StarCraft Ghost Developer Dropped From Project?

Thanks to HomeLAN Fed for its news story revealing StarCraft: Ghost developer Nihilistic is no longer attached to the still-in-development tactical action game. According to an official Blizzard statement: "Nihilistic has completed its contribution on StarCraft: Ghost. They are contracted to begin work on another project in the months ahead. Due to the requirements of that obligation and the delay of StarCraft, it was mutually determined that now would be the best time for them to complete their work." The PS2/Xbox/GameCube title was announced as delayed late last week, at which point Blizzard simply stated: "We plan to build additional time into the schedule to polish the game."

Comments

No Real Surprise

[th1ckasabr1ck]

Blizzard and Id have always had the same "It's done when it's done, and not a second earlier" attitude. Obviously not many companies can afford to do this, but it HAS allowed the aforementioned two companies to produce some of the best games of all time.

Re:This is actually a good precedent.

[Morgahastu]

Yes, Counter Strike: Condition Zero is a perfect example of what good can happen when a game is shuffled between developers.

Oh wait...

Your Mission, Should you Choose to Accept it....

[RaisinBread]

Put 'em to work on StarCraft II!

Maybe they wanted to focus all their RTS grey matter on the Warcraft games, but dang, SC was a great game.

Pretty Please?

Bottom Line Translation, Blizzard PoV?

[Babbster]

"Nihilistic isn't getting the job done at all. We're bringing Ghost back in house to see if we can save the game before it goes the way of Warcraft Adventures. Nihilistic better have good lawyers because we're not paying a dime over the barest minimum for this dreck."

But maybe I'm too cynical. :)

Re:Bottom Line Translation, Blizzard PoV?

[Godeke]

No, I don't think you are too cynical, I had the same impression. You don't pull a project from the developers to give them a head start on their next project, a project that *isn't* for your firm! These guys at Nihilistic are the only ones who know the code from top to bottom: pulling them can only damage the schedule and quality of the product. Knowing that Blizzard produces high quality games (to the point of cancelling those that don't meet standards) I can only conclude that Nihilistic was creating code on the order of the Matrix in terms of sheer bug ridden nightmareishness, and they want to pull it in house to try to salvage something.

Re:Bottom Line Translation, Blizzard PoV?

[startled]

"I can only conclude that Nihilistic was creating code on the order of the Matrix in terms of sheer bug ridden nightmareishness, and they want to pull it in house to try to salvage something."

That's far from the only conclusion. Here's another one you could draw: the game's more or less done, but the art and level design suck. The engine's excellent, so Blizz is pulling it in-house to redo some content. That means they barely have to touch the engine code at all.

There are quite a few other conclusions you could draw, and not all of them are dire.

Re:Bottom Line Translation, Blizzard PoV?

[Black Mage Balthazar]

That and the fact that it says that Nihilistic has a contract to take up another game. Rather than give Blizz a half done job that is all over, they're gonna wrap up what they have and hand it back in a nice little package. Blizz can then use this as a platform to complete the game.

Which would be worse? Having Blizz take the game back, polish it up and release it, or having Nihilistic trying to BS their way through it while concurrently working on another game that they are contractually obligated to start work on?

They're not the only ones

[*weasel]

Blizzard and Id have always had the same "It's done when it's done, and not a second earlier" attitude.

3d Realms and Ion Storm (Romero) also have/had such a policy.

It isn't necessarily a mark of quality. Sometimes the attitude just leads to bad games in bad situations lingering in near-perpetuity. IIRC (and I admit it's a foggy memory) Blizzard's ill-fated Adventure game was also in dev limbo shortly before it was cancelled.

I wouldn't necessarily assume that this is a positive development. Particularly not if they're concerned about the game not being fun enough (as was their primary concern with Thrall's quest or whatever it was).

SC:G evolution @ E3 for the past two years

[stryck9]

Two years ago at E3 Starcraft Ghost, looked great and played great. This year at E3 it still looked great, but the game play had been significantly dumbed down, and made more "accessible". All of the multiple path ways to defeat enemies, stealth, psi, run and gun, had been removed in favor of one solution..., use psi here, use gun here, etc... I don't know what conclusion to draw from that in regards to this news, but thought it worth mentioning.