Starcraft 2 announced next month?

[Mod]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/luke%7C-i-just-soiled-myself/blizz-confirms-new-product-next-month-255518.php

MEGATON!

Another RTS by Blizzard. Sign me up. If it's anything like WC3 I will have an orgasm.

[allicanta]

Didn't see anything in that post that said it was an RTS.....for all we know, it's a sequel to that dwarf game they did back in the day for the gameboy....Or, perhaps, an early announcement for the next expansion for WoW.....I mean, they said they wanted to release an expansion every year and a half......been something like 4 months since the last one came out, suppose it's about time for them to say they're working on another if it's supposed to be out before the end of 2008...Not saying either of those are particularly likely, but I dont' consider them any more or less likely than starcraft 2 getting announced.....

[Alexi]

Starcraft 2 seems unlikely, that'd be neat though. My money is on what Alli guessed -- new WoW expansion.

[allicanta]

I just realized, it doesn't even say that the announcement will be about a game, just that it will be a new "product". This could be some new warcraft book, or yet another expansion to the WoW TCG, or a new WoW boardgame, or a Diablo paper & dice game, or any number of other things that wouldn't even involve a computer......starcraft 2 just keeps seeming more and more unlikely as I think about everything it could be.....

[Zenax]

Alliance need protoss IMO

[daayou]

Put one and one together and come up with two.

Blizzcon is coming up.
Last Blizzcon they used it to announce the expansion pack.

Hmm, new product. Hmm, Blizzcon coming up.

Welcome to Wow 3.0 coming out in 20 months.

[Phegan]

My guess is Diablo 3 since there has a been a lot of talk of that over the last 2 years.

If not diablo 3, then my guess is another game like Starcraft: Ghost, weather it's console or PC, I dunno, but I have a feeling they will announce the game and it will slowly fall to the wayside, unless its one of the big 3, in its original form.

[Bronyaur]

Starcraft2.......................

The only thing better than that is maple donuts.

Bret told me last night it was SC2, if it's not then somebody is going to pay for getting me so excited for nothing.

[gandrith]

Also, we have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don't have anything new to announce in that regard at present.

That means its not Starcraft 2, clever Blizzard jargon

If your looking for diablo 3, head on over to Flagship Studios (http://www.flagshipstudios.com/games.html) and pick a game

So its another WoW expansion... because their last one was so well done.

[Phegan]

The WoW exp just made it the exact same game with more content and smaller raids, thats about it. See my did blizzard fail with BC post.

[Bret]

Next gen mmo?
http://kotaku.com/gaming/world-of-starcraft%3F/blizzard-working-on-next+gen-mmo-255852.php

[ashla]

An MMO is a decade long investment with expansions coming out every 6-18 monthes. I would not expect another to be produced my blizzard while WoW is still in its infancy.

Like Gandrith said, I believe diablo 3 is not going to be a blizzard product.

This leaves imo, 2 options:

1. An related game to warcraft(or starcraft) in an unrelated genre. See Starcraft: Ghost(king of vaporware)

2. A direct sequel(expansion) to WoW or Starcraft(or even Warcraft 3)

[Bonzo]

I would bet a lot that it's not going to be another WoW expansion.

[Miro]

oh man, the suspense is gonna be such a bitch till they announce it, it could be ANYTHING! O SNAP

[Gankazon]

Rock n' Roll Racing 2.

Sequel to the best game of all time, if you consider one game to outweigh the entirety of existance.

[Miro]

"Rif is in another time zone!"

[Mod]

I would not be surprised if it were World of Starcraft. It would be the "sequel" to World of Warcraft. Sorta like EQ to EQ2, yet they would be switching universes on us. Starcraft was sorta like that to Warcraft.

[Arious]

I'd bet it's StarCraft 2 or something along those lines. It can't be a coincidence that the announcement is in Korea.

-Arious.

[Miro]

If it was world of starcraft, i'd delete my mage and roll a medic asap. Or a Dark Templar...that'd be bad ass

[Bret]

My guess is for it to be starcraft 2. And then follow up with a starcraft mmo. Reasons for this is. Its being announced in Korea. Thus SC2. Bliz just posted some jobs for mmo lead positions. However I dont think the 2 are correlated because if you are just hiring for MMO lead positions you are far from "announcing" it because its likely 4-5 years away from completion.

Thus SC2 out in say late 2008/early 2009. SC2 MMO in like 2011.

