StarCraft 2 for Consoles "Not on the Radar" But "Possible"

courtesy of 1up.com

Could StarCraft II eventually find a home on consoles? Lead designer Chris Sigaty hinted that Blizzard is growing more and more open to the idea as developers tinker with new methods for playing real-time strategy games using a controller.

"Console is not on the radar for us right now, but there have been a lot of interesting moves in that direction -- taking RTS to consoles -- and there's been some pretty cool things on the control side," the Blizzard designer said in an interview with CVG.

"I still think that at least from our perspective it feels like the mouse and keyboard just lends itself to this style -- but you know we're getting closer and closer all the time," he clarified. "So when we see that optimum moment I think it's certainly possible that we'll explore that junction as well. It's just not on the radar right now."

A Blizzard game reaching consoles wouldn't be totally unprecedented; it just hasn't happened in a very, very long time. Back in the early '90s, the company made a name for itself with games like The Lost Vikings, Blackthorne, and Rock N' Roll Racing -- all of which turned up on at least one of the 16-bit platforms. The PlayStation also played host to ports of Diablo and WarCraft II; even the original StarCraft released on the Nintendo 64 at one point.

StarCraft II Does Bullet Hell Shooters Too

courtesy of kotaku



Blizzard's Galaxy Editor for StarCraft II does more than custom maps and Mario Kart-style mods, it does screen-filling bullet hell shooters too! Want proof? See how hellishly this Touhou-style shoot 'em up mod performs. [via GameSetWatch]

There Are No Blue Shells In Starcraft Kart

courtesy of kotaku

Starcraft II isn't just about strategy! It's also about...kart racing.

Everdraed, a participant in the game's beta, built this map and threw this little race together to put a little more Mario Kart into proceedings, going so far as to have in-race items and "sweet ass go-kart" units.

Blizzard's Starcraft II - normally a real-time strategy game - is currently in beta, and will be out later this year for the PC and Mac.

[thanks Robert!]

Activision adding a third Call of Duty studio, hinting at CoD MMO

courtesy of gamepro

According to an L.A. Times article published yesterday, Activision Blizzard has opened a new development studio devoted to the Call of Duy franchise. Though the mysterious new team has not announced any projects yet, an anonymous source within Activision suggests that future Call of Duty titles might include a large-scale persistent multiplayer world.

Serious fans of the series will be familiar with the Call of Duty twin-studio approach, as Infinity Ward (developer of Modern Warfare 2) and Treyarch (the team that built Call of Duty: World at War) take turns developing new titles to ensure that there's a Call of Duty game released every November. The third studio might be assigned to jump into the core game rotation, develop all future tertiary titles (like the mobile port jobs done by outside developers Amaze and n-Space that brought the series to the PSP and DS, respectively) or even to the much-rumored Call of Duty MMO.

The Times cites insider information in their story, but top Activision officials have regularly expressed their eagerness to adopt a subscription-based payment system for future Call of Duty titles. Speaking at a financial conference last week, Activision Blizzard CFO Thomas Tippl commented on the possibility of bringing World of Warcraft's business plan to other popular franchises.

"It's definitely an aspiration that we see potential in, particularly as we look at different business models to monetize the online gameplay," said Tippl. "you should expect us to test and ultimately launch additional online monetization models of some of some of our biggest franchises like Call of Duty."

'Batman: Arkham Asylum' Game of the Year?

Batman: Arkham Asylum is scheduled to come out Tuesday, August 25, 2009, and some early reviews are already proclaiming it to be 2009's Game of the Year (GotY)! Strong words for a title that has for the most part flown under the radar this year.

I've already mentioned the game in a previous post, but personally I think this GotY distinction is a bit premature considering so many strong titles coming out later in the year (Halo: ODST, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, etc), but I'm not saying that the game won't be good. I'm sure it's a Batman title that we've been waiting for since the old, great 8-bit NES Sunsoft Batman from many years ago.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

A new expansion for W.O.W. called Cataclysm. All the details are in the video below.


via videosift.com

New WOW Expansion Name and Races Revealed

courtesy of gamespot

Source: World of Warcraft enthusiast blog WoW.com (formerly known as "WoW Insider").

What we heard: The site cites "multiple sources close to the situation" who claim two new races will be added to WOW as part of a rumored new expansion called "Cataclysm." For the Alliance faction, the upcoming race will purportedly be the lupine Worgen. Meanwhile, the Horde will reportedly receive the once-neutral Goblin race.

