Looks like Blizzard only cares about $$$ now. Too bad...I never thought they would sell out like this.

Blizzcon 08: StarCraft II Split Into Three Games

Sounds like you're getting 3 full games that would otherwise be difficult to fit into one title. How is this about $$$ only?

xsky! Of all people haha. Gamers will need all three to get the full Starcraft II story and features. What about multiplayer options? It seems people will need to have each race's game in order to play them online.

My buddy who works for Blizzard is working the SC2 and D3 booths over the weekend and he pretty much put it this way.

"The game is huge. The Terrian Campaign itself is longer then all 3 from SC1 combined...and the other 2 reflect a similar length. With the game engine, graphics, cinematics, etc they'd have to make 3 or 4 seperate discs anyway. This way, you can buy whichever Single Player Campaign you want and still have access to all the Multiplayer modes."

If you want all 3 Campaigns, yes you'll need to buy all 3 separately (though he hinted that a FULL version would become available eventually). In reality, I don't know very many people who played SC for the single player anyway...plus if you're that big of a lore nerd a full lore wiki will probably be out a week or so before the game even launches with full spoilers. So if you've got to drop $50 for 1 story but get access to all the multiplayer, I think thats fine.

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Yeah, if that's the case then I am fine w/ that.

Not sure about that. Gamers might be limited to one race per game etc. Then again, its not official and Blizzard I'm sure will answer those questions soon enough

I'm sure his friend who works at Blizzard would have told him otherwise if that wasn't the case...

I don't like the whole idea, and it would be better if they just released one game, and offered free content via downloads. Or two nice expans.

There's no good reason you should have to buy the race's campaign to play the multiplayer of that race, that's just retarded. All the game elements are there, you'll be fighting them as you go through the storyline, it all has to be there in a working form. There is no reason why you should need to buy more then one version to access multiplayer, even blizzard isn't *that* stupid.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

A $150 game. Wow. They will make a killing in Asia.

I just hope the frogs don't come down on them to do the same shit with Diablo 3!

I'm sure it will be hot shit, but I'm waiting on Dawn of War II.

Yeah Givin, or even worse with future content and expans for WoW. Nah, Warhammer will keep that from happening



Quotes from Frank Pearce's interview. Oh, looks like someone else is calling the shots now

According to current information from my source, if you buy 1 Campaign you still have access to all 3 Races over Battle.Net for Multiplayer.

I don't think D3 will go the same route though. Really, I'm not really liking the format anymore then anyone else but I'm not a huge SC fan to begin with (and I'm married to the only Korean on the planet who didn't know what SC was) so I likely won't be buying it at all.

And DoW2 looks fucking hawt.

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I'll probably just pick up the mega pack in this case, I liked playing through all the scenarios.

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Well hopefully DoW2 is better than the first one. I honestly played it for 30 minutes, got bored out of my mind, and ran straight back to WC3(and later Supreme Commander). And I'm an absolute RTS freak.

I dunno, I never played through the SC1 scenarios. I'll probably buy a single scenario edition. Multiplayer PvP-style gaming for ze win. I also spent so much time with SC custom maps it's not even funny. The custom maps in both WC3 and SC1 and the capabilities to make them - some of the best I've ever seen.

Dawn of War was shit without the xpacs. Once you have those it becomes a fucking KILLER RTS.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

"The game is huge" is a pretty fucking weak reason to split it up into 3 games. There are plenty of huge games out there.

Its single player stuff, if you want the campaigns you can get the crack. If you're interested in multiplayer just buy the one copy.

Well honestly though, if we're talking "huge games"... how many RTS's out there have campaigns that are 3x as long as a single campaign in the original SC1? I'm not saying SC1's campaigns were UBER LONG, but 3x the size of one of those campaigns is pretty damn big. Can anyone name an RTS that has something longer than that? Honestly, nothing is coming to mind.

I mean, I'd be just happy to buy one box and have all the campaigns inside... but honestly if they feel like they have poured THAT much work into this product that they feel it justifies 3 different boxes, well I'm willing to wait and see exactly what it's store before I make the call on it.

