Secret Blizzard MMO is new IP, says Kotick

Thought a StarCraft or Diablo MMO was coming? Consider that thought killed.

Activision boss Bobby Kotick said during the company's Q1 financial conference call last night that Blizzard's next MMO will be a new IP.

The project is one of two which will receive an "enormous investment" from the company: the other being Bungie's next "universe".

"I think what we've been able to do is elevate the level of innovation in products beyond what we've been ever able to do before. We've talked a lot about the seven different pillars of success that we expect over the course of the next few years," said Kotick.

"And remember, we have two enormous investments: one in Bungie and the other in another project at Blizzard that we haven't given a lot of visibility to. Those are going to be entirely new intellectual properties."

He added: "But with the recognition that the way to build them is take long amounts of time, lots of capable talent, an enormous amount of capital and you have to have a real road-map for innovation and creativity.

"And I think that those are going to be two very good examples from the ground up original ideas."

Very little is known on the MMO, but Kotick said back in September of last year it would have "a little more broad appeal", while WoW lead designer Tom Chilton told VG247 back in June it would have to be "easy to learn, hard to master" for the player.