Okay, so technically Blizzard confirmed that they were working on a next-gen MMO three years ago, when they began hiring MMO specialists on the Blizzard homepage. After that, Blizzard confirmed that the MMO will in fact be a, "brand new franchise." It took a leak of Blizzard's plans for the next five years and a red carpet cornering of Frank Pearce, VP of Blizzard, to confirm that the project's codenamed Titan. Set to release in fiscal year 2013.

Destructoid caught Frank on the red carpet of the Spike TV Video Game Awards, and very directly asked, "So what is Titan?" Frank replied:

"The media is not supposed to know anything about that. It's our next-gen MMO, and we've only started talking about it in a limited fashion because we wanted to leverage the fact that we're working on something like that for the purpose of recruiting, getting some of the best talent in the industry on that project."

Kind of an unfulfilling announcement, right? The confirmation of what's almost certainly just a codename leaves us asking the exact same question as Destructoid posed initially: What is Titan?

Rumors abound, but the most substantial claim that Titan combines Sci-Fi and fantasy elements, incorporates a robust social infrastructure unlike what gamers have seen before, but at its heart is still World of Warcraft 2.0. There's also the completely unreasonable and unfounded rumor that Titan is in fact World of StarCraft, but that rumor won't be proved or disproved until Blizzard chooses -- or has a major leak again. Even though a Blizzard rep has specifically said the game is a new IP, it's hard to believe that Blizzard wouldn't try to profit from the brand of another of their most popular franchises. Also, the release schedules for when StarCraft 2 expansions end and Titan is launched feels like more than a coincidence.

Whatever the MMO might be, gamers should expect an extremely high quality and polished experience like never seen before. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm has shown that Blizzard has big ideas for the future, and WoW's antiquated engine may be able to handle some of them, the future is in Titan.

What are your expectations for Titan, Ranters? Do you see a World of StarCraft, or some other, brand new, world in Blizzard's future?

Source: Destructoid, BlizzardNewMMO