Starcraft’s fate: Ghost was kept private for a decade, after which the community was blizzard to reveal the story of how it was abandoned to die.
In 2004, after ending the partnership with Nihilistic Software, Blizzard Entertainment said that the development of StarCraft: Swingin ‘Ape Studios will do ghost. Founded in 2000, Swingin ‘Ape Studios had its first significant success with a third-person action game called Metal Arms: Glitch in the System released in 2003 on consoles. This caught Blizzard’s attention, prompting the company to partner with Swingin ‘Ape for the Ghost project, along with the acquisition of Swingin’ Ape in 2005. After considering what Nihilistic Software did. Swingin ‘Ape Studios has reworked and added several designs, restructuring most of the project.
At E3 2005, StarCraft: Ghost continued to be performed. Gamers rated Ghost as a bigger and better game than the previously introduced version. Not only look better and more prominent, but the project also shows a more detailed and precise plot and a unique multiplayer section. The game will follow Nova when she gets entangled in Project Shadowblade, a secret campaign to create powerful and absolute super soldiers through a gas called Terrazine. The multiplayer section will allow players to enter different character classes of the Zerg, Protoss, and Terran races. Each race and character class will have different play styles and stats, sticking to the original StarCraft.
The multiplayer modes include Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, King of the Hill. Along with that, two ways specially designed for the StarCraft universe are Mobile Conflict. In this mode, the two sides will have to occupy and protect a mobile resource mining facility, and Invasion, where the player will rob the nodes to buy character classes and vehicles. StarCraft: Ghost will still be a single-player focused game, but the multiplayer that Swingin ‘Ape adds is extremely promising and attractive. Also, because of the focus on exploiting more in the network game segment, the GameCube version had to be canceled because it could not meet the project’s increasing requirements and ambitions. However, with what Ghost has shown, the gaming community has even more reason to expect one more blockbuster from Blizzard. And after four years of development, the hit game’s cinematic segment, released in August 2005, suggests that its release date may not be far off.
In May 2006, Blizzard announced that they would have to reschedule the Ghost release, something people were familiar with at the time. The company said it was moving its games to the next-gen system when Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. For that reason, Blizzard needs to review projects on its old console. The next time seemed to test the fans’ patience to the extreme when Blizzard rarely revealed anything about Ghost besides confirming the project had not been canceled, and the company still wants to improve it despite the cost. How much time and human resources. Gradually StarCraft: Ghost became more famous thanks to the rescheduling and becoming the favorite product through “listening” as the main. Time passed by a decade, but Blizzard remained silent about Ghost.
Finally, in 2014, Blizzard director and co-founder Michael Morhaime officially announced that StarCraft: Ghost was canceled, ending more than ten years of fan expectations. In 2016, an article by Polygon revealed what Ghost went through. Accordingly, while Nihilistic Software was still developing the project, Blizzard provided necessary instructions and required many additional features and details, which inadvertently left the task without a specific direction. So when the development team couldn’t agree that the game would focus on stealth or action. Lacking a strategic vision, Nihilistic Software struggled with Ghost until Blizzard decided to stop working with the studio.
Meanwhile, Swingin ‘Ape Studios has worked with Blizzard much more smoothly in all aspects, through which Ghost has a more definite direction. However, due to Blizzard’s acquisition of Swingin ‘Ape Studios and its merger, it means that all studio staff will also be involved in other Blizzard projects. With the successful launch of World of Warcraft, the members of Swingin ‘Ape also joined to work with this blockbuster MMO. That makes StarCraft: Ghost did not have the resources needed to complete it on time. With next-gen close, Blizzard fears StarCraft: Ghost will be an outdated product, affecting its reputation. So StarCraft: Ghost was officially pushed aside, giving way to projects taking a lot of time on Blizzard’s StarCraft 2 and Diablo 3.
Although the player cannot have the opportunity to follow Nova in StarCraft: Ghost, but not so that Blizzard ignores her and her adventure in the StarCraft universe. Nova and the storyline of StarCraft: Ghost always appears in Blizzard products from then on. From comics, novels to even StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and other versions. At the same time, Nova is also one of the first characters in the alpha version of Heroes of the Storm. It can be said that although StarCraft: Ghost never reaches gamers, its legacy still exists in other Blizzard and Nova products that are an integral part of the StarCraft universe.
It is thought that fans will forever be unable to enjoy StarCraft: Ghost. In January 2020, a video of the Ghost version on Xbox was released online. On February 16, people were handing over photos and videos of StarCraft: Ghost online on Xbox. Accordingly, an understanding of the game on the Xbox Dev kit has been leaked and spread. Anyone who has an old Xbox that has been hacked can experience this version. The Ghost version is not complete with quite many bugs, unstable performance, and only gets to some screens, but it seems enough to overview the game. According to those who enjoy Ghost, this is a very potential game and worth playing. Unfortunately, a project like StarCraft: Ghost has to be canceled.
After Blizzard has made so many recent mistakes that lead to losing points in fans’ eyes, especially the launch of a lousy product like Warcraft III: Reforged, I hope that Blizzard will look back at StarCraft. Ghost to be able to see the glorious past of a game company associated with this time’s legendary games.