Far be it from me to call Blizzard the most generous company in the world with their software and nickeling and diming it for all its worth - but hell, I haven't been disappointed yet penny for penny on any product from them I've purchased.

It is somewhat surprising that they would make an announcement like this (especially with the price tag as well) in today's struggling economy. People are having a difficult time buying groceries, paying their mortgage, affording gas... and now you want people to spend 150 on a computer game? I could care less how much content is in each campaign, I think most people draw a line somewhere that the price is ridiculous. And I would guess most people would look at 150 and say "Yeah that is ridiculous".

Of course, our economy can (and hopefully will) get better. And I guess when SC2 comes out in 2015 people can afford to pay 150 for all three

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I'd imagine someone probably considered that fact, and the fact that it really isn't "Today's" economy they have to worry with, at all. It's the economy, whoever runs numbers for them projects it will be, when the game is released that concerns them.

If everything is up and climbing again by the time it hits the shelves, people will be far less inclined to be concerned about the price (Not sayin' they won't be, just they'll be less inclined to be).

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"People sometimes say that ideas cannot be stamped out by force. The Albigensian Crusade proves them wrong. Ideas can be stamped out by the elimination of everyone who holds the ideas." - Quote :"Middle Ages" by Morris Bishop.

Yeah, ok. Fuck that.

I laugh at whoever pays $150 for a standard RTS.

I laugh at your reading comprehension, but hey, when have you been concerned with factual analysis?

I really have my doubts that they couldn't fit this on a dvd or two. Unless they're using full mpeg2, dvd quality cutscenes, there's no reason for them to push three seperate games on us.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I have doubts that disc space was a large factor in the decision to release 3 games as well. Like I was told, the game would've likely ended up on multiple discs anyway. Since I never planned on buying SC2 I can say I'm in a neutral spot and see the pros/cons of what they've decided to do with it.

Personal opinion is that you should be able to buy whichever campaign you want for $39.99, then you can buy & download the other 2 campaigns for $10-15 each. Either way, you're still spending over $50....but its better then paying $150. I pitched my buddy that idea...like anything will come of it but it was worth a try.

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The amusing part is people will go out and buy the same pokemon game over and over cause they change the color of the packaging.

BUT THEY ADDED MORE POKEMANS

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This thread brought to you by a tremendous dickhead!

I look at it as just taking the original Starcraft marketing machine with the 3 box prints one step further.

And they know that for every person that huffs "Well I ain't buyin this god damn shit fuck Blizzard hur hur" there will be two that will plunk down 50 bones for each one, probably all at once too.

Slightly fixed.

It's not exactly like that of course - same gameplay mechanics and basics. But we still don't know the details - if every race is complete with an epic storyline and epic scenarios with a load of different flavor both gameplay-wise and lore-wise, why is that any different from actually buying *three different games*?

It's a standard RTS. There's nothing new or revolutionary in SC2. You're buying 1 RTS - 1 graphics engine, one game engine and one multiplayer experience for $150. They are splitting their game from 1 big game into 1 game and 2 expacs, and charging you the price of 3 full games.

Where did they say what they were charging? And where does it say you have to purchase all 3 to play multiplayer?

I'll even answer the second question for you, it says right there in the link that each version will contain fully functional multiplayer.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

He doesn't know, he has no idea -- much like his other posts around this board.

PS: Starcraft is a terrible game. Maybe the graphics will help SC2 be better.

I guess I wasn't clear.

They spent a huge amount of money on the engine and multiplayer mechanics. Since you get access to multiplayer, the engine and the graphics when you buy one game, the only thing you are really getting when you buy the next game is content. Thus, you are paying for another game at full price when you are not really getting the same value you got from the earlier purchase. The bottom line: You are not getting the same value for games #2 and #3 as you are for game #1, and you are paying the same price.

I read today that they would release the games as a trilogy over a period of time, so perhaps it's not as egregious as it sounded from Blizzcon.