Fuck did I just say 2011... like fuck

[Balthor]

Yeah, think about how long it took them to come out with World of Warcraft. I remember hearing about it years and years ago. Altho the long development time, annoying as it may be for us fanboys is a good thing, makes the games better. (starcraft ghost where are u?!?!) Makes the most sense to come out with Starcraft 2 before working on a SC MMO anyway cause it gives them more material to work with.

[Phegan]

I don't know if Blizzard will want to compete with themself in the MMO world. Though, maybe they see WoW dying already. We will see.
If it does happen, I think I will play which ever game doesn't have Tigole and Furor Developing.

[Bret]

They wouldnt really be competing with themselves... If they created wow2 they would be competing with themselves. However we are talking like 4-5 years of mmo development. By that time wow will be severely outdated. However there still will be people playing it and thus making wow2 would be stupid but it would be smart to have a new MMO from another IP to capture their old fans.

[Phegan]

Very good point bert, if they are looking 5 years down the line, it's a great idea.

[gandrith]

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2006/20060616.jpg

Spookily enough, thats a pretty old comic.

yes I did just declare Spookily a real word

[Bonzo]

even if it isnt starcraft 2, i would be perfectly happy with a new expansion that used the exact same engine.

i think starcraft has great graphics, even now. i cant see how 3d would help the serious out.

[Tartarus]

Rock n' Roll Racing 2.

Sequel to the best game of all time, if you consider one game to outweigh the entirety of existance.

QFMFT

[Laghammer]

I havent read up on it but my guess would be making SC2 like WC3 with hero's. Suck some money from the public and them they will have a toon selection to choose from to make a WOW play style game with SC. WSC inc?? Might be a cool game to look into or make.

[Mod]

http://kotaku.com/gaming/nooooooooooo%21/starcraft-mmo-coming-say-sources-257902.php


zomg.......think what you want.

[Miro]

Whatever it is, i'll happy with it, i need something to take up some time since i stopped playing WoW.

I think it's starcraft 2, i highly doubt a starcraft MMO this soon after WoW.

And did they just shelf Starcraft: Ghost or did they abandon it....

[Bret]

They are announcing it not releasing it... it makes sense for Bliz to be working on a mmo since they will be seeing a decrease of subscribers in a couple years if they dont release something new into the market to capture the people they lost it would be a huge mistake. A sequal is what wouldnt make sense as that is direct competition. MMO from 2 IP 5-6 years apart is not competing.

[Gankazon]

I think Blizzard is going to announce Blood Trolls, as they meant to earlier.

Elves -> Blood Elves
Trolls -> Blood Trolls

I think it made perfect sense before BC, and now my vindication is at hand.

[kittyciara]

CVG has decided to cut through all of the hype surrounding Blizzard's upcoming StarCraft related announcement set for an upcoming event in South Korea by guaranteeing the title to be announced will not be a traditional sequel, but an MMO in the vein of WoW.
Quote:
The long-rumoured new instalment of Blizzard's massive StarCraft series is set to be unveiled later this month - and it's another massively-multiplayer online game in the style of World of Warcraft, CVG can reveal. Well placed US sources have revealed to us that the StarCraft MMO will be unveiled at an upcoming Blizzard event on May 19 in South Korea - the epicentre of the sci-fi RTS series' rabid fandom.

The unveiling of the new instalment has previously been rumoured for the South Korea event, though we now know that the title is in fact an online spin-off and not a new RTS game as previously assumed. Of course this is massive news for both Vivendi and the MMO world; Blizzard's other online offering World of Warcraft has topped 6 million subscribers and is arguably the biggest game around today.

The question is, is there room for both World of Warcraft and a StarCraft MMO? The later will have to be a very different type of online game to convince gamers to subscribe to both of Blizzard's pair.

We will of course let you know as soon as soon as Blizzard officially confirms the game on May 19.

[Bronyaur]

that would be sick but it's too long to wait!

[kittyciara]

It gets me giddy in the pants as well....

WOW was my first MMO ever and it took me a while to figure everything out. SO i leveled relatively slowly compared to others. This time around level playing grounds!!!

[Bronyaur]

at least WoW is easy... FFXI was my first, I died on like the second mob I fought cause I couldn't figure out how to heal or use my special 1hr move. And that was just the beginning of many deaths around Bastok! Curse the goblins that chase you from the hill all the way to the zone line. :(

But seriously how would they even do a SC MMO? I imagine the Zerg will be similar to the scourge of WoW, maybe there will be an infested terran class like the Forsaken. But how would they do classes? And tanking? And what about flying in ships? I guess they pay people to sit around and answer all those questions!

