New Blizzard MMO revealed: Starcraft Online
A Chinese partner involved with Blizzard’s new MMO project has let slip the details: it’s Starcraft Online.
A report on Tradingmarkets.com has revealed that NetEase - a Chinese online game operator - will be running Starcraft Online for Blizzard.
Blizzard itself has not confirmed the game, but has been advertising for staff to work on a new MMO.
Excited? Disappointed? Vent your spleens right here.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
Tags: Blizzard, MMOs, World of Warcraft
February 1st, 2008 at 8:22 pm
Hahahaha - I said it would be StarCraft!!
http://blog.gameshadow.com/?p=104#comments
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Hey sounds good, ill keep my eye out for this as i like the starcraft game, and cant wait to get me hands on starcraft 2 when the purse strings allow.
Fingers crossed it will be http://FTP...(free to play) but i doubt it…:/
i dont know about others, but i hate havin to pay for a game, after i have already spent hard earned cash on buying it it in the first place, BUT saying that i will still be interested in what happens here..:D
February 5th, 2008 at 2:46 am
exicted looks like fun
February 7th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
makes me worrie that WoW quality will start to slip
February 7th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Now I just hope it won’t be like the hated-by-me WoW…
SC Online could very well get to the top of my personal MMO rating ^_^
February 7th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
how can you possibly think an MMO that runs 24/7 , with 24/7 support staff, on thier servers using a pipeline the size of your house should be free to play?
February 8th, 2008 at 4:36 am
I hate WoW, though I do believe Blizzard has a good enough idea of what they are doing to make this a sucess. plus, Starcraft rocks
February 8th, 2008 at 4:55 am
I have two words for you… ‘Not True!’
Don’t believe this story for a second folks, it simply is not based on facts. This is presenting rumor as fact and that, in my opinion, is BAD reporting. This ‘operator’ that they are referring to, will be handling the online play of Starcraft 2. That’s it folks.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I’m fairly excited. I’m hoping they’ve learned some lessons from wow and implement a decent PvP aspect from the outset, i.e. so you don’t have to spend days levelling to get any fun out of it and it’s rewarding from level 1. A good balance of PvP and PvE is expected.
And I wouldn’t mind a bit of RTS in there as well, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.
February 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I’ve only just started playing World of Warcraft. I cant wait for this one. As long as the pricing is comparable to WoW, I’ll be happy. Maybe they’ll even give a discount if you already Wow!!!! I may have to find a copy of the Starcraft RTS’ that will run on my current machine… but that would take me away from WoW, wouldn’t it…. hmmmmm….
February 8th, 2008 at 10:10 am
In response to Doug:
I think your accusations are a little unfair. In the first place, I was careful to point out where the news had come from, and that it had not been confirmed by Blizzard yet.
Second, NetEase is a company that specialises in delivering MMOs. From their site: “Our online games business focuses on offering massively multi-player online role-playing games to the Chinese market.” This makes it unlikely the game in question is indeed the multiplayer portion of Starcraft 2.
February 8th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Dnt expect this to be free tbh
They spend more money on servers and customer support, why do you think WoW has a subscription.
More money for blizzard tbh. bloody fools.
February 8th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
please blizzard make diablo 3 or world of daiblo
February 8th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
It could be a console only MMO
February 8th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
The concept drawings look terrible, it’s 100x beneath blizzard standards,
And even if SC online is real, it will be more or less WoW like,
Yes I too fear that if this true, WoW quality may go down…
February 8th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Coolicer Says:
“The concept drawings look terrible, it’s 100x beneath blizzard standards”
Dude, those are concept drawings from SC2, not from SCO. Gameshadow just grabbed a starcraftish image to put on the page so it wouldn’t be filled with bland text.
February 8th, 2008 at 10:24 pm
OMFG HELLZ YES I LOVE STARCRAFT SOO FREAKING MUCH. Too bad i’ll be in iraq when both this and SC2 come out. Well actuallly not too bad, i’d rather be a Marine fighting in iraq, but at least i have this to come back to
February 8th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
For ppl interested in these things :
Diablo 3 is announced to be made,my friend says that you probably have to pay for it aswell i have no comment on that.
The WoW quality will not slip cuz think about it,the newest expansion is almost here,why would anyone suddenly stop wowing and start Starcrafting,if it’s the second expansion already.If Starcraft is to be released sooner then the expansion,then theres a chance that that might happen but think,Blizzard won’t be that stupid,would they?
Anyway i love World of Warcraft and i never ever played Warcraft or Starcraft but if the rumor about the Starcraft MMO is true then i will try to look for it
February 9th, 2008 at 2:28 am
A Chinese partner involved with Blizzard’s new MMO project has let slip the details: it’s Starcraft Online.
