Starcraft Ghost Put On Hold 110
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:next gen ad infinitum (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe their production facilities are running low on crystals and vespene gas.
Re:next gen ad infinitum (Score:2)
Jeez, do we have to think of everything??
Re:next gen ad infinitum (Score:2)
Kekekekekekekekekekekekeke ^___^
Re:next gen ad infinitum (Score:3)
Re:next gen ad infinitum (Score:3, Interesting)
No, seriously, that wasn't just a joke. Where is the higher return on investment for a couple million dollars and thousands of hours of programmer time -- improving WoW's sales by 5% or delivering a smash-hit console FPS? When you sell a box of FPS: The Killing for the PlayCube360, you have to split the pie with the console manufacturer (license fees) and the retail store. When you sell an
Re:next gen ad infinitum (Score:2)
Profit is what's left over when you take salary bill, maintenance, taxes, etc off the money you have coming in. In the case of WoW, they'll have server maintenance, bandwidth bills, possibly hosting charges, staff salaries, etc.
I know what point you were trying to make - that they get more of the money - but it's wrong to describe it as being "pure profit".
Re:next gen ad infinitum (Score:1)
(Yes, I know their currency is spread is across USD, Yen, and Euro's. That doesn't change the fact that the 1st generation of MMORPG proved that you can sustain profitability with as little as 200,000 subscribes, which they are well past.)
As long as (Score:1)
MMORPG gold mine. (Score:2)
From Blizzard's point of view, they've just discovered a Warcraft goldmine that has 999,999,999,999 gold!
That means it's time to... SEND THE PEONS!
Re:MMORPG gold mine. (Score:1)
Re:MMORPG gold mine. (Score:1)
Re:next gen ad infinitum (Score:2)
Don't say that! Having worked at Atari for six years, I've seen a lot of PC titles tossed out the door before they were ready. If the game sold a lot, it would get a patch. Otherwise, the patch gets cancelled because the corporate office didn't want to waste money. (Never mind that if more effort went into avoiding a patch in the first place, the bean counters wouldn't be crying about wasted money.) Blizzard should do it right or not do it a
Re:next gen ad infinitum (Score:2)
I knew it was quite awhile ago and was curious about exactly when. Then i saw the "Related Stories" section which contained a link to an article about the original announcement and figured i could check that out. You know, as long as they're going to start putting links to old articles right at the top they really need to update the dates to include the year, rather than make us decypher it from the URL.
Incidentally, said URL claims it was announced around N
Indefinitely? (Score:1, Funny)
Damn, just damn (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:3, Insightful)
I lived for starcraft over battle.net, and I'd love to see an updated version. Warcraft 3 was OK, but I liked the scifi feel of starcraft much better.
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:2)
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:2)
But yeah, I agree with you on all points. Also, regarding the resolution: that's where 3D rendering would come in handy, because they could make the game display a consistently-sized area of the map but scale everything on it to whatever resolution you want.
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:2)
TA is the large scale game. Go play TA spring to see a real monstrous war.
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:2)
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:1)
I agree about SC vs WCIII.
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:2)
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:3, Insightful)
As such their refocusing on cosnoles is really worrying. It is well known that RTSs have always sucked on consoles. If Blizzard decides to go to consoles they will probably abandon the RTS genre.
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:2)
Give me Starcraft II and a 2nd WC3 expansion. k, thx
Expectations? (Score:2)
Re:Damn, just damn (Score:1)
Why consoles (Score:1)
I don't see why the latest consoles are a big deal.
Two words: (Score:2)
While the number of PCs out there is huge, the number of game consoles is huge as well, and console games have been selling better than PC games for several years now.
Re:Two words: (Score:1)
Besides Starcraft Ghost is a TPS (third person shooter) a genre known for doing quite well on consoles, not a RTS
Re:Two words: (Score:1)
Re:Why consoles (Score:1)
Re:Why consoles (Score:1)
When you can sell 10x as many copies on a console as you can a PC that's the reason.
