This really, really doesn't make any sense. Only the most hardcore will get two or three versions, and you don't want to piss off your most hardcore fans, right? Meanwhile, most people will only buy one version, because if they all end the same way, why bother playing the others? You already know what's going to happen, so there's little point in playing for the story.

kicking222

I can see just about everyone hates this...but I think it will be okay. The first Blizzard game I ever bought was Warcraft II, then WC I, then the expainsion, on to Diablo, and eventually I played Starcraft, Brood War, Diablo II, WC III, WOW (for 3 or 4 months only) and through it all I've never regretted a purchase.

If they can make what...[counting]..10 game is a row that I felt worth my $ after I coughed it up, I'll have some faith in them.

The idea of a giant campaign fully fleshed out, I like it since I only play on-line a couple times before realizing I don't have the time to hone uber skills. So, getting over a dozen high quality battles all liked together for each race will likely suit me fine.

Also, I've never really liked playing Protoss - so maybe I'll get to save some money there.

Sure many will hate this, but they've never burned me before...well except on the Warcraft II disk having a preview for "Shattered Nations" that made me so eager for it's release...then saying oh, never mind we don't feel like developing that idea. :(

smber2c

My excitement depends on just how much content is within each story. If it takes around 15 hours for each thing, then sure. I guess that's okay :)

I'm only considering it cuz it's Blizzard.

Also, what are they going to do about CD Keys? Will we have 3 seperate Keys after buying each of the stories?

MetaKz

Wow... Just wow. And people think EA is bad

CyberG4

What's the big deal, all you cheapskates? We're basically getting three FULL games. Sure, you'd love to get three 40 hour games for the price of one, but what developer would be stupid enough to give you that?

Dreamwriter

This reminds me of how Half-Life 2 has episodic content that comes out once every... what are we up to now? Two years? Yeah, once every two years. Except this time we don't get a nice solid initial release like Half-Life 2, we only get "the first episode." You know what game tried this before? SiN. You know where episode two is? Canceled.

This is a dumb idea that I do not approve of but hey, we have barely any factual information on how it's all going to pan out so I'll let Blizzard try to justify this.

DaveKap

@relax_guy: That's the one. :(

PatMan33

Screw that. I'll buy the protoss one only just to get the game if that's how it seriously is gonna be. I'll just play the most important part/ending myself and read up on what happened prior to it.

Ashura

@LostToys: GRAB THE PITCHFORKS!!!

cZEAL

Dawn of War 2 is looking better now.

Quilt

I bet there will be a smattering of new units for the next two installments that can only be used on battle.net if you apply the product code from the mentioned installments to your account. Cha ching!

Phaelog

it prints money

zenius

*sigh*
Worst. Idea. Evar.

lonkley

This is a load of BS. I doubt they'll make each one after 49.99. It'll probably be around 29.99 and you have to have the first game to play the 2nd and 3rd parts.

WTF are they thinking. Oh yeah, money.

HoxtonHero

@3drage:

We don't know yet if this was Activision's doing. Blizzard isn't exactly a charitable organization itself.

Quilt

This does not sound good.

yashichi8bit

Ugh, seriously, this time i'm truly disappointed in you Blizzard. What are you doing?

Mpalm.

"[The second and third games] will be like expansion packs, but we really want them to feel like standalone products," said Blizzard's Rob Pardo.

[www.shacknews.com]

Just expansion packs people. Chill out.

GregoriusH

You gotta be kidding me... Well, I know what I'll be pirating!

SubZippo

This just screams the same type of product design that Activision has been doing with Guitar Hero.

LostToys

Well it had better cost less... The 2nd game you purchase, you're only purchasing the single player campaign. I'm not paying for the multiplayer AGAIN. This may have actually just turned me off to SC2.

Tzepish

Release Dates:
Star Craft II: Part I - Fall 2010
Star Craft II: Part II - Spring 2012
Star Craft II: Part III - Fall 2013

Just IMO. I hate you Blizzard gib Star Craft before Diablo...

joefro

@freakout: Never mind, I'm lacking in comprehension skills this early in the morning. 1UP explain it a bit more clearly for dunderheads like me...

[www.1up.com]

"During the StarCraft 2 gameplay panel at BlizzCon, Blizzard posed a question to the audience: Should they sacrifice an epic story or truly create something spectacular? They're choosing the latter. Today they announced that they will be creating a single-player trilogy for StarCraft 2 where each race will have a stand-alone game. The first will be Terran: Wings of Liberty, where players take on the role of Jim Raynor in a non-linear game. The second is Zerg: Heart of Swarm, and the last will be Protoss: Legend of the Void.

Blizzard is promising that each game will have 26-30 missions, and each campaign will feel like its own epic story. They are also promising that they wont leave StarCraft lovers with cliffhangers. Each game will be a full product with a satisfying ending. We'll be hitting up Blizzard for more info as BlizzCon continues, so stay tuned."

freakout

there had better not be one single recycled asset on any of the three discs. If all the maps are different, and all three campaigns are as long as the three combined campaigns in the first starcraft, then sure, it's worth it. Otherwise, I'll be passing.

What The Geek

Leave it to Activision to figure out a way to rip off consumers.

