StarCraft II Hasn't Been Delayed Again Yet

[John Funk]

StarCraft II Hasn't Been Delayed Again Yet

Good news from the Activision-Blizzard Q3 investor call: StarCraft II is still on track for the first half of 2010 ... for now.

During Activision-Blizzard's quarterly financial conference call with stockholders, Blizzard's big boss and founder Mike Morhaime said that the company's eagerly-anticipated StarCraft II was on schedule to meet the targeted release date of "sometime in the first half of next year," and had in fact not been delayed again.

Though development of the game is largely complete (or at least it felt that way when I due to the complexities of Battle.net 2.0 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94099-BlizzCon-09-StarCraft-II-The-Escapist-Showdown] to refine the game's balance and to polish everything up. Morhaime also said that he believed the game would be a blockbuster hit, seeing as how the first StarCraft has sold over 11 million copies worldwide, but let's be honest here: If you didn't think SC2 would be wildly successful without having to be told that by the Blizzard overlord, then you need to get your head checked.

I'm sure SC2 will tear up the charts when it comes out. I'm less sure that it'll be out when they say it will be - after all, the game was "on track" for a 2009 release too, until Blizzard delayed it. Fool me once, Blizzard: I'll believe it when I'm playing the beta with my own two hands.

In other Blizzard news: There will be a significant update to World of Warcraft "within the next few weeks," adding new maps and dungeons. This is almost certainly Patch 3.3, which is in the public testing phase right now, and which will bring players face to face with the Lich King himself in Icecrown Citadel.

Morhaime also addressed the hot-button issue of the recently-announced WoW Pet Store [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95927-World-of-Warcraft-Gets-Microtransaction-Pets-Players-Freak-Out], saying that while the company was open to the idea of selling items and goodies that would be for simple vanity's sake to enhance the player experience, Blizzard was adamant that it would never sell items for real-world money that would affect the in-game balance - which means no actual equipment.

"All value added services are not required, as they are optional only nor will they adversely impact the experience should customers decide not to participate or purchase them ... we also expect digital sales to increase in the future, and plan to take advantage of it."

Sounds fine to me. At least I know I'll be able to buy some more pets on the in-game store while I wait for StarCraft II to finally come out in 2011.

(VG247 [http://www.vg247.com/2009/11/05/starcraft-ii-still-on-track-for-first-half-of-2010/])

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[snuffler]

*cough* [http://www.wowwiki.com/Soon]

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

TBH, Starcraft 2 has gone the route of Duke Nukem Forever. It's going to have to tear my world apart now before I think of coughing up for it, especially if Kotick's involved.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I dunno Root, I doubt Blizzard are going to go bust anytime soon...

It is going to need to be something special though. Especially if it wants to succeed in tearing away all those SC1 players. Although that sounds about as futile as making people stop playing Counter Strike and Source.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I dunno Root, I doubt Blizzard are going to go bust anytime soon...

I was more angling for the idea that DNF would have had to cure cancer for it to have been accepted after all this time. When they dumped the Ghost Stealth game, and all the rest of the Starcraft goodies I was upset, and with the amount of units they're talking about, I can't see how anyone is going to cope with anything more complex than a Zerg/Tank/Arbiter rush.

 

[thiosk]

The game is basically complete. And has been, for, like, a year; minus scripted events, and movies and the like.

As near as I can tell, what they are doing is paying a bunch of south koreans to sit in a darkened room and play it competitively; searching for ways to exploit balance issues.

Once this process is complete, the game will probably be of very high quality and a text-book definition of balance in the RTS genera, just like its predecessor. However, people will be bad at it, as they are at all blizzard games, and will blame the developers for being noobs and not knowing how to properly balance the game.

 

[Amnestic]

they dumped the Ghost Stealth game

Still not entirely forgiven them for that.

 

[Snotnarok]

I'm ignoring Starcraft II, because I'm just going to chalk it up to Starcraft Ghost syndrome, it'll mysteriously vanish from the site and no official statement will come till 4 days later.

But hey if it does come out, awesomepants, then I'll be interested.

 

[Chipperz]

they dumped the Ghost Stealth game

Still not entirely forgiven them for that.

Me neither. And Lord of the Clans.

Muttergrumble... Lord of the Clans looked awesome... Mutter... Now I've read the book, the storyline was sweeeeeeeet... Grumble...

 

[SovietSecrets]

I remain optimistic that it will come out in the first half.

 

[John Funk]

they dumped the Ghost Stealth game

Still not entirely forgiven them for that.

I don't know. I'd always liked Blizzard's games, but their refusal to release a product that wasn't up to their standards after it was well into development - and it would have still sold like hotcakes even if it was crappy - was one of the things that first made me really respect them. What's wrong with having a commitment to integrity and quality?

TBH, Starcraft 2 has gone the route of Duke Nukem Forever. It's going to have to tear my world apart now before I think of coughing up for it, especially if Kotick's involved.

It's been a grand total of two years since SC2 was announced, dude. Hardly DNF.

 

[purplelion]

Let them take their time; as long as the game's good it will be worth the wait.

Better than having them rush it and getting a half done game.