[allicanta]

I'll believe it when they actually announce it...until then, it's all just rumors as far as I'm concerned.

[Miro]

http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/resources/2007/05/blizzhome.png

Those dirty cock teases...

[Mod]

That's awesome.

I'm pretty pumped and will buy whatever they release next.

Yes I am a mindless drone.

[Balthor]

Considering the development cycle on an MMO, just look at WoW, it would be a while before a Starcraft MMO got released. Plenty of time for World of Warcraft to run down, hell, a lot of people are already tired of WoW so I dont think Blizz would really be competing with themselves, just picking back up all the subscribers who have quit WoW by the time a Starcraft MMO comes out.

In my perfect world a Starcraft MMO would have no pvp, the zerg would be unplayable, the main enemy, and players could make either Terran or Protoss characters.

[Mod]

An MMO with no PVP would not appeal to current WoW players.

Current WoW players want more PVP which is why Warhammer (a PVP focused MMO) is getting a lot of attention.

[Mod]

Kotaku says:

I've decided to try something new on Kotaku, writing a story that is pure supposition based on my conversations with industry insiders, sources and legitimate fact. In other words I'm going to create a rumor, but I'll be calling it a best guess.

This first time around I spent some time digging into the Blizzard news that's set to come out next week. What we know for certain is that Blizzard is announcing something at the end of their Worldwide Invitational in South Korea. That announcement will be made to a crowd of pro-gamers in South Korea. I'm being deliberately repetitive here to drive home a point. What do pro-gamers in South Korea care about? Yeah, StarCraft.


I spent much of last week up to my eyeballs in analysts, developers and fellow game journalists and was able to get a good sense of what most people are thinking on this issue.

First, I, and almost all of the insiders I spoke with, are convinced that the announcement will be about StarCraft not World of Warcraft or some other (Diablo) franchise.

Second, no one thinks this is going to be an MMO announcement. Why not? Because World of Warcraft is doing so well. Not only does Blizzard not need the added expense of operating another MMO right now, there's a good chance at least a small portion of their WoW players would migrate from one to the other and Warcraft still has plenty of life in it, so the timing just doesn't make sense.

What the general consensus is, is that Blizzard will indeed be announcing StarCraft 2. The timing would be excellent, the recent release of a number of high-profile real-time strategy games appears to be reinvigorating the genre, but none of them have blown people away. (Well, at least they haven't blown me away.) Also, I can't think of a more receptive audience than Korean pro-gamers. And, of course, Blizzard has been very clear that they haven't given up on the game. So it's coming eventually, we know that.

While this isn't totally me talking out of my sitting side, keep in mind this is a WHOLE LOTTA conjecture. I have lots of sources telling me this is probably what the announcement will be, but I don't feel nearly confident enough to post this even as a rumor. So consider it guess work and come back at the end of the week to congratulate or mock me.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/rumor/guess-work-blizzard-announcing-starcraft-2-260041.php

[Bret]

I still dont agree with him about the MMO thing (competing wise and such). Altho I do agree they prolly will be announcing starcraft 2 as a RTS. Again I still am confident bliz has a MMO starting development and they will be looking for a release in 4-5 years if not sooner if its a starcraft mmo and can put it out faster because of everything they have learned and can use models and art and such from starcraft ghost.

[Zenax]

It would be funny if they just said LOLIGOTCHU and released SC ghost

[Mod]

http://www.starcraft2.com/


Kotaku says:

We've received several tips from wide-eyed gamers pointing us, hands shaking with excitement, to Starcraft2.com. Type in the URL and it redirects you to the teaser that's playing out on the Blizzard home page right now. So yeah, only a simple redirect for now. Certainly could indicate that Starcraft 2 is on its way.

Looking at the WHOIS information, the Starcraft2.com domain has been around since 1999, a year after the original game first came out, so it has been floating around forever. It's an easy thing to take an existing URL and have it point somewhere else, so who really knows?

Blizzard, of course, and they'll be sure to let us in on it soon. A simple redirect, or is Starcraft2.com just a DNS assignment away from becoming a full-fledged game site?

I <3 Kotaku.