3drage

If this IS true I hate Activision...

So much right now...

SaanZ

So I should be able to play through the entire campaign in about 10 years? Knowing how Blizzard likes to take its sweet time to get games out I wouldn't be surprised if it took longer than 3 years for all of these campaigns to be released, and surely they're not going to charge full price for each campaign add-on? Blizzard isn't that greedy.

goldsoundzzz

@vid3oman64: 150 bucks is nothing to sneeze at.

Mister_Jack

@cZEAL:

From Joystiq:

Update: Yes, you'll have to buy separate discs. According to Pardo, "It's a separate product. look at the next two as expansion packs, but will have the feel of stand alone products." Meaning yes, we'll be charging you more money.

LostToys

Looks like we lose on this deal. Hopefully they will back each game up with tons of content or it will look like they are taking advantage of gamers.

DigitalHero

Oh what the fuck is this shit? I bet this was Activision's idea, I knew it was impossible for those money-grubbing whores to keep their hands off of Blizzard. I love Starcraft, but there is no way IN HELL that I'm going to buy three games to get what should have been in one.

Placentasaurus

I think people are jumping the gun WAY too quickly here. We don't know exactly how they are going to do it yet so there's no reason to get upset yet.

Wait for more details before ye all grab the pitchforks.

cZEAL

So instead of putting them together like in Starcraft, you're essentially making people pay three times, probably 150 bucks, for the complete game.

BOO-URNS

Mister_Jack

Please explain. Does this mean three seperate games or what?

freakout

wow blizzard...

I wonder how many ppl booed at Blizzcon when they heard this scheme. Why don't they just sell multiplayer feature separately while they're at it

Starplate

...Oh, what's really amazing is that for every person that thinks this is a bad idea, there are probably three people that don't care and will unnecessarily hand over the clams for all three "installments."

vid3oman64

@DaveKap: I couldn't help but laugh about that one.

Quilt

@kylenalepa: Oh boy did it kick ass. I hope he really makes the next Kill Bill (which, according to him, will be in about a decade).

90sKid

Oh hilarious Blizzard. You weren't content with milking your instant message system with pretty colours. No, no now you have to whore your one good game out.

Duphman2

@90sKid: You think so? I dunno, I think I would've preferred it if Kill Bill were just edited into one 3-hour cut; plus, I was always under the impression that it was the studio that forced Tarantino to cut it into two films rather than all together. Either way, Kill Bill still kicked ass. :)

kylenalepa

I call bullshit. I used the campaigns to help learn the skills I needed to play the different races. If I can only buy one campaign at a time, how the hell will I learn how to use the other races? True, I already know how to use them, but I won't know what's really different.

I absolutely love StarCraft, but this makes me a little wary. I feel like they're just trying to scam my money. The price better bloody-well reflect the incomplete games!

Quilt

Wow.

Maybe they will follow this fantastically terrible scheme and split Diablo 3 up and create Diablo 3:Wizard and Diablo 3:Barbarian. Collect the entire site to play every class.

VatoLoko

Is it April first? Blizzard always loves a good April fools joke--but wait--it is October. So they are serious about this?

My first reaction is to just skip Starcraft 2 until it hits the bargain bin, unless their pricing scheme is similar to episodic content and they price all three campaigns at $19.99 each. I can't imagine anyone outside of South Korea thinks this announcement is fantastic.

Grimm

$150 for the whole experience? Goodness.

Still, if I had made the original Starcraft, and I'd seen how much longevity it had, I'd probably wish I'd have charged more, too.

Spindrift

Not only are they still making you pay the same ammount for WoW since launch. But, now splitting starcraft in to three different packages?
Greedy, much?

I can't wait to see what they do to rape my wallet with Diablo 3

MikeWTFpwns

Like they need the money so bad...I'll wait for the battle chest for $50, thanks.

fdisk

@kylenalepa: Kill Bill needed the cut. Both volumes would've been too long, pal. TOO LONG.

Still, this sucks.

90sKid

I'm pretty sure that Activision is going to need Wings of Liberty back for some budget air combat title or Call of Duty spinoff.

lighten up, morrissey

It's a shame I only have two thumbs to point downward to this.

hero imprisoned

If the ending is the same, and all 3 games have the same content, just buy 1 side, you will know the ending of the other 2 anyway

Moctezuma3000

How does this affect skirmish mode? That's all I play. If I have to get three full games just to get all the units for multiplayer I won't be impressed.

theinternetlovesyou

@Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.: What are you, retarded?

hero imprisoned

@kylenalepa:

$180+ if they make console versions...

But yeah, no matter how you slice it, the consumer is getting hosed. Part of what I liked about Starcraft I was that if you didn't like a particular race, you weren't stuck the entire game playing as them...

VicViper

Dumbest idea in a long time. Seriously.

Sam Smith

Posting this news without ANY of the other parts of the SC gameplay panel was stupid and just inviting a flame war.

The panel talked about how much more detailed each campaign is going to be. Think of the Wing Commanders (branched campaigns, decisions in between missions) on crack.

Quark

"The scope of the single-player experience was so huge they decided to deliver three different products."

Wow, if they applied that logic to games like phantasmagoria, they could make a lot of money... or... not.