Well they did state that episodes 2 and 3 (or whatever you want to call them) will not be priced as expansion packs, but rather as full fledged games. And since most standard release games are typically priced at 50 dollars, I think it is safe to presume/assume that each episode is going to be priced somewhere around there.

Granted, some games do enter the market at 30 dollars. But I doubt a major release game like Starcraft 2 is going to enter the market at 30, but probably a lot closer to 50. Just my gut feeling...

Having said that, we still probably have (knowing Blizzard) another 7 years to wait. So no big deal.

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Just torrent it and save yourself the money. Can't wait for Diablo III... damn.

First, with regard to your original post, no one said SC2 is going to be revolutionary, but it's hardly a standard RTS either. Blizzard does not do "OMG UNIQUE ORIGINAL", they refine and refine and refine the genre until they come up with something spectacular, and that's what the original Starcraft was. Did it have the OMG awesome most amazing graphics at the time? No, but the gameplay - if you actually played it for more than a couple games - was nothing less than phenomenal. The customizability and maps produced were nothing less than phenomenal. The gameplay was some of the most balanced I've seen, for the most part, compared to other RTS's. It was, and still is, massively popular for a reason. If you're a softcore RTS player, you won't see that, period, and you'll want something with flashy graphics and trendy mechanics that appeals to simple-minded folk.

Who is to say that they won't do something a little different with this trilogy, like have a download service that cuts the price when you enter your CD key for the other 2 copies? We haven't really heard much about the pricing scheme yet, as noted. Would it be as much of a horror if they sold each game for 20 bucks? Frankly, I could see that or 30 bucks. They're going to sell an absolute shitload either way.

More importantly though:



Since when does spending a huge amount of money and effort on something mean it should cost more, or be of more value? By that measure, we should now demand that every indy film that cost little to make should cost us less than a nickel.

Less value for subsequent games? I suppose I could see that, but it depends on how you value "content". If a 50 dollar game had 20 hours of content, would you then be ok with it? At what point would you be ok with it? 40 hours of gameplay? 100? 200? Surely at SOME point we can agree that so much work being done on content actually results in a justification to sell it as a seperate game. Therefore, **It depends on how much content is there, and how much work Blizzard has done** before we go all apeshit about buying 3 seperate games. If Blizzard honestly feels that they have done THAT much work to justify it, I would like to see it in action before I start crying about it. If history is any judge, Blizzard's content is almost always king, and in some cases rises above any gameplay mechanics and graphical features.

Just to clarify the last point there just in case someone thought there was a double standard: Huge amount of money and effort does not necessarily equal more value. However, that's precisely why we need to wait and see what the content is and whether the work Blizzard put into it is a justification for it. If work was put in to the degree that it allows for some 50+ extra hours of gameplay, then I see no reason that they shouldn't price it as such. Mechanics, multiplayer, and graphics are great, but content can extend the gameplay greatly.

Listen, Venen... some people like the fact that EA releases a marginally better sports game each year to rake in the dollars.. and some don't. You go your way, I'll go mine. I'm going to stop arguing with you, though.

I agree with Venen.

I've always enjoyed the single player campaigns and I'm happy to spend more money if it means I get more content, seems a rather simple concept. There's also the side benefit of the game being able to be released sooner as a result of shipping the campaigns for the other races later.

So long as the first release contains 'introductory' missions for all the races, I'm seeing no downside to this approach. Pay for as much game as you want to play.

I for one think that Blizzard will release a single player game which revolutionizes the genre with this approach.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Next up - Diablo 3 class boxes. Each Class has it's own box, collect them all! You need the barbarian box to be to create a barbarian! What a great idea Greg! Cha-ching!!! *swim in money emote*

Yeah, no shit. Jesus. You know you've stepped off the deep end into fanboy when you think it's GOOD that a company is going to make you pay more.

Shrug. I've paid Blizzard somewhere in the neighborhood of 820$ to play World of Warcraft since launch in '04.

Blizzard are masters of getting you to pay for the same shit over and over, all the while doing nothing *that* new in the meanwhile.

