Blizzard Still Has Hope For StarCraft Ghost

Next Generation reports on a panel from the Hollywood and Games summit, where several influential names in Massively Multiplayer games discussed ways to connect virtual worlds with other media. Interesting stuff, but the piece points out something that you probably didn't know: Blizzard still wants StarCraft:Ghost to get made. Ghost was the much-delayed, and then cancelled, shooter title set in the StarCraft world. Rob Pardo speaks to its possible future while making a point about commitment to quality: "[Blizzard is] just willing to cancel the products that fail. That's important to our brand. We're willing to bite the bullet and write off those expenses. Sometimes six months into development, the idea doesn't flow ... Our most recent one was Starcraft Ghost. With that game we were very stubborn. I still believe in that game and the characters but we were not able to execute at the level we wanted to...Rather than work on that we had to focus on our other games. We're hoping one day to return to it."

Comments

Re:DNF

[bheekling]

Surely you mean Ghost in the Shell :)

Re:Poor planning and expectations

[king-manic]

It seems strange to me that blizzard would not have been able to pull off ghost to their own standard of quality. From the sound of it, it would seem that the designers didn't have a good idea of what they wanted from the start. Also, they need to realize that in a market flooded with shooters, it is hard to put one out nowadays that is new and does something that hasn't been done before. I think if they had a good idea of what they wanted from the start and a solid plan for how to make it happen, SC: Ghost could have turned out great. Not revolutionary, mind you, but a good, fun, solid stealth-shooter. I honestly don't think it isn't for any amount of timing or flow that Ghost slipped through the cracks, it was just poor expectations and poor planning. That's just my opinion though.

Also realize they had outsourced the work to another studio. When it came back crap they canceled/out it on hold.