Picking the gameplay of Rise of Nations, which was released mid-2003, over Starcraft’s 1998 RTS gameplay isn’t exactly a strong RoN compliment.
Except people play SC because of the gameplay obviously, so when you’re comparing to other games, yes it is a compliment, because you’re saying the gameplay is better than a game that is still being played fanatically for ten years.
— Alan
Mr. Apple, I’d like you to meet Mr. Orange. Are these really games that can be directly compared? I mean, I don’t compare Counter-Strike to BF2142.
I wouldn’t agree. C&C3, which came out recently, is pretty much the same game as C&C1, which was many, many, years ago. RoN actually tried to do something different with the genre.
I’d say that Dawn of War is another game that has advanced the genre. Resources are a PITA and fighting over strategic points is far more satisfying to me.
Those games are actually more disparate than RoN and Starcraft.
GameDaily has a news article up about a job listings update to the Blizzard website: “The three job openings for this as yet undisclosed next-gen MMO title include a lead engine programmer, a lead tools programmer, and a lead technical artist.”
Of course Blizzard says they’re not ready to announce anything, which could mean anything, but good omens. :)
Headline from kotaku
It took a good day of calls and emails, but Blizzard just got back to us about the rumor floating around that Starcraft 2 will be announced next month during their World Wide Invitation in Seoul, South Korea.
According to a Korean website, StarCraft 2 is being developed in 3D with a new race and lots of changes for existing units. The site went on to say that additional details would be revealed during Blizzard’s WWI on May 19th in Seoul.
When reached for comment today this was Blizzard’s official response:
We do intend to announce a new product at the Worldwide Invitational next month in Korea, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and interest in getting an advance look at what that will be, but players will have to wait until May 19th to find out more. Also, we have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don’t have anything new to announce in that regard at present.
So that’s a yes on a StarCraft 2, eventually, and a yes to a product announcement next month. The only question now is are they one in the same
Personally, I’d like to see Blizzard try a new IP out. I mean they haven’t had a new universe in 10 years!
If the announcement is indeed happening in Korea, you can bet your sweet ass that its StarCraft 2.
I never understood this logic. A game is good, or better than other games or it’s not. I don’t care when it came out. I see this mostly as a way to justify nostalgia.
As for an MMORTS, MMO, etc., while it could happen, the one thing that people seem to always forget about Blizzard is that they were never about innovation. Blizzard has always made it mark through taking existing ideas and polishing them significantly. The problem with a SC MMO is that no one other than EVE has made a Space MMO that works and EVE is very niche, very inaccessible to a general audience and definitely not the sort of thing that Blizzard targets. To do SC, the MMO, they’re going to have to trailblaze which is not something they have ever really done. Not saying they couldn’t, or won’t, just that it would be a departure from Blizzard tradition.
Nah, I think Shattered Galaxy already blazed those trails. Sort of.
Hey, maybe they’ll announce that SC: Ghost is not yet dead.
Get it? Ghost…dead?
Look, it’s Friday afternoon: that’s as high as the Wit Meter rises.
Didn’t people say the same thing about WOW?
If anybody can make a mass market space based MMO, it will be Blizzard off the Starcraft IP. I DO NOT think that they have to be a “trail-blazer of innovation” to be successful. Just make it accessable to the every person and start filling your money hats.
They aren’t going to announce another MMO. It makes no sense for them to introduce a product that competes with WoW when WoW is still going so strong. I’m sure they have given thought to what they will eventually create to replace WoW, internally, but it’s too early for them to go public with that. Maybe in a few years. I’d put my money on a bona fide Starcraft RTS. It’s the only big Blizzard franchise that’s never gotten a sequel.
Agree
World of SC: Ghost?
Blizzard just updated their job listings page and they’re now looking for a Lead Engine Programmer, Lead Tools Programmer and Lead Technical Artist for a ‘Next-Gen MMO.’ It doesn’t say anything in the job listings about wanting someone with experience on any of the next-gen consoles (PS3/360) so I would think that a port of WoW is out.
GameDaily BIZ is reporting that Blizzard is developing a ‘Next-Gen MMO’
Kotaku picked up the same story
edit: Didn’t notice that it was already posted further up in the thread.
The more i think of it, the more WoSC doesn’t make sense. Someone mentioned the zerg as being a poor playable race, and they’re right, it also just doesnt fit with the existing mythos - correct me if i’m wrong (and i’m not any kind of lore expert), but didnt the zerg have a hive mind? Kinda hard to portray that as a player race in an mmo. Which leaves terrans and protoss as playable races…and then there’s scaling problems, vehicle issues…ugh, i dunno, it just seems like they’d have to sacrifice way too much (meaning, they’d piss off virtually no end of people) to make things work. Diablo is a much easier candidate for an mmo…
I think they’re likely doing both…SC2 for the rts crowd and a diablo or wow 2 for the mmo crowd. Didn’t they seperate the dev teams a while ago for this kinda purpose?
I don’t know. I think a WoSC game that lets you choose between the Humans and Protoss and incorporates battlefield type PvP aspects would be a smash hit. I mean, I’m totally burned out on WoW (and will never go back!), but I can definitely see myself getting sucked into a WoSC type game. I’m thinking they might do things a little bit more like Planetside and a little bit less like EverQuest. That could be the jackpot, right there.
I don’t think it’s a bad idea at all.
Like I said, they may well be considering their next MMO, or even starting to work on it. But don’t expect to hear about it any time soon. If they are making an announcement in the near future, it’s likely something else. They are plenty big enough as a company to develop multiple projects at once, after all.
Well the mistake you’re making is that you’re blindly assuming they’ll just put a SC look and feel on the WOW engine and just leave it as that.
As for the whole MMO thing in general, again I don’t think they feel they’d be drawing away too many customers. They’ve shown they can expand the market, and I think perhaps they feel that they won’t lose too many customers from WoW and would still be able to stock up several million new or dual subscribers in the process, with the gains far outweighing the negatives. A couple of new WoW expansions would help shore that up in the time to a new MMO release.
They know that they have a huge base of customers and don’t want to lose too many, though obviously they know there is turnover, etc. However, they also realize they have huge untapped properties for this field, and they want to start grasping at it.
That being said, I’m sure we’ll find out along with everyone else. Don’t be too quick to dismiss Blizzard’s unique position in this industry and their perception on how they can push it to get even bigger without losing much current market share.
— Alan
I’d rather erect the Whitta meter.