Blizzcon 08: StarCraft 2 Trilogy Confirmed

We all knew that something big was coming out of Blizzard when all the press were directed to the StarCraft 2 Gameplay panel. But even the biggest StarCraft fans, myself included, were certainly not expecting anything like this.

Blizzard announced today that StarCraft 2 will be released as three separate expansions, one for each race. The expansions will be chronological and will go in the following order; Wings of Liberty (Terran), Heart of the Swarm (Zerg), and Legacy of the Void (Protoss).

This unexpected move was a result of the design team's ambitions to create an "epic" feel for each campaign. Blizzard VP of Game Development Rob Pardo explained that separate expansions will allow for more in-depth and longer campaigns for each race rather than a truncated version that would occur with a single release.

Jonathan Tietz is the admin for StarCraft 2 Fansite StarCraft2Forum.org and will be updating the latest news from Blizzcon with the Escapist and WarCry teams!

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This can be awesome if they get the timing right. If it goes the way of the Half Life episodes, well I'd be pissed off.

I have one complaint, why aren't my Zerg first?

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.

I must be the most jaded person in the world. The first thing I thought of was, "that's a great way to make more money".

donbueck:
I must be the most jaded person in the world. The first thing I thought of was, "that's a great way to make more money".

Mine was "Lazy assholes, FINISH THE GODDAMN GAME."

I hope by longer they mean longer then the orginal starcrafts story modes for each race. I do realise that development costs for games are higher but like donbueck said it sounds alot like milking gamers for even more money.

I'm fairly sure all races will be playable in multiplayer with the first game otherwise they will have a small rebellion on their hands.

So what is this going to cost us? Is it $50 a section of the trilogy? Or will it be more reasonable and be $20 for a piece of the trilogy? Because if it is $50 a piece I may just have to say screw you to Blizzard. That would just be messed up to the MAX.

donbueck:
I must be the most jaded person in the world. The first thing I thought of was, "that's a great way to make more money".

No, that is what everyone is thinking. I feel a corn holeing coming on from Activision-Blizzard. I just KNEW that merger was going to screw the fans of Blizzard one way or another.

oh, am just glad DoW2 is coming out, so games to pick up for 2009, Dawn of War 2 and Diablo 3. S2, f u. No seriously, I am not going to spend $150 for one game single-player, I don't intend to play S2 mp anyway.

axia777:
So what is this going to cost us? Is it $50 a section of the trilogy? Or will it be more reasonable and be $20 for a piece of the trilogy? Because if it is $50 a piece I may just have to say screw you to Blizzard. That would just be messed up to the MAX.

I second that.

Unless every episode is truly, amazingly epic and feels just like a very own game. If someone can pull that off, then Blizzard... but I don't think that even they can manage to ship three, amazing, quasi-standalone games at the same time, based on the same engine and setting.

If you check up on news coming out of BlizzCon, apparently Starcraft II has been split into three different games. Check it out here: http://pc.ign.com/articles/918/918895p1.html

While Blizzard claims that each package will contain content equal to the original Starcraft, this of course leaves me worried that I may be paying $150 instead of only $50. Now, details given were very sparse, but I think as gamers it's our duty to worry and speculate.

So, what do you think? My biggest question is how they are going to justify selling three (presumably) full-priced games. Will there be extra units added to each portion of the trilogy? Just what the hell is going on here?

Grrrrr.. i hate this. Why can't we jsut get what we want the first and only time..(yea yea money making blah blah) but seriously.. no @ release add ons, no Downloadable content, just give us what we want.

if the game play is identical, apart form the different races campaigns, they should, in good faith, ship them in one package, or make them proper expansions with expansion content available for all races.

Charge twice as much for the game, put it on 3 DVDs, take an extra year or so to put it all together

but don't cheese us out by releasing a single game in 3 pieces.

does everthing have to be a trilogy?

Start lubing up those cornholes!

As long as all three can be used to play online multiplayer as all three races I don't care. If you want the in depth campaigns you can get all three.

Ok, I completely fail to understand this plan of theirs. I don't even have a snarky comment to say, i'm that confused.

Trigger Blizzard fanboy excuses in 3....2....1...

HIT IT!

AceDiamond:
Ok, I completely fail to understand this plan of theirs. I don't even have a snarky comment to say, i'm that confused.

they want to flesh out the campaigns to be full games in and of themselves.

