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StarCraft 2 Now A Trilogy, Three Campaigns to Be Split Into Separate Games
by Nick Breckon, Oct 10, 2008 3:40pm PDTBlizzard today announced that StarCraft II will be released as a trilogy of separate games, each concentrating on one of the universe's three factions.
The first game in the trilogy will consist of the Terran campaign, and is set to be titled "Terrans: Wings of Liberty."
The second Zerg-focused title will be "Zerg: Heart of the Swarm," with the third game being "Protoss: Legacy of the Void."
"[The second and third games] will be like expansion packs, but we really want them to feel like standalone products," said Blizzard's Rob Pardo.
Each campaign will be very different, with Pardo announcing the Zerg campaign will contain RPG elements. The Protoss campaign will likewise be differentiated by elements of diplomacy. In addition, the Terran campaign will feature a Protoss mini-campaign.
The campaigns are planned as concentrated, epic storylines, with enough content to justify a full release. As a result, the games will now feature more in-game cinematics and story content.
Blizzard added that the plans for the multiplayer component are unchanged by the splitting of the campaigns. However, some units will now be unique to the campaigns and will not be playable in multiplayer.
Pardo noted that the decision was necessary to maintain the quality of the product, the alternatives either being a long delay of the game, or a scaling back of the campaigns.
More details may become available during BlizzCon, which continues through this weekend.
Comments
Whoa! :o So it's like buying a movie and there's a little gameplay involved, too! That's totally worth paying the extra cash!
Pfft... kidding... I'm totally pirating this now. :)
And, I just gotta say, who is actually going to believe that this isn't just a convenient excuse to make more money? Well, except Blizzard fanboys, of course. :)
I still mourn the loss of Warcraft Adventure, but hey...
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The first expansion was 3 campaigns of 10 missions each. That's 30 missions in the first game.
The expansion was either that big or smaller.
So now they are suggesting that they basically make the game + 2 expansions and everyone is shitting bricks.
It has been 10 years since Starcraft one, how the hell is nobody impressed at how little they've expanded their marketing strategy?
I mean shit they are only on to their second expansion of wow. How many other MMO's end up having a half dozen expansions in as many years. Considering you'll have the full multiplayer experience out of the box on day one I don't see where all this whiny attitude is coming from.
Go play SPORE and tell me about stripping a game for profit. At least SCII will be enjoyable and playable.
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Valve: 5 games = $50
Blizzard: 3 games = $150
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So hard drive space is cheap, I've got hundreds of gigs at my fingertips and hundreds more for a small investment, and that's true for any running PC rig. Exactly how big do they expect the game to be in order to justify hacking it into 3 parts? And charging separately for each?
Maybe they're dropping a large wad on cutscenes. I like cutscenes, and the teaser was spectacular. But those won't carry a game. We are talking about an RTS here after all, and once you get mechanics and unit forumulas down? You pretty much draw your maps with a few hundred preset tiles and away you go. Maybe they're bringing in prime Hollywood talent for voice acting? Maybe they're gold-plating the box? None of that justifies a "trilogy" IMO.
The only thing I could possibly think of that would come close is that they want to release some finished product before Christmas this year. And I doubt that's going to happen regardless.
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In Starcraft 1, the three campaigns served as a means of learning how each race's units and what not worked, but here we'll just be thrown in there and have to figure out as we go along? Sure, that'll work, but somehow I figure it will feel less complete as an experience. I mean, we'll obviously see Zerg's new units in multiplayer, but we'll know nothing about them. What are they fighting for? How did these new units come to be, et cetera?
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It's not so much a financial question as a PR one.
If they would have announced 3 games, "SpaceMarines: (A StarCraft game)" (plus 2 more), separately and boasted about how they had "new technology that allowed owners of the three games to compete with each other in a huge multiplayer frenzy" then people would have cheered them on and said "Woop Blizzard...showin' everybody how it's done!"
However, instead they said, "Here comes Starcraft2, but you have to pay for it 3 times. SUCKERS!"
And their reasoning doesn't hold much water. Starcraft 1 had 3 campaigns, with cutscenes, and all the story content you want in an RTS. That was all one normal game purchase.
Oh well....I'm a DoW2 guy myself anyway. :)
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"...the alternatives either being a long delay of the game, or a scaling back of the campaigns."
normally, blizzard would just delay the hell out of it and make it worth the cost.
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each game will probably be $49.99 lol
I don't know about most of you, but I see no problem at all in releasing the Zerg and Protoss campaigns as expansions with more content. Afterall, this is an EPIC franchise, and they are treating it that way, as evident by giving each race their own package. I can see if this was anther company that hasn't proven themselves, but this is Blizzard, and we all expect perfection from these guys, so give it to us.
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Reads:
"The second and third games will be like expansion packs, but we really want to sell them at full price."
So much for Starcraft II saving PC gaming...
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"The Triology" is the worst thing to ever happen to media. Now we can just say "eh, put a cliffhanger at the end" or if we don't feel like finishing then you can say 'oh it's part of a trilogy" and we'll have bluballs for the rest of our lives.
Finish Starcraft blizzard, I don't care how long it's taking.
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Why not just flat out call it.. Starcraft 2: Episode 1.
*gag*
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I'm hoping that:
1) They won't have a huge gap of time between releases (like the Half Life episodes do)
2) Each campaign is either less than full game price, or long enough to justify $50
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