Blizzard Shifts to StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm
Blizzard is now entering into "Heart of the Swarm" development.
In a recent interview with MTV, Rob Pardo, the Executive Vice President of Game Design at Blizzard, revealed the status of the next installment of StarCraft II, "Heart of the Swarm." Unfortunately, he didn't cough up any clues as to when gamers should expect the sequel.
"Now that we've shipped ['Wings of Liberty'], we're just now getting serious about breaking ground on ['Heart of the Swarm']," he said. "We always have a lot of ideas and there's been some design work on it, but hardcore art and programming is just now starting to begin. It's too early to estimate, but as soon as we can get them out there, we'd love to."
He also reassured gamers that it won't be more of the same in "Heart of the Swarm," indicating that the single-player's campaign structure in "Wings of Liberty" would be difficult to recreate using the game's other races.
"Playing Jim Raynor, who's this mercenary, living on this battle cruiser, and has a whole big crew and things like that…that makes a lot of sense for a Terran-based campaign," he said. "It's hard to imagine doing a Zerg-based campaign the same way or, for that matter, doing a Protoss one."
StarCraft II fans should expect an entirely new, sequel-like experience in the single-player campaign, however the multiplayer portion will be more in line with the older StarCraft: Brood War expansion.
"Multiplayer is going to be more like an expansion set sort of vibe," he admitted. "We're not going to ship all brand new races. There will definitely be additions to multiplayer, but that's going to feel like an expansion set."
To read the full interview, head over to MTV here.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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eklipz330 Reply"We always have a lot of ideas and there's been some design work on it, but hardcore art and programming is just now starting to begin. It's too early to estimate, but as soon as we can get them out there, we'd love to."
They JUST started? Well, I don't expect this to be out in the next two years, seeing how it is blizzard. Diablo III might be out by then.
And I certainly don't expect a GOTY edition with all three expansions for another 5. *sad face* -
eklipz330 Kami3kYawn. I'll laugh when it has a $60 price tag again.Reply
I was just about to edit my post, but yeah this would not be a surprise at ALL. I don't expect to see a price drop on WoL for years to come. I hate greedy companies = / -
Kami3kYawn. I'll laugh when it has a $60 price tag again.Especially when it's the same game as the first one. Albeit with improved graphics and some new units.Reply
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2real eklipz330I was just about to edit my post, but yeah this would not be a surprise at ALL. I don't expect to see a price drop on WoL for years to come. I hate greedy companies = /What company isn't greedy? They're all out there to make money. If you don't agree with the company's tactics, then don't buy the game.Reply -
2realWhat company isn't greedy? They're all out there to make money. If you don't agree with the company's tactics, then don't buy the game.Hey, that's exactly what I did. No way am I paying $60 for SC2. I haven't and I don't plan to, ever.Reply
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cryogenic FATAL STR1K3woot woot! looking forward more to D3 though..Reply
I you imagine that Startcraft 2 will cost 180$ in the end (3x60$ each act. Probably the most expensive game all time, considering it's only one game (in 3 acts) and not a game + 2 sequels)
then you can pretty much expect that Diablo 3 will have a subscription model like WoW! Which is really sad, but I don't see Blizzard becoming less greedy so long as they still are one of the top games companies, and more importantly one of the top PC only game companies, but most important of all, it seems to work for them.