StarCraft II falling despite expansion pack

Logo of Starcraft II expansion pack

By Cho Mu-hyun

StarCraft II seems long out of the picture in the local game market despite a recently launched expansion pack by Blizzard to boost its popularity.

According to game research agency Gametrics on Sunday, the real-time strategy title was 10th in rankings and occupied only 1.92 percent of user playing time in Internet cafes as of Saturday.

Blizzard launched its ambitious expansion pack for the title Tuesday, called Heart of the Swarm, which adds a new single player mission for the Zerg race ― the others are Terran and Protoss ― as well as new units, maps and an improved multiplayer match-maker.

The release helped the title climb to the top 10 Wednesday immediately following its release, from its previous rank of 22, but it did not climb higher throughout the weekend.

For new games in Korea, first weekend play-times at Internet cafes are one of the key factors to determine their future outlook. “Of course, StarCraft II always has the added burden of living up to its predecessor StarCraft,” said the owner of a PC bang, or Internet cafe, in Seoul by telephone. “Unfortunately I can’t say I see a significant rise of users playing the expansion pack.”

The No.1 title is still Riot Games’ League of Legend (LoL) that boasts a user playing time of 34.43 percent compared to StarCraft II’s meager number. It has topped the list for 33 straight weeks. Nexon’s first-person shooter game Sudden Attack is runner-up with 11.86 percent.

Blizzard has given the green light for Internet cafes to open amateur tournaments with prize money of less than 10 million won without paying a licensing fee, no doubt seeing the importance of such play for promotion.

Riot Games, since its launch in 2011, has actively organized amateur competitions and tournaments at PC bangs, which game experts say helped it cement its dominant share of the local market.

An active professional league, or eSports league, will also be needed to enable StarCraft II sustain its life on the domestic market.

Blizzard’s Diablo 3, which launched earlier in May of last year, has fallen to 13th on the national ranking due to wide disappoint over its repetitive game play.