Sounds like there throwing an idea out to the public to see what the response is like.
Blizzard not confirming it when questioned also sends up flags.
WoW is there bread and butter. If they do another mmo it most likly will be the same as WoW just deferent modles. They have a grate engine to start with alls they have to do is change some of the coding around.
February 9th, 2008 at 4:12 am
It seems quite strange actually, I mean how would you play it?
You choose between Terran, Protoss and Zerg? Hmm, I dunno but I would find it kinda wierd seeing to zerglings saying noob to eachother.
Well it’s still just rumors, and I wont belive a thing until blizz tells us themselves.
February 9th, 2008 at 4:14 am
And the picture is from Starcraft 2, as the picture cleary states, so it’s very possibly BS.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:46 am
What the holy joe fuck are eejits talking about.. WoW quality will go down?? WoW is a pathetic generic game built for 9 year olds and tossers that post on forums like this and cant fukin spell!!
Ya need some Age of Conan up ya clay pipes!!! Not a picture book of the cat sat on a mat. WoW is instantly playable by a fuking foetus!!
Actually WoW is mostly played by them!!
Get a grip you care bears!!
February 9th, 2008 at 11:17 am
My feeling is that Starcraft makes a lot of sense, regardless of rumours.
1. Converting an RTS to an MMO is something Blizzard has experience in.
2. They wouldn’t do Diablo because it may detract from any Diablo 3 project, since it’s already an RPG.
3. Converting Starcraft to an MMO makes no less sense than Warcraft did.
4. The sci-fi setting of Starcraft is significantly different to Warcraft’s as to make it justifiable.
5. Starcraft has a huge existing fan base. Why would they miss the opportunity?
February 9th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Blizzard have still got MASSIVES of work to do on WOW.
We still need a decent Economy, one that doesn’t force you to buy gold off ebay
We still Need a fair and decent support system, better security.
We Still need to know that all the work we have put in the last year isn’t wasted when suddenly Greens are better than T6
February 9th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Wow Mike, for somebody saying WoW players can’t spell, you sure as hell made a lot of mistakes.
Just because you never got anywhere in WoW, don’t go hating the pinnacle of the MMO genre.
Now, jog along little boy.
February 9th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I agree with everything Tom said, and I think it’s a smart business choice on Blizzard’s part [every one of my asian friends still plays Starcraft. o_o]
I just hope it won’t detract them from WoW, and that it won’t end up being another sorry excuse for a sci-fi MMO [read: Star Wars Galaxies, Tabula Rasa, City of Heroes even.]
It better be just as good as WoW, or I’m not playing it.
Unfortunately, if it’s even better, WoW’s going to lose more players, and things will start to slip like Everquest did when everyone stopped playing that [after the TENTH or ELEVENTH expansion]
February 10th, 2008 at 3:23 am
bad move
all diablo fans are going to be coming out the wood work once they find out their beloved Diablo 3 will not be coming out…
i for one believe that Blizzard will be taking customers away from WoW as they will most likely charge monthly and the only ones that are willing to pay are playing WoW atm.
bad bad move blizz, bad bad move
February 10th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Even though this posted here is probably false. I do believe blizzard is eather working on a starcraft mmo or diablo mmo
if you look at blizzards site they are looking for designers for a top secret mmo.
and if you look at blizzards history, it was 2 years after the wc3 expansion that wow was released.
and givin development time this would put them on track to do the same with starcraft 2 and a starcraft mmo. it will take a few years to build a starcraft mmo.
diablo was a great game, I would love to see more, but making a world of diablo would just be a reskin of world of warcraft.
A starcraft mmo (which i think “the starcraft universe” is a much beter name then starcraft online or world of starcraft like alot of people are calling it) could be a completely difrent game depending on what direction they went with it.
one one hand they could jump into the space mmo, like eve online. (would be intersting to see how that turned out)
or they could just reskin wow (hope not)
or blizzard could be working on something we havent seen before (i hope, rather then compete in a already existing market, although i know they would kick ass, why not just make a new market)
eather way, I am 100 percent convinced its the starcraft universe, giving dev time it would put its release about 2-3 years after the release of starcraft 2 just enough time for starcraft interest to peak then slowly start to drop then bam!, the starcraft universe is released this will probobly be about the time wow starts to decline too.
February 10th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Tom said it all.
The genre needs more sci-fi mmorpg if you ask me. And StarCraft always had a special place at the sci-fi setting.
I don’t like the “children’s” graphics on WoW, although generally they are very well designed and it’s fun to “live” there. What I wish is for a bit more serious and dark feeling on the design of a sci-fi game like SCO.
Anyway I always wanted to see SC as an mmorpg. We ‘ll wait and see.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
hmm now if ea would get its head out of its behind and bring back the crusader series or sell its license to some one who who knows what to do with it …. any of you who remember it would know it would make an awesome mmo
February 10th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
It does not make sense to me.
