Blizzcon 08: StarCraft 2 Trilogy Confirmed

[asiepshtain]

What? Does this mean they will be released at once as three diffrent games or one after another?

How can all three be extensions? What does the original game comes with, titles?!

I don't know about you guys but I'm seriously calling bullshit on this move. Seems like a way to make people buy three products instead of one. Seems like blizzard first shit play, what a let down.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

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.

Yeah, we've been discussing this over in the Gameplay forums. Multiplayer will come COMPLETE. The Game will come COMPLETE. The singleplayer Campaign will just focus inteirly on the Terrans, then later an EXPANSIOn will be released with the singleplayer campaign for the ZERG, and so on and so forth- it was also hinted refinements or little updates may also come with the packs, but it's primarily a focus on Singleplayer campaigns.

I'm of mixed feelings. I shall repost my thoughts from the other thread here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.73727

It doesn't seem much more different then Valve releasing Half-Life 2 installments so goddamn slow my voice changed inbetween. It's a unique move, and if done correctly it could revolutionize the way we look at strategy games and the expectations we have for singleplayer campaigns. They're promising a full game for EACH race. I think it's... well, it's Blizzard. I think this could be the most exciting thing i've ever heard, or the most horrible. Much like Bioware, Blizzard is now standing on a point of no return- their actions shall either lift them from lauded to legendary, or plummet them from the heights of their acclaim into damnation. As it's Blizzard, i'll wait till I see the whole play before I judge the climax.

That being said, I hope that, and believe they have no reason, to charge FULL PRICE for every installment. Seeing as the Zerg and Protoss installments shall be primarily JUST a singleplayer campaign and some additional content, I look at them more as an expansion pack and I expect them to be priced accordingly and well worth every goddamned cent spent on them.

The gauntlet is thrown, Blizzard. Put on the show of your life, or suffer for your hubris.

 

[thechemist]

Has Blizzard released any other statements to the press? Anyone?

 

[Azhrarn-101]

To quote my post on this from Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

ah well, obvious money grabbing scheme is obvious.

Paying ?150 (approx. $225) to get the complete single-player game is far to much for me, even if they price them at ?expandalone? level it?ll still be ?120 at the very least. So no thanks, i?ll get them from the bargain bin then.

I'm to slow for multiplayer, so I couldn't care less if that was in feature complete or not, I get games like this for their singleplayer mode and this is essentially just a kick in the nuts.

It is obvious to me that Acti-Blizz is just going to milk all the Blizzard IPs for all they can and then discard them and this is just the first step. The announcement that they are monitizing Diablo 3 (i.e. including micro-transactions for stuff) clinched it for me. One of the last trustworthy game developers/publishers has just died.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

To quote my post on this from Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

ah well, obvious money grabbing scheme is obvious.

Paying ?150 (approx. $225) to get the complete single-player game is far to much for me, even if they price them at ?expandalone? level it?ll still be ?120 at the very least. So no thanks, i?ll get them from the bargain bin then.

I'm to slow for multiplayer, so I couldn't care less if that was in feature complete or not, I get games like this for their singleplayer mode and this is essentially just a kick in the nuts.

It is obvious to me that Acti-Blizz is just going to milk all the Blizzard IPs for all they can and then discard them and this is just the first step. The announcement that they are monitizing Diablo 3 (i.e. including micro-transactions for stuff) clinched it for me. One of the last trustworthy game developers/publishers has just died.

Diablo monitization hasn't been verified yet, and a few flubs doesn't completly damn them. Times are bad and they need to make money. So long as their titles countinue to be Triple A and the raping is optional, I shall countinue to support them.

 

[Azhrarn-101]

Diablo monitization hasn't been verified yet, and a few flubs doesn't completly damn them. Times are bad and they need to make money. So long as their titles countinue to be Triple A and the raping is optional, I shall countinue to support them.

No it doesn't completely damn them, the quality of Blizz games has always been excellent, so they have some leeway for me. Even though "times are bad" they are making $75 million plus off WoW every single month, that alone means I question their motives for releasing a game 3 times to milk the single player fans for every cent. As I stated in that post, I couldn't care less about the multiplayer, I'm to slow for that anyway.
But that means single player is all the more important and having to fork out triple the normal price to get a complete game is to much. (a safe assumption, I doubt they'll release them at a third or even half the normal price)

Blizzard had better make those single campaign releases the best storylines ever released in the RTS world to be even close to worth that kind of spending.

 

[Serious_Stalin]

I'm sure it will all be cracking, but I get the feeling computer game companys are trying to fool us into thinking that starcraft 1 wasn't already epic enough. I have my doubts that after buying all 3 parts of the game it will achieve the same length of the first one.

 

[Slycne]

Have they confirmed price though? Would people be willing to pay 150 for all three if each campaign had equal content to a full game? That's basically what they are saying and if that is true then I would be ok with that.

If I had to guess what pricing we are likely to see it would be $50 for the Terran and then $20 for Zerg and Protoss. Which would bring the trilogy to $90.

If Blizzard can deliver on the promise of equal amounts of extended content in all 3 games then great. If not then I can see this going badly for them.

