Starcraft Ghost Put On Hold

After numerous previous delays, Blizzard has made the likelihood we'll ever play Starcraft: Ghost effectively nil. They've announced they're putting game development on hold indefinitely, as they're reconsidering options for the next generation of consoles. From the Gamespy article: "Like many in the industry, we've been impressed with the potential of the new consoles, and we're looking forward to exploring that potential further ... In addition to allowing us to determine the best course for StarCraft: Ghost, this review period will help us lay the groundwork for our future console games."

next gen ad infinitum

So, the game that was announced five years ago that was going to run on the then "next generation consoles" (ps2, gc, xbox) is now being put on hold to decide if it will run on the current "next generation consoles" (ps3, 360, rev)? Just turn the thing into a damn PC game and get it out the door!

Re:next gen ad infinitum

"So, the game that was announced five years ago that was going to run on the then "next generation consoles" (ps2, gc, xbox) is now being put on hold to decide if it will run on the current "next generation consoles" (ps3, 360, rev)

Maybe their production facilities are running low on crystals and vespene gas.

Indefinitely?

I'm not so sure about putting it on hold indefinitely. I heard it was coming out right after Duke Nukem Forever! Man it will be a great time for gaming then!

Damn, just damn

Of course, I love starcraft. So the good news is we can imagine how awesome this game would be without the disappointment of it not living up to our expectations.

Re:Damn, just damn

Warcraft 3 was OK, but I liked the scifi feel of starcraft much better.

I liked the "send 400 Zerglings hurtling towards the enemy base all at once" feel better, as opposed to Warcraft 3's "micromanage 2 units" feel.

Why consoles

I thought Starcraft ghost was simply going to be released to run on windows PCs.
I don't see why the latest consoles are a big deal.

In other words...

"We're going to wait and see how the PS3 shakes out compared to the Xbox 360. The 2 platforms are so different that we can't afford publish on both of them."

In other news...

The sequel to Starcraft: Ghost, tentatively named Starcraft: Ghost Forever, is tentatively slated for early 2007...

Great.

So instead of innovative games offering multifaceted gameplay we get online environments where people can yell at each other [ytmnd.com]. Suck.

Release schedule

I believe that makes the release schedule as follows:
1) Nintendo Revolution/Go
2) Playstation 3
3) Duke Nukem Forever
4) Phantom Console
5) Starcraft Ghost

Best ... Advertising ... Ever

This is a brilliant move to promote the stealthyness of SCG. What kind of stealth based game would it be if you could see it coming from 6 months ahead of time? Come christmas time, you'll walk into your local Best Buy, and there will be a huge display which just appeared overnight. Even the register biscuits [penny-arcade.com] won't know how it got there. It'll be beautiful.

Curses.

It appears that the success of WoW has made Blizzard even lazier than they were before.

Blizz Guy A: "Hey Bob, should we, uh, you know... start programming Ghost again? (Beavis laugh)"

Blizz Guy B:"What's the point, Dick... we're making more money than we know what to do with in subscription fees... just go look at more night elf porn, dumbass. (Butthead laugh)"

Guess I should go get my money back

I gave $5 to GameStop over 2 years ago to reserve a copy of this... guess I should go get the money back, or use it towards Kingdom Hearts 2, or something. :-p

This is news?

Much like the delay with Diablo 2, this doesn't surprise me coming from Blizzard. Their lack of dedication and work ethic makes me want to boycott all Blizzard games now. It's disgusting how they only focus on ONE game, and we all know what game that is, because it generates the most income for them. Maybe one day Blizzard will regain a reputation again that will make me want to buy their games. DIGUSTING.

Re:This is news?

Blizzard has several different studios. The main one's working on World of Warcraft (they're working on the expansion, The Burning Crusade atm); Blizzard North, which made the Diablo games, is working on some new unannounced project, and Swinging Ape Studios are working on SC: Ghost. So no, the company isn't really focusing on only one game. Lack of dedication and work ethic? Get a clue, mate. Blizzard is arguably the best game developer in the world. The reason why they're indefinitely delaying Starcraft: Ghost is probably because it's not amazingly great, not because they just can't be bothered working on it anymore. Blizzard, unlike Electronic Arts, don't make games for the same of making money per se; they make games because they love games. Because their games have all been extremely successful, and because they've got millions of die-hard fans, releasing something that's below their quality standard would only tarnish their name. They've got enough money, so they can afford to indefinitely delay a project. Ever heard of Warcraft Adventures? They completely cancelled that game after years of development because it didn't live up to their standards.

Blizzard ran into Duke Nukem's problem...

If you've checked the latest (!) graphics and platforms (PS2...), you'll see it's a yesterday's-generation game and looking about as good as Unreal Tournament 2003.

It would be perfect if it was released just about the end of 2006 / early 2007, but with an entirely different engine + art and geared for Xbox 360 and/or PS3. But Blizzard would never have time for *that* in such a short time, and if taking more time, then the game would stand out too much, now would it?

