Blizzard talks Korean affection for StarCraft; mystery title in the works

 

StarCraft II‘s Chris Sigaty was able to tour Korea back in May for the World Wide Invitational and saw a glimpse of the gaming populace’s fixation on Blizzard‘s recent sci-fi real-time strategy game, StarCraft. In an interview with Gamasutra, the game’s producer relayed his amazement at the StarCraft scene in the country.

Aside from electronic sports leagues revolving around the video game, there are huge, sponsored tournaments covered 24/7 throughout every event, and in the most unexpected of times, too. There are local TV channels, and Sigaty relayed a memorable account of one experience while there with his wife:

Twice in Korea now I’ve been in the malls, and the last time we were there just for the announcement, on a Wednesday, wandering through the mall, I happened upon this store that looks kind of like maybe a show or something is going on. We went in and we’re standing in the back looking around in the back of the store and wondering ‘what’s going on?Â’, and we look up on the screen, and it’s a Starcraft match, and it’s a pro match in the middle of the day on a Wednesday. And thereÂ’s all these girls there for the fan club of the guys that are playing, and we’re just kind of like: ‘This is surreal, this is crazy awesome.Â’

Game athletes are idolized by numerous female fans – often organized into fan clubs – and surprisingly, it’s the professional gamers that get the most attention from the media. And it’s probably this fandom for StarCraft that propels Blizzard to not alienate the StarCraft players when StarCraft II comes out.

As a side note, however, Blizzard mentioned a development team within the company at work on a mystery title. Dubbed Team 3, this 50-member team was hinted to be working on “something really awesome.” That awesome thing, however, was not conveyed (or even hinted on) by Frank Pearce, Blizzard’s senior VP.

But Pearce did add, “I will totally tell you, it’s really awesome,” which was followed by Sigaty, who chimed, “Really, really awesome,” and they left it at that. And because StarCraft: Ghost is on indefinite hold, officially, we’re left to ponder what this new title is.

 

StarCraft II‘s Chris Sigaty was able to tour Korea back in May for the World Wide Invitational and saw a glimpse of the gaming populace’s fixation on Blizzard‘s recent sci-fi real-time strategy game, StarCraft. In an interview with Gamasutra, the game’s producer relayed his amazement at the StarCraft scene in the country.

Aside from electronic sports leagues revolving around the video game, there are huge, sponsored tournaments covered 24/7 throughout every event, and in the most unexpected of times, too. There are local TV channels, and Sigaty relayed a memorable account of one experience while there with his wife:

Twice in Korea now I’ve been in the malls, and the last time we were there just for the announcement, on a Wednesday, wandering through the mall, I happened upon this store that looks kind of like maybe a show or something is going on. We went in and we’re standing in the back looking around in the back of the store and wondering ‘what’s going on?Â’, and we look up on the screen, and it’s a Starcraft match, and it’s a pro match in the middle of the day on a Wednesday. And thereÂ’s all these girls there for the fan club of the guys that are playing, and we’re just kind of like: ‘This is surreal, this is crazy awesome.Â’

Game athletes are idolized by numerous female fans – often organized into fan clubs – and surprisingly, it’s the professional gamers that get the most attention from the media. And it’s probably this fandom for StarCraft that propels Blizzard to not alienate the StarCraft players when StarCraft II comes out.

As a side note, however, Blizzard mentioned a development team within the company at work on a mystery title. Dubbed Team 3, this 50-member team was hinted to be working on “something really awesome.” That awesome thing, however, was not conveyed (or even hinted on) by Frank Pearce, Blizzard’s senior VP.

But Pearce did add, “I will totally tell you, it’s really awesome,” which was followed by Sigaty, who chimed, “Really, really awesome,” and they left it at that. And because StarCraft: Ghost is on indefinite hold, officially, we’re left to ponder what this new title is.