Blizzard: More "Broad Appeal" In Next MMOG

Blizzard's CEO said its mystery MMOG will have more broad appeal.

Blizzard fans know that the company loves a good mystery, especially when its fans are on the receiving end. That became crystal clear when Blizzard teased gamers before last year's BlizzCon, throwing up various images while embedding secret codes (apparently) influenced by ABC's Lost. Ever since Blizzard revealed that a new MMOG was in the works, the company has remained just as secretive, if not for the benefit of torturing fans and cranking up the hype machine tenfold.

GameSpot managed to squeeze a few more drops of gaming juice from Blizzard's well-kept secret project, although the result is more or less nothing more than hints of what could be rather than something juicy. "What we've announced at Blizzard is that we have Starcraft [II] coming, Diablo has been in production...and a new, unannounced MMOG that has a little more broad appeal," Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick told GameSpot today at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco.

Blizzard already admitted that the new MMOG would not be a World of Warcraft clone, but will be a brand-new IP. Jeff Kaplan, who originally worked on World of Warcraft as the MMORPG's game director, began to work full-time on the mystery project back in February. If the game will have a broader appeal to gamers, is the company looking to expand into the casual market, or perhaps offer a free-to-play model like turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited?

Kotick also dropped hints of what Battle.net may eventually offer, and could also provide a glimpse into what the MMOG will eventually offer gamers in the process. "As we start to add cash play and prize play and better rewards and recognition systems that come through the Internet, you will start to see audiences expand even further," he said.