This doesn't make any kind of sense unless they release the base game for 40$ and its "sequels" or 10$ each or something. Even then, why not just release the game by itself with multiple dvds?

oh yeah... money :O

UndergroundDreamer

Wow. Videogame companies are getting ballsy. I've had just about enough of this shit.

saintdestroy

@Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.: There were three different boxes, not three different SKUs.

kylenalepa

Unless they put an assload of content into each release (which is entirely possible), this can only be seen as an attempt to loot and pillage the pockets of gamers.

SpadeAce

Epic Fail.

They bundled 3 different single player campaigns (all from the different races) into one disc the last 2 iterations - now we're paying thrice the price for the "same" game and same story across 3 discs?

Just call them Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum them. Or maybe you'd prefer Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire? It's essentially the same.

Alaron

Not much information is available, and from my assumptions it looks like this will be a disjointed and broken Single Player experience... Trilogy - do they mean 3 seperate discs, hence 3 seperate launch dates? -- So I'll play the 1st, forget most of the story, wait some 6months to a year to play the 2nd installment and then the same again for the 3rd?

Which person in their right mind thought that this is a good idea, for any bloody reason. If you wanted to "introduce more characters and complex story" then you could just expand the campaign in the original single-copy game. Not bleed your customers for money while fucking up the entire experience.

This is has money grubbing idiocy all over it.

P.S. Use of the word "Product" leads me to believe that my assumptions are correct, and not just your usual Faction-split campaign style.

Acklan

Fahey, I am truly disappointed in your decision to include an exclamation point at the end of that headline.

milkmonkey

Wow, Fuck.

That's it, That's all I've got.

Locke562

This should put the release date somewhere around 2XXX.

AllHailShake

No big deal... I don't want to play single player anyway. Also no surprise Actiblizzard trying to take more of peoples money at a time when the people need it most.

Fyro

The ONLY way I could see this being not a completely terrible thing that we expect from the likes of EA or Nintendo stuff (Petz, Imagine, Pokemon versions a, b, c, etc.) is that they mean it'll be episodic content, cheaper and delivered faster than one giant product.

cowondinosaur

@Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.:

Starcraft 1 did not charge you for 3 different games.

Fyro

OK, I can't get behind this idea. Why am I going to have to pay for two other games to get the complete experience? I get that it's more "fleshed out", but what's stopping them from making it one? DVD limitations? More importantly, I think they need to answer the question of whether or not all three titles will be required to play multi-player.

cL9

So.... they want me to buy the first game, then pirate the next two? Okay Blizzard, whaaaatever you say... *eyes are a rollin'*

DaveKap

oh wait..same idea but this sounds confusing...

Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.

Wait wait... Im confused. Is it Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, and Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void? Or is it Starcraft 2 and the campaigns within it are like a whole separate game. If it isnt... then Im disappointed. Making people pay more for a game that its previous incarnation had incorporated all three?

Fail, Blizzard. Fail.

Mercsenary

@kylenalepa: Thinking about it a little more, while my gut reaction is still that this sounds like a purely financial move (e.g. splitting Kill Bill into two films to make double the money), I suppose if it legitimately increases the amount of story and content, then it's not an entirely terrible idea. We'll have to wait for more details, I think.

kylenalepa

well this is...an interesting approach. It's good though to see that they're so committed to the single player experience.

hopefully the pricing won't be ridiculous...and that some sort of battle chest will be available

Sandbox_Emperor

Uh, no complaints here but...this is the same thing starcraft 1 did...

Gantz: Your Trusted Friend in Science.

I don't know whether to be excited or bummed out. Are these three separate titles like the Pokemon games (Red and Blue versions) or just two expansion packs?
Also "...with each title ending the same way."
and "The story will stretch across all three titles."
What exactly does this mean?

Hamsfork

So its three different products? Does that mean we have to buy three 60 dollar games?

Ra is on House

wait is it three different campaigns like all the other games or 3 different games n 3 different discs.

MerryPranksters

Let me be the first to say that I think this is a terrible idea.

What's next, a monthly fee for us to play campaigns?

The First SC had three campaigns in one game - and I don't think Diablo 3 will have a different box for each character type.... What a rip off.

Logical2u

I dont know if I should take this as a good thing or not...

Schoolimangooli's backpack turns into a ham sandwich!

Yes, Blizzard love their money...and I believe they're going to get it from me.

Single player story mode for the win.

sascha23

@kylenalepa: I had a similar thought. Of course if they stretched it out and actually made 3 games worth of content...

Saxboy

Wooot 1 game for the price of 3! what a deal.

relax_guy

So I get to pay $150+ for Starcraft II now? Wow, that's great...

kylenalepa

@milkmonkey: Same here, same here. That's not something to be excited about.
"..." at the end would suit better or "!?" for being offended...

tehvoid

@VicViper: it's not really clear that you won't be able to play as the other race. Besides, won't you only need to buy just one in order to play multiplayer?

Sparth

More than 20$ a GAME = no SC2 for me :D

Zombozzie

If each product is a full RTS experience, I have nothing to bitch about. But if it's 3 campaigns that are Gears Of War 1 in length, I'm going to be mad. Each one better be the length of the original Starcraft >:|

Activision Milk, does a body good, but not your wallet.

