'Epic' StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty Collector's Edition announced

i'm a sucker for real art books.

Did not mean to post that here... I was going to make a witty joke to your comment but realized how irrelevant that'd be. Seems I forgot to un-reply.

Yeah... WTF?! It was already controversial to make it a 3 part game but now bumping to $60 a game? That sucks, but I know the reality of it is that Bliz knows those who complain wont stop from buying the game.... it's the sad sad truth.

All game companies probably WANT to charge $60, but they're not convinced that PC gamers will pay it. Since Starcraft II is one of the most anticipated PC games ever, they can charge $60 knowing that the extra $10 isn't going to stop their rabid fans from buying it after waiting 10 years for it to come out. At the same time, they get a little closer to $60 being the 'normal' price for a PC game. I bet Diablo III gets the same price, followed by other huge games, then the not so huge, and pretty soon you're paying $60 for everything.

this is still just activision with the 60 dollar games... and ubi with assasins creed 2, but just that.

what can i say, activision is so sure that w/e they make will sell, they are going to gouge no matter what.

also, i pity the idiot who ends up spending 100 dollars on each of the campaigns special edition.

You mean $50 for one third of a game.

I saw.

I conquered.....

me too

I see you.

record sales, sold out concerts....

this summer...in a world...one man...mankinds last hope...-insert every other Don LaFontaine movie trialer tagline here-

Well, Blizzard could be nice and release the other two for 50, or even 40.

But there's that monster Kotick to consider.

Make that $300 - They'll all be getting equally spiffy collector's editions.

And 300 bucks for all the special editions, Yiiihaaa!

The expansions will be priced as expansion packs. So they'll sell for $40, $30 if we're lucky.

yeah Im with Blank here, this is really terrible. Starcraft is one of the worlds most popular games ever, if they get everybody to pay 60 for 1/3 of a game (idk, maybe 3/7 or something, does Wings of Liberty multiplayer included the other races units?) even morseo than DLC which is usually just 1 character or mission or some guns, this is gonna be a real slippery slope for consumers

Yes, the other races are playable in multiplayer.

It does stink for people that are getting it for the single player. I would guess that the vast majority of SC2 purchasers though will be putting 990 of the 1000 hours they play it into the multiplayer though. Most probably won't even buy the other campaigns.

I agree about the precedent though.

"does Wings of Liberty multiplayer included the other races units?"

Yes, of course you play as all three races in multiplayer. The single-player is really not 1/3 of a game, though. The main campaign is the length of the entire StarCraft campaign, but there are also side missions that you can go on to earn money to purchase unique upgrades, units, and what-not (there will be playable units in SC2's single-player campaign that are not included in the regular multiplayer modes).

The Wings of Liberty campaign stands on its own as its own game. Just because the game focuses on the Terran faction doesn't mean it's some truncated, mini-campaign. You're going to get your $60 worth.

Oh for heavans sake for the 10000th time the Terran campaign in Starcraft 2 has 29 missions, this is just one less then all three campaigns in Starcraft 1.

From the press release.

(StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty's solo campaign will continue the epic saga where it left off in StarCraft: Brood War. The storyline chronicles the exploits of marshal-turned-rebel-leader Jim Raynor and features both familiar faces and new heroes. Players will be able to tailor the experience, choosing their own mission path and selecting technology and research upgrades to suit their playing style throughout the 29-mission campaign.)

The next 2 campaigns are expansions and need the orginal game, they are not stand alone. They will be at expansion prices (or Activision's version of such) and will have 28 to 30 missions as well. All race are available in multiplayer.

All that's changed here is you're not getting 3 short campaigns + 3 short campaigns + 3 short campaigns, you're getting 1 long campaign, 1 long campaign and long campaign.

I understand the complaining about the higher price for PC games and the lack of real LAN, but what the hell is everyone's problem with this? If The Frozen Throne or Brood War had been announced at the same time as Warcraft 3 and Starcraft, would you be complaining about that as well?

Bloody hell people!

/facepalm

Blizzard have already said each inidividual Starcraft 2 campaign will be as long as the entire first game. So you're still getting excellent value for money, as each game is still the appropriate length. Its not like we're just getting 10 missions here for $60, it'll be a good 30 missions each campaign.

It's not $180 for the full game, or $300 for the full game, and it definitely isn't $60 for 1/3 of the game. You just get one really long Terran campaign instead of three short campaigns for each race. They knew it would confuse people like this, but narratively and practically it was the best way to tell the story they wanted to tell.

