Blizzard Entertainment is expected to release StarCraft II, the sequel to the original StarCraft game that sold more than 4.5 million copies here, next year. / Korea Times |
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Koreans remember 1998 for two things ― the Asian financial crisis and the debut of StarCraft, the iconic computer game that soon became as popular as air.
So it's an odd coincidence that a decade later, with the country fearing another looming economic crisis no less, Blizzard Entertainment, the creator of StarCraft, is close to releasing a sequel.
Actually, the new game has already missed the 10th anniversary of the original version which was March this year, but will come close enough when it has its worldwide release sometime during the first half of next year.
At ``BlizzCon 2008'' earlier this month in Anaheim, California, an event by Blizzard to celebrate StarCraft and its other major franchises Warcraft and Diablo, the company confirmed that StarCraft II will be released next year, along with an upgraded version of its online gaming service, Battle.net.
Blizzard didn't give an exact launch date, as it has yet to release the beta version of the game. However, the company inviting 15,000 BlizzCon visitors to participate in closed beta tests of StarCraft II adds weight to predictions that the game could be released during the earlier part of 2009.
Han Jung-won, who heads Blizzard's Korean office, said the company is planning to make StarCraft II available in Korea simultaneously with its U.S. release.
``We still need approval by the state review board, but other than that, there aren't any problems for a simultaneous release,'' Han told reporters on the sidelines of the BlizzCon event.
``It's not easy for a company to release an English and Korean version of a game at the same time, but Korea is that much of an important market for Blizzard. We feel the pressure because the expectations are great this time around, unlike the first StarCraft version that took the gaming scene by surprise, but we have confidence in the company's developers to come up with a good game'' he said.
The new game will undoubtedly have big shoes to fill as it was Korean gamers who made StarCraft one of the most successful video games ever.
Blizzard so far has sold more than 4.5 million copies of StarCraft in Korea alone and the game also spawned an industry of Internet cafes, called ``PC Rooms,'' that are now ubiquitous around the country.
The game was also responsible for the emergence of ``e-sports,'' with millions of viewers attracted to professional StarCraft players battling on television with live commentary and analysis from experts.
The highest paid professional gamer, Lee Yoon-yul, recently signed a three-year contract with his current team, Wemade Entertainment, that pays him 250 million won ($190,000) per year.
It remains to be seen whether StarCraft II will find an audience as strong as its predecessor. Local fans are already debating Blizzard's decision to split the game into a ``trilogy,'' meaning that StarCraft II will no longer be a single game but a series of three titles.
Each title will be focused on a different StarCraft race.
The first game in the series, titled ``Wings of Liberty,'' will be focused on the ``Terran,'' who are humans exiled from Earth. The second game of the series, titled ``Heart of the Swarm,'' will focus on the ``Zerg,'' an imaginary race of insectoids, while the third part, ``Legacy of the Void,'' will center around the ``Protoss,'' a robotic species.
Although Blizzard officials insist the trilogy reflects the company's ambitions to deliver something spectacular, some users are questioning whether the company is trying too hard to squeeze money out of gamers by forcing them to buy three games instead of one.
Hong Jin-ho, a professional StarCraft player, tried the latest test version of StarCraft II at the BlizzCon event and said he was impressed by the speed of the new game.
``But I think they need to refine the balance of power between the three races, and it was hard to adjust strategies mid-game,'' he said.
thkim@koreatimes.co.kr
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yistory@koreatimes.co.kr
