Starcraft 2 campaigns to be sold separately

M

MrBumble

Vault Fossil
From UGO :

"The big news today out of BlizzCon is that StarCraft II is being divided into Terrans: Wings of Liberty, Zerg: Heart of the Swarm, and Protoss: Legacy of the Void, three separate standalone campaigns that will be sold separately, each highlighting one of the game's races, with the decision to subdivide the real-time strategy sequel said to be the alternative to either delaying or scaling back the release. Shacknews quotes Blizzard's Rob Pardo saying the second and third games "will be like expansion packs, but we really want them to feel like standalone products." Word is the Zerg campaign will emphasize RPG elements, the Protoss campaign will focus on diplomacy, and the Terran campaign will also feature a Protoss mini-campaign."


Nice way to milk the fans...Can't believe that they used the excuse that it's either that or the game is delayed.
Well, I'm glad that I'm not a Starcraft fan.
 
Heh. I would delay the game then if I was Blizzard.

Isn't it the Blizzard fanboys whom keep telling us that Blizzard take their time developing their games, and don't release them half-finished or buggy?

Looks like a change of policy on two of the three fronts to me.
 
well, it really depends if they're asking full price for all and if they're indeed high quality enough to be considered stand-alone products.

while OpFor was a good expansion to HL1, Blue Shift was total crap as a standalone.
 
Sounds like they just want to get in on that episodic action everybody else is doing.
I don't think it's all that worrying.
And as SuA says, it really depends on the price and quality.


The real horror from BlizzCon was the 'microtransactions in Diablo III' news.
ugh... :roll:
 
I like the ideea of 3 huge campaigns - mainly because the quality of the original was outstanding - so i'd be willing to pay up to 100-150$ just because i think its worth it.

I think its the smart way to go for blizzard - financially it will justify supporting the game and providing high quality content over a long period of time. - its the same for Diablo 3 i guess - it really has to be worth it for them to do these things when they could just keep pumping WoW

Also i really love the emphasis on story and story-based elements in the single player campaign. Bring it !
 
rcorporon said:
Nice cash-grab Blizzard.

Thanks for sticking to the fans here.
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depends if the games are worthy 'stand-alones'.

but what you can count on is that if you only buy the Terran campaign, you'll probably only be able to play the Terran multiplayer race. like in W40K.
 
SuAside said:
rcorporon said:
Nice cash-grab Blizzard.

Thanks for sticking to the fans here.
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depends if the games are worthy 'stand-alones'.

but what you can count on is that if you only buy the Terran campaign, you'll probably only be able to play the Terran multiplayer race. like in W40K.
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Exactly, what kind of shit is that?

Most likely they will release Terran first then several months down the line Protoss and so on... So are we all just to dick around in multilayer mode? Play against each other as Tarrans... FUN! DIVERSE!

This has to be the worst decision Blizzard could have made. The diversity, complexity and re playability of the first installments compose a big part of why it was successful. Now a good portion of that element has vanished unless you want to shell out the minimum of 15 bucks for the next portion of the game.

I say minimum because Blizzard will loose money if they make the "stand alone product" too cheap.
 
but what you can count on is that if you only buy the Terran campaign, you'll probably only be able to play the Terran multiplayer race. like in W40K.
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I don't understand...

If what you are saying would come true, then all of these 3 versions would have to come at the same time? And that would defeat the purpose of it all?

I mean people would not play TvT only for months before they could play TvZ or TvP.

That really doesn't work in SC where the MP is more important than the SP for so many people.

I hope it will be like this.

The game lets say terran version comes first. With it you can only play the terran SP, but all the other races in MP.
Then comes the exps so you can play Z and P SP...

Would be kinda boring to get to know the new race in MP games or in custom maps tho. Its more fun to see the new units slowly during the SP game imo.

I remember the old starcraft boxes, you could buy three different covers, one for each race. Maybe they wanted to do something back then but couldn't.
 
keyser Soeze said:
I don't understand...

If what you are saying would come true, then all of these 3 versions would have to come at the same time? And that would defeat the purpose of it all?

I mean people would not play TvT only for months before they could play TvZ or TvP.
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the Terran campaign includes a short stint of Protoss missions as well. as a first release, you could give those 2 races in the multiplayer.

though i'm not saying it'll be like that, i just think it could happen.

That really doesn't work in SC where the MP is more important than the SP for so many people.
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yes, but what's the alternative?

they say they're not ready. if you want all races in the multiplayer, you have to be ready with all units and the balance.

what does that leave to be 'not ready'? the campaign missions and the art/cinematics.

seems to me that usually a large part of the art & cinematics and such is done well before hand, so you're basically delaying for what? only the missions (level design & scripting)? seems unlikely to me that a single part of the production would be allowed to go so badly behind schedule while the other elements are 'done'.
 
can someone point out exactly where you got the ideea that the multiplayer component of the first release doesn't include all 3 races ?

from what i read and understand the division only applies to the single player while multiplayer will have all 3 races from the get go...

also they've stated that single player will be more expansive with more gameplay elements (rpg, diplomacy) and more units then MP while MP will have balance as its main concern


seeesh
 
Wow...this is just low. I wouldn't like to be in Starcraft fans' shoes right now. Episodic content is simply a way to cash in more money for less work. I didn't expect Blizzard to go down that road too.
 
I saw this story today too. Blizzard basically has a LICENSE to print money at this point. If I have to wait as long BETWEEN campaigns I am going to a very unhappy starcraft2 player.
 
Wow...this is just low. I wouldn't like to be in Starcraft fans' shoes right now.
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Honnestly, even if it sucks, I'd rather be in their shoes now.
[sarcasm] Fallout 3 looks like it might not be the game I expected after all...[/sarcasm]
 
radnan said:
from what i read and understand the division only applies to the single player while multiplayer will have all 3 races from the get go...
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just speculation...
 
I really doubt they'd launch with ONLY Terran playable on battle net. I read an article on IGN that said they were shooting for one year between the games. But given Blizzard's reputation I doubt that they'll reach that goal.
 
Honestly, my thought is: this is what game developers should have been doing from the beginning of time. I much, much prefer this to releasing unfinished games with unimplemented ideas, game-stopping bugs, and with tons of content cut away in order to meet a deadline.

Of course, it all depends on whether or not there is actually enough content in just one of the campaigns to warrant purchasing it as a stand-alone. There are few companies to whom I'd give the benefit-of-the-doubt at this point. Blizzard is one of those companies.

If this does turn out to be a money-grabbing scheme, I'll be sorely, sorely disappointed in Blizzard.
 
Blizzard is really going to do that?

That will be selling Diablo II, but only giving you the install disc and making you wait for months til they let you buy the next disc.
 
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