Starcraft II Reviews Not Positive: Price a factor
If you’re a gaming fan you’ve probably been on another planet if you haven’t yet heard of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. The new game from Blizzard came out in a blaze of publicity and there are even sites about cheat codes already springing up. However reviews are now out and they’re not all favorable.
According to an article on Information Week by Paul McDougall, users who have been rating the game on Amazon have only scored it a very average 2.8 out of 5 as of yesterday. Although many were impressed with the graphics and action-packed gameplay, others criticized the campaign options and lack of LAN support.
A major area of concern appears to surround Blizzard’s pricing decisions. Many are unhappy that the first version of Starcraft II’s campaign play is limited to the Terran race. Let’s face it, the whole thing does appear to be rather money-grabbing on Blizzard’s part, to make users wait for future versions to get other campaign options such as playing as the Zerg or Protoss. As one unhappy user (Confucius) put it, “So basically it’s, ‘Here, buy this game three times and then never play it in the same room with your friends.”
Despite this the $59 game for Macs and PCs is still a massive seller and by mid-morning yesterday it was top in Amazon’s video game category. For more on this go to informationweek.com. What do you think of Blizzard’s pricing for Starcraft 2? We’d be interested in your opinions on this so why not send in a comment.
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33 Comments
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60 Dollars seems like a lot for this game, but I guess they can charge that much and still only have 1/3 of the game completed.
Graphics isnt everything, dev's need to stop thinking that they are.
How in the world is this even accurate? The game was just released Tuesday. There were no advanced reviews because Blizzard – in an unprecedented move, decided to make the reviewers wait to play the game with everyone else – so, if their only reaction is based on less than one day of gameplay… pfft… wait for IGN to review it.
Come on peeps… it's Blizzard. Buy the game. Sure, it's $59… same as any console game. What, you mean a PC/Mac game is not worth the same as your console games? Again, pfft… get real. How about you call in sick tomorrow and put in some real time… then get back to us…
In the UK Starcraft II comes with an Recommended selling Price of £44.99. Invariably, though online retailers especially will knock at least £10 of this, and a bit of searching and looking for voucher codes can often get an even better deal.
I think that the whole debacle about pricing and campaigns is just absurd. So basically, Blizzard gives us the first installment of Starcraft 2 with ONLY the Terran campaign and will release the other campaigns for Protoss and Zerg in future expansion packs that players will have to purchase. Now I realize that up front this sounds terribly like a money grab. However, I feel like most people who are doing the reporting here are really dropping the ball and not doing their research. Let me explain.
Starcraft originally had 30 missions with each race having a 10 mission campaign. Guess how many missions the Terran campaign has in Starcraft 2? If you guessed 30, you're one step closer to understanding the hypocrisy that is going on in everyone's claims that this is a money grab.
Splitting this up allows Blizzard to focus more on each story line for each race and provide the player with a different look and feel for each race's campaign. It's a cool concept and I love it. If you're just mad you waited this long and don't have a zerg or protoss campaign to play, I can understand that. You'll just have to wait for the individual expansion. I myself prefer Protoss so it does suck having to wait. However can we stop calling this a "money grab?"
If all 3 Campaigns and All that SC1 did, yeah 60 would be fine, but its 1/3 a game for 3X the price…I know The Vid Game industry wants it part of the pie, but this is crazy….
All new PC games are $50-$60 this is normal pricing. Programmers dont like to work for free ….Let's see how much they gouge us for the expansions the will inevitably come along
Try getting some decent sources. That information week article pathetic.
You can play in a LAN setting, but it has to be over battle.net. So in effect, NOTHING has changed, you just have to have an internet connection (and who doesn't?)
And expansions are NOTHING new. Blizzard hasn't revealed pricing for future campaigns, so the people saying "we have to buy the game 3 times!" are making baseless claims. Blizzard wanted this campaign to be solely about the Terrans, and focus on the other races in expansions. So what? That's what they want to do.
