5 ms·
Incredible to see how disconnected Blizzard is from its customers. One more shooter, when we wanted the next RTS.
by jceg 20d ago
Incredible to see how disconnected Blizzard is from its customers.
One more shooter, when we wanted the next RTS.
- m463 18d ago"That's what you say, but really you want a monetized phone game you can play while in the bathroom." - marketing and product planning
- swiftcoder 20d agoA full WarCraft III expansion is more than I expected in what has become such a niche genre
- ramesh31 20d ago>"when we wanted the next RTS." You think you do, but you don't.
- sailingparrot 20d agoIt’s funny because that’s word for word what blizzard said after years of people asking for WoW Classic. Which ultimately they ended up making and is very successful. Sometimes people know what they want.
- lovich 20d agoI guess they’re wanting to go after the void Bungie left with Destiny? I can’t tell if this is too late a move though or if there will be a void and a desire still by the time this releases. Is there any other studio working on releasing a similar game already since it was obvious Destinys life was short lived for a while with Bungies focus on Marathon?
- shimman 20d agoLet's not kid ourselves that it would be a good RTS. Starcraft 2 + expansions is a very poor game compared to brood war. If you haven't watch the ASL it's definitely worth a gander: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIpLl2W2chg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIpLl2W2chg I'm still amazed that Blizzard dropped the ball on recreating the same environment that enables dynamic play, instead it's always a formation of rock paper scissors with very little nuance in between.
- dragontamer 20d agoStarcraft2's problem was that it was 3 separate games with incredible patches that completely changed everything. The balance team had no idea of the game they wanted StarCraft 2 to be. By the time it all settled down the community went back to SC:BW. I'm positive there was some combination of SC2 patches that was amazing, if only the patch/balance team stuck with it. I don't know which set of patches that was though. ---------- I have ranted before about deathballs. Beginners want deathballs but advanced players want something deeper than a deathballs. For all of their faults, SC:BW and AoE2 are anti-deathball. SC:BW is somewhat "accidentally" anti-deathball because of map bumping and poor patching. AoE2 has incredible siege and defensive emplacements (castles and bombard cannons and siege onagers) that counter deathballs, above and beyond SC2 anti-deathball options. The AoE2 deathballs unit, the Crossbowman (line) needs like 30+ units before it really starts to feel oppressive, and universally everyone has rams and mangonels to kinda deal with them (or Skirmishers).
- dingdongditchme 20d agoI haven't touched it in ages. But I always felt that it SC2 was more successful in taking out APM and "Deathball" mechanics. I remember a lot of cheese options and nuances. I guess there is just a big spread between balancing the pro players and the bronze league fuckers like myself. I have more nostalgia for SC:BW but only played online thanks to SC2 matchmaking. I think making an RTS that ticks all the boxes is incredibly difficult.
- dragontamer 20d ago
- the__alchemist 20d ago> You think you do, but you don't. Nailed it. People want patched versions of the same RTS. AoE4 came out a few years ago as an IMO fantastic RTS which smoothed over many of the idiosyncrasies of AoE2. From a multiplayer perspective, it was doomed from the start, for not being AoE2. I couldn't even convince my friends to play it with me. (Everyone is still playing AoE2, and expansions + patches are still regular)
- itake 20d agoBlizzard released sc2 and people Happily switched over. I think at sc2 peak, maybe 10% still played sc1 and 90% played sc2
- deleted 20d ago[deleted]
- jwitthuhn 20d agoThat is a quote from the lead developer of WoW about how everyone asking for classic wow thought they wanted it but wouldn't actually play it. Then blizzard made classic wow and it was a huge hit.
- Ntrails 20d agoThey basically only did it because the private servers had enough of a userbase that they felt obliged to get that money for themselves afaict
- 20d ago
- Grombobulous 20d agoBlizzard being a generally terrible developer aside, I don’t think you’re right about this. RTS is not a very popular genre all things considered, and the ARTS/MOBA variants are dominated by DOTA and League of Legends. You also can’t play RTS games on consoles. A lot of fans of StarCraft still wish they saw StarCraft: Ghost see the light of day. Arguably the franchise is very much underdeveloped. The IP and story would work well for many game genres that haven’t been explored. If StarCraft 3 comes out it would only be popular in South Korea and possibly not all that popular at all even there.
