Blizzard Confirms StarCraft II, First Footage Shown

Officials from Blizzard have confirmed that the company is working on a sequel to seminal 1998 PC real-time strategy game StarCraft, after it was unveiled at a the 2007 Blizzard Invitational event in Seoul, South Korea over the weekend. A sequel to StarCraft, as well as other dormant Blizzard franchises such as Diablo, has been rumored for several years – always hinted at by the developer but never confirmed. In the end, the game is reported to have been under development for over four years so far. The announcement of a new StarCraft title was widely expected at the invitational event in Korea, where the game is exceptionally popular, due to the high acceptance of professional televised gaming in the country. Speculation on the nature of the game had varied considerably, though, from a straight real-time strategy sequel to a massively multiplayer online game in the style of World of WarCraft. In the end, the game revealed is a clear evolution of the original title, feature the same three races of Protoss, Terrans and Zerg. Each faction will make use of several new units and new gameplay mechanics, with a customized 3D graphic engine that has been demonstrated with dozens of units on screen at once and a powerful zoom feature. As well as a single player campaign mode, the final game will use an upgraded version of Blizzard’s Battle.net online gaming service and come ready with a full-featured map editor similar to that used by Blizzard designers. The game will be released simultaneously on PC and Mac, although no release date has yet been confirmed. “With StarCraft II, we’ll be able to do everything we wanted to do with the original StarCraft and more,” stated Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard. “We recognize that expectations are high following the long-running popularity of the original game, but we plan to meet those expectations and deliver an engaging, action-packed, competitive experience that StarCraft players and strategy gamers worldwide will enjoy.”