also accidents:

* Gino Whitehall has now updated his Facebook profile to show "Concept Artist at Blizzard Entertainment" now instead of the "previously worked at" status.
* Trent Kaniuga has also completely updated his FB profile to make it more accurate. It now shows the correct "Sr. Concept Artist at Blizzard Entertainment" as well as other updates.
* Jay Wilson left a comment on Trent's page: "I actually got asked if you were still working at Blizzard by PR at dinner last night, Trent. I reassured them you were, of course. Just remember, no such thing as bad press. :)"
* Paul Richards is involved in the conversations, and very well aware of the rumors. But, he has left his employment as the previously "Worked At" Blizzard. :)
* John Staats hasn't changed his status either.

But, wait one second. If they're updating their FB profile to be accurate, doesn't that mean they're serious about having correct FB information in the first place? I thought FB wasn't supposed to be reliable and it's all incorrect information? Perhaps this means that FB profiles are indeed reliable sources of information for certain Blizzard employees after all? Jay Wilson said he was talking to PR at dinner last night.. was he lying, or did Facebook just become a reliable source of information? :)

Also, look at the flip side of the coin. Consider what information was picked apart and shown, versus what was left out. I only talked about 8 potential names, for example, and mentioned a dozen others that I couldn't get any confirmation on their last working date (some were confirmed to be unemployed, but I couldn't confirm when their last day was.) What I didn't write about, though, were the hundreds of other names that were still showing employed and yet still accurate. If you have a report with 1000 names on it, but 2% of the information is incorrect, could that report still be considered as a reliable source (with a caveat)?

tl;dr; If Blizzard is saying FB profiles are inaccurate, then the opposite must also be true. The thousands of FB profiles showing "still employed" must not be correct or reliable. :)

I think I'll use Facebook again for certain investigations though. I realized some interesting stuff about it, discovered some new things, and it's an untapped resource for me. I've mostly focused on other sources of information.

* UPDATE:

Just an interesting update here.

Trent Kaniuga was indeed laid off and part of the same group as other layoffs. His last day at work was in February. However, he changed his status to "Working At Blizzard Entertainment" and left it that way even when he was no longer actually employed by Blizzard.

Q3 2011 Conference

A copy of the transcript can be found here.

Mike Morhaime stated that WoW "finished the quarter with 10.3 million active subscribers worldwide", so that would be subscribers as of September 30, 2011 as opposed to right now. This also confirms that this older post now holds true: even after the Cataclysm launch in China during this quarter, the 4.2 content launch, and the simultaneous WoW Starter Edition launch, they still lost a considerable number of subscribers (11.4M to 11.1M to 10.3M). Remember too that these are "Active Subscribers" which represent a significantly larger of real players (vanity figures are common in the industry).

Mike Morhaime also said,

While the majority of these declines are coming from the East, World of Warcraft continues to be one of the most popular online games in China and remains by far the most popular subscription-based MMO in the world.

I guess, I can say this, the majority of the declines were in the East. China still represents more than half of our global player base and historically, December has been a very good month for subscriber trends.

Note that the majority of the decline was from China, but China also makes up the majority of subscribers. So, it makes sense that if subscribers dropped worldwide, that the majority on average was from China. :)

"Active Subscribers" in China are even more skewed in terms of real players, and if there are declines in China, it is much more representative of a larger player decline than in NA or EU. (China subscriber counts include IGR players and active prepaid cards.)

It's also of interesting note that this blog has claimed many times that Chinese WoW players make up 50% (or higher) of total WoW subscribership. It was based on research, speculation and predictive analysis of past announcements.. however it was met with great hostility and disbelief. There were many "here's your tin foil hat" comments in response to the claim that Chinese gamers made up 50% of subscribers. Finally, though, there's now something official on the subject from Blizzard. And consider this, if Chinese players make up more than 50% of total players, then you can use Chinese figures to determine real players as opposed to subscribers. NetEase, for example, has actually released real player figures.. which is something that has never done in NA or EU. :) This Blizzard comment has actually confirmed what TOD (and myself) have been writing about for a long time in regards to "Subscribers".

Q3 2011 - Live Stream Viewers

So, if you remember this post, I was expecting Mike Morhaime to talk about virtual ticket paid viewers (e.g. "make note of Mike Morhaime's special wording of Virtual Ticket Live Stream viewer counts.")

My prediction was based on all past trends:

1. Blizzcon 2009: Mike said "more than 50,000" live via Pay Per View.
2. Q3 2009 Report: Mike said "tens of thousands on Pay Per View."
3. Blizzcon 2010: Mike said "more than 100,000" paid DirecTV customers.
4. Q3 2010 Report: Mike said "95,000 paid viewers following along via DirecTV."
5. Blizzcon 2011: Mike said "more than 60,000" DirecTV viewers.
6. Q3 2011 Report: SUDDEN CHANGE!

I was really hoping this would happen. The one thing you'll learn about Mike is that he's very consistent and detail oriented. He now says, "more than 1 million online viewers." It looks like Mike might be a reader here after all. :)

Q3 2011 - RMAH and Q&A

I also mentioned last week about the whole PayPal/Battle.net integration. According to Mike, they'll be testing the real money systems very soon.

We've also been testing the gold auction house functionality through the Beta and are gearing up to test the real money systems very soon.

This will just be for beta members.. and it will probably be for the Battle.net credit system only. Blizzard will give beta members a certain amount of credits, for example, to practice using in the in-game RMAH. For the PayPal aspect (e.g. real money), that part will probably be done by employees working in conjunction with PayPal. As for integration and instructions for all other gamers, that announcement should go out one or two months before retail/digital.