Who gives two shits if they are 50 bucks each? All that fucking matters is that they are quality titles that give you 50 bucks worth of gameplay and entertainment. Do you seriously think they are just going to slap a halfass single player campaign in a box and want it to sell with a Starcraft logo? Sure there are some stupid shits out there that would buy it on name alone, but this is fucking Blizzard you are talking about. They could get away with it. But they wont. You will drop 50 bones on your choice of Starcraft II flavor, and I will bet that 99.9% percent of all people who buy it will walk away happy and content and eager to pick up the second and third.

It's brilliant.

If they say they are worth 50 bucks, then it's pretty safe to take them on their word. They deal in quality. You aren't buying fucking Ninjabread here. All this HUR HUR RIPOFF horseshit is just that. A kneejerk reaction made by people who probably wouldn't buy the game anyway.

They will roll in money and tell you to go stick your naysay opinion about their marketing strategy up your ass. Because if it is one think they know how to do, it's market the fuck out of something and get the most uncanny things into the most unlikely of audiences. You might have heard of a little thing called World of Warcraft.

They can charge me 50 bucks all they want for their products, as long as they keep them coming just like they have in the past. Fun to play out of box, and fun to play 10 years later. That is getting your fucking moneys worth, and I'd expect no different from a title as major to them as Starcraft 2.

fanboi alert!

Since when does common fucking sense equate to fanboyism?

After countless arguments with regard to the flaws in Blizzard games with Argrax, I must say my ascension into fanboyism has been a long time coming!

Honestly I don't see the comparison with Diablo 3's individual classes. Being able to select the different classes is a core part of the gameplay, just as selecting the different races in StarCraft and playing Multiplayer with them. The storyline was not something EVERYONE and their mother played through in StarCraft - there's always been a rather large chunk of people that skip it and go straight to the multiplayer components. A more accurate analogy would be if each class had an entirely seperate set of content aside from the same general storyline that everyone goes through.

But again, my only argument has been it depends on the quality of the content. I mean, do you simply not buy a new game because it has the same graphics engine as a different game by a different game developer?

Again - if the content is different, unique, and vast enough, it's a different game entirely. Wait and see what the game is before rushing to grab your picket signs.

My bad. Common fucking sense alert! It's common fucking sense to pay $150 for a game everyone expected to pay $50 for a week ago! Gears 2 should be $200, minimum!

In all seriousness, I have heard reports that the 3 different versions may come out as much as a year apart. This looks like a case of Blizzard wanting to get the game out there for the fanbois before it is fully ready more than anything else. There's no other logical explanation and anyone who says differently is a fool. I am not saying I wouldn't buy one or even all of them if I enjoyed the game, but I still think it's a chicken shit move and no amount of "reasoning" by the fanbois will make me change that opinion. Common fucking sense or no common fucking sense.

It's common fucking sense to pay normal price for a full game. They are saying one campaign is now a full game, which means you are going to get a kickass game. Except now they have taken the franchise and made it into THREE kick ass games. What part of that do you not understand?

Or you could stop being a whiny cunt and just torrent it like Skycrasher. If you're that hard up for cash and you just OH MY GOD have to fucking have all 3 at the same time or you'll kill yourself you have no business even looking at them in the first place. That is why there are people who will sink their cash into it before you and will, I assure you, tell it high on the mountain and voice if it is the second coming or not.

If the game turns out to be shit, then you'll hear it. If it's broken, it will be sniffed out. It doesn't make Blizzards marketing ploy any less brilliant. It doesn't matter if you like it, hate it or what. It will make them money hand over fist. The game is already sold to a huge market who will buy it on name alone, regardless on how many copies they have to have.

More than likely however, you fall into that catagory of people who had no plans on buying it at all, or even torrenting it and just want to bitch because it goes against the grain.

Every fucking year you buy Madden or NBA2kX or whateverthefuck, and it is the same fucking game except for HOLY FUCKING SHIT THEY CHANGED THE CAMERA AND UPDATED THE ROSTER. You pay 50 bucks without qualm and never think twice as you slide last years version to the back of your entertainment system.

Fuck some of you people are stupid.

This is the key here.

