The cover story of the latest PC Gamer is all about Starcraft II. The feature highlights the development process and decision-making and shows an ample amount of Protoss units, including old-hats such as the Reavers, Templars and Archons.
"Blizzard has announced that the real time strategy game/cash printing machine StarCraft II will be playable for attendees of BlizzCon 2007. The official site promises that conventioneers will have the chance to "sample the new units and gameplay elements for themselves in multiplayer battles.""
The August issue of PC Gamer magazine is packed with a preview disc featuring a brand new look at as-yet unannounced Protoss units for StarCraft II. The new units include the Soul Hunter, a mechanized ground unit, the Phase Cannon, a teleporting version of the Photon Cannon, the Tempest, the next evolution of the Protoss Carrier and the Twilight Archon which appears to be analogous to the original game's Dark Archon. There's also a painfully brief gameplay sequence, showing off additional units.
You know what, I'm a huge Starcraft fan and thus very excited about Starcraft II. However, I recently got out of the stock because, in my opinion, it has reached its peak for at least the next few months and, in my case, there was money to be made elsewhere.
Now I'm not saying people should jump boat on this, but I am offering a bit of insight here.
A ten million or so estimate, at this point in the game, given blizzard and starcraft's history is totally acceptable.
However, for this stock to go any higher at this point in the games development would be irrational and surprise me intensely because:
1) We simply don't know all that much about it. We've seen videos of gameplay and get a general sense, but in terms of specifics, we really don't know much, certainly not enough to skyrocket this out of the solar system.
2) many people have pointed to the voracity of the south Korean market. This is all well and good, and more than likely it will end up making up a large percentage of sales. However, it is simply way too soon to know whether or not the game will fly even in south korea. For a practical example, look at Valve and counter strike source. Highly anticipated, highly advertised and, overall, highly dismissed by much of the counter strike community who still continue to use the original counter strike over it. It is well within the realm of possibility that the south korean market might not take well to the sequel and stick instead to its older and more tried and true variation. If this were to happen, than a large chunk of the anticipated sales would dissipate quickly.
3) Finally, in all other markets, it is possible, though I admit unlikely, that the game may prove to be "nothing special". Now if this were to happen, I would likely poop my pants in distress, however at this time there is no way to know for sure that blizzard is on the right track.
All of these indicate to me that this stock will be staying right around where it is for a while to come,perhaps with some momentary fluctuations up and down. Your best bet, if you want to get in and see what happens - wait for a momentary dip, buy up and hope for the best in the long run. But for the most part it seems like, at least for a few months, it simply isn't worth the effort.
Thus the number of sales for SC 1 is even higher. This is good news for SCII, especially because people will have played SC 1 more recently before SCII releases than it has been for others. Also notice WC III is in the top 10 too.
In this video we discuss the gameplay changes from Starcraft I to II, the fleshing out of the original races, and the sheer amount of troops on screen at one time.
In this video we talk with the President of Blizzard, Mike Morhaime, about professional gaming, Starcraft's presence in Korea, and the return to the Starcraft universe.
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