Starcraft Ghost Put On Hold

After numerous previous delays, Blizzard has made the likelihood we'll ever play Starcraft: Ghost effectively nil. They've announced they're putting game development on hold indefinitely, as they're reconsidering options for the next generation of consoles. From the Gamespy article: "Like many in the industry, we've been impressed with the potential of the new consoles, and we're looking forward to exploring that potential further ... In addition to allowing us to determine the best course for StarCraft: Ghost, this review period will help us lay the groundwork for our future console games."

next gen ad infinitum

[gEvil (beta)]

So, the game that was announced five years ago that was going to run on the then "next generation consoles" (ps2, gc, xbox) is now being put on hold to decide if it will run on the current "next generation consoles" (ps3, 360, rev)? Just turn the thing into a damn PC game and get it out the door!

Damn, just damn

[larry bagina]

Of course, I love starcraft. So the good news is we can imagine how awesome this game would be without the disappointment of it not living up to our expectations.

In other words...

[Psiven]

"We're going to wait and see how the PS3 shakes out compared to the Xbox 360. The 2 platforms are so different that we can't afford publish on both of them."

Re:Damn, just damn

[MustardMan]

Me, I actually thought it sounded kind of lame... a starcraft FPS? Come on, I don't want them wasting their time on this. I want them building STARCRAFT TWO.

I lived for starcraft over battle.net, and I'd love to see an updated version. Warcraft 3 was OK, but I liked the scifi feel of starcraft much better.

This is news?

[Rendo]

Much like the delay with Diablo 2, this doesn't surprise me coming from Blizzard. Their lack of dedication and work ethic makes me want to boycott all Blizzard games now. It's disgusting how they only focus on ONE game, and we all know what game that is, because it generates the most income for them. Maybe one day Blizzard will regain a reputation again that will make me want to buy their games. DIGUSTING.

Re:This is news?

[MBraynard]

Looking at the same events with a different perspective, they are looking to generate money by making people the most happy. (Very different from how government's generate money).

So to maximize profits/happiness, they have decided to scrap a game that seemed a little unoriginal. It read like a combo between Halo and splinter Cell. It might have come out a little like Brute Force - a great game, but not Blizzard Worthy.

These guys have never failed to hit it out of the park and they are the only company I would buy a game from without testing the demo. And I don't even play WoW.

Blizzard only DOES make games that people want to play. They could have probably cheezed out some cash on this one - ala SWG - with a subpar (for them, non-spectacular title) but opted not to.

This only raises my esteem for the company and it's products.

Re:Damn, just damn

[Edmund Blackadder]

I agree. Starcraft was much better than WC3, and is probably the best RTS made so far. However, I also really hope Starcraft is not the end of the genre and Blizzard actually tries to make Starcraft2.

As such their refocusing on cosnoles is really worrying. It is well known that RTSs have always sucked on consoles. If Blizzard decides to go to consoles they will probably abandon the RTS genre.

Re:This is news?

[shumway]

Err. Wouldn't a lazy and undedicated team just poop out games to exploit the licenses? I never understood why people get so hung up on release dates...Haven't all the games that are released with show-stopping bugs or tacked-on endings just to make a financial quarter taught us anything? For me the quality of the game is the main issue, and apparently for Blizzard as well.

Also, these are completely separate dev teams I believe. Diablo II was definitely Blizzard North, and I believe that Ghost is their console team.

"Disgusting" seems a leetle melodramatic to me.

Re:This is news?

[Anonymous Coward]

A little disappointment I can understand, but I'd rather any media company cancel an inferior product instead of unloading it on the market. You're talking about the release date of a video game, which was completely arbitrary in the first place. It's not a service promised to you, it's not a delayed FedEx package or a repairman who didn't show up to fix your utility. You aren't out time or money and there's absolutely no reason you should be so hostile. Blizzard doesn't OWE you Starcraft Ghost. You don't owe them anything either and are free to boycott away (and there are plenty of reasons in WoW to do so if you're so inclined) but your misguided anger at a cancelled game just makes you look like a fool.

Better for Blizzard to have a few disappointed fans (and jokes floating around Slashdot) than millions of customers angry because they shelled out $50 for a weak game.

Not the first time Blizzard did this

[hellfire]

I'll admit, I'm not following SCG because I don't general play FPS. However, I will say this is not the first time Blizzard has axed a game well into development, and frankly, I applaud them.

They had some kind of weird video RPG story game (it kind of looked like the 80s dragonslayer) that had Thrall as a young orc in a slave camp, and you played him growing up or some weird stuff like that. Weird premise for a game at that time, and they were right to think "no one will buy this it's so 80s, lets kill this crap."

How much crap has been hyped, delayed, delayed again, put on hold, taken off, and then finally brought to market and shown to be the crap it really was. Why put us all through that?

If Ghost is not going to be a game we can expect something different, fun, or unique of, then lets kill it and move on. I never did like the marketing department at Blizzard as their marketing always comes out like everyone of them has an upper cocktail for breakfast and hype there stuff waaaaaaay too much, but kudos to the people at Blizzard who have the balls to say "this is crap, shut it down and stop the bleeding now. We aren't going to make money." And that's the real thing, will SCG be any real breakout exciting title? Or will it look like a Halo clone based off of a PC strategy game who's only fans will be fans of that strategy game?

Real corporations start projects and kill them all the time without releasing to market. Unfortunately software companies push these projects too hard and announce them very very early as compared to the rest of the business world. It's a skill to know when to kill a project just as much as when to start it.