Rika Aiuchi is SeXXXy

ok, depending how much the last 2 parts of the trilogy will cost, I'll give this news some cautious optimism.

Starplate

Am I the only one who would rather have shorter, less "epic" campaigns with the ability to play all three races in one game? What if someone doesn't like playing Zerg or Protoss or Terran in singleplayer? At least in the previous title, they could just play the other races story and enjoy that much.

This would work so much better as campaign packs, chapter-ized, with all three races playable in each one.

hero imprisoned

Peopel are actually planning to play the Single Player campaign on SC II?

comon...

gothamdarkknight

@CHunterX:

If you're right, I think it'll be time for a new "King of the RTS"... and no, I doubt it'll be EA.
Starcraft was fun because it was casual online. Start introducing the fees and nickel/diming the semi-casual, semi-pro players, and soon there won't be any players.

Logical2u

/sigh
And there was a time when Blizzard added a campaign for free. Warcraft 3 TFT Orc campaign came late but they did not charge for it.

'Hope their 3 stand alone will each contain some sort of other races campaigns.
As I read it, they won't add new units or anything with any of the discs and the 3 campaign discs will have the exact same ending? Like it's not a continuity-like think but rather simultaneous-like stories?

/sigh
Sounds so Activision Blizzard :/

Good ol' Blizzard would charge for SCII once and for all and if needed would add the campaigns progressively for free. FOR FREE.

'Hope they will do the pricing accordingly for a 1 campaign game.
They better not charge for BNet too...

tehvoid

@bakakensai:

Activision has zero say in how Blizzard handles their products. They are a completely independent, yet wholly owned subsidiary.

Meohfumado

Sounds like it will be like what they did with brood war.

lordargent

@Tzepish: Exactly. If they don't reduce the price on the subsequent "games", they're fucking themselves over so hard.

hero imprisoned

It certainly looks like Bobby Kotick wasn't satisfied with just cleaning house in terms of Diablo 3 art direction.

MarionBarryHussein

What does this do to Multiplayer?

The great thing about the previous "-Craft" RTS's was that the single player campaigns were learning experiences for tactics to use in MP with each faction.

So I now have the choice of waiting for "expansions" before truly beginning to understand a particular faction's strengths OR try to learn them half-hazardly by getting stomped in MP?

Don't know if I like this. It better have 3 times the awesome cinematics, and they better all come out in quick succession of one-another.

Meohfumado

No one has managed before, but Activision is sure doing their best to undermine Blizzard; Over what, few extra bucks?

bakakensai

i don't think i like this....price per unit better be low.

mightyg

Hum... but can you play all factions in multiplayer with your first purchase? Because then people might just buy one game, and then pirate the other two for the SP content. There MUST be something else to this.

Krytha

:(

this has gone from must buy, to maybe pirate in a couple of years after they've stopped caring

I was looking forward to this...

tonka_92

Had to happen when Activision's involved.

sailingtonorway

@kylenalepa: This is true, but... they could also make them episodic. Charging $20-$30 each.

Uglydemon

Well, my initial reaction to this all is: oh fuuuck :(

That said, I really really hope some more info comes out soon to raise my spirits back up.

Jest

I'm not a Starcraft greenhorn so the only thing that matters to me is Battle.net/online stuff. If it was separated into three SKUs, I doubt I would need the other games.

Hostile

Blizzard: WTF ARE YOU DOING. Unless each of these is less than $20, consider yourselves in the doghouse. I hate what DLC and microtransactions are doing to the industry. They could have easily put all this in one package, but i guess they want gamers to bend over and accept that 60 bucks won't buy you a full game anymore.

Frankly i'm not going to take it anymore.

PATSCRU

It's not quite the 'Six Hundred US Dollars' PS3 debacle, but it's close.

I only get to play with one set of units for $50? screw them!

hibikir

@Logical2u: Battlenet 2.0 will have a monthly fee. I'm calling it.

CHunterX

Step 1) find 3 friends who want to play starcraft II.
Step 2) tell them to purchase different versions
Step 3) play Dawn of War 2 while calling them on the phone to find out whatever happened to Kerrigan.

deathbunny

It isn't three versions. It's one game and two expansions.

manusdei

Jesus. A lot of people in here with faulty reading comprehension.

"But they included all 3 campaigns in the original!"
Each campaign includes an entire game's worth of content.

"They're going to charge for the Zerg and Protoss campaigns!"
Each campaign includes an entire game's worth of content.

Do you get it yet? Each campaign includes an entire game's worth of content.

Instead of 3 short stories centered on Terran/Zerg/Protoss, then 3 more short stories centered on Terran/Zerg/Protoss in an expansion, it's one huge story in size and scope centered on the Terrans, then a huge Zerg storyline in an expansion, then a huge Protoss storyline in another expansion, each one of them at least as long as all 3 campaigns in the original game combined. That is clearly the idea here. I'm at a loss as to why people are having a hard time understanding it, other than the typical "EVERYTHING SUCKS" kneejerk Internet reaction.

Avrithor

im gonna stay cautiously optimistic on this one, ive never been dissappointed with blizzard and there isnt enough info to say how exactly they are delivering the content to us.

stryker1800

I read this and honestly thought it was a joke post.