The suspected leak comes after previous speculation that the Goblins and Worgen would be added to the 11-million-strong massively multiplayer online role-playing game's roster. On July 17, the fan site MMO Champion said it was convinced the two races would be playable after Blizzard revealed Goblin and Worgen novelty masks for its in-game Halloween-themed festival. Previously, only playable races were granted such distinction.

The reported name of the supposed upcoming expansion, Cataclysm, was trademarked by Blizzard on June 26 for everything from computer games to greeting cards. When GameSpot inquired to the developer on the trademark filings, the company declined to give any further details on the title, including whether the cataclysm label would be applied toward other game series or a new one altogether.

Although the latest WOW expansion--Wrath of the Lich King--did not add any new races, its predecessor, The Burning Crusade, added the Blood Elves and Draenei when it was released in January 2007. The latter had been known about since December 2005, when an advance edition of Computer Games Magazine revealed the new Alliance race.

The rumor comes 10 days before BlizzCon 2009, which runs from August 21-22. The developer has traditionally used the convention to officially announce new titles, including both games and expansions. The Burning Crusade was unveiled at BlizzCon 2005, and Wrath of the Lich King was unveiled at the event two years later.

The official story: "We haven't made any announcements in regard to any new races for World of Warcraft and don't comment on rumors or speculation." -- Blizzard rep

Bogus or not bogus?: WoW.com accurately predicted the previous two add-on races, the Blood Elves and Draenei, well before their official revelation by Blizzard. However, WoW.com had reported based off disclosed sources and cited concrete game data to back up its claims, such as screenshots, audio files, and video clips. The site's new blog post, on the other hand, only goes off anonymous sources and dubious novelty-mask image files. But with BlizzCon right around the corner, the veracity of WoW.com's sources will soon become clear.

StarCraft II Delayed till 1st Qtr 2010

Activision Blizzard has delayed the release of StarCraft II until the first half of 2010 to coincide with the launch of its new Battle.net game service, which it says will be “similar to Xbox Live.” (courtesy of edge-online)

First it was Splinter Cell: Conviction then Bioshock 2 and now StarCraft II. These title's release dates have been pushed back from Christmas 2009 until sometime in 2010. The rumors have all been confirmed and the reason that companies are pushing back titles (can you believe this?) is due to the recession. I can only assume that Blizzard is delaying StarCraft II for the same reason although Blizzard does have the good habit of pushing back titles till they are perfect. Either way, I'm sure it'll be a great game when it comes out. Below is a site that lists all of the great games that (as of now) are still coming out for Christmas 2009.

Top 10: Games to Save 2009

David Wenham Rumored to Play Arthas in Warcraft Movie

courtesy of comicbookmovie.com

"Supposedly" Blizzard has hinted that David Wenham (LOTR, 300) will be playing Prince Arthas in the Warcraft movie. I am not 100% sure, but it's on several news websites, and IMDB.

I personally remember Blizzard saying Arthas wouldn't be in the first movie, but who knows, that was a long time ago.
I could definitely see this working though. He plays a good character, and the character he played in Lord of the Rings resembles Arthas.
What do you guys think ?

Top VideoGame Manufacturers Threaten to Abandon Making Games for the PS3 if Sony doesn't Drop Price

courtesy of GameSpot

Ever since the PlayStation 3 launched in November 2006, third-party publishers have been grumbling that it is too expensive. That dissatisfaction came to a head last month, when the world's largest third-party publisher publicly threatened to discontinue support of the costly-to-develop-for platform, which lags behind the rival Wii and Xbox 360 in terms of market share.

Sir Howard Stringer brings the noise.

"They have to cut the price because if they don't, the attach rates are likely to slow," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. "If we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony….When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console--and the PSP."

Today, Sony Corp. CEO Sir Howard Stringer responded directly--and dismissively--to Kotick's comments. "He likes to make a lot of noise," the Welsh-born executive told Reuters at a tech conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, which Kotick is also attending. "He's putting pressure on me, and I'm putting pressure on him. That's the nature of business. … [But] I lose money on every PlayStation I make--how's that for logic?"

