Hello guys,
I was reading some topics in US forum and there was discussion about possibility of new engine.
Do you think wow will ever be updated with new engine or maybe wow 2 will be made?
I really think the current engine is really holding devs back and makes it hard to make interesting decisions, also the fidelity of the graphics really could improve ( like if we could get quality like in current in game cinematics even that would be reasonable step up) by fidelity what I mean is not departing from stylised cartoonish look ( breath of the wild does it and it looks amazing) but really updating the quality. Currently with Dragonflight it seems pretty good but there is definetly space for improvement.
What you guys think?
Yeah not going to happen. The amount of work involved to convert everything to a new engine would be absurd. WoW 2 also makes no sense at all. Iām not saying these wouldnāt be good things, but as a developer myself I just donāt see it happening at all.
WoW graphics has itās style from the very beginning. I donāt know how, but they usually manage to be it simple enough to boost your imagination and be very stylish and pleasant at the same time. No matter how hard I want to walk through my favorite Elwyn Forest, made in UE5 with top graphics, donāt want to lose the atmosphere of current one.
And god please no, please donāt go into WoW2. Firstly, it would definitely a large cut of content, there is no way they will redo ALL the existing content to a new game. And second - with WoW2 blizz would definitely change monetization model to a more profitable one, like they did with Overwatch, and we will end up with f2p garbage full of battle passes, premium currencies, mobile energy time gates and so on.
Same. Not only is it stylish, but the current graphics are VERY efficient. I run this game on a toaster and it works fine. I canāt even watch trailers of fancy graphics without my laptop catching fire. Somehow Blizzard managed to capture beautiful atmospheres but also keep it performant. Iād hate to see that changed.
Nope, zero chance of an engine change. For WoW 2? Yeah, sure. Almost definitely. But changing an engine after nearly 20 years would be no easy task. And possibly wouldnāt even be much of an improvement anyways. Because a lot of WoW graphical shortcomings are self imposed by the devs to keep WoW as accessible as they reasonably can.
This game sttuters even on best PC. I remember, when I was admiring Mirrorās Edge Catalyst - this is godly level of development and best graphics ever made.
I wish but I donāt see it happening. Blizzard has spent too long resting on their laurels. They have now reached a point where they cannot afford to take any big risks.
They will likely continue to put more and more computational complexity into the game, knowing that it will run like when they really ought to be simplifying the game massively. Iām sure their army of engineers has torn their hair out several times over by now.
We wonāt see a new game engine as long as the game relies on people who donāt have $4000 computers to play it.
WoW was fairly demanding back in 2004, I remember my laptop of the time certainly wouldnāt of played it. However itās great that people with all kinds of different computers and macs are able to play today, more players for you ,more subs for blizzard.
Given that the reward for a prettier game engine is that:
wow loses itās unique aesthetic
itās an insane amount of dev time and cost, that would probably cost us 2 expansions with no new content to develop
I donāt trust the new bug happy approach of development to do anything with the engine itself
Fewer people can play as their older gpu doesnāt cut it anymore, and the financial crises makes it unlikely theyāll upgrade their gpu.
If I lose everything Iāve achieved and collected to start over on a new version of WoW with no ability to go back and get the things Iām missing then Iām highly unlikely to be interested.
Neither a new engine nor WoW2 will happen imo, simply because the population has been slowly but steadily declining for years now and the game really struggles to bring in new players so thereās really no incentives for Blizzard.
If WoW2 ever happens itād be a pay2win fest with microtransactions everywhere, look what they did to Diablo Immortal and OW2.
Sure, me and many more people have faulty PCs xd Show me high FPS on Veldrakken or whatever place with big number of assets and players on gameplay without stutters. Beside of that show me no stuttering during fast dragon flying, lol.
If they implement this on new servers with a new client and use a new subscription to cover it.
Maybe set it in 100,000 in the future with all new characters.
oh, and just leave the existing one running too. Maybe even have some new content in the old one every now and then.
You are correct that it wonāt happen because of the work which is also linked to what it would cost. Blizzard would rather keep more profit than invest in anything new - itās sad when the quality of the game is held back by a lack of incentive to develop it to 2020 standards, given the amount of money they receive from the shop and the subscription.
The pride of having a quality game has become less important than profit, particularly since Blizzard sold out years ago.
when they really ought to be simplifying the game massively. Iām sure their army of engineers has torn their hair out several times over by now.