- bigstrat2003 20d agoYou realize people said the exact same stuff before SC2, right? Saying it's a dead genre, nobody is going to buy it so they won't make it, etc. And yet SC2 was extremely successful. I predict SC3 would be equally successful if Blizzard can do a good job making it (which is not certain these days). > You also can’t play RTS games on consoles. You certainly can. See Halo Wars.
- Grombobulous 20d agoHalo Wars sold 16.7% of Halo 3’s first week sales according to Wikipedia. It was commercially successful but not in a mainstream mass audience kind of way. Yes, it proved that RTS can be done on a controller (arguably, StarCraft 64 kind of sort of proved that, too), but if you’ve ever played StarCraft 2 I think you’d agree that particular style of RTS is really not possible without a keyboard and mouse. The game is almost entirely revolving around maximizing your actions per minute. I also think the RTS genre is very much less popular today and then it was at that time.
- gleezard 20d agoHalo Wars is also not much of an RTS. While it does have base building, the SP campaigns are full of RTT-like missions. It is actually a very fun game that stands way above compared to a more “by the numbers” implementation of, for example, Command & Conquer 3. Halo Wars found a much better balance and is a much more polished console experience.
- whalesalad 20d agoHonestly as someone who grew up playing SC, WC3 etc... it gets kinda old. If you have played one, you have played them all. I totally welcome an FPS in the Starcraft world and something fresh from Blizzard.
- jleehn 20d agoWhat evidence do you have that this is the general sentiment among 'customers' rather than your own? Genuinely asking, I too would have preferred an RTS but my sense is the player base for RTS is much smaller than a shooter.
- itake 20d agoWho are they targeting? With SC IP, I’d assume they are targeting SC fans, who probably want more RTS. If you’re trying to launch a cool new shooter, why use SC IP?
- nightski 20d agoI've played quite a few hours of Blizzard games throughout the years and as much as I loved the starcraft universe RTS is just not approachable for me. So I can vouch as one person who is really excited to get a taste of the universe outside the RTS genre. That said, whether the game itself will be good is still TBD.
- jstummbillig 20d agoWhile I can feel the pain, the truth is somewhat less outrageous and more somber: Customers for a Blizzard scale RTS simply do not exist.
- chao- 20d agoThere is also a disconnect between "customers" and "players". I am under the impression that RTS games have proven harder to monetize in an ongoing manner, or at least harder relative to the effort required to build and maintain them. That doesn't mean there isn't a solution, and this is just one person's limited perspective... but it seems to be the case thus far.
- aliasxneo 20d agoIn the very same conference they announced WoW Forever. So whatever it is, it's not necessarily systemic, because they seemed to have nailed that audience.
- cbg0 20d agoFrom Blizzard's perspective, this "we" isn't worth the trouble in terms of sales figures. The audience for RTS has fragmented quite a bit into other niches and Blizzard wants to do huge releases with great ROI for their IP, not pay fan service to us.
- icantevenhold 20d agoI’ve been waiting for a rehash of StarCraft Nova or whatever it was called forever - speak for yourself.
- least 20d agoAre they disconnected from its customers in current year? They may be alienating the core audience that made them who they are, but I don't think they're disconnected from their customer base, which has changed. RTSes are not popular and they are not platform-agnostic like an FPS is.
- brokencode 20d agoWhat’s wrong with doing different things with an IP? Halo was originally conceived as an RTS, then turned out to be a successful FPS. Then they made a fairly successful RTS too. Everything Blizzard does is met with such absurd hostility. Gamers pay $60 for 100+ hours of entertainment and still feel like they’re getting screwed at every turn.
- klipklop 20d agoYou are wrong. People that remember the cancelled StarCraft Ghost are excited for this.
- fg137 20d agoPeople may not want to admit this, but RTS is a thing of the past. There haven't been a big, successful release of a brand new RTS for years. Most recent releases are remasters of games from decades ago. There is no money in another RTS, and Blizzard understands that. If you don't believe me, read some books and articles -- this has been well analyzed and discussed. Sorry but you are the one disconnected from the reality of today's gaming market.
- FlyingCapybara 19d agoRTS isn't a popular genre anymore. Big studios don't care anymore about RTS. I think the last RTS from a big studio/publisher was the Age of Empire definitive editions ? 6 years ago...