StarCraft 2 will now be 3 games

[Werthead]

Well, they made us wait 11 years, so I suppose the least Blizzard could do is give us three full games' worth of content in return.

 

Because it had gotten too giganormous to ship as one game, StarCraft 2 has been split into three separate titles, one for each campaign: Wings of Liberty for the Terrans, Heart of the Swarm for the Zerg and Legacy of the Void for the Protoss. Each game will have the 'full content' of a 'full game'. Apparently the Terran campaign by itself will last for some 36 missions (although that may be 30 Terran missions and 6 for the bonus Zeratul mini-campaign that ships with it) and the Zerg and Protoss games will be of equal or greater length, so the complete SC2 experience will encompass at least 96 missions, probably well over 100.

 

In this day of blink-and-it's-over 14-mission campaigns (Massive and Relic, I'm looking at you), this is most laudable. To make each game better value for money, Blizzard are also adding more of their top-notch cut scenes to each title, and each of the three games will have the full multiplayer component as well, so you don't need to wait for all three to come out to play as all three races (although I suspect new maps will ship with each game).

 

This also means it's much more likely we'll see the first game in 2009, as beta keys were given away to all attendees of BlizzCon and apparently Blizzard personnel were saying that the Terran campaign is pretty much done, with some fine-tuning to do in beta testing.

 

Blizzard haven't commented on price yet, but I suspect from their comments at the con each of the three titles will ship as a full-price release.

[Silver]

I don't see anywhere that they say it will be 30+ missions. Have a link or something?

[Hybrid]

No kidding.  I'm definitely going to buy it, but I hope the price doesn't get jacked way up.  That would make me angry.  On the other hand, I'm glad that it will have some epic campaigns.  I especially hope some light is shed on the secret mission in Brood War...

[Silver]

Yeah, I would be fine with this as long as each campaign had 30+ maps and/or the games aren't $50+.

[Vemynal]

whoa

 

 

...whoa...

[SinisterDeath]

Yeah, I would be fine with this as long as each campaign had 30+ maps and/or the games aren't $50+.

 

PC games are typically $49.95, or $39.95, given blizzards approach, It'll probably be $39.95 each.

[Silver]

$49.94 = $50 :P

[SinisterDeath]

$49.94 = $50 :P

 

Yea, and you said $50+ That means, 50 or Higher! Its obviously LESS THAN 50! DUH!

 

Seriously though, we'll unlikely see it at the $49.95 mark, and I say this simpily becuase we would effectively be buying an 'incomplete product', it should be 1/3 the price, and if a pc game goes for $49.95 or (50) 1/3 would be $16.65, however why would blizzard sell it for that? Why not just $29.95? Or better yet, $39.95! (Thats like, half of what a console game costs! (59.95).

So yea, we'd likely see it for (30) or (40).

[Werthead]

From the comments, it sounds possible that the first release will be full-price and the second two will be expansion-pack price. I suspect this is still going to be controversial.

 

The problem from Blizzard's point of view is that compared to most modern RTS games, SC2 is huge (six times the length of World in Conflict or Company of Heroes), has more content (three well-balanced playable factions to WiC's two or CoH's two good ones and two rubbish ones) and had a development budget in the tens of millions, plus the best CGI in the world for the cut scenes (18 months on, I still haven't seen anything that remotely comes close in quality to the SC2 teaser trailer). They've also been working on it for five years and been planning it for four before that. So, put all that together, and you can understand why they may think they need to recoup those costs in some fashion.

 

The deciding factor will be how good the game is. If it is close to the quality of the original SC, than I'd happily pay full price for each one of the three games. However, if it's full of boring filler missions, that won't be so great.

[Hybrid]

I agree.  Odds are that they've come up with some good ideas for interesting campaigns, though.  If they've spent 9 years working on it, it better be worthwhile.  Also, I am really hoping that the map editor is at least Warcraft III Frozen Throne caliber.

One problem I can see with splitting up the game is, if the first game only concerns the Terran campaign, will we only be able to play Terran in multiplayer?  I hope not.

[SinisterDeath]

I agree.  Odds are that they've come up with some good ideas for interesting campaigns, though.  If they've spent 9 years working on it, it better be worthwhile.  Also, I am really hoping that the map editor is at least Warcraft III Frozen Throne caliber.

One problem I can see with splitting up the game is, if the first game only concerns the Terran campaign, will we only be able to play Terran in multiplayer?  I hope not.

 

I believe the first post just said that multiplayer will include all the races.

[Hybrid]

I agree.  Odds are that they've come up with some good ideas for interesting campaigns, though.  If they've spent 9 years working on it, it better be worthwhile.  Also, I am really hoping that the map editor is at least Warcraft III Frozen Throne caliber.

One problem I can see with splitting up the game is, if the first game only concerns the Terran campaign, will we only be able to play Terran in multiplayer?  I hope not.

 

I believe the first post just said that multiplayer will include all the races.

 

Oops.  Yes it did.  :-[

[Ireond]

$49.94 = $50 :P

 

Yea, and you said $50+ That means, 50 or Higher! Its obviously LESS THAN 50! DUH!

 

Seriously though, we'll unlikely see it at the $49.95 mark, and I say this simpily becuase we would effectively be buying an 'incomplete product', it should be 1/3 the price, and if a pc game goes for $49.95 or (50) 1/3 would be $16.65, however why would blizzard sell it for that? Why not just $29.95? Or better yet, $39.95! (Thats like, half of what a console game costs! (59.95).

So yea, we'd likely see it for (30) or (40).

 

But it's not an incomplete product.. they're adding more stuff to it, and they've got 30(ish) missions when standard might only be 15.. It's not like we're getting ripped off, and they're probably going to be worth the price and wait.  Let's just not *ehem* Brood over it too much, shall we?