Playable races? Protoss , Zerg and Terran?
Then you gonna choose class? Protoss… zealot? or a dragoon? Then you’re a spiderlike thingie. I’d choose carrier in a second.
Ofcourse I, well, we don’t know anything about the game mechanics or how it is in general, but it doesn’t make sense to me.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
looks and sounds cool. it bet its same payment thingy as WoW. (hope its free after u bought it :P)
February 10th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I heard that in 2009 blizzard was going to take WoW down for a new MMO.
This makes me think that it’s true but tbh I’m glad I havn’t liked wow since it’s first expansion and I don’t think I’ll like it any more with the next expansion
I won’t be playing Starcraft so it’ll be interesting to see what other games come out when starcraft online hits the shelves
February 10th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
“and cant fukin spell!!”
*cough*hypocrite*cough*
February 11th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Oh dear God no.
WoW was a big screw-up, totally messing with the Warcraft Saga and forcing people like me who can’t afford to play it to miss out. Although I realise now I have MUCH better things to do with my time.
Starcraft MMO will just be another money-grabbing scheme by blizzard to exploit the die-hard fans.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
i highly doubt its true, why bother taking paying customers from one MMO (WoW) to this one, not gaining any money, while paying more out (development, management, equipment etc.)
WoW has its highest customer base its ever had at the moment, they wouldnt go slicing into it just yet.
February 12th, 2008 at 2:47 am
It really wouldn’t suprise me that Blizzard is contemplating Starcraft Online. In an interview after SC2’s announcement the developers of the game and Blizzard CEOs were laughing because so many people thought it was going to be Starcraft Online. They hadn’t even thought of the idea.. so they said.. but I’ll bet you my house and car that after that.. they did. Enough so that they knew their success with World of Warcraft could fund the project and fuel the support needed. Besides, its being produced by a Korean off-shoot for Blizzard. Korea has the highest fan-base for Starcraft (Duh) so Blizzard would make an absolute BANK doing this. They’re not stupid, they are a corporation with wants money. If they smell a chance to get more green.. they’re going to take it.
And it WILL be subscription should they go through with it. Top-Corporation s like Blizzard that do MMOs always have a subscription. Not only to pay their server and employee bills.. but to fill their own pockets.
February 13th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Fantastic news, hope all goes well with the development. Having played many, many MMO i can’t state enough on the importance of PvP. To sustain a long term money making MMO, Pvp has to be superb. Storylines, development, crafting etc… only goes so far, your long term player eventually ends up pvping. Lord of the rings has failed to deliver this and thus is continuing to loose it’s long term account players. The Dark Age of Camelot and Eve-Online models are still regarded as superb throughout the MMO industry, focusing on PVP, and making, the game not only competetive but also, quite tough. Community, sociability and having to rely on great leaders, i.e. guild leaders etc…, suitable interfaces for these people will help sell your game over time. Noone has really gone down the bonuses to high ranking, guild, corporation what ever your call your communitys, but eventually these are the people that will sutain your game and keep those accounts rolling. You look after them, you make alot of money. Look forward to seeing what you guys come up with. thanks
February 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
“Mike Strutter Says (February 9th, 2008 at 10:46 am)
What the holy joe f*** are eejits talking about.. WoW quality will go down?? WoW is a pathetic generic game built for 9 year olds and tossers that post on forums like this and cant fukin spell!!
Ya need some Age of Conan up ya clay pipes!!! Not a picture book of the cat sat on a mat. WoW is instantly playable by a fuking foetus!!”..
Hmmm People who can’t spell. I wonder. Five or so errors there, and also some strange slang, in some cases slang isn’t proper spelling either you tard. Infact to a Normal* person, the first sentance dosen’t make any sense.
*Definition of normal is still to be determined.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Well, you all have to consider this a bit. Blizzard stated for some time ago that their new MMO will be a brand new franchise, which kinda crap the idea of a Diablo or Starcraft MMO.
Because of that I can’t find the forum or website I’ve read this, I can not prove that it is truth(Think it was curse.com)
But as I atleast is certain that I’ve read it somewhere, and if it’s indeed is truth, why would Blizzard go against their own words!?
August 7th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
World of Starcraft… el nuevo MMORPG?
La idea de un juego online multiplayer de Starcraft últimamente ha pasado de ser una idea a un rumor… y ya parece ser real.
Algunos puntos a considerar:
Blizzard hace unos días se fusionó con Activision, generando la mas robusta compañia de …
September 28th, 2008 at 12:36 am
Simultaneously excited and not. We learned from WoW that “ugly” races get played less… but can you imagine three factions where two are uglier than anything in WoW?
