World of Darkness MMO in "4-5 years"

World of Darkness, the in-development White Wolf MMO, will take four to five years to complete, CCP marketing director Magnus Bergsson told us last Friday at the company's offices in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Speaking of a release date, Bergsson said, "We don't know yet. We're not really hiding any information about it, we just don't know yet. The actual design and exactly how it's going to be is being created right now, so when we actually know all of that we can guestimate how long it's going to take. These games typically take four to five years to make. I don't think this is going to be any different."

CCP, famed for its EVE Online MMO, merged with US-based White Wolf in November 2006.

World of Darkness is the long-running horror RPG franchise created by Mark Rein-Hagen, the most famous computer game incarnation of which is PC title Vampire: The Masquerade, published by Activision.

The World of Darkness MMO was announced when the two companies merged last year, with both the American and Icelandic operations staying quiet on the subject ever since. Fans have since speculated that the game isn't in active production - rumours Bergsson laid to rest last week.

"[World of Darkness] is one of the reasons we were so interested in White Wolf," he said. "It's a very mature IP. It's a great title for us to take and make into an MMO. First of all there are no MMOs like it. We kind of like that, and we want to explore some new avenues with that type of MMO - character-based and not being fantasy, per se. It's a real opportunity for us."

In case you're still not convinced, a tour of the CCP office included a peak into a section covered in... vampire art. We'll publish a feature on our time in Iceland later this week.