Speaking of the PS3, Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack Tretton deflected questions that a widely rumored reduction in the console's cost could come as early as next month. "We feel that we're sacrificing the short term to pay dividends in the long term," he told Silicon Valley magazine Fast Company. "People are having short-term thinking--the platform is not even three years old…. It costs a lot to invest in rolling out new technology, and if the consumer walks away before the life cycle is over--you can talk about the install base of hardware, but how many of those machines are still active, how many people are still playing them?"

Tretton also said he hoped 2008 was the nadir of the worldwide economic recession, which has slowed the game industry in general and sales of the $399/$499 PS3 in particular. Still, he pointed to an increase in the console's market share last year as a sign of progress.

"In 2008, we had a 38 percent increase in sales and we hit our 10-million-units-worldwide goal for PS3 sales," he explained. "We had $6.4 billion in revenue in US alone on the PlayStation brand, and a 116 percent increase in software sales. At the worst possible time, if you're hitting numbers and delivering success... my hope is that as our production efficiencies improve and more great games come to market, the horizon has got to be better for 2009 and 2010."

StarCraft II may not support LAN!

courtesy of Mike Smith of Yahoo

Although Starcraft is one of the most-played competitive games in the world, its developers revealed in an interview this week that its sequel will lose a particularly valued multiplayer feature -- and the game's millions of fans are not pleased.

At issue is whether the game should support computer-to-computer connections (known as LAN networks) without also having to be connected to the developers' servers via the Internet. The original Starcraft could -- and, partly as a result, became the game of choice for gatherings that ranged from a few friends to stadium-filling, championship tournaments.

LAN parties a thing of the Starcraft past?

Starcraft II, developer Blizzard revealed this week, will need to "check in" with remote servers, so if you're not online, there's no multiplayer for you. This is expected to make the game much harder for contest organizers, net cafes, and gaming parties to embrace, and many longtime fans have sworn to boycott the sequel unless Blizzard backs down.

Twitter remains abuzz at the news, with fans variously describing Blizzard's surprise move as "totally insane," "just...wrong," and, worst of all, "EPIC FAIL." An online petition has amassed over 25,000 signatures so far.

Although Blizzard's keen to emphasize the features of their online service -- which will track player stats and provide rich community functions -- it's seen as a preemptive strike against potential Starcraft II pirates, as those with illegal copies of the game would be banned from connecting to Blizzard's servers. A somewhat similar move by EA last year resulted in its massive hit Spore racking up thousands of one-star reviews on Amazon, and being slapped with a class-action lawsuit. It remains to be seen how (or if) Blizzard will address this controversy.

Where World of Warcraft Screwed up

Released in November 2004, World of Warcraft (WoW) currently has over 11.5 million subscribers raking in over $100 million a month for Activision/Blizzard. It can safely be called a success, but it is not without its failures.

At this weeks Game Developer's Conference (GDC), Blizzard lead designer Jeffrey Kaplan discussed mistakes in WoW that Blizzard is aware of.

1 Christmas Tree Effect - This is when a player shows up to a new quest hub, and his or her mini-map is lit up like a Christmas tree with new quest opportunities.

2 "Too long, didn't read" Quests - Medium envy, where writers of one medium (in this case videogame writers) envy another medium's writers. (writers of books) And I quote, “We need to stop writing fucking books in our games because there are lots of better books out there". I remember playing WoW and constantly hearing this line.

3 Mystery - Trying to give subtle hints to where the next quest begins or consists of translates into when-players-aren't-clear-on-what-to-do,-they-become-confused,-and-that-provides-for-a-bad-game experience.

4 Poorly-Paced Quest Change - A long WoW quest that is impossible to complete until the player reaches a certain level. For players below that level who are failing at that quest, frustration sets in, which leads them to lose trust in the game's design. This also leads to frustration, and a bad experience.

5 Gimmick Quests without Polish - These are quests that are more fun for the game designer than the player. Kaplan described a vehicle quest in WoW. The game's engine isn't really designed for vehicles. If it's only designed as a gimmick, it's probably not really fun for the player.

6 Bad Flow - In WoW when players are given an inordinate amount of collection quests or kill quests in a row. It gets boring and repetitive.

Kaplan has a lot of great points. I remember those low points in an otherwise perfect game. He was previously a director in WoW, but is currently working on an unannounced Blizzard MMO. People have speculated that it will be World of Starcraft. That should be interesting.