It's obvious (from playing the game) that a lot of care and attention went into the development of the campaign. The game goes well beyond what was done in the original Starcraft. It takes the already excellent roots from the original Starcraft but wraps it around what you could almost call RPG features (upgrading characters, equipment, talking with other characters, etc) It is extremely polished and has absolutely no bugs that I've encountered, which is actually unique for a PC exclusive game these days. The presentation is awesome, both from a story and gameplay perspective.
It takes time to put together an experience like Blizzard has put together here, and I don't think the people complaining appreciate this fact. Blizzard announced along time ago that they were only going to be releasing it with one campaign so that they could focus all their energy and time on making the one campaign as strong as possible – it definitely shows when you play it.
If people think it is too expensive now wait until it is sold at a discount. As for me I'm going to play the game now and enjoy it rather than complain about it. I think the value you get for the price is fair.
In 1998 Starcraft launched at $54.99. I'd say $5 more is fair. Besides that, SC2 has more love and time poured into it that any recent PS3 or Xbox360 title, and people don't complain about paying $59.99 for every last game there.
Please do some research before you post about this. That review was based on Amazon user rating. Totally sad that you would even mention this.
Having to buy new editions to play Zerg and Protoss? Screw that Ill go ahead and play the orig. until they get that fixed or make the content free. Next before you know it they are going to be charging a 14.99 monthly fee to play the game or charge you if you want to play new maps.. (I wonder where they got this idea from…*cough* WoW * cough MW2 * *hack*)
I could probably look past the overpriceage and campaigns releasing one at a time if only it had LAN capability.
First I hear LAN would be wiped. Then I heard the game wasn't releasing as a whole. Lastly, I notice the price at a ridankulous 60 bucks!
Way to pour salt on the would Bliz.. You could've at least cut us gamers slack at some point.
Because Blizzard can do no wrong…
Come on Dizzo, take the fanboy goggles off for a second and take a step back. 60 bucks for a 1/3 of a game is a down right scam. Plain and simple.
pay 60 bucks now pay 80 bucks next time.. 30 missions dam right there should be too. developers reason to up the price is on devlopment costs ie programing, art, texturing, sales ect as the game comes with a map developer with easy tools i say for the price you could have more missions than 30 with little extra cost.these sorts of games aren’t ground breaking as they use to be. compared to an RPG where they are still evolving compared with RTS is still at build, defend & attack with a few upgrades.this game play was around 10yrs ago on the PS called “warzone 2100″. for the price we should be demanding more for our money other than a brandname smooth graphics.
sorry for my little rant but remember there is a mark up on the price of the game in the region of 25-35 percent. money for the fat cats pocket
@Vagobond: You can play Zerg and Protoss in the multiplayer. There just aren't Zerg and Protoss campaigns.
That's really the root of the issue, people see that there aren't Zerg and Protoss campaigns and assume you're getting only 1/3rd of the single player. In reality, there's as much or more single player than came with StarCraft, it's just all Terran in this case.
It's fair to complain that the entire single player campaign is Terran, and that direct LAN support doesn't exist, but claiming that Blizzard is overcharging is a myth that's been perpetuated by the internet echo machine since Blizzard first announced the game and each expansion would focus on a single race in the campaigns.
Played this last night. Just like starcraft1, but with so much added. Most of the stuff added is filler for between missions, but it is still an excellent game. Played on hard and some of the missions are very tight/difficult. So yeah, stop whinging about it. If you want to play it lan without a battlenet connection, wait for a friggin crack.
Not willing to pay $180 for 1 game. I'll just wait for the Protoss version to come out.
If I want to play with my two sons, Blizzard wants me to:
1. Somehow play 3 computers on one internet address….
2. Cough up $180 for 3 licenses.
3. Force me to expose my sons to the filth language on public forums in order to play.
They've lost a loyal customer forever here, let me tell you.
your not very smart, or just cheep
So essentially it's game-play is more akin to War3 rather than Starcraft? F that. I hated War3. I want a pure, hardcore RTS game, nothing more, nothing less.