Yep… Terrans will be the new Alliance. Protos and Zerg will be the new dwarf females.
Still, I’m ready for a good Sci-fi mmo and I’m confident Blizz knows better than to make 2/3 of playable characters ugly.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Fake
October 13th, 2008 at 2:51 am
well, the thing is they already announced that this was an april fools joke so therefore this is a fake… sorry to burst your happiness…
October 17th, 2008 at 4:23 am
Why the hell is the Terran wearing PROTOSS technology? Fake.
February 11th, 2009 at 11:57 am
i would like to play a marine medic (healer)
February 18th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
I don’t think it’s a case of good / bad / ugly spread with characters in mmo’s, look at WAR most people playing the bad guys, people want proportioned toons, not one’s that would fall over if you actually had one in real life *cough* - Tauren. Trolls look awesome in WoW, and no I don’t mean the ones you get to play! Plenty of troll mobs that look good, just you get the naff ones.
Also, they’re going to have to make each class look very different as 3 races ain’t much of a spread.
February 25th, 2009 at 10:50 am
sorry to disapoint you all, but there is no “Starcraft Online” i work for blizzard and i may not be able to tell u what it is. I can tell you it isnt Starcraft MMO.
Ty
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:49 pm
IF they ever were to make a Starcraft online…. i would hope that it would be a FPS… somewhat simlular to how Planetside was done. The only reason that game has died is due to bugs, and the fact that every building looks the same.. there’s not any variety in the game.
May 4th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
this is horribly fake…. its hilarious that so many of you are beleiving this, that art isnt even half decent
May 15th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
hahaha god why would anyone even enter into discussion as to whether it was real or not?
the blogger is just plain retarded.
i laughed a lot when i saw people believing this and getting excited.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Hello there ppl,
Unfortunatley the details posted fore with on this blog are not true. The new MMO that Blizzard are working on is definitely not Starcraft online, lol.
They are going to bring out Starcraft 2, why would they even think of making Starcraft online lol, have you ever thought of that?
Fortunately i happen to know 3 Blizzard employees and i have heard from 2 of them about the new mmo. Although i have not been told a lot, i know enough information to understand what direction blizzard are going with in the new MMO.
I can tell you people right now, right here, that you will be ‘pleasantly’ surprised when you learn of what this new project encompasses. It is going to be so much more bigger than WoW that it is actually quite hard to believe if they can pull it off.
From what i have heard the ‘Variety’ and ‘Player Choice’ in this game is HUGE. Decisions made through the game correspond to ‘important’ events during the life of your character, so much so that ‘player emotion’ directly corresponds to performance benefits and stats. Also aspects such as fatigue, weariness and over working your character cause noticeable negative performance (to control playing time and add strategy). There will be more diversity, i.e, players can actually take up roles by getting to certain reputations (like jobs, can only have 1 job at a time).
This means that this game will probably be very hardcore (since that part of the market is still open and blizz no doubt wanna take control of that), but it will also encompass for the casual gamer as all blizz games do.
The other more detailed and spoiler busting information i know, i cannot disclose, sorry:( but i know for sure you will absolutely love it.
August 12th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
are you sure?
September 8th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
i doubt it’s “StarCraft”. thou it’s very believable.
as far as i know, it will probably encompass the same gameplay like hellgate:london, since they bought the rights to it. so might be console MMO.
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Bullshit.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:50 pm
“# donquixote235 Says:
February 8th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Coolicer Says:
“The concept drawings look terrible, it’s 100x beneath blizzard standards”
Dude, those are concept drawings from SC2, not from SCO. Gameshadow just grabbed a starcraftish image to put on the page so it wouldn’t be filled with bland text.”
I don’t mean to be rude, but where the hell did you get that information? Those drawing are indeed subpar and the Terran one is nothing like what Blizz has established as their lore and style. I mean, have you SEEN SC2 concept art? It’s rather phenominal. This? This was made by some kid with relative artistic talent.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Honestly the market needs a futuristic scifi take on MMOs. The ever so common hack and slash korean midevil flack cramming the market I feel has literally hit the rim and is starting to poor on over the edge getting your feet soaked with all its overdone crap. SO, finally there is a new wind a’blowing and if there is going to be a SC online, I feel that veins are ready for one hell of an injection. Aside from EVE and………well Eve, there really isnt anything that fixes for those “Neo Tech” junkies and this could very well be a spoonful of happy.
Im on board Blizzard, just give me my Protoss Pilot and Ill give you a portion of my income and one HELL of a weekly log in rate.
Recorded in glorious HD typo for your pleasure…Higgens out!
November 7th, 2009 at 2:26 am
This is fake, Blizzard already said that the new MMO will have nothing to do with their previous franchises.