This significantly lowers my expectations for StarCraft II.

Legion329

From Joystiq: Yes, you'll have to buy separate discs. According to Pardo, "It's a separate product. look at the next two as expansion packs, but will have the feel of stand alone products." Meaning yes, we'll be charging you more money.

Greedy Bastards.

Cyborgmatt

Well, there goes any chance of me buying it. When will these damn companies ever learn. Thank god for piracy.

desterion

@milkmonkey:

Yeah it almost sounds like it's a good thing lol
I don't even like this game and I'm more and more pissed off about it when I heard greedy ideas like this.

In SC3, people will have to pay real money to make more scv's in a match.

GodKiller0

Are you people idiots? Blizzard isn't so blinded by greed that they'd charge $60 for each game, calm the hell down and wait for details to come out before you say what a "rip-off" this is.

Morithain

This doesn't sound good at all.

Kounji

Ok, some people are spinning this that "They are doing it the same way valve did it with Half Life 2" .... personally that makes it much easier for me to swallow!!

hypermog

As long as they price it fairly I'm all for this. If each pack is going to run $60 fucking forget it.

silentbobfan

If this "full-feature" campaigns follow anything like SC/Brood Wars campaign we'll be in trouble.

Problem was there were many minor missions that didn't serve the plot. they simply acted as filler.

This is what I'm predicting in each campaign

MANY FILLER MISSIONS!

- 20 min mission of acquiring quest item
- next 20 min mission to defend the item from zerg

Repeat as needed to reveal next one-liner in the plot. SUCKS!

Starplate

@Avrithor: Maybe they are like me: I would rather have the 3 shorter campaigns all in one purchase and get to play them all...rather than have to buy 3 games to do so.

Of course, you would've figured this out as one of bits of reasoning to many people's disdain to the news if you had bothered entertaining the idea. But given how you labeled the dissatisfaction as "typical "EVERYTHING SUCKS" kneejerk Internet reaction"...well...I bet you can at least guess where I'm going with this one.

Jest

@Dreamwriter: The problem is that it won't be three games at 40 hours each, rather it will be 3 games totaling 40 hours or less. As well, you don't buy Starcraft for single player and so making us presumably have to buy all three games for the full multilayer is ridiculous.

CyberG4

@Justo:

You speak truth.

Slothboy

@kylenalepa: to your kill bill thing they were to complete movie clocking in about 2 hours each

AdrinalinZ8

Wow, that's a huge load of lame. "Our product is so great we couldn't fit it in one box!" Seriously, after Valve gave us 3 games for one in Orange Box how on earth could Blizzard convince themselves that this would fly with gamers? Just suck it up Bliz and finish the game and ship it as one.

Justo

Was this Activision's idea?

fearing

Amazing, this will go down in history as one of the greatest dick moves of all time.

will866

This sucks. I won't be buying Starcraft 2 now.

Ozzieball

This is happening increasingly often and I'm really not a fan of it, not one bit.

sanzen

Perhaps they mean for expansion packs?

This is infuriating, either way.

TenP

*grabs pitchfork* I haven't done this since Frankenstein!

LostToys

@cL9: Yeah I would say it's due to DVD limitations if I were them. Whether or not it's true, well that's a different story.

BlueToast

@freakout:

I m a little bit worried about that.

When my brother and i played through the Warcraft 3 Campaign we got stuck against the end of the human Campaign, because the missions went out to be the símilar gameplay at the end and we just lost interest.

I had to kinda FORCE myself to try it again later, cause i wanted to know about the story.

And the Story itself was just amazing (before it vanished under the grindfest of WOW.) but the always the same gameplay was a pain in the ass experience.

I still wished they would extract the whole Backroundstory(s) of WOW into different Gams that i REALLY can enjoy those.

fELIXADER

Son of a bitch thats weak. I don't want to wait 3 seperate times and then pay for the same game when it should have been a single purchase. Hell I wouldn't mind paying up to $100 for the 'whole game' but this sounds like a segmented clusterfuck.

Nexus6

I'm guessing it's Half Life 2 Episode 1, 2, etc experience and attempt at smaller content packages.

KirbyMorph

w.t.f. unless they deliver something phenomenal im already pissed the fuck off

FencerHayato

@relax_guy: It's not really clear that each will be the full 60$. Hell, this might be amazing for the multipayer guys. Potentially we'll only pay 20$ for 1/3 and be able to play online without bounds.

A lot hinges on the pricing policy. So time will tell for my reaction to this news.

Sparth

@lordargent: Brood War was one game though. "Today they announced that they will be creating a single-player trilogy for StarCraft 2 where each race will have a stand-alone game." - 1UP.com

Hostile

Ugh! This has Activisions money grubbing stink all over it!

I can picture Bobby Kotick right now "Hang on boys, there's money here to be had! RAPE that frachise! RAPE IT TILL IT BLEEDS GREEN!"

Well, here's to hoping that this announcement is lacking some information somewhere. I mean, if the size of the game warrants additional cost, then Oblivion should have been at least $200 for all of it's content and gameplay.

