PowderBB3D
06-28-2004, 6:26 AM
Everybody knows about Starcraft Ghost, right?
Nihilistic does nothing now; Blizzard "relieved" them of their duties and pushed Ghost back again. The game that was slated for a Q2 2003 release now looks to be headed to a Q4 2004 or perhaps even later. What strikes me is the similarity between Ghost and Warcraft 3. At the onset, Ghost was a game with high hopes and a lot of new things being talked about. Sort of a Metal Gear Solid meets Battlefield 1942, it was like a lone-gun approach with an entire army backing you. Ghost was supposed to have a huge array of new and original abilities but most of them are panning about to be new names for tired staples. Warcraft 3 was rumored at some points to have 1st person perspectives, RPG abilities for all your units, etc. but none of that panned out despite the huge delays.
Blizzard is notorious for failing to reach launch dates and, as of late, notorious for somewhat letting down their fans. Don't get me wrong, Warcraft 3 is a pretty good RTS, but it is nothing (and even hardcore WC3 fans won't deny it if they were hardcore enough to keep up with it during development as I did) compared to what it could have been. Hoping there would be redemption in an expansion I beta tested FT and was so sorely disappointed that I no longer even have WC3 installed.
The only reason I think Blizzard is tolerating the less-than-excellent state of Ghost is because it is not intended to be a stand-alone game, per se. I think Blizzard isn't intending on selling Ghost on its own merits alone. I think they have something much grander in mind.
Starcraft 2 might be in development by one of Blizzard's teams as there is a rumored "secret project" in the works (believe this at your own discretion; if it had any real merit it wouldn't be called a "rumor"). World of Warcraft was in development during Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne and nobody ever suspected a thing for a long while. After all, Blizzard was too busy with their repeatedly delayed WC3 to make another game in tandem, right?
Right?
Well, what do we have coming from Blizzard now? Ghost. World of Warcraft. Ghost is largely complete, with most of it being subcontracted out to begin with. WoW has been in beta stages for a while now, meaning that what's going on are mostly tweaks and balancing. This, coupled with rumors of a "secret" project make it pretty likely something else is in the works. Could it be Starcraft 2?
I for one seem to think so. The surprise patches for b.net lately which didn't actually do much seem more like subtle hints to me than actual gameplay enhancements. Barring the stacking hack there was really nothing big in either of them. With Ghost reaching completion and the incessant placement of "Are you working on SC2?" questions on Blizzard FAQs as of late (couple this with the fact that the answers to those questions are invariably "We fully intend to return to the world of starcraft for PC in the future") I feel that the atmosphere is being prepped.
Ghost for console is brilliant. PC gamers know all about Starcraft, but console gamers had only a brief taste in the (crappy) N64 port - and that didn't garner much support or viewership either. Releasing Ghost should bring in a large flux of new starcraft lovers who will then, logically, go out and buy the RTS that started it all. Crossing genre lines, Ghost will suck in both RTS lovers and those who don't even know what RTS stands for due to its action setting. Luckily for them, Blizzard has begun supporting the B.net component again just in time for all the new users. A few months go by and you have two or three times as many people into starcraft as you do now. Then, BAM they announce Starcraft 2. And the don't just announce it, they show screenshots and tell us that it has been in development for the last year.
Blizzard, cleverly capitalizing on the perfect marketing situation, will undertake the ultimate approach to sales. Functioning like a metaphorical glave worm, Blizzard marketing will richocette from one game to the next; this one-two approach will use both games as marketing tools for each other. Ghost is the initial hit, its splash damage clearing a path for the upcomming jugernaut that is Starcraft 2. Once Ghost sales begin to slow down Starcraft 2 will be announced. At this point, penny-pinchers who would have skimped on Ghost to save for Starcraft 2 will have already bought the game, wanting Ghost since it was the next-best thing to SC2. The cooldown time between the initial release of the game and the announcement of Starcraft will have to be just long enough to subdue inter-title competition in this sense. Those with money to spare, after being informed by Blizzard that SC2 will have tie-ins with Ghost, will only be pushed into dishing out their cash for the tactical-action game, spiking the sales again like a second-release. Then, once it all calms down, SC2 comes out and Blizzard, for the third time, reaps huge economic returns.
Finally, after all is said and done, Blizzard fires off an expansion pack that started development during the final months of Starcraft 2's own development phase. Thus, Blizzard pulls in four major revenue spikes as well as everything in between.