 

[XzarTheMad]

Not cool.

As a person not devoted to multiplayer it saddens me. Personally I like a little interchangability with my games - the reason I managed to play through the Starcraft Campaigns was that I only had to do so many missions before getting something new to work with, ie. a new race. If they want to make three full-sized games, each with one race having a full game's worth of campaign that would be, what, 20 missions? 20 missions with the same units, tech and so on. A few variations, maybe, but I recon it'll be too much of one race to stand. There is a reason they make several races in most RTSs these days. I guess this means I will just have to wait until they all come out, which will probably take at least 6 months between each, and then for them to drop enough in price over here that I can afford them.. so in four years I can tell y'all what I think. Yay.

On a side note, I agree with whomever said that Blizzard's credibility is going more down the drain with each release.

 

[Grampy_bone]

Well this sucks. I was really looking forward to this game. Too bad Blizzard just made sure I'll never, ever buy it. Way to go.

 

[Playbahnosh]

Create epic feel MY ASS!!! Create epic CASH more like...

Damn, I wanted so badly that StarCraft II won't be a marketing ploy, but I was so wrong.
What's next? Tear up the game even more and release every single unit in the game as a single expansion? Bah... I won't buy this game...

 

[asiepshtain]

After reading an interview with starcraft 2 developer, here is some more information.

All three releases will be full stand-alone games, not expansions ( i.e. full priced)
Each one will have around 30 missions, same as the full starcraft game.
They will be released in one year intervels ( I shit you not, thats what it said). So full story is about 2.5 years from now.

I don't know about you but I'm deeply dissapointed. I understand that blizzard is trying to shift to a new buissnes model, one based on more frequent releases then the classic game design and release. A buissnes model most evident in WOW. But I think blizzard missed a major part of what made the original starcraft fun. That is the diversity of the diffrent races. Playing the same race over 30 missions is not the same as playing three diffrent races with 10 missions each. I think this is a major mistake on their part and would lead to a much smaller intrest in this from the more casual players, those intrested in a simple gaming experiance and not willing to learn two whole races by themselves through multiplayer.
For this very large consumer group all blizzard is doing is selling one third of a game for full price.

 

[PsykoDragon]

...However, I think the reasoning behind this is that if SC2 is split into 3 games, then the singleplayer campaign for each side will be played more and remembered by players. If it were just one large game, some people might rush through it and consider it complete in a day or two...

I like this way of thinking. Ever notice how Harry Potter fans' teeth are always grinding? They're always excitedly anticipating the next installment, which drives them to the brink of insane fanaticism. This is what makes it so memorable for them in the end. It's similar to "working" for it.

Though, I must say, the Harry Potter series is trash & I feel sorry for all those deluded by it.

 

[Dectilon]

Another "great idea" comes back to bite the guy who thought of it in the ass. I'm not sure if the developers are morons or if the publishers think we are (I guess the latter since they would be correct in that assumtion) : /

 

[MStrauss]

I see people buying one of then for the multplayer and pirating the other 2 releases, and I cant blame then =/, Ill probly buy the terran(just because its the first one) and the protos( En Taro Tassadar!) packs and wait for a cheap release of the zerg one in the next decade.

 

[742]

ok so throwing away all the financial shit, because its fucking blizzard and you KNOW your going to buy at LEAST one of these(the only thing that changes now is that all blizzard employees just lost their special right to have sex with anyone who plays video games anytime they wish, they are now simply normal people with cool jobs) im worried that they will isolate the stories, i liked how they tied into each other in SC/WC3, and it looks like they wont now. that r ungood? in fact is was ONE story played from 3 viewpoints. now it r not?

i really am a fan of "its done when its done" and if they release it on time i will consider ... um... punching someone else whos buying it when i go to buy it and feeling really bad about both things.

 

[AceDiamond]

You know it's times like this that I'm glad I'm the only person in the world who never saw the appeal of Starcraft (being a C&C and Total Annihilation player), because if I had become one of the dyed-in-the-wool fans of the franchise I'd be wondering how i'm going to spend $150+ on essentially one game.

Essentially that's what it is, unless people become committed to being only one side.

 

[BobisOnlyBob]

Does anyone here REALLY think they're that stupid? They haven't announced price, they haven't announced anything important except "each single-player campaign will be on a seperate disc, bought seperately". Everyone knows the story is great and fun, I'm sure as hell looking forward to it, but the multiplayer defines the continued experience, and will almost definitely be there on day #1, completed.

Why would they charge you $50 a pop for each game? Unless they release each over a year apart, and guarantee the solidity of each campaign. Remember, the original Dawn of War only featured a Space Marine campaign and nothing for the other races.

I really don't believe Blizzard is going to screw us over on this one. And if they do, the Acti-Blizz merger did more damage than I thought.

 

[axia777]

The only way I will be happy by this decision if if every section of the game is truly it's own game. They have to be EPIC in feeling to make it all worth while.

My other question is what are they going to do about multi-player? The first section for the single player game is going to just the Terrans right? How are we going to play Zerg or Protoss on-line? Because on-line I always played the Protoss, period. If I cannot play them first day, out of the package I am going to be none to please.