Blizzard: WoW 2 could kill off franchise

'No requirement' to make a sequel, says COO Paul Sams.

There is "no requirement" to make a sequel to MMORPG phenomenon World of Warcraft, Blizzard has claimed.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com hours before the midnight launch of expansion Wrath of the Lich King at HMV Oxford Street earlier this week, Blizzard executive Paul Sams said the developer will continue to improve World of Warcraft, which currently enjoys a whopping 11 million subscribers, with content updates and expansions "for so long as there's a meaningful number of players that are interested in playing it".

He said: "I don't personally think that there's a requirement to do a sequel. You probably know or have heard that we have another next generation MMO that's unannounced and there's no details about it at this point, but while we're doing it that does not suggest that it has to be a sequel to World of Warcraft.

"We think World of Warcraft is a great stand alone product and one that a lot of people are very much enjoying. For us we feel like we can achieve great evolution and change and improvement within the World of Warcraft product with content updates and with expansion sets and will continue to do those for so long as there's a meaningful number of players that are interested in playing it."

Sam's comments seem vindicated by the immense popularity WoW expansions continue to command. The official European launch of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, at HMV's flagship Oxford Street store, proved a huge success, attracting 2,500 fans all desperate to get their hands on the second WoW expansion.

However, his comments will disappoint some WoW fans who have been hoping for a sequel and the graphical upgrade it would bring. While World of Warcraft's graphics are very stylised, and almost cartoony, they do not require a particularly powerful PC to run at maximum settings, unlike Mythic's Warhammer Online and Funcom's Age of Conan.

Sams added: "As it relates to other MMOs, time will tell what we're going to do but doing a sequel can help kill off the franchise and so I think we want people to be able to focus on this and again I think that we're going to be able to provide compelling content that's going to definitely feed the needs of players."

What do you think readers? Would you like to see a sequel to World of Warcraft? Would it kill off the franchise? Let us know in the comments section below.