Here's where the old "I can't take any opinion that differs than mine if it is about precious video games which run my life" Givin comes in. Complete with CAPS IN A BIGGER FONT TO SHOW I MEAN BUSINESS!! Call me a cunt because I don't agree with what Blizzard is doing, if that makes you feel like a bigger man. You should know that it doesn't bother me by now. You're the one making yourself look even more ridiculous. Caps and increased font size? Really? You took the time to highlight your point and make the font bigger? Really? Over me thinking Blizzard was chicken shit for announcing that the game (singular) they announced half a year ago is suddenly 3 games (plural)?

I have shown you nothing but respect in your opinion(s) of video games because I think you have a good eye for what is good and what is bad about games as a whole. Yet, when I disagree about the philosophy behind what Blizzard is doing, I'm some terrible person who suddenly can't afford to pay for a video game. Never mind that I paid $100 for the Warhammer CE. Never mind that I never once said I was against paying stupid amounts of money for stupid shit, as I do it all the time. The issue was never about money, but hey, I have an opinion that is different than yours, so call me names. Would you like to challenge me to compare bank statements as someone else has done? Will that make your weiner hard? Seriously, get a grip on your inflated ego.

Bottom line is Blizzard will not lose any sales by doing what they are doing. They could easily raise the price of WoW to 1$9.95 a month too, and it wouldn't hurt. The game certainly has proven that it is worth it. That doesn't mean you have to suck their dicks when and if they decide to do that, however. Calling their actions "brilliant" is fanboism. Period. Nobody with a set of balls between his legs (or a proverbial set of balls, for the ladies in the audience) would think any differently. Brilliant way to make money? Of course. Brilliant decision for consumers? <Insert the exact opposite of common fucking sense here>

Now you may continue with the name-calling.

I wouldn't be surprised if most people buy the first one for multiplayer and then the 2nd and 3rd get torrented to hell.

Some of you guys are absolutely wedded to your drama. It's entertaining.

Did you seriously just play the bank statement card? Are you fucking serious?

If you don't think it's brilliant on their part, then you really are a raging dumbass. They just guaranteed that they'll sell 100 million copies of Starcraft 2 in Korea.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

The whole fanboi line is so old; it's one thing when you're a rabid enthusiast for a product with little or no history to warrant said enthusiasm or even worse, a negative history but this is Blizzard.

There's no gaming company in the world that wouldn't sooner have Blizzard's track record behind them prior to the release of a new game. The expectation of a stellar product is par for the course and that's all that's being said here.

People still continue to talk about Blizzard fans as if they're a bunch of blind faithfuls when it couldn't be anything farther from the truth; Blizzard has earned every ounce of their reputation, what more needs to be said?

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Of course there are fanbois, but Givin is about as far from one of those people as you're going to find.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

The game is huge?

Go go blu-ray...



Muli

I think at the end of the day, you are going to have a lot of complainers and whiners and bitchers about the price and the decision to go with three games at three full game prices... and those same people will be first day buyers of all three games when they are released. Heck they may still be bitching and complaining as they stand in line and hand over their 50 dollars to the cashier.

But the bottom line? They are going to buy all three. Blizzard knows this, and it is a fantastic business move for them. I think Blizzard is probably losing, at most, 20% of buyers of their fanbase with this decision. So if a million people would have bought one 50 dollar game... or 800,000 people are going to buy three 50 dollar games... sounds like a better business decision to me.

And like everyone has said prior, Blizzard does not put out crap. The games are not going to be crap. The games are going to be rock solid, playable, and a third of the players are going to be ejaculating while they play because they think the game is going to be better than sex. Enjoy the games, I know I will... well, except the ejaculating part

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I'd estimate closer to 0%, everyone will buy the first incarnation, the only question is how many will buy the ones that follow; I'm sure you could apply the same percentage of gamers who buy expansion packs to this scenario.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Doubt it, this will most likely be one of the most pirated games ever, simply because of how popular it is any how easy it is to pirate things these days.

You doubt what exactly? Read what Cicely said and read what I said, we're talking about paying customers here, not leeches.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark