MYM - StarCraft II to be 3 games

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StarCraft

11th October 2008, 01:10

StarCraft II to be 3 games

blizzcon

Blizzard just announced HUGE news about StarCraft II in their gameplay panel. StarCraft II's single player campaign will be split to three separate products:

Wings of Liberty - Terrans
Heart of the Swarm - Zerg
Legacy of the Void - Protoss

Below you will find the most recent details:

StarCraft 2 Campaign Goals
- New Approach to RTS Single player
- Emphasizes Player choice
- Varied and Interesting Mission
- Immerse Player in StarCraft Universe

Terran Campaign
- The player is Jim Raynor
- Starts on Mar Sara
- Who is Tychus Findlay? - Has history with Jim Raynor.

[Cinematic]

Western Music
Tychus Findlay has a business promosition with Jim Raynor. Top dollar for every artifact liberated from dominion. Partners 60-40 -> 70 Jim - 30 Tychus. Like old times.

In Game Cynematics in between missions. Spaces as interactive as possible.
Jim Raynor - Wanted Dead or Alive.
Tychus busted out of Cryofreezer while transporting.
Jim Raynor freedom fighter. Jim Raynor wants Mengst to go down.

Cheat: "skipmission"

Who is the buyer? "Bunch of eggheads" - Mobius Foundation (legitmate research group). Trading in alien goods - desparate.

Mar Sara
Dangerous bio weapons left over from last war. Martial Law as hunt for weapons begins.

Mission: Zero-Hour = 3rd mission in game. Defend Raynors base. Hold out for 20 mins. Invasion by Zerg.
"It's like bunker D" - Sara.

Cheat: "end" (to end mission)

The Queen of Blades has returned. "We always knew she'd be back. But what is she after?" "She has come to finish the job."

Gabriel Tosh - new character. Jamaican. White eyes. "If we don't kill her, she will slaughter us all."

Armory - where you choose your technology. (Store) Customize force depending on your play style.
- Bunker upgrade = more marines in bunker.
- Marine stim packs.

Matt Horner - new character. First officer to Raynor. Tells you what's going on with the ship, mission, etc.

Star Map - Missions acc to planet. Mini briefing on mission when you click on each planet.

Challenges
- Three HUGE Stories
- Story Mode Demands 2-4x as much as Previous Games
   - Alternate Missions
    - Extensive Use of In-Game Cinematics
    - Lots of Characters Means Lots of Development.

So... What Should We Do?

Options
A) Simplify the Campaign (More Linear, Less Choice, Less Characters) "White Flag", giving up and surrender
B) Make Each Campaign EPIC, But Release Them Each As A Separate Product - "Go big or go home"
C) Compromise in the Middle, But Delay The Game Greatly.

And the winner is...

STARCRAFT II TRILOGY

First Game - Terrans: Wings of Liberty
Second Game - Zerg: Heart of the Swarm
Third Game - Protoss: Legacy of the Void

What does this mean?
- Nothing changes for multiplayer and skirmish. All three races will be fully implemented.
- Each campaign should feel like an epic story, not be a cliffhanger into the next one.
- More content than we previously planned (Movies, Missions, Etc).

Story Content
- More Sets
- More Characters
- More props, and extras like TV, Jukebox, etc. (to allow more interactivity in each space).

Missions
- More branching missions and some Easter Egg Missions.
- The ending is set. The middle has branches.
- Campaign is approximately 26-30 missions if player did everything.

Movies
- More in-game and pre-rendered cinematics
- Kerrigan's dream movie added

[Rough Storyboard Cinematic]

Future Campaigns
- Meta game mechanics different in each campaign. (Terran - you're a mercenary leader. Zerg - making Kerrigan powerful. Protoss - diplomacy gameplay)
- Zerg campaign tidbits
- Protoss campaign tidbits

Protoss Mini Campaign
- Centers around Zeratul
- Focuses on greater threat
- Great way to allow players to play another race in campaign.

The End.

One More Thing...

[Prerendered cinematic that nobody in the world has seen. (about Zeratul)]
Xel Naga returning. Do they come to save or to destroy?
Appearance of Kerrigan "I knew you'd find your way here... eventually"

Q & A
- Fast action, mass armies, no heroes in StarCraft II.
- Trilogy = separate products, coming out in sequence. . Next two are like expansion sets but feel like standalone products. Storyline is consecutive.
- Multiplayer is separate. No decisions on multiplayer for future products.

Related Link: BlizzCon Coverage

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Comments (43)

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1

(last month) #1 The1Crow

WOAH! Some ppl come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay ever!

(last month) #2 BeeemIt

3 Games? Damn, Blizzard knows how to make money :D

(last month) #3 SKLoda

wtf?!? Three games? This feels wierd

(last month) #4 CaTeTo

sons of a bitch

(last month) #5 rYvSoitGoes

damn

(last month) #6 lost

are they kidding?

(last month) #7 4KFmatthe88

Who cares about singleplayer ;) ╦╦╦╦╦╦╦ The fence of the Ancients ╦╦╦╦╦╦╦

(last month) #8 cujo2k

i dont wanna buy 3 games just for a single player campaign.. Idk I might just buy 1 and stick with multiplayer after that..

(last month) #9 Mirhi

$50 for each one? What a ripoff.

