StarCraft 2 production director pitched WarCraft 4 and a Call Of Duty RTS before leaving Blizzard, claims report

Two of many proposed RTS concepts, apparently

It's been the best part of a decade since Blizzard, developers of StarCraft and WarCraft, released a new real-time strategy game, but not for want of enthusiasm from certain Blizzard developers. According to a report, former StarCraft 2 production director Tim Morten and unnamed accomplices pitched several RTS projects to higher-ups at Activision-Blizzard, before Morten jumped ship to co-found Stormgate creators Frost Giant in 2020. These pitches included WarCraft 4, as you'd expect, and also a Call Of Duty RTS, as you'd probably also expect, though seemingly no new StarCraft.

The report in question is from Jason Schreier, him of the plentiful journalisms and assorted newsbrokage. He's got a book, Play Nice, about Blizzard's history out on 8th October. Seeking to recruit readers for his latest tome of investo-sleuthing, Schreier has descended to the fifth circle of Hell - Reddit - and done an Ask Me Anything. In it, he wrote the following:

Morten and his team tried for years to kick off a new RTS, making all sorts of pitches and prototypes, from Warcraft 4 to even, wildly, a Call of Duty RTS pitch. (He was desperate.) But there was no appetite among Blizzard's executive team for a new RTS game. They held out hope that if [Warcraft 3] Reforged was a massive success it might help open the doors for a WC4, but Reforged turned out to be a debacle -- the company's first bad game and a blemish in Blizzard's history.

If you missed the Reforged debacle, the game shipped with a bunch of bugs, performance problems and missing features. Blizzard committed to patching the flaws initially, and then, as the player tirades continued, started offering refunds to anybody who asked. In her review of Reforged, Alice B (RPS in peace) found it to be not quite as calamitous as all that, but definitely a disappointment. "People never entirely stopped playing the original Warcraft III, so when you think about it, a remastered version feels long overdue," she wrote in 2020. "In some respects, Warcraft III: Reforged does a serviceable job of fulfilling that need. In others, it's a bit - dare I say - underforged. In further respects still, some people might wish it had never happened."

You can see why Blizzard management might think twice about greenlighting anything arty-essy after all that, I guess. The departure of key staff is probably also a factor, with many ancient Star- and WarCraftspeople now gainfully employed making spiritual sequels. Frost Giant and Stormgate aside, there's Battle Aces from Uncapped Games, a studio founded by former StarCraft 2 lead multiplayer designer David Kim. Meanwhile, Blizzard continue to butt their heads against the much-aborted daydream of a StarCraft shooter.

I'm not sure there's any need for one, but I wouldn't mind playing a Call Of Duty RTS. Predictably, I'm thinking a smaller infantry tactics affair would make more sense than a game of mass production and bases, though I do like the idea of spawning two dozen Soap MacTavishes and hearing their voice lines overlap. I can't quite see new parent company Microsoft signing off on such a thing, in these times of mass layoffs, but if there's one thing Microsoft appear 100% committed to it's the onward march of Call Of Duty. Who knows?

While you foment the ole speculation, why not revisit this prototype for a COD RTS created by Vicarious Visions over 12 long years ago.