In an interview with The Orange County Register, Blizzard co-founder and President Mike Morhaime spoke on Mists of Pandaria, the future of World of Warcraft (WoW), and Blizzard's "Titan" project. 

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"It's not surprising to see the numbers peak around the release of an expansion and then, toward the end of an expansion cycle, it's not surprising to see them go down. There have been a lot of great games that have come out. Certainly "Diablo III" came out in May and I think a lot of our players have played "Diablo." The other thing we've seen over the years -- we have longtime players and they'll play the new content when an expansion comes out and they might take vacations from "WoW" for some period of time and then come back when we release additional content," Morhaime said in the interview.

WoW saw over nine million subscribers earlier in 2012, a drop from 12 million. Asked if 9.1 million is the "peak number" Morhaime confirmed that "meaningful changes" to subscriber numbers thought to be "financially material" will be reported. 

Blizzard is also developing Titan, its next massively multiplayer online game (MMOG). "Very" senior WoW developers are working on Titan, according to Morhaime. A blend of experienced WoW developers and new talent are working on the flagship MMOG.

"We're actually in the process of putting together our long-term strategic plan for "WoW" and what happens after "Mists of Pandaria." So that's a work in progress. We haven't really locked anything in yet. Some of it will depend on how some of the things are received that we're doing in "MoP," Morhaime added. "Scenarios" will be introduced to add more regular content to the game. As Blizzard moves towards Titan, scenarios may provide smaller, but more regular, content additions to satisfy players.

Mists of Pandaria released on Sept, 25 on PC for $39.99. The core World of Warcraft game is required in order to install the expansion. It is available digitally or in DVD-ROM form.

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