While Blizzard is very much focussed on its big money-makers like its various Warcraft games, from WoW to Hearthstone to Warcraft Rumble, as well as Diablo and the much-maligned Overwatch 2, he’s still open to StarCraft making a comeback. That said, RTS fans shouldn’t get their hopes up. While the series might return, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be an RTS, and whatever shape it takes will depend on the person or team who goes to bat for it.
“It’s not me saying, ‘Go make a StarCraft game,’” Ybarra told Bloomberg. “I need to have someone who has the vision and passion that comes with the idea, and I’ll bet on that team.”
A vision and passion he - according to his own words - clearly does not have. 😑
The good days of Blizzard are over, I’m not getting my hopes up for anything they produce nowadays.
I’ll keep an ear to the ground.
But I don’t like that $90 preorder logic at all, it’s almost weird it exists.
I try to imagine going to a gamestop and a gaming associate was like, buy that game 3 days later and I’ll give you $20.
Skip the in game pet and mount, that most people forget exists after the expansion, and I’ll make that $40
But then… why does this system exist?!
Early access is the new fad, because it costs nothing and has value to some players. The increasing drive for more monetization is Activision’s influence, Blizzard was really lazy about it before being bought.
At least early access makes a little sense in an mmo. The new areas are super crowded on launch, so letting some get through early does help.
Because it works and makes them money! You can bet that other publishers will take notice and you’ll see such money grabbing schemes becoming more and more common.
Fomo is a powerful drug
Not to mention that, to some, seeing you ride that mount or that pet following you tells them that you’re a sucker who pre-ordered the game.
When I was playing through the campaign of the last SC2 expansion I couldn’t help seeing the story/dialogue through the lens of, Artanis = how Blizzard executives think of themselves. Was really bad IMO
I still have Diablo II Resurrected added to my Steam Library as “Blizzard’s remaining dignity”. And even that is because it’s made by Blizzard North. Apart from maybe WoW (at least the golden years, not necessarily the current state), I can’t think of anything else that has kept its perceived value.
I remember when Overwatch came out. It was so damn fun. Then they ruined it with patches and finally deleted it, only for it to be replaced by that shitty money making machine “Overwatch 2”. It’s kinda sad to know that some games can’t be experienced now in the same way they were when they first came out. Same with WoW.
It feels like it’s been ages since I’ve played WoW.
I remember the days of the spiffworld youtube videos, where Jonathan Coulton songs were played in the background while WoW characters dancing/acting along to the lyrics.