[PC] (StarCraft 2) Apparently Blizzard Still Makes Games!

From a business perspective, they'd be mad to release World of Starcraft this soon after the release of Burning Crusade. Buzz surrounding the expansion isn't dead yet, and Blizzard would be picking their own pockets. Some of their customer base would surely feel alienated as well, feeling they "wasted" their money on the expansion when news of this MMO pops up shortly thereafter.

That said, having seen what's been going on with WoW from afar, I'm not entirely sure I trust Blizzard to have that much sense. Then again, maybe they're going with the mad plan of marketing World of Starcraft primarily to the Koreans, and focusing their WoW attentions mainly on the western player base. After all, from figures I've seen, WoW gets overshadowed by classic Starcraft and Lineage II over there.

I dunno if I'm that enthusiastic about thoughts of Starcraft 2 anymore, either. They've got quite a personal standard to live up to, and I really don't think Blizzard is the same company we all remember and love. Several years ago I couldn't have given Blizzard my money fast enough for Starcraft 2, but now it almost seems like missing the boat. Especially since I know it'll demand faster specs than my computer can handle.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

O, please don't let me interrupt. Please continue your ever so important speculations. Even though they've basically said it's going to be a starcraft based MMORPG. Or the fact that your economics make no sense because if they pull fanbase from WoW it still contributes money to the same company, oh, and that it would draw back in a lot of people who had left WoW. Right. But it's a bad economic model. Please, continue. You're making STUNNING points here.

There's still money to be made from Burning Crusade; not everyone who will buy the box has it already. The game itself is hardly on the decline; WoW is still picking up new subscribers.

If they announce World of Starcraft now, people who haven't bought the expansion yet are going to hold back and save their money for this shiny new game that's coming along, even if World of Starcraft is two years away. People who might have been thinking about joining in on the WoW bandwagon will wait for the new game. Existing players who are bigger fans of Starcraft will jump ship and cancel their subscriptions before the game is even out, leaving a gap where Blizzard does not get their money.

It's not at all in Blizzard's best interest to release World of Starcraft until interest in WoW has waned to the point where subscription numbers start to significantly taper off. There are plenty of people who Blizzard hasn't tapped for money yet who would be scared off by the announcement of a new MMO at this time.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by RABicle

Heres the deal guys, and I don't meant to adress all of you, I'm talking squarly to that idiot Monkey King. Vivendi own Blizzard, Vivendi love the ridiculous revenue WoW generates. WoW is not forever, if Blizzard don't provide the next big MMO, someone else will.

AND GUESS WHAT! Just becuase they announce it Saturday, doesn't mean it gets released on Sunday. 2 years, maybe 3 to go.

I didn't say they'd never make a Starcraft MMO, just that they'd be stupid to do so right now. Companies do, on occasion, make dumb decisions.

Also, the game would indeed be 2-3 years away from the announcement. It doesn't matter. People are stupid and hasty. They won't buy the expansion because they'll then be in wait mode for the Starcraft game, percieving that it's not worth investing that much in a game they'll be dropping in favor of the new shiny.

Facts don't matter, the perception does. 2-3 years may be a long time, but they're just numbers to most people. To further clarify:

Originally Posted by speculative

World of Warcraft expanded the mmo genre to non-mmo players. Why couldn't Universe of Starcraft do the same and expand the actual market which wouldn't necessarily pull players from WoW? I know a few people who like fantasy but not sci-fi and vice-versa after all...

WoW indeed greatly expanded the MMO audience, but only because of Battle.net. The people they pulled into the genre were pre-existing Blizzard fans, who are legion. What happened was that Blizzard built up such a reputation that people were willing to try any game with the Blizzard logo on it regardless of genre, and thus non-MMO players got sucked in. I think you'll find that relatively few of the people introduced to MMOs by World of Warcraft weren't already playing Starcraft or Diablo on Battle.net.

This is why it's not such a good idea to announce a Starcraft MMO now, while WoW is still a hot property. It only makes sense when people in large numbers start to truly get tired of the game, and aren't willing to pay Blizzard their monthly fee anymore. Giving them something new, shiny, and novel to attract their attention brings them back into the fold and spending money on a Blizzard MMO again.

If anything, Starcraft 2 makes even more sense in light of the previous points.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Bubba's Gas and Grits? Truck stops OF THE FUTURE!

I'm actually rather relieved that they aren't messing with the core gameplay too much. There'd be too much risk of them screwing something up if they did a total redesign like they did with Warcraft 3. They're playing up to each faction's strengths, and that's a good thing. Protoss warping in completed units to anywhere covered by a Pylon just sounds sick. The highlight for me, though, was the one screenshot where nearly the entire screen is covered in zerglings. No more map limit!

Not liking the cartoony style either, but that can easily change before the game launch. Hopefully somebody at Blizzard will note how goofy the siege tanks look. The things that melt entire advancing armies should not look vaguely like playground equipment.

I hope this is at least another year off, though. I accidentally painted myself into a corner, and I can't upgrade my computer without replacing the processor, motherboard, RAM, and video card all at once. I think I'm going to want a new rig for this, but I'm gonna need time to save up.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Guru

I wouldn't expect any major graphic overhauls from what we see now. Mostly what they're going to work out during the alpha and beta stages are game balance more than anything, since that's the most important aspect of a strategy title.

These aren't mutually exclusive. The programming team is separate from the art team, so while they're designing the rest of the game and tweaking unit balance, the art team can go right on messing with the graphics independently of everyone else.

Unless of course the art team is occupied with the task of finishing the art for all the units we didn't see in the initial teasers, which is entirely possible. Still, when the game is inevitibly delayed, that'll give the artists more time to tweak things.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by BigHairyFeet

If you guys read Blizzard's Q/A from after the presentation at Seoul, you would have learned that:
a) they were showing off the Protoss at the event, so there were more units available for them.
b) only one mothership allowed on the map at once
c) Terrans and Zerg have no comparable unit to the mothership. The team's concern is to make the three races as asymmetrical as possible.

The Protoss' thing was always having few, expensive, powerful units as opposed to the Zerg's cheap, wimpy units in mass numbers, with the Terrans (naturally) somewhere in the middle.

I imagine we'll be seeing new toys for the other two races over time, as they release more teasers. Note that you really didn't see much of anything for the other two races; the Zerg had maybe three units on display, total, counting the "Nidus Worm". They're either not done yet, or are holding back information for the slow trickle of teasers to come.

Also, in reaction to the doctored screenshot: Realistic equals brown!

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Worst case scenario, someone will use the campaign editor that Blizzard always packs in to recreate the original game units, and we just roll with that.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by dagget

I like that "It'll be ready when it is ready". It's nice to see them say that now, instead of giving ETAs for release so when they have to "delay" the game, there won't be an uproar. *Thinks back to the Burning Crusade launch* Of course there will still be an uproar anyway. Let's just hope they don't pull a Diablo II.

Me, I really don't care how long they take as long as it means they put out a game as good as the original. They probably WILL do like Diablo II, if they have to. Sure, they delayed it beyond all reason, but the game they finally released is still selling on retail shelves seven years later. You can count on one hand the number of games with that kind of longevity (and profit margin).

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?