While WoW may be "on top", it's showing signs of age and pains. Namely despite the presumed "growth" in population and popularity, there have been many accountings that in actuality what's being tallied is number of account sales and not taking into account the number of accounts cancelled. More and more complaints have been flung at Blizzard with no response from any Blizzard crew. So yes, they would and should be looking at something other than just another expansion if they want to remain the company to beat rather than "another company that bit it in the big MMO craze". Both Diablo and Starcraft are good choices to do their "next big thing" with.
They've already adequately disqualified Diablo as being too "Warcraft-like".
So with Starcraft that leaves the "when". My take is this: It took Warcraft two generations to solidify into a good storyline ready for the MMO, WC2 and WC3. Starcraft currently only has the original story, a few novels, and the scrapped Ghost project to base a "Starcraft Universe" on. Starcraft II is not only a way to keep the Starcraft franchise going, but also a way to expand the story, work on the locations of the universe, and work on the possibilities of how to implement the MMO. They have good models and bad models to work off of to create their mode of implementation: Star Wars Galaxies, EVE, etc. The big problem will simply be time. They've put so much time into Ghost and Starcraft II, plus their main MMO guys are working on the next WoW expansion. Who's left to work on a Starcraft MMO idea? So 2009? I don't see that as likely. Maybe to be announced or to go into Alpha, but I wouldn't count on Beta in 2009.
Industry Analyst Calls Starcraft MMO Likely in '09
July 8th will bring the Activision/Blizzard merger shareholder vote, and industry anylysts don't expect there to be any problems with it being approved. That's all well and good, and we've all heard about the powerhouse entertainment company this will create, and honestly, few of us care more then making sure not a whole lot is going to change except maybe a splash screen.
So I found it interesting when reading through Game Daily's coverage to find this little tidbit.
Until we know, rumors of a Starcraft MMO, Diablo 3, and all sorts of crazy things will be fun to think upon and wonder!
So I found it interesting when reading through Game Daily's coverage to find this little tidbit.
Pachter also noted that he expects a WoW Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack prior to the holidays, which should generate around $100 million from disc sales alone during the quarter. He also believes a Starcraft MMO is "likely" in 2009.Woah! Say again?! How is it likely? How does an industry research analyst presume this to be true? How do I find out!? Well of course, Blizzard doesn't talk about stuff like this until they're good and ready, and if news were to be forthcoming soon it would most likely be at their Worldwide Invitational or possibly at Blizzcon. But knowing Blizzard, it may be years until we hear for sure!
Until we know, rumors of a Starcraft MMO, Diablo 3, and all sorts of crazy things will be fun to think upon and wonder!
Tags: News, WorldofWarcraft