Sadly, I will admit, I would be willing to pay more money than your average game to play SC2. (I bought a MacPro in preparation for Christs sake.) But if it's anything like Acklan speculates, I would be seriously pissed if they released each portion of the SP campaign across an 18 month time frame.

ssoltero

@VicViper: I suppose if you don't like a particular race in Starcraft II, you can just not buy that game.

BlueToast

@CHunterX:
Battle.net will never cost money.
Blizzard is firm on that.

brieeyeball

Well if this pans out like it sounds SCII has gone from "must have" to "bargain bin". Im already done with the industries ever increasing nickle and diming us to death. Blizzard was one of the few companies I still had a bit of faith in. Well no more there.

PS I'll bet anyone here a bag of Oreos that Battle.net will being going pay to play with this.

-itis

@Phlycheez:
They have already said they will be 3 seperate purchases not freebies.

-itis

My Two-Step Solution:

1) Buy one for the multiplayer key
2) Torrent the others

Whoa! One game for the price of one!

el_gordo

@gothamdarkknight:

I will more than likely spend 75% or more of my time with SCII playing the single player campaign. I only play multiplayer occasionally with a few friends. Not everyone is a multiplayer fanatic with SC.

-itis

so in blizzard time that means starcraft II will be completely released by the time Duke Nukem Forever 2 is nearing completion.

Demonbird

@Logical2u: Nah, some people love their Starcraft too much for them to not play just because of a monthly fee. True, there would be fewer online players, but the number wouldn't be zero.

Cloral

ridiculous. pirating it.

hageshiku

That means that.. there will be 3 games!? WTF?

What's next? A separate game for Multiplayer?

CockroachMan

Most likely what they'll be doing is releasing the single player campaigns over time for free. That's what they did with the War3: Frozen Throne single player Rexxar campaign.

If it isn't like that, I'll still fork over however much money they want in for those campaign episodes.

Phlycheez

I don't buy the whole Epic Story bullshit that Blizzard is spewing. They've always been able to put together epic stories in a regular, 36 mission game and those stories were memorable.

Making a huge story into 90 mission opus will only dilute the story.

GAMER DEMANDS ARE SIMPLE - IF YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE A GAME, MAKE IT A COMPLETE PACKAGE THAT IS WORTH OUR MONEY! DON'T TRY TO EXTORT US WITH UNETHICAL SCHEMES!

Rask

I smell Activision bullshit here. And it doesn't smell good.

Now our Starcraft is Guitar Heroed?

Anarchist_Gamer

I can $ee thi$ Activi$ion/Vivendi Univer$al merger i$ really payin$ o$$ in fa$our o$ con$umer$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

GreyFoxV1

The only way they could get us to swallow this disgusting pill is if they stagger the releases to at least make it look like they are doing some extended work for our money.

jlarimore

If it is going to be three games sold separately and they each cost over 20 dollars? Buying one so I can play online. Followed by pirates.

tehrahl

"...allow for more characters, more missions, and more complete experiences overall." and finally allow Blizzard to get the very last cent out of your pocket for content they used to offer for free in previous games.

The good ol' times are over. With the ActiBlizzard merger they finally sold their soul to maximize profits. If this is the way they want to sell their games in the future, well I guess I'll stay with consoles and away from the PC and Blizzard. At least Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft subside hardware prices and games are still offered at a fair price.

xXn00bXx

This might be alright if each game was $30 each (more than 7 hrs each).

But still, this sounds horrible.

BTW if each is having the same ending, doesn't that suck...?

Roguestriker

@Teugeus:
two words... FILLER MISSIONS

Starplate

@CMay:

I have all the faith in the world that SCII will be a brilliant game. That has nothing to do with this kind of money grab. I also have complete faith in the fact that activision is one of the greediest companies there is. Look at the flood of GH games they are shoveling out.

-itis

Whew, thats a relief. I was wondering how I was going to afford SC:II with all this economic crisis going around, but Blizzard made the decision easy for me. Now I don't have to spend any money at all! Thanks Blizzard, you guys are the best. To show my appreciation I'm going to not buy Diablo III too!

Between this and all the money I saved by not buying DRM-d to death Spore, I'm gonna be rolling in dough!

krizoitz

So this is probably why those rumors of Diablo 3 coming out before Starcraft 2 where floating around.

I'm guessing D3 will come out before ALL of SC2 is released.

Megalomatthew

@kylenalepa:

I don't know if "Kill Bill" is the best analogy for that- it was fleshed out because there was a lot of material to go through. Thre really are not many people that are up to sitting through 5 hrs worth of movie, even if there considerable action throughout. See also "Das Boot".

Posthaus

I expect this crap to come out of the factorys of EA, but I am suprised and annoyed at this. Blizzard will not be getting my money. In Australia, the max for a game would be $100. Unless all three games are below then price of $33.33, then no sale. I don't care how long the campaign is, I'm not paying three games for the price of one. Whatever idiot would do that is complete that, an Idiot.

antisniper

I gess no one heard the cheers at the Con, because these campaigns are going to be massive, nothing like starcraft, which had 10-12 missions for each race. SC2 will have 30 per race, with branching storylines, so the journey each player has while playing will be different but the ending will be the same.

This is going to be huge.

