Project Titan

“	Titan was this massive collection of talent. Some of the most amazing developers that I've ever seen...from all over the world. It was largely not a homegrown team. It was the first time Blizzard pulled a lot of external talent in.	„
	~ Jeremy Wood

The Project Titan logo

Project Titan was an MMORPG that was developed and later cancelled by Blizzard Entertainment. Notably, it provided the foundation for Overwatch.

Plot

Titan would take place in an alternate 2070s Earth. The setting would be bright and optimistic, but also "grounded." Environs included Eastern Europe and the western United States, San Francisco being a location in the latter.

Gameplay

Titan was intended to be a next generation MMO and successor to World of Warcraft. Its gameplay was a mix of MMO and FPS elements, along with the "calming vibes" of The Sims.

Titan was essentially two games in one, with players taking control of superhero-like characters who lived normal lives during the day and secretly battled against evil forces at night. An early presentation showed the player, as a professional chef, popping a dish into the oven before going off on a secret mission. When they returned, the dish was perfectly cooked and ready to serve. Players would have a home with different furniture, would be able to have a fireplace that would open up into a secret cave, driving in their car, going out into futuristic cities, talk to NPCs, and fight against various factions. The car driving gameplay was similar to that in the Grand Theft Auto series.

Civilian activities within the game included fishing, farming, photography, gardening, and hacking. Players would be able to deck out a house with furniture, run a business, and go on quests in their neighborhoods. These activities took place in what Blizzard called "Titan Town," which Jason Schreier described as a take on The Sims and Animal Crossing.

In the superhero/military side of things, players would use classes (see below). Players could group up with friends to battle through dungeons or fight one another in team-based competitive battles.

Classes

It was planned to feature at least ten playable classes (Jumper, Reaper, Juggernaut, Phoenix, Architect, Assassin, Guardian, Longshot, Spec Ops, Mechanic). The Ranger is another confirmed class. The following information is known about the classes:

• Juggernauts (tank-esque class wielding giant hammers)
• Jumpers used their time travel tech to go back in time to save the world. Jumper designs were influenced by retro pilot jackets and goggles, and had an aviation theme to them.
• Rangers were equipped with a sniper rifle, assault rifle, and a rifle that could turn into a turret.

According to Ryan Denniston (a lead animator), the classes of Titan had a toylike feel to them.

Development

Course of Development

The origins of Titan lie with World of Warcraft. After the game's release, numerous competitor MMOs dubbed "WOW killers" were released, but none were able to match World of Warcraft's pop cultural or financial success. However, the "WOW killer" phenomenon spooked Blizzard, who reasoned that it was inevitable that one such MMO would succeed, and if that was the case, Blizzard better make the game themselves. Blizzard originally considered creating a "World of StarCraft" as a followup, but struggled to envison StarCraft lore fitting an MMO. Hence, it was decided to create a new IP instead.

Work began on Titan in 2007, with the intent of developing a successor to World of Warcraft. Chris Metzen would pen the story, Shane Dabiri would head production, and Justin Thavirat would serve as art director. The decision to make Titan grounded, near-future sci-fi was made because the developers felt Blizzard had already peaked in the high fantasy (Warcraft) and space sci-fi (StarCraft) genres, and that they wouldn't be able to outdo them, hence a shift in setting. It was intended that Titan appeal to a broad audience, and pull in individuals who hadn't previously played Blizzard games.

Titan differed from past Blizzard projects in that a lot of external talent was recruited for its development, whereas previous projects had used pre-existing staff. From 2007 to 2009, the project's development team steadily grew, and received the moniker of "Team 4." The game's tech was built from the ground up.