Blizzard got their start doing console development, as Silicon and Synapse. Rock and Roll Racing for the SNES, that's Blizzard. I don't know why they abandoned them but abandon they
In other words... (Score:1, Insightful)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
A good thing? (Score:1)
Re:A good thing? (Score:2)
Re:A good thing? (Score:1)
While it was still in development, a Monkey Island 4 came out and basically made every 2D adventure game look obsolete. Blizzard realized that Warcraft Adventuers didn't meet the new bar for adventure games, and they were having a lot of trouble fine-tun
Great. (Score:1, Interesting)
Release schedule (Score:2, Funny)
1) Nintendo Revolution/Go
2) Playstation 3
3) Duke Nukem Forever
4) Phantom Console
5) Starcraft Ghost
Re:Release schedule (Score:1)
Best ... Advertising ... Ever (Score:5, Funny)
Curses. (Score:2)
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)"
Re:Curses. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Curses. (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah... (Score:2)
Guess I should go get my money back (Score:1)
Re:Guess I should go get my money back (Score:1)
Re:Guess I should go get my money back (Score:2)
That's like $3, adjusting for inflation.
This is news? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is news? (Score:2, Insightful)
So to maximize profits/happiness, they have decided to scrap a game that seemed a little unoriginal. It read like a combo between Halo and splinter Cell. It might have come out a little like Brute Force - a great game, but not Blizzard Worthy.
These guys have never failed to hit it out of the park and they are the only company I w
Re:This is news? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This is news? (Score:2)
Re:This is news? (Score:1)
PC devs are lazy bums compared to the console dev houses. 7 games in how many years. You'd never catch Squeenix, Zipper, Insomniac, or even SOE with sucky
Re:This is news? (Score:2)
Re:This is news? (Score:1)
Re:This is news? (Score:1)
Re:This is news? (Score:1)
Re:This is news? (Score:2)
Re:This is news? (Score:2)
Re:This is news? (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, these are completely separate dev teams I believe. Diablo II was definitely Blizzard North, and I believe that Ghost is their c
Re:This is news? (Score:1)
1. 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.
Reread that sentence. Pretend you are running a business.
2. How do you think Blizzard developed the reputation it has? It hasn't rushed games out, traditionally having only one or two in development at a time, and they all have -long- development cycles to ensure they're ground-breaking games.
Re:This is news? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:This is news? (Score:2)
Re:This is news? (Score:2)
There are basically four (and a half) development teams at blizzard the
What you said is a pile of garbage. (Score:2)
- Diablo 2 was delayed because it simply wasn't finished (Just look at Act 4. It was promised to be the largest out of all the four acts, yet it was t
Blizzard ran into Duke Nukem's problem... (Score:2)
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?
Re:Who really cares? (Score:2)
Re:Who really cares? (Score:1)
Oh, the Westwood Studios do have rights to C&C.
But of course, you have to ask, what Westwood Studios, exactly? Not the fled people you're referring to, but rather the hollow shell of the corporate assets, ghoulishly eaten by EA...
Screw Ghost (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Screw Ghost (Score:2)
Re:Screw Ghost (Score:2)
Not surprising (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Re:Not surprising (Score:1)
its ok (Score:1)
Yay! (Score:4, Funny)
This is going to be the best N64 game ever!
Why (Score:1)
Penny Arcade looked at this in October 2002. (Score:2)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Not the first time Blizzard did this (Score:2)
It was an ADVENTURE GAME! How old are you, 15?
Re:Not the first time Blizzard did this (Score:1)
it was axed because adventure games suck.
in order for an adventure game to be good it has to be an oscar-worthy movie.
games that play out like movies suck.
Starcraft Ghost is at the very least, a stealthy adventure game, which is a hell of a lot better than a movie. If you've ever played the Hitman series, or anything remotely similar, you'll know that they are a very different kind of game from an adventure game. The same premise is there: there
Re:Not the first time Blizzard did this (Score:2)
Re:Not the first time Blizzard did this (Score:1)
Re:Not the first time Blizzard did this (Score:1)
Adventure game. Adventure game. You know, like Final Fantasy but with all of the statistics and weapons and random encounters and combat and shit replaced with impossible logical-after-the-fact puzzles [oldmanmurray.com] and pixel-hunting problems. Just as many cutscenes (no FMVs, though ones that included that tended to suck even more) and as much aimless wandering. If you want a good example of the genre, check out ScummVM [sourceforge.net] - th
Not a good week for deadlines... (Score:2)
Very strange coincidence (Score:1)
zerg (Score:2)
Re:zerg (Score:2)
Re:zerg (Score:2)
Re:zerg (Score:1)
even if the custom model is a big floating purple box labeled "Battlecruiser".
Re:zerg (Score:2)
It wouldn't have been Starcraft anyway (Score:1)
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
Ok 2 points (Score:2)