Teugeus

@AdrinalinZ8: Trojan, you totally missed the point. And your Engrish sucks. Sigh, stupid $C Trojans, getting a state school education for the price of an Ivy League one.

deadpanwalking

Good thing there is pirating

Sojiroh

Have some faith people. Blizzard isn't known for shoddy products and intentionally jipping you.

If they freaking say there is an entire game worth of content in 1 race campaign, you'd better believe it.

The cinematics are going to own, there will be more of them and people will realize their fears were unfounded once they finish the campaign.

Of course all the races will be included regardless which one you buy, so multiplayer won't be an issue. I'd suspect that if they release them all at once, there should be some kind of discount mechanism for getting more than 1 box. Otherwise it'll be spread out as full priced stand-alone expansions.

CMay

Glad to see Blizzard is finally picking up on the Pokemon model of releasing perfectly useless different versions of the game for no other reason but to make more money.

Bravo, Starcraft. You have lost one more buyer.

Polterg3ist

Wow, can we all just stop giving this god forsaken company money? please?

ReconToaster

@kylenalepa: Im pretty pissed. Enough with the episodic games already!

I can see this game getting pirated 3x over now.

Altima NEO

Sounds like what they do with Dawn of War.

Space Marines (or knockoffs of same) in the first box, other races get campagns in the expansions.

As long as the Terran campaign itself is substantial, that won't be too much of a problem.

GloatingSwine

This is such a bad idea. Why not charge a little extra to include all three campaign in the same box. I mean if there are 30 hours worth of content charging a little more for all the extra discs would be reasonable. I am considering not buying the game all together now because I know I am going to want the whole experience not just one campaign.

canchegundam

Here's my prediction:

1) Staggered release: makes the cost more palatable and the cliffhangers sting.
2) ~$40 price tag. Just about the right price point to make you feel able to purchase two. You'll then feel incomplete without the third.

jlarimore

@kylenalepa:

Yeah, the studio did it. And yeah, it would have been better as one movie. They had to cut out a whole character/fight scene (a gunfight/chase with gogos sister after the oren ishii fight, taking place in america [chronologically after vernita greens death])

R1ZE

@Posthaus: I'm still waiting for the epic edited together version Tarantino couldn't wait to put out on dvd... forever ago.

Grumpz®

Everybody blaming Activision obviously have zero clue as to the details of the merger.

Activision has no say in any Blizzard products. Bobby Kotick could scream till he's blue in the face, and Blizzard doesn't have to do a thing he says.

There are a few reasons to hate on Activision, this ain't one of them. This is a Blizzard game. Its all Blizzard, and nobody at Activision has any control.

All Activision is going to do is put it in a box, and get it on shelves. Everything else is in-house.

Don't believe me? Read the details of the merger.

Meohfumado

How would this work anyway...SC2 races don't have that many more units than SC. Playing through twelve missions with one race was boring enough..but thirty?!? There is going to be massive outrage over this decision.

zemigod

Why not sell one huge game instead of splitting it into three? I'm holding final judgement until I see some price points, but there's no way I'm paying $150 to play every race.

That might fly in Korea, but not over here.

antialias02

holy cow, what a bad move. especially if they charge $59.99 for each 'game'...

thebetamax

@Logical2u:
With this sort of move vt Blizzard...

I'm just hoping that YOUR idea of Diablo 3 coming out separately by classes/jobs doesn't happen.

If it does... I will blame you! LOL.

neo177117

@hero imprisoned:

LOL, no. It's called buy the 1st one for the B-net CD-key, and acquire the 2nd and 3rd ones for the campaigns. AKA download them. I guarantee it will not be as 'epic' a game as they think it will be. You can tell they KNEW gamers wouldn't like this with the way they phrased their question in the announcement.

So I say, screw 'em. Game companies have steadily been getting more and more greedy and idiotic recently and I've had it.

Oh, and I'm fairly certain that they *will* be recycling maps and such for each campaign. Yup, it's the OO (object oriented) model of programming! Reuse! :)

F**k blizzard, honestly. Power corrupts. Money is the root of all evil. Insert phrase here.

Phuck Blizzard,

Antioch18

Buy the best one for the online (assuming they are different) and pirate the rest. I feel no pity for companies as huge as Blizzard. Loosing one (two) sales when they are swimming in money from WOW is not a problem.

Although I have never been a fan of RTS campaigns, so this probably won't affect me at all.

paradox

@ReconToaster: well unfortunately the games tend to be fun. but hey shit like this is what pirating is for.

hageshiku

@Meohfumado: This seems to be my primary concern also. I never played the original StarCraft, but was looking forward to this. How exactly are you supposed to learn a class if the only option to use it is in multiplayer?

DJDave

@Acklan: After all the tons of money theyre making on WoW, game sales of a single game is pathetic in comparison. Im guessing they gotta milk the cow hard to make developing a new game worth it to them.

Urgh...

Altima NEO

Wow... This is really lame...

Starcraft without different factions to play is NOT a FULL GAME, no matter how you package it.

Blizzard, you screwed up.

This announcement makes me not want to pick up SC2 anymore...

Very disturbing, this move is...

I can just feel online petitions and fanboy boycott being organized...

Hopefully Red Alert 3 will be great enough to make me forget SC2 ever existed...