Screw Ghost

I'm still waiting for Warcraft Adventures [wikipedia.org]!

Not surprising

I really think the problem with Ghost is that they know that it isn't going to whet any Starcraft fan's appetite. On the other hand, they've invested so much (as it seems) into building this that they can't axe it like they did Warcraft Adventures.

Unfortunately, having announced this before the Xbox was originally released and now with the XBox on its way to its deathbed I'm not entirely surprised to see this getting put on hold permenantly or for the next gen depending on which story you want to believe. With it's only target platforms getting phased out at the end of the year is not a good time to release especially if you want to get anything back on a title thats been in development as long as this has.

Let's not forget that its shifted development teams twice and then brought internal when they acquired the last development studio that was working on it. Also, I believe the gameplay and style was different at every E3 it was shown at (based on reports), which doesn't help either.

Sadly, the name is quite fitting now.

its ok

they're generating so much revenue from warcraft online subscriptions that they can sit around and twiddle their thumbs.

Yay!

So now the Phantom will have two pack-in games!

This is going to be the best N64 game ever!

Why

Why do they even care to announce games. Is it proven that hyped raised sales%

Penny Arcade looked at this in October 2002.

I guess there was more to it than counting all the money [penny-arcade.com].

However, remember that a lot of the background of Warcraft 3 came from the WarCraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans adventure game so maybe we might see some of Starcraft: Ghost in say Starcraft 2.

   

Not the first time Blizzard did this

I'll admit, I'm not following SCG because I don't general play FPS. However, I will say this is not the first time Blizzard has axed a game well into development, and frankly, I applaud them.

They had some kind of weird video RPG story game (it kind of looked like the 80s dragonslayer) that had Thrall as a young orc in a slave camp, and you played him growing up or some weird stuff like that. Weird premise for a game at that time, and they were right to think "no one will buy this it's so 80s, lets kill this crap."

How much crap has been hyped, delayed, delayed again, put on hold, taken off, and then finally brought to market and shown to be the crap it really was. Why put us all through that?

If Ghost is not going to be a game we can expect something different, fun, or unique of, then lets kill it and move on. I never did like the marketing department at Blizzard as their marketing always comes out like everyone of them has an upper cocktail for breakfast and hype there stuff waaaaaaay too much, but kudos to the people at Blizzard who have the balls to say "this is crap, shut it down and stop the bleeding now. We aren't going to make money." And that's the real thing, will SCG be any real breakout exciting title? Or will it look like a Halo clone based off of a PC strategy game who's only fans will be fans of that strategy game?

Real corporations start projects and kill them all the time without releasing to market. Unfortunately software companies push these projects too hard and announce them very very early as compared to the rest of the business world. It's a skill to know when to kill a project just as much as when to start it.

Not a good week for deadlines...

Thank goodness I didn't buy that Blizzard Software Assurance contract...

Very strange coincidence

It's almost creepy how I just played through the first 3 episodes of Starcraft last night (okay, so I cheated through some of the Protoss missions - hate em). Then I uninstalled it and asked myself why the hell I even bothered. I seem to be the one guy on this planet who isn't in love with Starcraft. Once my disk was wiped I proceeded to load C&C and Red Alert instead ;)

zerg

Stick the Starcraft units in teh Warcraft III engine and we'll all be happy.

It wouldn't have been Starcraft anyway

Who really cares if Ghost doesn't come out....it wouldn't have been Starcraft anyway. And they stated that too. From what I recall, it would have been more like MG:S and the only thing Starcrafty about it would be the name.

This is one thing I never understood about Blizzard: They had a hugely successful franchise in the *craft games and let one MAJOR part of it (Starcraft) just rot. The game was released (if I recall correctly) in April of 1998 - and have even have an updated patch for it dated January of 2006. 8 years of support? Hell, the OS the game was designed for has been retired..... Why did Blizzard's braintrust not even make a vain attempt to capitalize on this fantastic game with it's fantastic support features you don't see in any games today - like the "spawn install" so you can legally play an 8 player LAN game with one copy of the game (1 master and 7 spawned installs)

Could you imagine if Blizzard updated SC with a modern RTS engine with some halfway intelligent AI (not that the AI was all that awful, just predictable) and slapped it in a box? I'd be willing to bet that 90% of the people who owned the original (like me) would run out and buy it. I guess they don't want all of South Korea to shut down and focus on the new game in fear their northern neighboors would swoop down and take over....

Had it been an EA product, we'd have already seen 4-5 (poor) sequels to it. I'm just surprised that Blizzard never released a true Starcraft II, one truly does justice to a great game.

Ok 2 points

1.-Blizzard IS NOT coding SC:Ghost, Nihilist (or something like that) is. they are probably the ones who pulled the plug on the project NOT blizzard. 2.-SC:Ghost was built for LAST generation consoles, they are changing that, SC:Ghost will be built for NEXT generation consoles.

Re:Who really cares?

Know Westwood Studios? They don't have the rights to the Command & Conquer franchise anymore.