Editing Blizzard Entertainment (section)

=== Unreleased and future games ===
Notable unreleased titles include ''[[Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans]]'', an [[adventure game]] which was canceled on May 22, 1998;<ref name="schreier play nice chap5">Schreier, 2024, Chapter 5: Fugitives</ref> ''Shattered Nations'', a [[turn-based strategy game]] cancelled around 1996;<ref name="schreier play nice chap4">Schreier, 2024, Chapter 4: Warcraft Goes Purple</ref> and ''[[StarCraft: Ghost]]'', an action game aimed for release on consoles, co-developed with [[Nihilistic Software]], which was "postponed indefinitely" on March 24, 2006, after being in [[development hell]] for much of its lifespan.<ref name="schreier play nice chap11">Schreier, 2024, Chapter 11: "That King of Looked Like Me"</ref>

Work on a project called ''Nomad'' started around 1998 after the release of ''Starcraft'', with development led by Duane Stinnett. ''Nomad'' was inspired by the tabletop role playing game ''[[Necromunda]]'' that was played in a [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|post-apocalyptic setting]]. The project had vague goals, and around that time, many of the staff of Blizzard began playing [[MMORPG]]s ''[[EverQuest]]'' and ''[[Ultima Online]]''. ''Nomad'' was cancelled in 1999 as Blizzard shifted to making their own MMORPG, ''World of Warcraft''.<ref name="schreier play nice chap8">Schreier, 2024, Chapter 8: Nomad</ref>

In the wake of the 2018 layoffs, two projects were cancelled: One was codenamed ''Orion'', an asynchronous card game for mobile devices designed by ''Hearthstone'' developers. While the game was considered fun to play when players were engaged in real time, the asynchronous aspect diluted    the enjoyment of the. The second, codenamed ''Ares'', was a first-person shooter within the ''Starcraft'' universe inspired by [[Electronic Arts]]' ''[[Battlefield (video game series)|Battlefield]]'' series that had been in development for three years.<ref name="schreier play nice chap25"/>

After seven years of development, Blizzard revealed the cancellation of an unannounced MMO codenamed ''[[Titan (Blizzard Entertainment project)|Titan]]'' on September 23, 2014, though ''[[Overwatch (video game)|Overwatch]]'' was created from its assets.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.polygon.com/2014/9/23/6833953/blizzard-cancels-titan-next-gen-mmo-pc |title=Blizzard cancels its next-gen MMO Titan after seven years |last=Kollar |first=Philip |website=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]] |date=September 23, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923203528/http://www.polygon.com/2014/9/23/6833953/blizzard-cancels-titan-next-gen-mmo-pc |archive-date=September 23, 2014}}</ref> The company also has a history of declining to set release dates, choosing to instead take as much time as needed, generally saying a given product is "done when it's done."<ref>{{cite magazine |author=GamePro Staff |url=http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/79448/gamepro-q-a-blizzards-jeff-kaplan-on-the-burning-crusade/ |title=GamePro Q&A: Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan on The Burning Crusade |magazine=[[GamePro]] |date=August 29, 2006 |access-date=September 30, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114012421/http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/79448/gamepro-q-a-blizzards-jeff-kaplan-on-the-burning-crusade/ |archive-date=January 14, 2009}}</ref>

''Pax Imperia II'' was originally announced as a title to be published by Blizzard. Blizzard eventually dropped ''Pax Imperia II'', though, when it decided it might be in conflict with their other space strategy project, which became known as ''[[StarCraft]]''. THQ eventually contracted with Heliotrope and released the game in 1997 as ''[[Pax Imperia: Eminent Domain]]''.

The company announced in January 2022 that it was near release of another new intellectual property, named ''[[Odyssey (cancelled video game)|Odyssey]]'' according to ''[[Bloomberg News]]'', a [[survival game]] that had been at work at the studio for nearly six years before its cancellation in 2024.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Wilde |first=Tyler |date=January 28, 2022 |title=Blizzard's survival game has been in development for almost 5 years |url=https://www.pcgamer.com/blizzards-survival-game-has-been-in-development-for-almost-5-years/ |magazine=[[PC Gamer]] |access-date=January 28, 2022}}</ref><ref name="verge jan2024 layoffs"/> ''Bloomberg'' stated that the game's origins came from ''World of Warcraft'' developer Craig Amai, and was originally prototyped using the [[Unreal Engine]], which Blizzard licensed from [[Epic Games]]. When the game was revealed in 2022, about 100 employees were working on it, but around the same time, there was effort to switch from Unreal to Synapse, Blizzard's engine used for mobile games, though artists continued to develop assets in Unreal. Near when Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, there was an internal belief that they would be able to bring on more developers to complete the transition to Synapse and have the game ready for a 2026 release, but with the culling of 1,900 staff from [[Microsoft Gaming]] in January 2024, the game's development was cancelled.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-25/microsoft-cancels-big-new-blizzard-game-after-six-years-of-development | title = Microsoft Cancels New Blizzard Video Game After Six Years of Development | first = Jason | last = Schreier | date = January 25, 2024 | accessdate = January 25, 2024 | work =[[Bloomberg News]] }}</ref>