That’s right folks – speaking at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in Texas, Blizz notable Greg Canessa told the world that the next installment of the SCII franchise, the Zerg-focused “Heart of the Swarm”, would not be released for over a year.
Canessa, who is the Battle.net project director, told the assembled developers that items such as trading, replays and profile upgrades were going to be the “main area of focus we’re going to be seeing on the Starcraft [II] side over the next 18 months between now and Heart of the Swarm”.
Hold on to your hats, Zerg-lovers, because this is going to be a long ride. Sure, it’s not as long as the 11-year wait for the second iteration of the franchise, but fans were hoping for an expansion more along a yearly rather than year and a halfly timeline.
Still, Blizzard is known for this type of long-term planning – most of its WoW expansions take two years or more to deliver, and they tend to hold things back (if you listen to the rabid fan base rather than beta testers) until they are polished and ready for release.
This (at minimum) eighteen month delay means that players will have plenty of opportunity to prefect and critique Starcraft II gameplay while drooling over the thought of a single-player Zerg campaign. While we can admire Blizzard’s dedication to quality here, as well as their plan to push-in as many player desired features as possible, they do run a potentially serious risk.
The first game was known for its balance between the races – something admittedly not achieved in perfection until the Brood War expansion had arrived – but at the time, there was nothing like Starcraft on the market.
Now, at the second go-round, there is something like Starcraft II on the market – Starcraft – and Blizz is having serious balance issues with a number of faction units and factions – notably Zerg.
By waiting eighteen months to release HoTS, there is the possibility that gamers will have moved on, that even hard-core Koreans will have put down their mice and keyboards and instead learned to play the cello, take a walk outside, or simply appreciate the beauty of nature.
Sure, it’s not likely, but anything could happen.
“But wait!” We hear you cry – “I’ll just go to Blizzcon at the end of the month and see insider info about HoTS there! I’m so smart!”
Sorry kid, you ain’t.
Turns out, there will be no HoTS revealage at Blizzcon this year, only WoW expansion info and other already-knowns. Those chomping at the slimy bit to get their hands on more Zerg action are just going to have to hunker down in their bunker, stock up on Cheetos, and get their wait on.
And weight up.
You may want to bring a doctor’s phone number with you down there.