Was the original Starcraft only half a game? Did they force you to pay more for the "full experience" when Brood War came out? No. Starcraft was a full game, and Brood War was another full game on top of that. Just like all three of these will be.

They knew they would do expansions for Starcraft II from the start, that was a given. So they decided that instead of trying to tell all three races story in one game, they would do the stories right and give each expansion a single race.

If all three games each had a short campaign for each race, two things would've happened:
1) People wouldn't be complaining nearly as much, although in the end all the content would be the same.
2) Starcraft II wouldn't release for at least another year, probably longer, because they would need to create vast amounts of new content to flesh out the Protoss and Zerg campaigns/menus/cinematics/etc.

Right now, they have all the Terran framework build and need simply to use it to tell a compelling narrative. If they were to add Protoss and Zerg it would take a couple more years of work to get their ambitious interface built, voicework, cutscenes, etc.

Which is probably why they decided they'll just release a huge Terran campaign, and then develop all the Zerg assets for the next game.

Off-Topic: Who is in your avatar?

looks like an Asian Stephanie

No, that's just a different character (this is Jim Raynor).

That's Tychus Findlay.

http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/Tychus_Findlay

Now that I see the box, that isn't Tychus Findlay. I didn't realize they changed it.

Yeah but $60 is worth it for StarCraft 2.

Only if it's all 3 factions Spike. 60 buck per faction....no thanks.

Oh well I feel like a total moron. Thought this was just one big release.

Blizzard games have always launched at $60

Diablo2 : http://web.archive.org/web/20010204015800/www.blizzard.com/press/000717.shtml

Warcraft 3:
http://web.archive.org/web/20020802110624/www.blizzard.com/press/020722war3.shtml

Shit, really? Well they were(/are) worth it and it now makes sense Diablo II being an 10 year old game and still costing 10 Euro's :P

Activiosn has no say in Blizzard's pricing. Acitvision has almost not say in anything Blizzard does. A lot of people seem be under the impression that Activision does, but I don't know why.

Modern Warfare 2 was a glorified expansion pack to Modern Warfare 1. How much did that game cost?

Don't worry, Activision's expert Business execs are at work now. Nothing to see here. After Starcraft 1, I expect management to find a spurious reason to fire Rob Pardo and the entire head of Blizzard's executive team and outsource development to India. It worked for Infinity Ward didn't it?

Overcharge for the game, Cut quality, Exploit the customer. It's the Activision Difference.

Activision never outsourced IW to India, don't make shit up. And if MW2 was just an expansion pack, then what the hell game is a real sequel?

Oh noes, an activision viral plant!

EVASIVE MANEUVERS!

@Batman

A real sequel has enough difference that is comparable to SC1 vs SC2. It's arguable that CoD4 and MW2 has that much amount of difference, but I personally don't feel that there is much difference between CoD4 and MW2... so much so that I didn't even bother buying MW2... I just rented it for a few days and got back into the boring groove I was in after mastering CoD4.

@Moristato

SC2 isn't really that different from SC1, and most of the differences come from the 10 year gap in between them.

SC2 adds new unit types and new maps, which is pretty much the same kind of stuff MW2 added. That's not to say that I mind (I buy sequels because I WANT them to be like the original, if I wanted something different I'd buy a different IP) but to say that MW2 isn't a true sequel and SC2 is is just stupid. If anything MW2 adds more new stuff than SC2, even without the 10 year window between them.

Vcize:

No, Starcraft 2 doesn't include a significantly longer, more in depth single player campaign (as claimed by Blizzard). It doesn't offer a super powerful editing tool that can be used to even make your own unit designs and even different game genres. It doesn't include access to the new Battle.net, which is widely improved over it's predecessor.

The units also make the game pretty different. Few who are actually playing the game right now think it's just Starcraft with new graphics, they did at first, but over time they began to see just how big the differences are. You can't even 4 pool anymore, and all the matchups require pretty different strategies.

So, no, it isn't just Starcraft, and actually, the differences between SC and SC2 are as significant, if not more, than MW and MW2.

@Morisato
so SC2 is the standard to which all sequels are held? Bullshit. I didn't even particularly care for MW2 but it added plenty of things to make it discernible from Mw1. A 6 hour campaign, spec ops, call signs, emblems, killstreaks, all that other good stuff in multiplayer. A sequel is a sequel whether you like the developers or not

MW ->MW2: Sequel
SC -> SC: Sequel
DoW-> DoW:Winter Assualt: Expansion
L4D -> L4D2: Expansion sold as sequel.

Does that help?