[Kernall]

I still dont agree with him about the MMO thing (competing wise and such). Altho I do agree they prolly will be announcing starcraft 2 as a RTS. Again I still am confident bliz has a MMO starting development and they will be looking for a release in 4-5 years if not sooner if its a starcraft mmo and can put it out faster because of everything they have learned and can use models and art and such from starcraft ghost.

I don't believe the hiring phase by Blizzard is that secret.. My sources tell something different. That the development cycle on Burning Crusade was too long, and too expensive over the life of the development. I'd assume they're trying to fill their stables with talent so they can simultaneously develop future expansions at a faster pace, and still maintain patch and normal content updates.

As far as this weeks announcement? It's almost certainly Starcraft related.. The starcraft2.com website makes that kind of obvious.. Whether or not it's SC2 or some other spinoff(ie. Ghost) is still up for debate. Given the Korean venue, one potential is an MMORTS in the vein of Shattered Galaxy(meh), which was fairly popular at one time across the ocean.

Or, in true Blizzard fashion. It's all a big hoax, like the teaser they did when they launched the new Battle.net website. We'll see on Saturday.

[Phegan]

MMORTS would be interesting for sure.

[Bret]

I don't believe the hiring phase by Blizzard is that secret.. My sources tell something different. That the development cycle on Burning Crusade was too long, and too expensive over the life of the development. I'd assume they're trying to fill their stables with talent so they can simultaneously develop future expansions at a faster pace, and still maintain patch and normal content updates.

As far as this weeks announcement? It's almost certainly Starcraft related.. The starcraft2.com website makes that kind of obvious.. Whether or not it's SC2 or some other spinoff(ie. Ghost) is still up for debate. Given the Korean venue, one potential is an MMORTS in the vein of Shattered Galaxy(meh), which was fairly popular at one time across the ocean.

Or, in true Blizzard fashion. It's all a big hoax, like the teaser they did when they launched the new Battle.net website. We'll see on Saturday.

Can you honestly say that thousands (prolly millions) of people are not itching for the next big thing (mmo wise)... if warhammer is a big hit they wont be in trouble by any means but they will certainly be bleeding players, many many players. Even with development starting now it will be a long way off before there next mmo.

In that time a dozen or so top notch MMO's will prolly launch. Maybe 1-2 will be a big hit. But just because they are new, people will flock. WoW will not go down the shitter but it would make too much sense for bliz to re-capture those players with a mmo from either Diablo or SC.

But yeah SC2... prolly going to happen... and I cant wait because it will be out sooner!

[Kernall]

I think the player bleed has already started with more recent MMO offerings(LOTRO for instance).. It's not been drastic by any means, but it's occuring.

The problem is the game. They designed it in such a way that levelling and such happens far too quickly. That is.. People are eating up the content faster then Blizzard can make it, and boredom sets in.

The solution is more content, faster.

[Phegan]

I think the player bleed has already started with more recent MMO offerings(LOTRO for instance).. It's not been drastic by any means, but it's occuring.

The problem is the game. They designed it in such a way that levelling and such happens far too quickly. That is.. People are eating up the content faster then Blizzard can make it, and boredom sets in.

The solution is more content, faster.

Or, make the level cap 90 in the next exp, and make it a 6-7 month process to get from 70-90 so they can come up and test content in that time frame. While still making 70-90 fun. Maybe even raid instances with many quests that yield exp, So can run a 25-man raid a level 80, it becomes obsolete by 85-87, but at 90, you can run Heroic 25 mans, which would yield better loot, make the fights considerably harder, as well as add new bosses.

[Kernall]

Starcraft 2 Offically announced at 12:03 AM MST

[Xann]

Starcraft 2 Offically announced at 12:03 AM MST

Link?

[Phegan]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3159659

[Mod]

http://media.pc.ign.com/media/850/850126/img_4560183.html

screens

[Mod]

Wow. I CANT FUCKING WAIT.

[Mod]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUXoekeDIW8

[Mod]

oh dear lord.

[Miro]

wowowowowowowow

[Grah]

goosebumps

[Bonzo]

creaming pants imminent....

[Alexi]

www.starcraft2.com

[Kernall]

http://www.fileplanet.com/filelist.aspx?s=107181&v=0

[Bronyaur]

nuclear launch detected!!!!

[Tristfall]

Omg Finally Wooooo

[Bret]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ9wxSVFrPU

GG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOKfnOZ2BNE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFNTYNLQLTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk-kpP5jQMU