Titan dev team slashed, project overhauled - rumour

Blizzard has allegedly reduced its 100-strong Titan development team to just 30 as part of an effort to overhaul the long-awaited MMO.

VentureBeat cites anonymous sources for the rumour, which has the project requiring a major reset.

The site claims 70 members of the Titan team have been reassigned to other projects, with a core group of 30 moving forward with a shift in direction.

The upshot is the MMO won't release until 2016, despite earlier leaks suggesting a 2014 launch.

In a statement provided to Polygon, Blizzard did not make any mention of the rumoured personnel changes, but did confirm the project has been significantly altered since inception.

"We've always had a highly iterative development process, and the unannounced MMO is no exception. We've come to a point where we need to make some large design and technology changes to the game," a representative said.

"We're using this opportunity to shift some of our resources to assist with other projects while the core team adapts our technology and tools to accommodate these new changes. Note that we haven't announced any dates for the MMO."

Although Blizzard has admitted that it's working on a secret project, it has never provided any details beyond mentioning that its best staff are on the job; the appellation Titan is a codename.

The prospect of a major reset and delay is very in line with Blizzard's usual MO; the developer refuses to be rushed, releasing products on its own time.