 

[KeyMaster45]

I think they should rename it Starcraft Forever...and ever...and ever..and ever.....

Well after all SOMETHING has to fill the void Duke held for so many years.

 

[Amnestic]

they dumped the Ghost Stealth game

Still not entirely forgiven them for that.

I don't know. I'd always liked Blizzard's games, but their refusal to release a product that wasn't up to their standards after it was well into development - and it would have still sold like hotcakes even if it was crappy - was one of the things that first made me really respect them. What's wrong with having a commitment to integrity and quality?

See, that's fine. It's just that they cancelled it rather than making it into a quality game that we've come to expect from Blizzard. I understand why they did it, and I don't begrudge them for sticking to their principles. I just wish they'd looked at it and made the project everything they wanted it to be rather than 'indefinetly postponing' it.

But hey, apparently Nova's going to pop up in SC2 so maybe that'll generate enough interest for them to revisit Ghost and make it everything it can be.

Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

It's been a grand total of two years since SC2 was announced, dude. Hardly DNF.

Hrmm...tough one though. SC2 has been hinted at for a lot longer (almost since Brood Wars was released) and development was meant to start in 2003 [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/wow-held-up-starcraft-ii-for-a-year], which is a good 6 years.

HL Episode 3 is going to have to climb a mountain at the moment though.

 

[John Funk]

It's been a grand total of two years since SC2 was announced, dude. Hardly DNF.

Hrmm...tough one though. SC2 has been hinted at for a lot longer (almost since Brood Wars was released) and development was meant to start in 2003 [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/wow-held-up-starcraft-ii-for-a-year], which is a good 6 years.

HL Episode 3 is going to have to climb a mountain at the moment though.

Still got nothing on DNF.

And you're forgetting that the game's multiplayer has been almost 100% complete for a while now. Unless we were playing a mock-up at BlizzCon

 

[Singularly Datarific]

TBH, Starcraft 2 has gone the route of Duke Nukem Forever. It's going to have to tear my world apart now before I think of coughing up for it, especially if Kotick's involved.

Well, starcraft has content and much has been shown, and Blizzard has a nasty habit of delays.
Read this quote from over 11 years ago:

As many of you know, we have been working day and night to get
Starcraft into your hands by this Christmas.
This has included 30 hour shifts, sleeping on our office floors, and
living on stale pizza. The progress on Starcraft
has been phenomenal, and it is looking like all of our efforts are
going to be well worth it. Unfortunately, it has become
clear to us that in order to bring you the best game possible, we are
not going to be able to release the game before
the end of January.

In case you don't remember, the original 1996 debut of Starcraft
looked something like this:
http://www.blizzard.com/star/bigpix/oldsc.htm
We just had a world premiere at the Wizards of the Coast Game Center
and you can see how far it has come:
http://www.blizzard.com/star/bigpix/scnow.htm
The reaction of everyone there was very positive, but we don't want
to release Starcraft until it becomes the classic
that we know it can be. With this extra time we will be, among other
things, refining the play balance of the game, and
honing the computer AI.

We read our e-mail, we watch the forums and newsgroups, and we know
that you want this game to come out NOW.
We also want to get the game into your hands as soon as possible, but
we want to make sure that Starcraft is everything
you expect from Blizzard. Starcraft is a project that has been two
years in the making. It would be an injustice to you and
the development team to ship the game before it is truly ready.

Thank you for your continued support and interest in Starcraft. We
are dedicated to creating the best games in the world
for the world's best gamers.

The Starcraft Team

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

And you're forgetting that the game's multiplayer has been almost 100% complete for a while now. Unless we were playing a mock-up at BlizzCon

Given you beat Keane, I'd be more inclined to believe it

I dunno, my senses are tingling over this and I don't know why. Maybe it's just nerves.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I don't know. I'd always liked Blizzard's games, but their refusal to release a product that wasn't up to their standards after it was well into development - and it would have still sold like hotcakes even if it was crappy - was one of the things that first made me really respect them. What's wrong with having a commitment to integrity and quality?

Let them take their time; as long as the game's good it will be worth the wait. Better than having them rush it and getting a half done game.

It's exactly the kind of philosophy that I wish more dev teams had--quality and integrity, not quality and price. We all know what it will be, and we know how awesome we want, no we Need it to be, and demanding it now is like asking a Specialty Master Baker to bake you a cake, and when he tells you that it will take a whole day to perfect, you demand that he finish it in three hours. Sure, he could do that--but why argue with the guy you're putting your faith and respect into because he knows what he's doing and you, who've never made a cake without burning it, demand to do it your way? It was different with DNF, because DNF looked like every other game around, and managed to be completely a waste of time. SCII, though, from the taste test that the baker has so kindly granted us, is already causing our mouths to 'gasm, and the icing and decorations haven't even been put on yet.

(On a side note, I am convinced that "Duke Nukem Forever" is actually the codename for a secret Government project that took place over the last decade and change, and never was a game at all, hence why it looked like everything else.)

 

[Aurora219]

Two things stand out to me from reading this thread;

First: You know there's something wrong when you start a thread "Hasn't been delayed again yet"...

Second: Duke Nukem Forever, or DNF in short, is race term for Did Not Finish. Spooky.