During the Q&A portion of the call, Mike sure was put on the spot. Almost all of the Q&A questions were Blizzard related, which was unusual. Apparently, there's some concern about how well MoP was received. On a related note, check out the Mists of Pandaria Preview Trailer, and compare Likes/Dislikes to WOTLK and Cata. I've never seen anything like that before.

2012 Expectations

This isn't related to the Q3 call, and it was something that I have already been preparing so I figured it would fit nicely into this post.

I was digging around through old job posts looking for anything Titan related. One thing I found interesting, though, is that all references to those old Fraud Specialist and Fraud Manager positions have been completely wiped off the face of the internet. :)

It's was written about back in this post, and TOD had also backed it up with some Google results (1 2 3 4). They're all completely gone now and it's pretty interesting. Apparently the jobs were publicly available for a week or two, and then after it was posted it, it was suddenly removed from all websites (e.g. Blizzard and recruiting agencies/outsourcers) all at once. They were pulled even a month before the deadline. :)

(By the way, if you ever find references to those positions in old archival websites, let me know.)

Anyways, Blizzard is hiring for Summer 2012 internships. A whole ton of them. I think they'll probably receive more serious instructions, though, on keeping confidential information off of their resumes moving forwards. Interns are a pretty good resource for new discoveries. :)

This intern position in particular interested me:

"The strategic initiatives team focuses on broad initiatives that address company-wide or development-specific opportunities and challenges. Our projects range from strategic planning to organizational and / or operations initiatives to purely quantitative analyses. Our roles are as varied as our projects. We may support, research, consult on, or drive projects. Some past and present efforts include: business analysis and visioning for the D3 Auction House; the development leadership councils; the side projects program; quantitative and qualitative analysis of cross-company survey data; franchise development; assistance with BlizzNet (Blizzard Entertainment's internal intranet); email Mike and ask the execs; Blizzard Entertainment academy; and other initiatives aimed at helping fulfill the top development, business and organizational goals of the company."

It's interesting in that one of their first duties will be "business analysis and visioning for the D3 Auction House." They'll be hired during a time when D3 will be well underway, but they're still interested in future vision and expansion of the D3 Auction House. Blizzard is looking for fresh perspectives, new D3 RMAH features or services, and probably ways to leverage the D3 RMAH and apply to Titan (assuming the new business venture is successful).

Overhyping Titan?

I have also come to the conclusion that I might be overthinking Titan too much, and setting my expectations too high.

Paul Sams once noted, "We're confident in Titan. It's an awesome one." and "We're playing it already. It's a total ball to play." He was describing a prototype of course, which would still be backed with concept art and a strong vision.. but his wording of the game makes it seem like there's more action involved than the typical "turn based" combat experienced in WoW.

It's also what Blizzard has NOT been saying about the game that convinces me that Titan is being overhyped. They're not saying, "it takes gaming into a whole new direction" or "it's innovative, it's different and awesome". Every description of the game is the same as how they once described World of Warcraft.

Cameron Dayton's description of the game even portrayed a fixed history, philosophy, heroes, villains, and a main story line. This isn't a customizable or immense world shaping game, it's a standard MMORPG with combat (heroes/villains), new characters, and a new story to tell.

I don't think Titan will be taking gaming into any new direction. The "Next Gen" term is just referring to the graphics engine and really nothing else (except for maybe in-game revenue generators). There's also Titan transmedia at work.. since there are new colorful characters in this game, there will be novels, comic books, t-shirts, toys, mousepads, posters, etc.

And also interestingly, the development team has been focusing more on player and NPC design than "monsters" or "creatures".

I'm expecting that it will be a standard MMORPG/FPS like WOW, but targeting additional demographics. I'm inclined to support Daeity's earlier posts; modern setting, low scifi, low fantasy, a multiverse of environments, a large world full of users and NPCs (one server per region, everything can live in different countries, times, or locations in-game), and the storyline could be anywhere from modern wartorn countries, to parallel dimensions, to time travel, or maybe just a messed up Doctor Who story with multiple times existing at once.

In a massive world, with a large number of players and their own market place, it makes for a great opportunity to exploit D3's RMAH. D3 will make the decision, though, whether it will be implemented in Titan or not.

Future Predictions

And, for those watching trademark registrations,

• In 2012, about 3-4 months before Blizzcon you will see a registration for a strange name. It won't be Titan, but rather the D3 expansion pack. (Of course the name might be obvious, like "Heaven's Sin" or something.)
• During Blizzcon 2012, they'll announce the D3 expansion pack, there will be demos, a video, and 1 new class. New PVP features, and a new profession probably developed by the S.I.T. to further exploit RMAH usage and growth.
• Diablo 3 will also have new friend invite systems and "Scrolls of Resurrection", but they'll probably not be announced during Blizzcon.
• In 2013, D3 X1 will be released and WOW X5 will be announced (once again, trademarked shortly before Blizzcon.)
• In 2014, X5 released and assuming no more delays, the real Titan game name will be registered and demonstrated at Blizzcon. This is when everyone rushes to get domain names.
• The Titan trailer will be a mind blowing graphical festival of the eyes with a deep commanding voice narrating. Pants will be crapped, fans will spontaneously combust, and burly men will swoon. But it will just be another MMO with really cool graphics.
• After WoW X5, I think the development and delivery trend is going to change. They'll be very few and far between, and Blizzard will probably push their Digital Download platform, make the expansion packs smaller, and pretty much just turn them into DLC packs (instead of full blown expansion experiences).
• And, SC2: HOTS/LOTV fit somewhere up there too, but I think they're going to be delayed.

Blizzard reads all of this of course, and I'm the only site doing it. :)

* UPDATE: With Blizzcon 2012 being cancelled, I'll still keep the same timeline just without Blizzcon.