UPDATE #2: Official StarCraft 2 Website now up! https://StarCraft2.com.
UPDATE #1: StarCraft 2 Trailer Video
And it is now official, the next big game of Blizzard is the much-awaited and most requested game ever! – StarCraft 2.
The people doing coverage of the free entrance Blizzard’s World Wide Invitational event just made a fresh announcement and showed a trailer video of StarCraft 2. They are as of the time of this writing playing the gameplay video, and we are hoping someone took a shot of those videos.
The Blizzard.com website and StarCraft2.com URL is still to be updated,
Follow up:
I guess the folks over at the US office are still sleeping..
So a short recap of everything:
* Today, at the Blizzard WWI, they officially announced StarCraft 2.
* The StarCraft (1998) splash page has this under Kerrigan’s picture: “I am the Queen of Blades. And my stare alone would reduce you to ashes.”
* Blizzard hinted that they will show a video of a “Medusa” game.
* This week, Blizzard started a timeline splash page for all their domain names. Every day, the splash page changes into a new blockbuster Blizzard game.
* They chose the WWI to be the place to announce a new game, which is being held on the Korean soil, the capital country of the StarCraft franchise.
There you go. A disappointment for the Diablo fans waiting for Diablo 3, but do not lose hope, as Blizzard might announce another new game this coming BlizzCon, this August. Who knows it will be Diablo 3.
An MMO? Well, Diablo 3 will definitely not be an MMO, for the sole reason that Diablo and WarCraft both belong on the same genre. Having a Diablo MMO side-by-side WoW, will only pull down the success of WoW.
And for those hoping for “StarCraft Universe™” or “StarCraft World™“, the reason I see for them not doing it is that the StarCraft franchise has for 9 years been anything but empty. Additionally, majority of the SC fans are waiting for an RTS sequel, not an MMO.
But, is an MMO SC viable? Yes, consider these:
- StarCraft and World of Warcraft belong to two different genres
- With that, StarCraft MMO will not kill WoW, but rather will further push the popularity of WoW
- The sci-fi MMO genre is fresh and there are few competitors, there is StarGate Worlds, Star Trek Online, and Tabula Rasa (for the oldies, StarWars Galaxies)
- StarCraft MMO and WoW can go side-by-side, StarCraft tapping both the MMO non-StarCraft fans as WoW did
- A StarCraft MMO will solidify Blizzard’s dominance over the Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) space, and no one will argue with it anymore, defeating NCsoft, EA, and SOE.
But it is also correct to say that before they introduce a StarCraft MMO, they must, just like they did with WoW, introduce one last RTS, kind-of a “bridge”, remember WarCraft III RoC and TFT? Yes, something like that, and SC2 and a possible expansion (for sure!) could be those before they unveil a StarCraft MMO.
Hey, there is more money from an MMO StarCraft than an RTS, let’s face it, at the end of the day, it all comes down to business and making more money.
You can read on what is happening on the WWI floor here: Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational Begins.
StarCraft 2!! Yehba!
:: StarCraft II Articles ::
StarCraft II – GameDev Explaining the New Units
StarCraft II – Press Release
StarCraft II – Official Details
StarCraft 2 Screenshots
StarCraft 2 Video Trailer
It is Official: Next Big Game of Blizzard – StarCraft 2