World of Warcraft
At the time, anything with the Warcraft license on PC would have made sense. But an MMO, that too in a market with numerous competitors and still dominated by Everquest and Ultimate Online? Nevertheless, Blizzard announced in September 2001 that World of Warcraft was coming. It would do more than just ape its competitors, setting the standard with full 3D visuals, large open environments and questing that would both teach players while leading them through the story.
Development took about 4 to 5 years but on release in November 2004, it became the new benchmark for the genre. Critics praised it universally and by January 2008, it had 10 million monthly subscribers and became one of the highest grossing titles of all time. Of course, it’s had its fair share of ups and downs (more the latter recently) but in terms of redefining what an MMO could be and inspiring a generation, World of Warcraft is a massive success.