According to some employees interviewed by Jason Schreier, Titan suffered years of mismanagement, and its existence had been one of the reason why Robert Kotick of Activision wanted to own Blizzard. At the time, World of Warcraft subscribers had dropped by more than half, and Kotick saw Titan as "the next big thing." The developers had to deal with technical challenges, shifting art direction, and "an unclear vision from a mercurial director with too much on his plate, according to people familiar with development." The strained relationship between Chris Metzen and Rob Pardo was another issue—the two men had a rocky working relationship going as far back as StarCraft, and while their animosity had become more muted by the time they worked on Titan, it was still present, and noticeable to the rest of Team 4. While they had worked together on StarCraft and Warcraft, Titan was a clean slate; Metzen would fill up whiteboards with ideas during meetings, only for Pardo to insist that they weren't good enough. People who worked with the pair quickly learned that they had divergent visions for what Titan should become. Metzen wanted to create a superhero universe in the vein of Marvel and DC, with godlike figures duking it out in the skies and streets, while Pardo wanted characters to be more like secret agents—spies with superpowers who worked in the shadows to protect the world from insidious threats. As a result of these battles, Metzen left and returned to the project multiple times, which created more chaos and confusion. Titan cycled through several writers, each with their own take on the game’s lore and story.

Issues existed with the gameplay as well. In playtests, Team 4 found that the game's civilian activities were fun in isolation, but they couldn't find the game's "core loop," or more specifically, which activities players would spend the bulk of their time doing. The combat side of things felt more coherent, but the PvP element had issues; they were fun in short bursts, but the developers struggled to find a way to keep players engaged over a longer period. Other issues were that the tech Blizzard had developed for the game was laggy, and could prevent the team from working on the game for hours on end, and that Riot Games was poaching Blizzard staff.

The game's artwork was also mismanaged. Many of the designs kept changing as the game evolved in different directions. An internal repository called TitanArt grew so bloated, with thousands of images, that artists would sometimes draw characters or cities only to later learn that someone else had already done the same years earlier.

In his book Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment, Jason Schreier noted that several developers on Team 4 lay the blame for the game's failure on Rob Pardo. As Blizzard’s vice president of game design, Pardo was also overseeing StarCraft II, Diablo III, and the rest of the company’s projects, which limited the time he had for Titan. To mitigate this problem, Pardo had brought in two lead designers: Jeff Kaplan, who had designed quests on World of Warcraft, and Matt Brown, who had worked on The Sims and SimCity But Pardo remained director of the project and would occasionally jump in with feedback, forcing the team to change course and potentially throw out months of work.

Cancellation

Titan was cancelled in the spring of 2013. In the summer of the same year, Robert Kotick and his chief operating officer, Thomas Tippl, began to apply pressure to Blizzard, asking Michael Morhaime and other Blizzard executives to give a full accounting of how the debacle had happened. When asked for details of this period years later, all three executives refused to comment. The cancellation of Titan led to Activision exerting more control over Blizzard over the following years, driving out throngs of veteran staff as it pushed Blizzard to cut costs and release games faster. Robert Kotick of Activision was particularly aggrieved by the game's cancellation—the loss of $80 million wasn't so bad in of itself, but rather, it was the loss of the means to grow that investment, which was relevant for Activision Blizzard as it was a publically traded company. Kotick had wanted a game to rival World of Warcraft's level of revenue, and felt betrayed by the project's collapse.

The cancellation of Titan went public in September 2014. After six years, the game's costs had reached $80 million.

Aftermath

In 2019, Mike Morhaime described the process as working on two games in parallel, and that in hindsight, neither came together. NDA's (non-disclosure agreements) are in place (as of 2018) that prevent many (former) developers from speaking widely on the game. Reasons cited behind the cancellation include a lack of passion for the project and the trending success of their smaller-scale titles.

Despite the cancellation of Titan, Team 4 intended to return to the scope of the game in the context of Overwatch. A "crawl, walk, run" development plan was formed. Overwatch would be the "crawl," a dedicated PvE would be the "walk," and an MMO would be the "run."

Titan Elements in Overwatch

A number of elements in Overwatch have their origins in Titan. These include the following:

Heroes

• The Juggernaut provided the basis for Reinhardt.
• The Jumper provided the basis for Tracer.
• The Ranger provided the basis for Bastion, Soldier: 76, and Widowmaker, the three heroes getting the class's turret, assault rifle, and sniper rifle respectively.

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Setting

Numbani as it appeared in Titan

• Numbani originally appeared in Titan, though was much different in tone. As Overwatch was developed, the story was taken in a different direction, as it became a city of peace and harmony between omnics and humans.
• The idea of a near-future setting was used for Overwatch.
• Titan didn't have hover vehicles, but the idea was implemented in Overwatch.