Blizzard: Please buy Starcraft 2 three times

[Silellak]

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55267

Blizzard today announced that StarCraft II will be released as a trilogy of separate games, each concentrating on one of the universe's three factions.

The first game in the trilogy will consist of the Terran campaign, and is set to be titled "Terrans: Wings of Liberty."

The second Zerg-focused title will be "Zerg: Heart of the Swarm," with the third game being "Protoss: Legacy of the Void."

"[The second and third games] will be like expansion packs, but we really want them to feel like standalone products," said Blizzard's Rob Pardo.
Each campaign will be very different, with Pardo announcing the Zerg campaign will contain RPG elements. The Protoss campaigin will likewise be differentiated by elements of diplomacy. In addition, the Terran campaign will feature a Protoss mini-campaign.

The campaigns are planned as concentrated, epic storylines, with enough content to justify a full release. As a result, the games will now feature more in-game cinematics and story content.

Blizzard added that the plans for the multiplayer component are unchanged by the splitting of the campaigns. However, some units will now be unique to the campaigns and will not be playable in multiplayer.

Pardo noted that the decision was necessary to maintain the quality of the product, the alternatives either being a long delay of the game, or a scaling back of the campaigns.

"Enough content to justify a full release" = please pay $50 3 times if you want the whole game, even though each one will contain the exact same multiplayer functionality.

Shouldn't it cost $50 for one and $20 for each of the "expansions", no matter the word you buy them in?

Oh, Blizzard, you are still drunk with money from WoW...

 

[Data4]

That's... retarded. Standard RTS formula involves 2 or more factions to choose from, with SP campaigns for each. I can't see how this is going to go over well. I was going to get SC2, but if this is the marketing model they're going to use, then I'll just have to pass.

 

[Dire Roach]

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO TOTALLY AVOID COMBAT IN THE ZERG RPG!

I guess they're taking ideas from EA's marketing strategy with Spore? Or maybe it will be more like the Half Life 2 episodes. In any case, I'm sure most fans will welcome this decision with their mouths wide open (to receive Blizzard's load).

Also, in before Blizzard is ruining pro gaming.

 

[Quigs]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:StarCraft_II

 

[The Exar]

Seeing the order of the campaigns it seems this time the Zerg wont be the big winners. Terrans will get their ass kicked though.

 

[J1M]

Knowing Blizzard the two expansion packs will be worth the price of admission.

 

[Xor]

Worth it or not, it still seems pretty dick of them.

 

[Destroid]

Looks to me like they are doing it so they can make their release date? Lol if they expect people to pay $300 (AUD) to get one whole game. The two expansions will be priced less than the original.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Worth it or not, it still seems pretty dick of them.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

Worth it or not, it still seems pretty dick of them.

You do realize that you're not making any fucking sense right?

Blizzard has balls to release what's essentially two singleplayer-only RTS expansion packs in the era when game without multiplayer is like a leper.

I fail to see how that fucks over multiplayer, if you just want MP get one copy and spit on the rest.

Who cares though, SC2 will suck balls anyway.

 

[Elwro]

I wasn't going to buy this, but now I'm not going to buy this 3 times BWAHAHAHA TAKE THAT BLIZZARD! Instead of $50 loss it'll be a $150 loss for them, right?

 

[Occasionally Fatal]

i guess they decided to try relic's release model...

 

[Kz3r0]

I wasn't going to buy this, but now I'm not going to buy this 3 times BWAHAHAHA TAKE THAT BLIZZARD! Instead of $50 loss it'll be a $150 loss for them, right?

$300 now.

 

[The Vanished One]

i guess they decided to try relic's release model...

Then I'll do what I did with Dawn of War and wait for the 3-games-pack. IF I decide to buy Starcraft II at all.

 

[Durwyn]

I'll torrent it All-In-One

 

[inwoker]

fuck you blizzard

 

[Pastel]

If you really dislike the business model you can just buy one campaign and pirate the rest, while still getting full access to multiplayer.
Still, weren't the campaigns more like tutorials anyway? Terrans might have an advantage at first due to that.

 

[Keender_surprise]

According to Blizzard's official site, the later two parts are called 'expansions'. Presumably this entails a lower price point. If you're getting the content of a full game with each installment, I don't see the problem. The real problem with Blizzard right now is how they seem to be fucking up the cool things about their franchises. I think I saw a video where firebats now fired some kind of flame projectile instead of a flamethrower, and the flamethrower had instead been placed on some new generic-looking vehicular unit. The same goes for Diablo 3. The game's colours have already been discussed, but it's not just that. The game's tone and visual aesthetics are fucked as well. I literally lose more and more interest as they roll out the features and classes.

 

[Suicidal]

I have a theory:

Blizzard really wants to move to the console market for one reason or another and they must create an excuse for them to do so. So they're planning to release SC2 in a way that rips people off in an attempt to get them to pirate their games.

When people start pirating them Blizzard will go "OMG PIRACY KILLING PC" and move to consoles.

Now all they need for their master plan to be successful is to somehow fuck over WoW and Diablo fans. In before "only the first 2 acts will be playable in Diablo 3 Part I the rest will come in separate games".

 

[Pastel]

Are you serious?

 

[inwoker]

blizzard did 9/11

 

[Kingston]

Diablo III director Jay Wilson said today that the company does not have a great desire to charge a subscription fee for the upcoming revision of its multiplayer client Battle.net. However, the developer did note that Blizzard will likely monetize unknown features of the game.
"We are going to monetize features so that we get to make them," said Wilson. "We kind of have to."

Wilson noted that whatever the content would be, it would have an appropriate value to users.

Oh god, why can't I just buy the fucking game and not have to worry about anything else?

"We are going to monetize features so that we get to make them," said Wilson. "We kind of have to."

I do not buy this. You are stinking rich.

 

[Topher]

Wow, you guys are right people are eating this bullshit up. Over at Gamefaqs people are on a troll hunt and defending this shit with every post.

Fucking crazies.

How can somebody not understand that all through development it was going to be one game and now they have changed and decided to release three separate games and spend the extra time adding a little extra content (I hope anyway). Lat week it was one game now it's three... that's bullshit.

 

[Suicidal]

Diablo III director Jay Wilson said today that the company does not have a great desire to charge a subscription fee for the upcoming revision of its multiplayer client Battle.net. However, the developer did note that Blizzard will likely monetize unknown features of the game.
"We are going to monetize features so that we get to make them," said Wilson. "We kind of have to."

Wilson noted that whatever the content would be, it would have an appropriate value to users.

Oh god, why can't I just buy the fucking game and not have to worry about anything else?

"We are going to monetize features so that we get to make them," said Wilson. "We kind of have to."

I do not buy this. You are stinking rich.

Don't you see?! It's all an elaborate ruse to get you to pirate the game(s)!

 

[VonVentrue]

I'll torrent it All-In-One

You always intended to torrent it anyway, so shut the fuck up.

How can somebody not understand that all through development it was going to be one game and now they have changed and decided to release three separate games and spend the extra time adding a little extra content (I hope anyway). Lat week it was one game now it's three... that's bullshit.

Stop crying. SC2 is bound to have 26-30 missions, even assuming the Zerg and Protoss campaigns aren't going to be as long (let's say 20), the entire single player game stretches across approximately 70 missions.

I do not buy this. You are stinking rich.

Battle.net is free, though maintaining it costs a lot of money. I mean it, A LOT.