Blizzard Announces StarCraft 2

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During opening ceremonies at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, Korea, Blizzard Entertainment today announced that the sequel to its phenomenally successful real-time strategy game StarCraft is currently under development.

Blizzard has issued a few details about the game, most importantly noting that it will utilize "a custom 3D-graphics engine with realistic physics and the ability to render several large, highly detailed units and massive armies on-screen simultaneously." StarCraft II will also apparently ship with many of the core features of the original: a single player campaign, online multiplayer via Blizzard's Battle.net service, as well as a "full-featured map editor."

"With StarCraft II, we'll be able to do everything we wanted to do with the original StarCraft and more," said Mike Morhaime of Blizzard in a press release. "We recognize that expectations are high following the long-running popularity of the original game, but we plan to meet those expectations and deliver an engaging, action-packed, competitive experience that StarCraft players and strategy gamers worldwide will enjoy."

StarCraft II will presumably continue the storyline of its predecessor. Using mission briefings and scripted sequences, StarCraft--along with its expansion StarCraft: Brood War--told a story of intergalactic war from the perspective of three separate civilizations: the human colonies of the Terran Federation, the alien worlds of the enlightened Protoss, and the infested hives of the insect-like Zerg. The sequel promises to further distinguish each race with new units, abilities, and gameplay additions.

Over the past few days Blizzard's official site had seen the addition of a splash image which updated nightly. The images each featured a major game release from the company's past, beginning with the 1994 real-time strategy hit, WarCraft: Orcs and Humans. Following the addition of the recently released World of Warcraft, the image was left with a question mark, indicating an announcement was imminent.

Speculation on the sequel's development had been brewing for months, finally coming to a head when a new Blizzard product announcement was confirmed for the Seoul gathering. The original StarCraft has sold over 9.5 million copies worldwide, with 4 million of those sales being attributed to Korean fans. Still wildly popular in the country, professional StarCraft players compete in widely-televised matches, with some earning hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.

Blizzard has also released a batch of StarCraft II artwork as well as a StarCraft II cinematic trailer and artwork/gameplay trailer, available on FileShack.

No release date for the game has been mentioned. A post on the official site reads, "We will take as much time as needed to ensure the game is as fun, balanced, and polished as possible."

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    May 18, 2007 11:13 PM

    Blizzard, kindly do NOT fuck this up.

    On the other hand, kindly do NOT take 2 more years to develop it :(

    • reply
      May 18, 2007 11:15 PM

      I disagree. Take your time and make it fucking good.

      • reply
        May 18, 2007 11:16 PM

        "Take your time" -.- It's been almost 10 years.

    • reply
      May 18, 2007 11:15 PM

      I'm sorry... Blizzard fucks things up?

      • reply
        May 18, 2007 11:17 PM

        first time for everything

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        May 18, 2007 11:18 PM

        Not yet.

        They've had a great run so far - it can't last forever, surely? I think that someday - in the future - Blizzard will release something that's perceived as an inferior product. As long as it's not this game, I'll be happy :(

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        May 18, 2007 11:20 PM

        Ghost, with it's endless delays and lack of release? Though I suppose since Blizzard handed it off to someone else to look after that it might not be their fault.

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          May 18, 2007 11:21 PM

          Warcraft Adventures ;)

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          May 18, 2007 11:24 PM

          Exactly, Blizzard wasn't the primary dev.

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          May 18, 2007 11:37 PM

          That's not a fuckup. It's only a fuckup if they release a bad game to the public, something they obviously haven't done yet. Scrapping a game like Ghost or Warcraft Adventures is points for Blizzard, imo.

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        May 18, 2007 11:26 PM

        lead designer of SC2 is http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,2347/

        c&c, Emperor: Battle for Dune? bad sign?

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          May 18, 2007 11:35 PM

          I can only assume that Blizzard would have ensured that he was up for the job before hiring him as a lead designer. There's a few real duds in his resume but maybe he had a bad dev team or design constraints imposed upon the game, as opposed to him sucking at his job.

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          May 18, 2007 11:38 PM

          Well he was only one of the many designers in that one.

          In Red Alert 2 (super awesome game), he was one of the lead designers.

        • reply
          May 19, 2007 12:59 AM

          [deleted]

      • reply
        May 18, 2007 11:35 PM

        I wouldn't be surprised if it's atleast out of touch with the american audience. And, I mean, it's being developed by Blizzard Korea, right? I don't think they have any kind of track record, do they?

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          May 18, 2007 11:36 PM

          Blizzard has a Korean division? I guess they should if they don't

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            May 18, 2007 11:41 PM

            I thought they did? I read that that is who was doing this whole announcement back when they made the announcement of the announcement.

        • reply
          May 18, 2007 11:38 PM

          I can't wait to see what you post next.

    • reply
      May 19, 2007 3:26 AM

      i bet they involve korean pros to test and polish the game

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