Korea Times: Starcraft 2 'expected' this year, LOTRO coming to Korea

by Alexander Sliwinski { Feb 13th 2008 at 11:55AM }

When using the words "Korea" and "StarCraft" in the same sentence, it's no time to make jokes. So, when The Korea Times says Starcraft II is "expected to begin service this year," we wonder if it knows something the rest of us don't. The idea of StarCraft II coming out this year is possible, but Blizzard hasn't given the slightest indication for us to assume such a thing. We're glad The Korea Times thinks Starcraft II is on its way (and we hope its right!), but if there's anything we've learned its that Blizzard uses BlizzCon or its World Wide Invitational later in the year for big announcements.

The Korea Times' actual story isn't about a Starcraft II release, but about foreign titles cutting into the "long-run popularity of locally made games." The piece says Lord of the Rings Online plans to start in Korea this year and games like World of Warcraft and Hellgate:London are already incredibly popular. It's interesting to note -- although completely logical given the way StarCraft is played in Korea -- that The Korea Times treats Starcraft II as more of an MMO than a single-player game with multiplayer component.

[Thanks Akela]

Tags: blizzard, korea-times, starcraft-II, starcraftII

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Count Noobula @ Feb 13th 2008 12:02PM

Woot! This year just keeps getting better.

Vince @ Feb 13th 2008 12:04PM

This is Blizzard we're talking about. A game announcement means "out sometime in the next 5 years).

Count Noobula @ Feb 13th 2008 12:04PM

I hope that they have news on a new Diablo game this year.

paragraph @ Feb 13th 2008 12:06PM

It's called Hellgate:London... look it up

Count Noobula @ Feb 13th 2008 12:26PM

Hellgate: London is by the original team that made Diablo. But it is not in the Diablo franchise.

paragraph @ Feb 13th 2008 12:56PM

IMO It's as good a Diablo 3 you'll get any time soon, especially from Blizzard.... World of Diablo mabey...

Jonathan Tran @ Feb 13th 2008 1:16PM

Hellgate London + Guild Wars = what's left of Diablo

Arturis @ Feb 13th 2008 1:49PM

Mythos is much closer to Diablo III then Hellgate:London is - and it made by the same people, Flagship Studios.

Ghen @ Feb 13th 2008 5:38PM

When I ask for Diablo 3 I ask for a game that will take away more than 6 months of my life.. Hellgate:London took 2.5 months of on and off play before I shelved it.

Deck @ Feb 13th 2008 12:09PM

This year? Hah! A joke!

This is Blizzard we are talking about. Even if they come out and give an announcement regarding a release date this year, it WILL be pushed back. Blizzard is the best company around for delaying games! As all of them have been at one time or another during development. Though it does always pay off for them.

Noshino @ Feb 13th 2008 12:20PM

SC: Ghost says hi to you...

Nako @ Feb 13th 2008 3:53PM

Valve says hi, nice to meet you.

dizzy @ Feb 13th 2008 12:19PM

"foreign titles cutting into the "long-run popularity of locally made games."

I hope that truly is the case. Competition is good for the consumers. Maybe now they'll make their existing even better.

paragraph @ Feb 13th 2008 12:20PM

I can't name a single game made in Korea that was worth anyone's time... can you? I really don't think Korea has a case...

Intentless @ Feb 13th 2008 12:23PM

They have plenty of MMOs that are huge over there and are slowly creeping out... Don't discount what you don't know.

Noshino @ Feb 13th 2008 12:49PM

paragraph

Look, because YOU might not like Korean games, it DOESN'T really mean that everyone else doesn't like them...

btw, you should look Ragnarok Online, quite a famous game (despite being old), and also Ragnarok Online 2, I saw that the beta has a nice amount of players...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_%28company%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KRU_Interactive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_Enterprise
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netmarble
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexon_Corporation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ntreev_Soft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantagram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Softmax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webzen_Games

If you haven't heard of any of these major korean companies and/or their games, then damn, you must live under a rock...

paragraph @ Feb 13th 2008 12:59PM

@Intentless, Noshino

I'm an american... that means i'm lazy, xenophobic, and redicoulously patriotic...

therefore, if i havn't heard of it, it dosn't exist ;)

But really... of those devs, Phantagram is the only one i've heard of, KUF just dosn't appeal to me, and while N3 Looks OK, it dosn't look worthwhile...

But i guess i could pretend that Korean Devs create super awesome games...

Grimmus @ Feb 13th 2008 1:14PM

Paragraph: "Ridiculously".

riggs @ Feb 13th 2008 3:55PM

oh man that was fernando-type of bad grammar.

dizzy @ Feb 13th 2008 12:44PM

Ragnarok Online (former long time player of that one, 's been around for at least 6 years now, and the 2nd one in beta), Pangya (ported to the Wii twice now), the Lineage games (is it 2 or 3 they're on now?), slew of others, but those are a couple of the bigger ones I can name off the top of my head

jimwack @ Feb 13th 2008 12:47PM

When has Blizzard ever released something "ontime"? I myself except 2010, at earliest, later part of 2009.

Then again, they where working on it for secret for a good while, still, in not holding out for it.

Jonathan Tran @ Feb 13th 2008 1:17PM

Here is the secret of video games.

If it's made by Blizzard, Valve, or Nintendo:

1. It will be later than stated.
2. It will be later than #1.
3. It will be awesome.

That is all.

motang @ Feb 13th 2008 1:20PM

Woohooo! Been waiting for this game! Hopefully we shall get a solid date soon!

Blazur @ Feb 13th 2008 1:24PM

Alot of media outlets are reporting October 2008 as the projected date. But honestly I'm alittle skeptical it'll be out this year.

Blizzard has the GDC taking place next week, and then the worldwide invitational in late June. Hopefully at least one of these events reveals more about a projected timeline. As a regular follower of this game, it just seems too volatile right now to be targeting 2008.

Region2 @ Feb 13th 2008 2:17PM

As Korean, I want to point out that the Korean Times paper sucks. The problem with Asian news (all of them) is that they're still proned to sensationalism and smack strongly of yellow journalism--think of a country where all news is the equivalent of Fox News. So, I wouldn't necessarily put too much stock into it. I can't remember how many times that stupid news paper said something Fox News dumb and I had to argue with my parents to show them that the newspaper was wrong and that they were idiots for believing it.

WiNG @ Feb 13th 2008 2:19PM

Considering Blizzard has not posted info about a signle Zerg unit yet on their site, and considering no news of the now-famous Blizzard betas has been leaked/announced, I'd say "no chance in hell"

ThornedVenom @ Feb 14th 2008 1:56AM

Never played the series before, but I'm buying SC2 once it comes out.

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