July 2nd, 2009, 8:39 am by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
 Ya, ya, we all know StarCraft II is coming out this year, or is expected to unless Blizzard feels the need to delay it. But for the Register’s mainstream readers, we offer an update on Blizzard, the upcoming game and what at least one fan site thinks about it.
This was part of our recent visit to Blizzard’s Irvine headquarters, where the company opened its doors to press and select fan sites. We go to play the game, watch three battles between pro gamers David Lee and Matt Cooper, talk to the lead developer and producer and eat all the Blizzard sandwiches we wanted (actually, just ordinary meat and cheese … but there was plenty of veggie sammies).
So, check out today’s story in the Register with the no-duh headline, “After 11 years, ‘StarCraft’ sequel to emerge.” Here’s a sneak peek:
Back in March 1998, Blizzard Entertainmentreleased a completely new game, “StarCraft.”With its previous games selling more than a million copies in a year, the Irvine game developer had high hopes for its first science-fiction strategy game: It had 1 million games ready to sell on day one. “StarCraft” has since sold 11 million copies and remains one of the best-selling PC games today.
Now, multiply that by the massive resources Blizzard has today, from billions of dollars in game revenue to its 3,000 employees, which is 30 times what it had in 1998. Add in a decade of industry anticipation and fan excitement. Plus there’s the pressure to top every game Blizzard has released, including the latest update to “World of Warcraft,” which sold 2.8 million copies – in the first 24 hours.
“StarCraft II,” the long awaited sequel to 1998’s top PC game, is slated to launch by the end of the year. But it’s not just record sales the company envisions. Blizzard wants another classic.
Read up and continue watching this space for more tidbits gleaned from our visit to Blizzard. Meanwhile, here’s a video of our interviews with Rob Pardo, executive vice president of game design, and Chris Sigaty, lead producer of StarCraft II:
Earlier:
Posted in: Blizzard • Latest game news • Star Craft • Chris Sigaty • Rob Pardo • SC2 sneak • StarCraft II | Post a Comment »
July 1st, 2009, 7:46 pm by jsimmons
 The road to “StarCraft II” started with “WarCraft III.”
At least the testing did; that’s where Blizzard began tinkering with unit ideas. The graphic engine for “StarCraft II” was created from scratch for the game, said Chris Sigaty, lead producer (pictured on right), and the initial process of just what “StarCraft II” should be had started before that.
So to keep work moving forward on “StarCraft II” while its engine was being developed, the team prototyped — that is, created working units — using the “WarCraft III” engine. It seemed like a natural fit; both games are real-time strategy titles, both would use 3D engines. However, Sigaty said, the process just didn’t work – the inner workings of ”WarCraft III” was simply too different. In the end, all the time spent testing with “WarCraft” didn’t add up to anything.
Those subtle differences between “StarCraft II” and “WarCraft III” — indeed, between “StarCraft II” and the original “StarCraft” — seem to underlie Blizzard’s approach to the new game. It’s been over 10 years since the original’s release, in 1998, but it’s still one of the most-played PC games in the U.S. It has huge appeal overseas, notably in South Korea; at E3 this year, “StarCraft” was honored by Guiness World Records for being the best-selling PC strategy game of all time, with 9.5 million copies sold. That pedigree is something, Sigaty says, the team has tried to emulate — they want players who played the original to feel nostalgia. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Games • Star Craft • Chris Sigaty • SC2 sneak • StarCraft II • unique | Post a Comment »
June 30th, 2009, 5:39 am by jsimmons
After a live demonstration of the current “StarCraft II” build, we got some hands-on time with the game and its project manager, Chris Sigaty, sat down with us for a quick chat.
