Blizzcon 08: StarCraft 2 Trilogy Confirmed

[MeisterX]

Blizzcon 08: StarCraft 2 Trilogy Confirmed

We all knew that something big was coming out of Blizzard when all the press were directed to the StarCraft 2 Gameplay panel. But even the biggest StarCraft fans, myself included, were certainly not expecting anything like this.

Blizzard announced today that StarCraft 2 will be released as three separate expansions, one for each race. The expansions will be chronological and will go in the following order; Wings of Liberty (Terran), Heart of the Swarm (Zerg), and Legacy of the Void (Protoss).

This unexpected move was a result of the design team's ambitions to create an "epic" feel for each campaign. Blizzard VP of Game Development Rob Pardo explained that separate expansions will allow for more in-depth and longer campaigns for each race rather than a truncated version that would occur with a single release.

Jonathan Tietz is the admin for StarCraft 2 Fansite StarCraft2Forum.org [http://www.starcraft2forum.org/] and will be updating the latest news from Blizzcon with the Escapist and WarCry teams!

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[Aries_Split]

This can be awesome if they get the timing right. If it goes the way of the Half Life episodes, well I'd be pissed off.

 

[TomNook]

I have one complaint, why aren't my Zerg first?

 

[Slycne]

I am assuming you will still be able to play all the races in multi-player from the start, correct?

While I am certainly one to enjoy a longer more drawn out story. This was an unexpected move to say the least. Time will tell if it's the right or the wrong decision.

 

[donbueck]

I must be the most jaded person in the world. The first thing I thought of was, "that's a great way to make more money".

 

[OverlordSteve]

I must be the most jaded person in the world. The first thing I thought of was, "that's a great way to make more money".

Mine was "Lazy assholes, FINISH THE GODDAMN GAME."

 

[Ralackk]

I hope by longer they mean longer then the orginal starcrafts story modes for each race. I do realise that development costs for games are higher but like donbueck said it sounds alot like milking gamers for even more money.

I'm fairly sure all races will be playable in multiplayer with the first game otherwise they will have a small rebellion on their hands.

 

[axia777]

So what is this going to cost us? Is it $50 a section of the trilogy? Or will it be more reasonable and be $20 for a piece of the trilogy? Because if it is $50 a piece I may just have to say screw you to Blizzard. That would just be messed up to the MAX.

I must be the most jaded person in the world. The first thing I thought of was, "that's a great way to make more money".

No, that is what everyone is thinking. I feel a corn holeing coming on from Activision-Blizzard. I just KNEW that merger was going to screw the fans of Blizzard one way or another.

 

[cainx10a]

oh, am just glad DoW2 is coming out, so games to pick up for 2009, Dawn of War 2 and Diablo 3. S2, f u. No seriously, I am not going to spend $150 for one game single-player, I don't intend to play S2 mp anyway.

 

[Tiamat666]

So what is this going to cost us? Is it $50 a section of the trilogy? Or will it be more reasonable and be $20 for a piece of the trilogy? Because if it is $50 a piece I may just have to say screw you to Blizzard. That would just be messed up to the MAX.

I second that.

Unless every episode is truly, amazingly epic and feels just like a very own game. If someone can pull that off, then Blizzard... but I don't think that even they can manage to ship three, amazing, quasi-standalone games at the same time, based on the same engine and setting.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

If you check up on news coming out of BlizzCon, apparently Starcraft II has been split into three different games. Check it out here: http://pc.ign.com/articles/918/918895p1.html

While Blizzard claims that each package will contain content equal to the original Starcraft, this of course leaves me worried that I may be paying $150 instead of only $50. Now, details given were very sparse, but I think as gamers it's our duty to worry and speculate.

So, what do you think? My biggest question is how they are going to justify selling three (presumably) full-priced games. Will there be extra units added to each portion of the trilogy? Just what the hell is going on here?

 

[Da_Schwartz]

Grrrrr.. i hate this. Why can't we jsut get what we want the first and only time..(yea yea money making blah blah) but seriously.. no @ release add ons, no Downloadable content, just give us what we want.

 

[Altorin]

if the game play is identical, apart form the different races campaigns, they should, in good faith, ship them in one package, or make them proper expansions with expansion content available for all races.

Charge twice as much for the game, put it on 3 DVDs, take an extra year or so to put it all together

but don't cheese us out by releasing a single game in 3 pieces.

 

[VeX1le]

does everthing have to be a trilogy?

 

[admanb]

Start lubing up those cornholes!

 

[Limos]

As long as all three can be used to play online multiplayer as all three races I don't care. If you want the in depth campaigns you can get all three.

 

[AceDiamond]

Ok, I completely fail to understand this plan of theirs. I don't even have a snarky comment to say, i'm that confused.

 

[Imitation Saccharin]

Trigger Blizzard fanboy excuses in 3....2....1...

HIT IT!

 

[Altorin]

Ok, I completely fail to understand this plan of theirs. I don't even have a snarky comment to say, i'm that confused.

they want to flesh out the campaigns to be full games in and of themselves.

The original Starcraft had 32 missions, and they want each campaign in starcraft 2 to have at least that many missions.

So they've decided to split it into 3 different game releases, one for each race.

From what I gathered, the game will ship with all 3 races intact, but with only campaign for Terran, and then at future points they'll release the Zerg and Protoss campaigns.

The bright side is, if you LOVED the campaigns of Starcraft, you'll get HUGE campaigns this way. 90-100 missions long, with 3 games worth of Blizzard's Trademark CGI cutscenes.

The darkside is, you're buying the basic game 3 times to get all of the campaigns, and you have to wait to get the other campaigns, so if you LOVE the protoss, and don't care so much about Terran or Zerg, sucks for you, you gotta wait for the Protoss game to come out.

 

[Dr Spaceman]

Reading a bit between the lines, I'm concerned that Blizzard may be doing this to "meet a deadline," something that they have apparently never been concerned about. Ever. (Four games released since 1998? Seriously?) I live near their offices, and they are fucking huge. It seems a bit strange to me that they won't be able to string together three campaigns within... what? When it's done o'clock?

I'm wondering if they've realized they can't charge for multiplayer like they do with WOW, and want to stretch out the singleplayer money for as long as they can.

EDIT: Above poster is perfectly timed. (Quote above him: Blizzard fanboy on cue) Their business model on this seems like, at best a copout, and at worst horrible, horrible greed.