New Starcraft FPS canceled

[sandwich_bird]

https://ca.ign.com/articles/2019/06/06/report-starcraft-fps-canceled-to-focus-on-diablo-4-overwatch-2


Blizzard has reportedly canceled an unannounced StarCraft first-person shooter, instead allegedly deciding to shift resources over to the unannounced Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 development teams.


According to the report, Ares had a prototype built in which players controlled a Terran marine who took on Zerg aliens, with alleged plans to work on a playable Zerg

Ugh come on...

[ragnarok]

Shame, and here I thought they'd do something to make up for the story problems in SC2.

[Turalyon]

I suppose if they were designing a shooter, it'd make sense for them to focus on Overwatch instead. Oh well, even if it was coming, no loss to me at any rate. I'd be giving it a solid pass since I don't play shooters plus it sounds derivative of what Alien vs Predator already did. As for story, well, good FPS story are few and far between and it ain't exactly bankable anymore when it comes to Blizz, so there's nothing really going for it. Probably a smart business decision for Blizz in the end.

It also makes me wonder whether it's worth hoping D4 is going to be worth it.

[Visions of Khas]

Tsk, of course they canceled it. I wouldn't be surprised if this were another casualty of the political turmoil that's overtaken Acti-Blizzard. Gotta cut them costs, y'know!

While I would love a proper grimdark StarCraft FPS with cyberpunk elements, Blizzard has gone all-in on the cartoonish and zany art style for their properties. (And oh, there might be skeletons! Our Chinese market wouldn't like that!)

[Mislagnissa]

I'm not surprised at all. I expected that Blizz would want to branch into other genres at some point. I expected that any continuation would not resolve the story problems in the last installments. It does feel like an AVP clone, but that might not have been a bad thing.

The notes about enemy zerg and playable zerg... I'm ambivalent. There isn't enough information to determine whether the zerg would be portrayed as monsters or not. If the marine was supposed to be a hero or something, then yeah sure they'd be monsters. That would neatly undermine the whole space orcs thing Blizz had been going for.

At this point I can't be sure whether Blizz were intentionally going for space orcs or if that was just a careless side-effect of having to force QoB into the hero role and have all three races team up. Their recent Warcraft stories have depicted the orcs as generally villains and anti-heroes despite the whole demon blood retcon in WC3 two decades ago. One of their Q&A sessions explicitly stated the zerg were supposed to be alien monsters devoid of compassion when asked if the zerg could ever turn good (http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/8226555/starcraft-ii-creative-development-qa-part-11-1-7-2013), which completely contradicts all the other stories where the zerg are peaceful hippies (which themselves contradict all the other stories where the zerg are voracious monsters). The constant flip-flop on character morality is clearly due to turnover in the writing team.

If future installments depicted the zerg as monsters, then I would be totally okay with that. It's preferable to them being space hippies. Furthermore, it's clearly easier to write with the zerg when they're monsters since it's a simple reason for them to do anything violent the writer requires. I doubt Blizzard can write stories with pacifists as the main characters.

But the new round of retcons that would have inevitably been introduced would have filled my heart with joy because it meant we would have new material to mock and I would be able to say "I told you so" to anyone who still thought Blizzard could write a consistent story. Anyone who follows Warcraft knows that clearly isn't true.

Who knows, the story might have been another save the world plot a la Halo. That would have been hilarious. I wonder if Zagara or Niadra had turned evil and wanted to eat everyone or something. I wonder what the zerg PC would have done. Would he have been evil or good? Why?

Here's hoping that there's enough leftover material for Blizz devs to share with us in the future. The cutting room floor materials for SC1 and Ghost were pretty interesting looks into the development history.

Unfortunately, this means that it will probably be years and years before another Starcraft game is made unless it's mobile shovelware like Diablo Immortal.

[ragnarok]

Tsk, of course they canceled it. I wouldn't be surprised if this were another casualty of the political turmoil that's overtaken Acti-Blizzard. Gotta cut them costs, y'know!

While I would love a proper grimdark StarCraft FPS with cyberpunk elements, Blizzard has gone all-in on the cartoonish and zany art style for their properties. (And oh, there might be skeletons! Our Chinese market wouldn't like that!)

Either that or they're just too lazy to deal with it because they feel it won't be popular compared to Overwatch

[sandwich_bird]

On Kotaku it claims that it would have been a mix of battlefield and starcraft. Probably like the multiplayer part of SC:G was going to be: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwfe1JhaVlY

The closest game out there that I can think of is Natural Selection 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgVDGefyNtI

So anyways, it's unclear if a story mode was planned at all. Guess there's no hope for a Starcraft 'Space Hulk: Deathwing' type of game.

From an objective perspective, I don't think it makes sense to prioritize an Overwatch sequel over a Starcraft fps. I can't think of anything significant that they could add to overwatch right now short of a whole PvE experience or recycling game modes like battle royals and what not. All of which is already offered in the current game in one form or another. Since OW1 is still young, it would just split their community and give them more of a bad rep. At best, they could achieve what 'Left 4 dead 2' did which I still think was a cheap cash grab but it did work for Valve. Meanwhile, it's clear that there's demand for a Starcraft fps just by looking at the traction that these cancellation articles garnered and their comment section. A starcraft fps, even if it's 100% mp, would be a novelty and more easily gather hype while injecting lifeblood in their IP. Assuming it's not horse shit, it would sell. The Overwatch sequel can wait for a new technology leap.. Unless they want to make an borderland inspired OW spin-off; now that would sell!

