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Swingin' Ape Takes Over StarCraft Ghost Development

Posted by simoniker on from the arms-of-metal dept.

Thanks to IGN PS2 for its news story discussing Blizzard's appointment of developer Swingin' Ape Studios, creators of Metal Arms: Glitch In The System, who will "henceforth develop StarCraft: Ghost, the oft delayed third-person action / adventure adaptation of Blizzard's acclaimed RTS franchise." The story notes: "Just two weeks earlier it was announced that Nihilistic, Ghost's former developer, would no longer be at the helm of the project. Nihilistic's departure was said to be the result of timing issues", and furthermore reveals: "Swingin' Ape will in the future collaboratively develop multi-platform titles with Blizzard based off Blizzard licenses."

3 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Swingin ape titles by fireduck · · Score: 4, Informative

    Except, from what Blizzard has indicated, SC: Ghost will be console only. So no PC/Mac versions. I don't quite understand the logic behind limiting it to consoles, but that's their perogative.

  2. Re:Swingin ape titles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Metal Arms is a damn fine game! Seriously, it is that good. If you have a console pick it up for a really good explosive time. Everything blows up in this game...and that is a GOOD thing!

  3. Re:Decreased name recognition by fireduck · · Score: 2, Informative

    I suspect Blizzard know this already from their sales figures. Why else would they be making a 3rd person console-oriented stealth-action game, geared much more towards the Japanese market (in a way which will still appeal in the US and EU), rather than building upon their success with this supposedly legendary Korean market?

    I'm not so sure about this. While it may be true that the Korean market is exaggerated, it still is a major market. Consider the languages/nations the Blizzard homepage is available in: US, Korea, UK, Germany, and France. Japan isn't there.

    Also consider this press release from Blizzard: "...Blizzard Entertainment unveiled plans to utilize a local World of Warcraft(TM) team in Korea, which will grow to over 100 Korean employees in the next 12 months....".

    And then there's the location of Blizzard's Battle.net servers. You've got providers in the U.S., Europe, and... Korea. So, while it's nice to downplay Korea's impact, Blizzard clearly has invested a lot into the Korean market (including sponsoring Starcraft tournaments). Which suggests that Korea is the powerhouse that people suggest, at least with respect to blizzard RTS games...