(last month) #10 Dendra

well fact is starcraft2 is huge and will be until people buy it, that's when we see how good the game really is - so why not make "suckers" pay 3 times for same product. people sell tickets to heaven over internet...so if even that goes by....

P.S. well besides ppl that buy tickets to heaven there are also people that heard of pirates, 1000x cheaper and same experience - basically if you'll want to play all 3 campaings you'll simply buy it from your local pirate or download crack version yourself, sooner or later. if you're an online gamer then you'll buy just one game, most likely the one which contains campaigns of your fav race.

Last edited by Dendra at 11.10.2008, 02:03

If force won't work, use greater force.

(last month) #11 4KFmatthe88

Garena >>> Everything you said xD ... this should own everything imo. But I dunno what Garena will do :P ╦╦╦╦╦╦╦ The fence of the Ancients ╦╦╦╦╦╦╦

(last month) #12 BrahminKing

Unless the economy picks up and construction buisnesses start picking up in the metal industry I will barely be able to spend the extra money for just 1 copy of SC2. If blizzard thinks that people who enjoy single player are going to spend a minimum of 150 dollars to experience that they are out of there minds. Dendra is right blizzard is practicly beging for people to obtain the game by illegal means. This almost feels like a kick in the teeth. Thanks Blizzard! :(

(last month) #13 GenoZStriker

LOL either way many do not buy the games anyway. They will simply download the game, crack it, steal CD-Key online and GG. :/ If the money is worth it then I have no problem buying the game anyways. Enjoy playing dota? Check out Demigod at "Demigodthegame.com

(last month) #14 IGGSirNeo

ahaha marketing > all SirNeo's here take a beer !

(last month) #15 ipskab

" :( " says enough.

(last month) #16 zoLo89

I want to finish the StarCraft story, but I'm not going to pay for all 3...

(last month) #17 sniperzreborn

Now lots of info concerning 3 standalones for SC2. Must be pretty long and expect it to be the best.

(last month) #18 Obelisk7

I don't think it was mere means to make money that made them separate the game into three.

They planned big for the game, probably realized just a few months ago "hey, we planned abit big here" and knew it would probably take forever just for the game to come out, and had to unleash something for the folks. Separate the game into three, gives them time to focus on one campaign and probably lets them do things in the game they could not do if all three campaigns were added, and allow the game to be more epic hence attracting some of the RPG'ers.

Also gives them a time frame between the three games to work on multiplayer as well as the campaign over the long term, meaning more time for both products. Also lets them upgrade the graphics and do more test on a single product, rather then having to upgrade what they have to upgrade for everything and ending up with a product less then they wanted.

Yes, they probably going to take alot of money because of this....but perhaps the decisions for WoW, this, and anything in the future was a means to upgrade their stock alittle higher then 16 dollars, which was before the financial break down, to satisfy shareholders that 16 dollars was not the highest average of the company espically with the merge with Activision.

Etc etc etc.

"Take Nothing For Granted, For Everything Changes"

(last month) #28 Phil

The game has been under developement for so long time that this isn't a "whoops" solution. Either it was planned long time ago, or a CEO just remembered that the game was supposed to be ready for the christmas-sale. Either way this is about as deep as you can sink.

As I could understand from this release, the multiplayer and skirmish will be implemented in each of the versions, so it doesn't give them more time to prepare that:

"What does this mean?
- Nothing changes for multiplayer and skirmish. All three races will be fully implemented."

I'm forever blowing bubbles!

(last month) #35 MYM\|Grubby

As I understand, the separation does have an effect on their ability to concentrate on Multiplayer. For their first version, let's say they have 10 months until they wanna bring it out. If they have to rush to get all campaigns done, that leaves them less time to focus on Multiplayer.

(last month) #19 v3ck

I would like to see how this affects the fraction of players using each race on battle.net.

(last month) #20 SixtyWays

i think they will end up making these into expansions for the game and add a couple of new units... so ppl will have to buy them eventually.

(last month) #21 RoNniX

?!!?!?!?!?!?! WTFFF what a bitches ....

(last month) #22 RoNniX

they just working for 5-6 years for this shit ?!

(last month) #23 oppenz

nice one blizzard I'm looking at you

(last month) #24 FIRexi

ATLEAST THERE IS NO MONTHLY FEE! yet :D

(last month) #26 Dendra

for now.... :D If force won't work, use greater force.

(last month) #25 Looming

But this is Star Craft 2!!! Come on, you can spend x3 money on it xD

(last month) #27 SuperaddE

:O holy sh*t Gvision fanboy, lol :D

(last month) #29 Phil

This is really bullshit. Now, new players to the game will have a hard time playing anything but terran in the beginning. If Blizzard wants to distort the game already in the beginning, this was definitely the way to do it. SC2 is the new Blizzard Cashcow. I predict micropayments on BNet2 :-( I'm forever blowing bubbles!

(last month) #30 CoAS0th

FF life imo. Come on 3 seperate games. Makes it 150 or less for Starcraft2 alone...as phil mentioned maybe you have to pay for bnet2...ff life. Most anticipated game crushing the gamers dreams.

(last month) #31 sniperzreborn

I think the worldwide gaming fan will still strive on to buy this. :3 Anyhow, lets know the price would be cheaper as in divided by 3 packs! Standalone SC yeah!

(last month) #32 jeytimes

Trilogy bullshit

(last month) #33 NeverGG