The original Starcraft had 32 missions, and they want each campaign in starcraft 2 to have at least that many missions.

So they've decided to split it into 3 different game releases, one for each race.

From what I gathered, the game will ship with all 3 races intact, but with only campaign for Terran, and then at future points they'll release the Zerg and Protoss campaigns.

The bright side is, if you LOVED the campaigns of Starcraft, you'll get HUGE campaigns this way. 90-100 missions long, with 3 games worth of Blizzard's Trademark CGI cutscenes.

The darkside is, you're buying the basic game 3 times to get all of the campaigns, and you have to wait to get the other campaigns, so if you LOVE the protoss, and don't care so much about Terran or Zerg, sucks for you, you gotta wait for the Protoss game to come out.

Reading a bit between the lines, I'm concerned that Blizzard may be doing this to "meet a deadline," something that they have apparently never been concerned about. Ever. (Four games released since 1998? Seriously?) I live near their offices, and they are fucking huge. It seems a bit strange to me that they won't be able to string together three campaigns within... what? When it's done o'clock?

I'm wondering if they've realized they can't charge for multiplayer like they do with WOW, and want to stretch out the singleplayer money for as long as they can.

EDIT: Above poster is perfectly timed. (Quote above him: Blizzard fanboy on cue) Their business model on this seems like, at best a copout, and at worst horrible, horrible greed.

Ok I understand now.

I think it's a bad idea marketing-wise and I don't think it'll work well but...I understand it.

VeX1le:
does everthing have to be a trilogy?

Well, the whole point of this plan is to release each campaign seperately so that they come out sooner. One campaign for each race, as always. And don't you realize the trilogy plan works very well from both a business and entertainment standpoint?

Anyway, I'm not too happy about this but I'm not especially mad either. This is just like Valve's whole "Half-Life 2: Episode X" idea.

Brief tangent: I believe that if you think about it there are only two real differences between Blizzard and Valve. Blizzard is larger. Blizzard prefers the bird's eye view perspective, while Valve takes the first-person approach.

Eeee..

This'll be awkward. Three parts to Starcraft 2, released over (likely) three years. It'll probably let them develop story more though, because they said each campaign will be roughly 30 missions.

I'm thinking though, if you just want the Zerg or Protoss campaign you've just going to have to wait for a year or two. That'll piss off some fans.

What happened to that tried and true blizzard philosophy of "It'll be done when it's done."

Three full priced games would be ridiculous money grabbing. Once they've made the first one they've done most of the design work, coding and balancing, so charging full price for all three would be ridiculous. And if you only need one to play all three races in multiplayer like they suggest, then the 2nd and 3rd ones add way less. There's no way I'll buy starcraft 3 times when I could have 3 different games.

In summary, the 2nd and 3rd ones better be cheap.

Novajam:

What happened to that tried and true blizzard philosophy of "It'll be done when it's done."

The greatest financial collapse in history.

WTF have you been doing the last 15 days?

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.

So...whens Duke Nukem Forever coming out? Oh, wrong comapnies, but damn do they sound similar!

How is the MP going to work by doing this?

admanb:
Start lubing up those cornholes!

Bend over friends, but at this rate there will be absolutely no lube. Activision wants a piece of your ass. I know for a fact that if Blizzard had never merged with Activision that this would never have happened.

This all Activisions fault. Blizzard never would have screwed fans like this. I knew that the merger would screw Blizzard fans in the end. This is how it all starts.

If this is how it's released, Unless they make it a LOT cheaper than I'm expecting, it won't be on my gaming shelf

axia777:
This all Activisions fault. Blizzard never would have screwed fans like this. I knew that the merger would screw Blizzard fans in the end. This is how it all starts.

We'll see. It's Blizzard. Wait for them to attempt to initialize penetration, then blow the rape whistle and run. For god sakes don't be a hero or you'll wind up like Indiana Jones.

axia777:

admanb:
Start lubing up those cornholes!

Bend over friends, but at this rate there will be absolutely no lube. Activision wants a piece of your ass. I know for a fact that if Blizzard had never merged with Activision that this would never have happened.

and i can tell you, for a much more educated fact, that this has nothing to do with activision. was already the plan. pretty obvious anyway, when you consider the development life cycle of a game.

The sad truth is that Blizzard is still gonna get my money, those bastards. They argue that they want it to be as "epic" an experience as possible, but it's all a ploy to rake in some more green.