With the recent leak from a Korean website about StarCraft 2, many websites reached out for comments from Blizzard. Kotaku - a gaming website, recently recieved confirmation from Blizzard that a new product is to be announced at the Worldwide Invitational.
A leak from a Korean website had told the StarCraft community what it had wanted to hear for years. Finally, Blizzard has confirmed to us what we've all been waiting for, right? The exact official response that Kotaku recieved was this:
We do intend to announce a new product at the Worldwide Invitational next month in Korea, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and interest in getting an advance look at what that will be, but players will have to wait until May 19th to find out more. Also, we have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don't have anything new to announce in that regard at present.
A glimmer of hope, but shrouded by thick fog. The opinions around the StarCraft community is not mutual, some want to see StarCraft 2, some don't, but how many people have taken seriously to the thought of a StarCraft that was not a Real-time Strategy (RTS) game? This and the fact that Blizzard keeps reitirating itself saying that it will visit StarCraft "at some point in the future", hoping not to give away StarCraft 2 too fast. Bad liars, or simply telling the truth?
Further investigation into the Blizzard website has uncovered a few other clues as to what this new product will be. On the Job News page of the Blizzard website this was found to be released yesterday:
Job Update 4/26/07
New Position - Lead Engine Programmer – Next-Gen MMO
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New Position – Lead Tools Programmer – Next-Gen MMO
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New Position - Lead Technical Artist – Next-Gen MMO
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New Position - Lead Engine Programmer – Next-Gen MMO
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New Position – Lead Tools Programmer – Next-Gen MMO
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New Position - Lead Technical Artist – Next-Gen MMO
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Only three weeks away from their announcement and all Blizzard have recruited or are recruiting are people for jobs related to World of WarCraft. In fact, at a glance the last ten jobs that Blizzard has looked for all relate to World of WarCraft.
With the release of a 1.15 patch, and a system for the StarCraft community to regulate itself, could this be Blizzard's good bye to the RTS world of StarCraft? But maybe, just maybe it's time to take a step back from the Dark Portal and a step through that Gateway.
Links
Kotaku - Confirmation and Info
Blizzard - Job Page
