World of Starcraft!!

sgould72 · Post by **sgould72** » Fri May 11, 2007 1:12 am

Recurring fees suck...Starcraft 2 ftw!

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Fri May 11, 2007 1:46 am

Grand Fromage wrote:No it wouldn't. If people jump ship from Warcraft to Starcraft, it's not like it's a different company. Some would maintain accounts in both, and Starcraft would attract a new bunch of people (particularly if it's nothing like WoW; think something like Planetside, or the 40K MMO). In any scenario there's no way they can lose. Other than Blizzard turning into a shitty MMO only company, which they seem to be well on the road to.

But then the overheads will be there. I would assume the number of people who pay for more than one MMORPG at any one time would be somewhat of a minority. So if they don't attract enough new players (i.e., non-WoW players) with a new MMORPG they wouldn't be equalling the success of WoW. Of course, with less players the overheads will be lower, so they wouldn't be making less money overall....

Veilan · Post by **Veilan** » Fri May 11, 2007 2:04 am

They'd also ruin their brand name :F.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Fri May 11, 2007 4:16 am

Vendrin wrote:Also I don't think Blizzard has any interest in cutting into it's own profit, which a world of starcaft would do.

On the flip side, they have seen what kind of income a well developed game and strong franchise can bring in, they might be reluctant to drop tens of millions onto a game that will only have the initial sales plus one expansion from its potentially 10+ year lifespan.

The other thing they could do is announce SC2 and do something like Flagship have with Hellgate: London ie Free to play on line, but 10 bucks a month gets you a premium account, new content on a progressive basis etc but that would be a rather large backflip on 5+years of free Maps of the Week

Mulu · Post by **Mulu** » Fri May 11, 2007 2:54 pm

Well, WoW is aging, so I can totally see them thinking that it's time to start developing their next blockbuster MMO. Given the crazy money they made on WoW, I'm sure they'll continue to pursue that platform.

NESchampion · Post by **NESchampion** » Fri May 11, 2007 3:45 pm

Mulu wrote:Well, WoW is aging, so I can totally see them thinking that it's time to start developing their next blockbuster MMO. Given the crazy money they made on WoW, I'm sure they'll continue to pursue that platform.

Pretty much agree; given how well WoW did, I don't see how, financially speaking, they would decide to do anything but make a Starcraft MMO.

Magonushi · Post by **Magonushi** » Fri May 11, 2007 4:11 pm

I don't see how they'd make a MMORPG in the first place.

A) Only the protoss/terrans could really have PCs since the zerg are commanded by Cerebrates.
B) They really don't have a wide variety of things to smote in the current SC universe.
C) Another Blizzard MMORPG would result in WoW players transfering to a new game. Not much of a profit gain there.

mxlm · Post by **mxlm** » Fri May 11, 2007 4:17 pm

I'd think SOE's portfolio of MMORPGs would indicate that yes, a company really can have multiple viable subscription-based titles running concurrently.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Fri May 11, 2007 5:01 pm

FWIW, WoW is only about 2.5 years old.

Thats still baby stages for a successful MMO (Remember, UO and Everquest are still running and getting updates and expansions).

So long as Blizzard are content knowing that they will not be able to maintain their phenominal subscriber numbers for the years to come, WoW is likely to be around (and at the top of the pack) for many many years to come. The earliest indications about the second expansion have already leaked out (there are a few models associated with an area of Northrend in the latest patch, along with a map of northrend already broken into zones. That said, there have been Emerald Dream models in the patch files since 1.

Lusipher · Post by **Lusipher** » Sat May 12, 2007 9:32 pm

One thing you have to consider too...Blizzard might actually include a SOE pass type thing where you could play WoW and SC:MMO for one price. It worked well for Sony.

Ros-King · Post by **Ros-King** » Sat May 12, 2007 11:31 pm

Magonushi wrote:I don't see how they'd make a MMORPG in the first place.

A) Only the protoss/terrans could really have PCs since the zerg are commanded by Cerebrates.
B) They really don't have a wide variety of things to smote in the current SC universe.
C) Another Blizzard MMORPG would result in WoW players transfering to a new game. Not much of a profit gain there.

I think they could pull it off. The zerg would probably act in the same way as the Scourge do in WoW. As far as a lack of races, Starcraft left us off with the possibility that some ancient force (Probably the Xel-Naga) was breeding Zerg and Protoss....which Blizzard could essentially run with and introduce new races.

With that said, I think a Starcraft MMORPG is a bit of a stretch. If it was to be successful, I think it would hardly be like WoW in design, seeing as how the "two teams" layout of the world just wouldn't apply to the SC universe. Currently with SC, its more like two races vs. the zerg, and the zerg just wouldn't be playable since they are for the most part mindless servents of Cerebrates. Im done ranting though.

Although the idea of an MMORPG is interesting, I'd rather see another RTS that continues the great storyline.

Ros-King · Post by **Ros-King** » Sat May 12, 2007 11:33 pm

And oops, spoiler warning?

Ros-King · Post by **Ros-King** » Mon May 14, 2007 11:28 pm

Hmm, well to clarify:

On May 19th a new blizzard product will be announced as in the works, with a walkthrough of it's main features, a few screens, and alot of people licking their lips.

I agree with Dan though, it is most certainly going to be World Of Starcraft, those money hungry bastards!

Oh well, if anyone can pull off a spectacular sci-fi mmo, its blizzard. Im a fan of the universe, a diehard one at that, and if I can pilot a ship with my friends at the guns fighting other players in real time combat.....let's just say that im down. ^^

Joos · Post by **Joos** » Tue May 15, 2007 12:06 am

I would be hoping that they might try to innovate rather than reuse the same old.

Blizzard in my mind has milked Warcraft/Diablo pretty dry for me. Maybe something starcrafty would be good, but it would have to meet so high expectations it would be very hard for them to live up to.

Here is my slight hope for something other than Starcraft, Warcaft or Diablo.

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Tue May 15, 2007 1:00 am

I finally got around to installing and playing the WoW trial version the other day. I kinda like it. The only other MMO game I've tried was CoV, and that was fun to start out with but got boring very quickly. At least WoW doesn't have quests that are all exact carbon copies of each other and I really like how it's a different starting depending on what race you play. Still, I don't think I'll buy the game at the end. Paying for a game and then paying a subscription goes against my principles somewhat. If you could play it offline single player (with very toned down respawns) I'd be all over it though.