Today, the meat and potatoes — while Blizzard didn’t have a full (or even nearly finalized) Battle.net system to show to us (yet, anyway), we did get a taste of what’s to come. The biggest change is a welcome one — players can fast forward, rewind and replay any piece of a multiplayer game in the post-game viewer; this is, obviously, a huge upgrade from “StarCraft” and its once-through player in which games must be watched from the beginning. Up to eight players can play on a map, and observers can crowd in until there’s a total of 12 people in a game — for example, seven observers could watch a five-player game, or nine could watch a three-person game.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in: Games • Latest game news • Star Craft • SC2 sneak • StarCraft II | Post a Comment »
June 25th, 2009, 2:10 am by jsimmons
- “StarCraft II” Battle Report 3 is up at Blizzard’s site. These battle reports are pretty interesting to watch — a lot of little play intricacies are covered, and there’s quite a bit of sneak-peek information in them. Blizzard
- For the completionist FigurePrints connoisseur, a handful of in-game pets are being produced now. Unlike the typical FigurePrints custom “World of Warcraft” statuettes, the pets won’t be pulled from accounts; still, they’re kinda neat (if a little expensive). If you’ve got a mind to pick this series up, get on it though — they’re only being produced for a little more than a month, until July 31. FigurePrints
Posted in: Games • Star Craft • World of Warcraft • The Blizzard Report | Post a Comment »
June 23rd, 2009, 10:07 am by Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress
 Register reporter Richard Chang has finally published his piece on the World of Warcraft exhibit at the Laguna Art Museum. He attended the opening and nabbed some better-looking stills from the museum to share with readers (see slide show).
The long-time arts writer did a lot of research into his lengthy piece considering he initially asked us at The Blizzard Blog, “So, is World of Warcraft big?”
But cut him some slack. He chats with Blizzard, the museum director and others and comes out with insights like this:
“Think about it, culturally: 11.5 million people spending 10 hours a week on that game – what does that mean? That’s a lot of time,” said Bolton Colburn, director of the Laguna Art Museum. “It certainly begs the question: How does computer gaming and the change in our culture at that level begin to affect us? When’s it going to affect us all?”
Chang’s story is more of the story behind the WoW exhibit, which is sponsored by Blizzard, by the way. I would have preferred his critical eye to offer insights into what he thought of the pieces, being such an outsider. After all, Chang is more into coffee table fare like Joan Miró, Georgia O’Keeffe and Andy Warhol.
In other Blizzard updates, Chang also notes that Blizzard is still working on that WoW movie (see low in the story).
Check out his piece, “‘World of Warcraft’ quest leads to Laguna.”
More on the art of Blizzard:
Posted in: Blizzard Art • World of Warcraft • art show • Laguna Art Museum • Laguna Beach | Post a Comment »
June 19th, 2009, 1:17 am by jsimmons
Patch 3.2 is stacking up to be an interesting addition all around for “World of Warcraft.”
- Several of the largest changes are addressed in an internal Q+A with WoW’s lead designer, Cory Stockton. The list? Battlegrounds will provide experience; experience will be toggle-able, so players can choose if they want to advance in levels; and a rundown for the Isle of Conquest, the game’s next new battleground. Blizzard
- Epic-quality gems are coming down the pike, and every profession’s gotten a little boost to compensate for the fact that smithing gets an inordinate increase from the new gems thanks to its extra sockets. How much does everyone get buffed? Well, that’s the $64,000 question, but it’s good to see this is being addressed before it becomes an issue. Blizzard
And in the “yeah, I could see that, maybe” department, “EverQuest” lead designer Ryan Barker takes a guess at what the next hot new thing in MMOs will be — Facebook. In a larger interview, he said he thinks that a casual MMO integrated into existing social networks has the ability to eclipse everything that’s come before. It’s an interesting idea, and one that ultimately has some merit, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Not only could existing MMOs work backward to integrate into Facebook, Myspace or whatever, but there’s a handful of new IPs coming out, including Blizzard’s next MMO, and we really don’t know what to expect from them. Massively
Posted in: Games • Latest game news • World of Warcraft • The Blizzard Report | Post a Comment »
June 15th, 2009, 12:47 am by jsimmons
Blizzard contacted us today, Monday, June 15 – we jumped the gun on an announcement we made here. We’ll still be visiting them in the near future, but they kindly asked us not to mention when, where or what we’ll be reviewing. We normally wouldn’t change a post after the fact — short of a correction — but there was some confusion regarding Blizzard’s media policies. We’ve tried to honor the company’s intention as best as possible.
Still, keep an eye out — we’ll have something cool here pretty soon. Sorry for the confusion.
- BlizzPlanet’s interview with Christie Golden, author of the upcoming “StarCraft” novel, “The Dark Templar Saga: Twilight” went off without a hitch. Not only did they get fan-submitted questions answered, but they also got some new information on the game world. BlizzPlanet
Posted in: Games • Star Craft • The Blizzard Report | 4 Comments »
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