I might get it after years later... when all three will be packed into one cheap price...
SC2: Battle Chest anyone?

neo177117

Next thing you know, the multiplayer part will be a whole separate game all together.

Altima NEO

Kind of like Half-Life 2 episodes, but further apart, I assume. The first game that will take 30 years to finish.

hammerhand

@hero imprisoned: *ducks the banhammer*

LordMaim

@neo177117: I wouldn't count on it. Red Alert 3 will be Spore DRM'ed to death too.

This is all good news for me, no more gaming distractions and I can focus on school and life. Woot life!

Antioch18

Holy jesus. Either this is going to be amazing, or horrible. I'm rather annoyed at the lack of information until this point, but what a surprise, this IS in fact blizzard after all, hopefully they'll be less stingy with information now that this has been announced.

Vezroth

@zemigod: Seriously. The 12 missions felt like 20-30 to me. And yea, lack of units means it'll get old fast. And each story ending the same means there's no real point since you'll likely learn the entire Zerg and Protoss story through playing the Terran campaign and your interactions with the other races.

Yep, this was a great idea.

And those who said Blizzard isn't in the habit of leeching money must not really be looking at WoW in detail - or have been addicted to the game for too long.

Antioch18

@thebetamax: agreed, if it's more than 20 bucks per game, it's a no sell for me.

PATSCRU

No no no. It's not 'expansion packs' - they never said that. They said think of it LIKE and expansion pack.

Expansion pack = new units, and a new story driven campaign that furthers what happened in the original.

In the past Campaign A would go from time = 0 to t=10, Campaign B would pickup at t=10 and continue the story to t=20, and then Campaign C would pickup at t=20 and culminate the whole story in an epic way (Think WC3 battle of mount hyjal).

But not SC2. SC2 will have each campaign split over separate retail-boxes, but the kicker is that it seems that each Campaign starts at t=0 and runs to t=15. They all end in the same place instead of picking up where the previous one left on and furthering the story. SC2's method of splitting the campaigns is 'whatever' since you know what will happen you have no drive to play through 30 campaign scenarios.

Furthermore, I highly doubt each box will come with new units. If this is the case it will invalidate players who only bought the first box because then the won't have access to the new units.

Yes, no new units, and 3 stories that all end the same way - these are NOT expansions. They want you to think of them like expansions so you'll be unaware that they're sticking a nice pineapple up your @$$ and taking your wallet at the same time. Oh, and no reach-around for you. No.

Antioch18

This article should be clarified. Initially i thought it meant we should expect a starcraft III. Then realised it was talking JUST about SCII. Having a campaign per race is exactly what SCI did except that each race's story picked up after the last one ended.

So:

a) the author never played starcraft 1

b) each story happens similatenously a sort of insight into what each race was up to at the same point in time that ultimately ends the same way (since there arent alternate dimensions)

c) they're goign to release an inital game that then requires two expansions to complete the full story.

d) and combintation of b and c

Crankyhobo

So we are essentially getting three full length games as opposed to one?

Why is this a bad thing?

Thorax

Wow. As much as I love Starcraft, I'm not paying for three full games to get the sequel. There is no way that the game is big enough for them to justify that.

FreakyFavabean

@Thorax: Because it's not 3 full length games, it's 2 game split into 3 with filler shoved in and slapped with the (likely) $60 pricetag.

Antioch18

@antialias02: I'm sorry, but they'd be fools not to sell the first one at $59.99. They know the first one will SELL! The second two will only sell with the hardcore people or those who like the campaigns - most people will only need one copy for multiplayer. So yea, Blizz will lose a lot of money if the first release is NOT full priced.

Sorry to have to tell you. :(

Antioch18

Damn you, Blizzard. I'm logged onto Starcraft as I type this. Gah! How could you, Blizzard!?

CrimsonFox13

so... is multiplayer separate from the single players too? thats kinda what i need... i can wikipedia the story if i need to so badly...

chickdigger802

@kylenalepa: Meh I'm pretty sure I've already paid more than $150 for Starcraft. I must have bought it 3 or 4 times already.

Narishma

Wait... what?

I'm all for a great story and giving it the proper focus it deserves, but... I just hope I'm not paying $150 for it (though in the end I'll enjoy it more and spend less money than playing WoW).

Liraco

Stand-alone multiplayer with map editor, please. It's something we'd actually buy.

Xiedo

"The scope of the single-player experience was so huge they decided to deliver three different products."

COMPLETE BULLSHIT. There is NO WAY a single race's campaign will ever compare to an entire package like SC1 or WC3.

GREEDY ASSHOLES!

Utoom

You know... They would make it into 20 different separated games, each 60$, and you can be sure they would sell every copy they would print.

I'm sure every people in Korea is gonna buy at least a douzen.

LightStriker

Great, so I have to pay the most to enjoy playing my beloved Protoss. I want to complain so much right now, but I know I'm going to hand over my money to Blizzard like a good little slave. God damn them for making such great games that I'm blinded to these shenanigans.

Tyber_Zann

What a bunch of fucking bullshit. Blizzard is already learning well from Activision and Guitar Hero how to whore out a fucking game.

Oh well. One less game I'm spending my money on now.

AnEternalEnigma