[ragnarok]

You'd think the hype would only last a few months or something if the SC FPS happened, but then again I never got into Overwatch and looked at its hype. What was the hype for that when it first came out?

[Visions of Khas]

I wonder how much of it is due to branding.

As I said above, Blizzard property aesthetics have gone from gothic horror to cartoonish and kid-friendly. I imagine there was some tonal dissonance / push-pull between the scifi grit inherent in StarCraft's DNA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVabu3Vour8), and this attempt at appealing to a broader audience (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy0y-74S2t8). (The linked Love Death and Robots scene, from the short "Suits," displays a style highly reminiscent of Overwatch, and featured several StarCraft voice actors.) It's possible, too, some board members with the purse strings finds StarCraft to be stale, and "grit" to be too early 2000s; garish colors and bold aesthetics are where it's at, baby! The overexposure to post-9/11 cynicism and dour character have gone sour, let's wipe the slate clean and Make American Media Fresh Again! Media is meant to distract us from our sociopolitical/capitalistic/climate change woes in life, so let's go peddle-to-the-metal on this! Abject escapism, whoo! Disney has acquired everything under the sun, so instead of making our own trends life we used to, follow the Mouse!

Thanks, Activision. <3

[sandwich_bird]

What was the hype for that when it first came out?

The gaming company with the largest rabid fan-base were releasing their first new IP in decades. Can't get more hype than this.


and "grit" to be too early 2000s; garish colors and bold aesthetics are where it's at, baby!

I'm sure that was said elsewhere too XD

https://images.ctfassets.net/rporu91m20dc/5n8ORGGEXC4uMEucEscyow/4cc4d08fb44916ca62f42eb67e7e1d3b/RAGE2_Bnet_WebsiteTopper_995x640-01-EN-a.jpg?fm=jpg&q=70

https://cdn-cf.gamivo.com/image_cover.jpg?f=51321&n=15733331373913617.jpg&h=1117cdc744ee04cd00304c27aa1c41f2

[ragnarok]

For both Rage 2 and New Dawn it at least offered a new look to the post apocalypse, bright and vibrant instead of just the dark and grim like so many others chose.

[Turalyon]

I wonder how much of it is due to branding.

Yeah, killing things is supposed to be fun, bright and mirthful!

War and death having consequences? Silly rabbit, cynicism is for losers! (for now)

[ragnarok]

Yeah, killing things is supposed to be fun, bright and mirthful!


Tell that to war veterans who came home only with the mentality of "I need to do more killing, I can't stop anymore." In their heads you can argue it was fun and bright for them.

[Nissa]

I'm heartbroken. This is awful. Y'all are probably right about the branding. It's pretty sad that nobody (game producerwise) likes grit anymore. Grit was my childhood: Star Fox (SNES), Mechwarrior, and Starcraft too. I like that stuff. Lots of people do. But I guess only the babies matter anymore. Well, to be fair, they are the ones with the time to spend playing video games.

[ragnarok]

This is Blizzard we're talking here, Nissa. Being heartbroken and disappointed is to be expected nowadays. Once hell freezes over, they'll change their ways and you'll like them again.

[sandwich_bird]

It's pretty sad that nobody (game producerwise) likes grit anymore.

Nah, we still get gritty titles and they do well like Sekiro, Doom, etc. Even the new Mario is grittier than any Mario ever made except maybe Mario RPG:

http://gameguidecentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/2017110422515600-8AEDFF741E2D23FBED39474178692DAF.jpg
(yes, this is in a Mario game somehow XD)


It's just that the corporate Pixar crap is what's trendy right now. There was a time when gritty was the norm and friendly franchises turned edge-lord:

From

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSbYjK9C3VCcxNPNls4EfT3x4qz6aLxo G1G7yMvvQIw32Trw0wV

to

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c1/BombActZerobox.jpg/220px-BombActZerobox.jpg

From

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JP0RA1Q9L._SY445_.jpg

to

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6f/Prince_of_Persia_-_Warrior_Within_Coverart.png/220px-Prince_of_Persia_-_Warrior_Within_Coverart.png


etc.

I'd argue that this wasn't necessarily for the best though I do miss the music from that era and can't stand the garbage that's popular right now(trap music is just the worst...). We need balance but that's just not how corporations operate unfortunately.

[KaiserStratosTygo]

The one StarCraft thing that was mildly interesting and they cancel it in favor (partially) of some Overwatch garbage?


Fuck off.

[ragnarok]

The one StarCraft thing that was mildly interesting and they cancel it in favor (partially) of some Overwatch garbage?


Fuck off.

What did you actually expect was going to happen, Stratos?

[Nissa]

I'm not calling you a liar, Sandwich, I'm just having trouble believing that Bomberman went from that to...that. Wow. Sure is something.

I guess maybe "grit" isn't quite the right word I'm going for. As much as you can call stuff like your examples gritty in tone, the feeling is...different from what I'm trying (and likely failing) to say. There was a certain...welcoming feeling of cold openness. A void, if you will. Not grit as in guns and violence, grit as in a grimy world that is odd, sinister, and yet changes you for the better, in a grim sort of way.

I dunno. It's hard to put into words.

[KaiserStratosTygo]

What did you actually expect was going to happen, Stratos?

Literally what just happened.

Its still disappointing nonetheless.

[ragnarok]

Literally what just happened.

Its still disappointing nonetheless.

Well considering the fact you've said you were disappointed after HotS's story (as you said WoL's storyline still had SOMEWHAT of a chance to become better), I thought you'd be used to such dismay from Blizzard by now.