And no LAN support???!?!?!? F Blizzard. Most of the original employees (everyone pre WoW launch) have left anyway. I no longer feel any loyalty to the Blizzard brand.
this is an RTS, without LAN support? WTF, i bought the game and thought is was pretty cool, but then i hear no LAN…….i really was looking to lag free gaming sessions with my friends at my house….but……fucking blizzard, i hate WoW for it money grubbing and now im getting pissed——and to you people who say the price ISNT overpriced -fuck you, without LAN support and other basic RTS features, it kindof makes yu wonder if u bought a strategy game or a second WoW
if the game wasn't so terribly mediocre and incomplete the price complaints wouldn't be showing up the way they are
Yes, 60 x3 is 180 for the game add tax and your dropping $200 on this game. Whats the most insane part… that it costs that much for the entire game without expansions… or that millions of people are going to buy all $200 dollars of it??
All I can say is I don't know of ANY games that have been played as seriously as Starcraft has for 10 consecutive years, I hope Starcraft II can keep up with that precidence.
I don't mind paying for "quality" and if blizzard can keep pumping it out… then I'll gladly take their game over these incomplete ever 6 months console games.
These aren't reviews of the game. These are concerns about the future Starcraft games – they should just be reviewing the content in the game. Why not tell us about how the campaign is? How about they tell us about the multiplayer features and Battle net 2.0? I agree that it is ridiculous that they intend to release the two more expansion packs – but can this not be in the review of the next game – I think reviewers should tell us about the content in the game, and price should be our own issue.
Being a big Blizzard fan – I had to get the game ASAP, however, there were no early reviews, and i just set about getting the game. I got really lucky, and managed to trade in two Playstation 3 games to get Starcraft for free. I won't be buying the next expansions, as i think the Terrain campaign will be the best of the three.
Game is great by the way. If you're ignoring price, this game definitely awesome. Price is ridiculous – but hey, people are gonna buy every single one. Blizzard is gonna be reeling in big bucks for this game. I feel like ever since WOW, they've decided to make their games a little more expensive than usual.
Suck a nut you still have the raging battle net multiplayer which is what most people want the game for anyways. Stop bitching over the price and campaign and get good online. Its a great game there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
1) What on earth are you talking about? How do you connect to the internet? Do you not have a router?
2) Yeah, having to buy 3 copies of a game that you're going to install on 3 different computers for 3 different users is really cheap/mean/unfair of Blizzard…
3) How is Blizzard forcing you to read the forums? If you don't want to read the forums, don't read the forums. Very easy.
I actually think that you might be a troll.
Also, not to ruin anything for people, but I'm about 1/3 – 1/2 way through the campaign… you do end up playing 3-4 missions as Protoss by this point, so try not to overreact about only playing Terran.
So, do we know for a fact that the expansions will be $60 also?
No public forums, they took that out 2, your spot on about the rest.
I would also like ot add you will need a router whick will cost another $40-$60 so your final price to play with your sons would be $220-$240
they took lan play away, something that many people love because they can play with friends, has been around for 10+ years. I think blizzard is stupid. They want to control gamers. these mother fuckers with http://www.battle.net go fuck yourselfs. yeah battle.net will be another thing they will charge a rate for, just wait.
I think they knew from the start they could get away with a high pricing and splitting it into three parts. It has been a huge seller ever since starcraft 1 – which is still heavily played certain parts of the world. The WCG in Korea were playing Starcraft 1 instead of Starcraft 2 as well.
Though it is sickening lashing out to gain as much money for a product as possible, it is the works of a cooperation – and Blizzard is a huge one. I think a lot of gamers forget that notion, as they only see the love for the game and don't think a lot about the money. Its about the fun.
But there is always a choice, so if you're unhappy paying that much for a game – why buy it?