starcraft posts

While all of us wait patiently for Blizzard to light the candle on the StarCraft II beta test (remember when they said it was going to happen last summer? Good times) we check out any info we can get on the upcoming sci-fi RTS game. Recently the game's official forums posted up the latest fan Q&A about the game (the 54th, in fact).

The questions, as usual, get extremely specific (these are die hard StarCraft fans who are asking these questions to Blizzard after all) and deal with issues like Zergling vs. Zealot ratios, being able to dodge an EMP attack in the game and allowing maps and mods for StarCraft II to have their own launcher. Meanwhile we wait for the beta test . . . and wait . . . and wait some more.

Amazon.com has the occasional one day sale that might be of interest to our audience. Today their one day sale deals with the "Battle Chest" game collections from Blizzard Entertainment. For today only three of these collections are on sale for 50 percent off.

If you haven't bought these games already you can get the Diablo Battle Chest (Diablo II and its expansion plus strategy guide) for $19.98, the Warcraft III Battle Chest (the original game, the expansion plus strategy guides) for $19.98 and the StarCraft Battle Chest (the original game, the expansion plus strategy guides) for just $9.98. That's 50 percent off their normal price.

With BlizzCon coming up in less than three weeks (August 21-22 to be exact), the various sponsors of Blizzard's massive fan event are gearing up for their own promotions. Intel is doing what they can with special contests that will be held both before and during BlizzCon. No, Intel isn't offering trips to the event but they are giving folks a chance to win some gaming laptops from Asus if they pick the winners of the three main BlizzCon tournaments (World of Warcraft, StarCraft and WarCraft III) By the way, Blizzard plans to stream the BlizzCon tournaments in both SD and HD for free on the BlizzCon web site.

If you happen to be lucky enough to go to BlizzCon, Intel will also be running contests on the show floor as well including giving away five Intel Core i7 processors each day of the event. You can head over to the Intel blog site for more info.

Even if Blizzard doesn't release StarCraft II by the end of the year (which they officially maintain is still their target) it's clear that the long awaited sci-fi RTS sequel will sell tons of copies, especially in South Korea where the original game is basically their national sport. One well known analyst seems to agree that the game will be a hit but his estimates might actually be on the low site.

Gamasutra reports that Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter believes the game will sell 4 million copies for Blizzard and its parent publisher Activision Blizzard in whatever quarter it ends up shipping to stores. We think that number could actually be on the low side. We think the game will be a huge hit in the US and Europe but Patcher might be underestimating the South Korean sales. Blizzard has said that the original StarCraft has sold over 11 million copies since its launch in 1998 and roughly about half of those sales have been in South Korea.

Yet another financial analyst believes that Blizzard won't release its sci-fi RTS sequel StarCraft II by the end of 2009. While Blizzard has said that is indeed the target release period for the long awaited game, The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia believes that the game will in fact be released in the first quarter of 2010.

This is the second such analyst who has stated Blizzard will push the game's release date back. 10 days ago Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey expressed similar thoughts. So far Blizzard has not yet commented on their predictions.

Remember how there was a minor issue with StarCraft fans over the fact that two of the original game's voice actors would not be returning to voice those same roles for StarCraft II?

Well those folks can rest easy now as one of those voice actors, Robert Clotworthy, has confirmed with Starcraftwire.net that he will indeed return to handle the voice acting duties of Jim Raynor for Blizzard's long awaited RTS sequel. Clotworthy states, "I'm looking forward to the release of the game and I hope that StarCraft players will enjoy going into battle with Jim and following his adventures throughout the galaxy." Now those fans can go back and continue to protest the lack of Glynnis Talken's acting in the role of Sarah Kerrigan . . .oh, and that whole lack of LAN support in the game.

On the last day of E3 2009, the Guinness World Records organization announced that a number of PC game developers and publishers were honored with brand new records for game sales. Above you can see Blizzard execs Mike Morhaime and Paul Sams accepting two awards; one for World of Warcraft becoming the most popular MMO with 11.6 million subscribers and the other for the original Starcraft becoming the world's most successul PC strategy game with 9.6 million copies sold.

Also honored during E3 was Bethesda Softworks for the fastest-selling multi-platform RPG. That would be for Fallout 3 which sold a total of 4.7 million copies in its first week on sale. Finally the US music group The Dares were honored as the first such group to hold a concert in both the real world and in the virtual world at the same time for a performace at E3 while also "performing" inside Sony Online's free-to-play MMO Free Realms.

It's good to be working at Blizzard. The massive PC game developer continues to rule as its various games sell, sell and sell more copies. The NPD Group's list of the top 20 best selling PC games for April 2009 (via info from US retail stores) shows that Blizzard-published titles took up a full third of the games on the list

Also of note are two strong debuts for Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor at number four and Demigod at number 6. And an ultra-cheap price point has put Illusion Softworks' 2004 released WWII shooter Hidden And Dangerous II at the number 20 slot.

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
3. World Of Warcraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
4. Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor - Relic/THQ
5. Empire: Total War - Creative Assembly/Sega
6. Left 4 Dead - Valve
7. Demigod - Gas Powered Games/Stardock
8. Diablo Battle Chest - Blizzard
9. The Sims 2 Apartment Life - Electronic Arts
10. Spore - Electronic Arts
11. Warcraft III Battle Chest - Blizzard
12. StarCraft Battle Chest - Blizzard
13. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade - Blizzard
14. Warhammer 40, 000: Dawn of War II - Relic/THQ
15. World Of Warcraft - Blizzard
16. The SimCity Box - Electronic Arts
17. Bejeweled Twist - PopCap Games
18. Fallout 3 - Bethesda Softworks
19. The Sims 2 Pets - Electronic Arts
20. Hidden & Dangerous 2 - Illusion Softworks/2K Games

Pocket Books has had the license to publish novels set in Blizzard's Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo universes for some time and that will apparently continue for Blizzard's upcoming RTS sequel StarCraft II. Starcraftwire.net reports that Pocket Books will release StarCraft: Heaven's Devils in December.

This will apparently be the first hardcover StarCraft novel released by the publisher and will "reveal the origins of the enduring friendship between young upstart Jim Raynor and streetwise soldier Tychus Findlay." Raynor is one of the main characters in the original StarCraft game while Findlay is set to be a major part of StarCraft II. The novel is being written by William C. Dietz who has been a prolific author of many other game-to-novel tie-ins.

Last February DC Comics' Wildstorm division announced their plans to launch a comic book series based on Blizzard's Starcraft game franchise (they are already handling a monthly World of Warcraft comic book series). Now MTV has posted up a six page preview of the Starcraft comic's first issue.

Writen by comic book veterans Keith Giffen and Simon Furman the artwork is being handled by relative newcomer Federico Dallocchio. The first issue will feature a group of outlaws called the WarPigs that are out to assassinate one of StarCraft's central characters Jim Raynor. Look for the first issue to ship to comic book stores on May 27.