- P
Nihilistic does nothing now; Blizzard "relieved" them of their duties and pushed Ghost back again. The game that was slated for a Q2 2003 release now looks to be headed to a Q4 2004 or perhaps even later. What strikes me is the similarity between Ghost and Warcraft 3. At the onset, Ghost was a game with high hopes and a lot of new things being talked about. Sort of a Metal Gear Solid meets Battlefield 1942, it was like a lone-gun approach with an entire army backing you. Ghost was supposed to have a huge array of new and original abilities but most of them are panning about to be new names for tired staples. Warcraft 3 was rumored at some points to have 1st person perspectives, RPG abilities for all your units, etc. but none of that panned out despite the huge delays.
Blizzard is notorious for failing to reach launch dates and, as of late, notorious for somewhat letting down their fans. Don't get me wrong, Warcraft 3 is a pretty good RTS, but it is nothing (and even hardcore WC3 fans won't deny it if they were hardcore enough to keep up with it during development as I did) compared to what it could have been. Hoping there would be redemption in an expansion I beta tested FT and was so sorely disappointed that I no longer even have WC3 installed.
The only reason I think Blizzard is tolerating the less-than-excellent state of Ghost is because it is not intended to be a stand-alone game, per se. I think Blizzard isn't intending on selling Ghost on its own merits alone. I think they have something much grander in mind.
Starcraft 2 might be in development by one of Blizzard's teams as there is a rumored "secret project" in the works (believe this at your own discretion; if it had any real merit it wouldn't be called a "rumor"). World of Warcraft was in development during Warcraft 3 and Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne and nobody ever suspected a thing for a long while. After all, Blizzard was too busy with their repeatedly delayed WC3 to make another game in tandem, right?
Right?
Well, what do we have coming from Blizzard now? Ghost. World of Warcraft. Ghost is largely complete, with most of it being subcontracted out to begin with. WoW has been in beta stages for a while now, meaning that what's going on are mostly tweaks and balancing. This, coupled with rumors of a "secret" project make it pretty likely something else is in the works. Could it be Starcraft 2?
I for one seem to think so. The surprise patches for b.net lately which didn't actually do much seem more like subtle hints to me than actual gameplay enhancements. Barring the stacking hack there was really nothing big in either of them. With Ghost reaching completion and the incessant placement of "Are you working on SC2?" questions on Blizzard FAQs as of late (couple this with the fact that the answers to those questions are invariably "We fully intend to return to the world of starcraft for PC in the future") I feel that the atmosphere is being prepped.
Ghost for console is brilliant. PC gamers know all about Starcraft, but console gamers had only a brief taste in the (crappy) N64 port - and that didn't garner much support or viewership either. Releasing Ghost should bring in a large flux of new starcraft lovers who will then, logically, go out and buy the RTS that started it all. Crossing genre lines, Ghost will suck in both RTS lovers and those who don't even know what RTS stands for due to its action setting. Luckily for them, Blizzard has begun supporting the B.net component again just in time for all the new users. A few months go by and you have two or three times as many people into starcraft as you do now. Then, BAM they announce Starcraft 2. And the don't just announce it, they show screenshots and tell us that it has been in development for the last year.
Blizzard, cleverly capitalizing on the perfect marketing situation, will undertake the ultimate approach to sales. Functioning like a metaphorical glave worm, Blizzard marketing will richocette from one game to the next; this one-two approach will use both games as marketing tools for each other. Ghost is the initial hit, its splash damage clearing a path for the upcomming jugernaut that is Starcraft 2. Once Ghost sales begin to slow down Starcraft 2 will be announced. At this point, penny-pinchers who would have skimped on Ghost to save for Starcraft 2 will have already bought the game, wanting Ghost since it was the next-best thing to SC2. The cooldown time between the initial release of the game and the announcement of Starcraft will have to be just long enough to subdue inter-title competition in this sense. Those with money to spare, after being informed by Blizzard that SC2 will have tie-ins with Ghost, will only be pushed into dishing out their cash for the tactical-action game, spiking the sales again like a second-release. Then, once it all calms down, SC2 comes out and Blizzard, for the third time, reaps huge economic returns.
Finally, after all is said and done, Blizzard fires off an expansion pack that started development during the final months of Starcraft 2's own development phase. Thus, Blizzard pulls in four major revenue spikes as well as everything in between.
- P