After a series of unexpectedly poor quality products, people recalled StarCraft: Ghost – the game that Blizzard killed because of “insufficient quality”.
Referring to Blizzard Entertainment, most gaming communities will immediately think of a gaming company with all the legendary brands that once dominated the PC, such as Diablo, Warcraft, or StarCraft, recently encountered a series of problems that caused many argumentative. From the disastrous debut of Diablo Immortal to the scandal with Blitzchung, it’s clear that Blizzard is losing points in the eyes of fans and away from its glory. Just recently, the once-famous gaming company also launched Warcraft III Reforged. This product was severely rated by gamers and keeping the lowest user score record on Metacritic that made people wonder why Blizzard has Can launch such a product. At the same time, Blizzard suddenly reappeared in the public’s eyes, showing how Blizzard was a company that cared about the quality of its products. That’s StarCraft: Ghost, a super product with no chance of being born.
In the early 2000s, Blizzard was at the peak of the PC game market when Diablo, StarCraft, and Warcraft kept producing gold. But it doesn’t want to stop supporting consoles, especially when Blizzard entered the gaming industry with Lost Vikings or Rock n ‘Roll Racing on Super NES and Sega Genesis. But the introduction of role-playing games or strategy for PC to the console at that time was unthinkable. Blizzard himself also experienced a failure with the StarCraft port for Nintendo 64. It was developing games for consoles that needed its approach. Simultaneously, a fledgling game studio called Nihilistic Software is trying to gain a foothold in the industry. With a team of many former LucasArt employees, Nihilistic Software has had its first success with the role-playing game Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption and wants its next project to be more ambitious.
Simultaneously, sneaky action games like Metal Gear Solid and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell were rising. Nihilistic Software wants to take this opportunity to develop a stealth action project based on a cult series. The company has contacted Blizzard so that this new project will be in the StarCraft universe, where players will be directly part of the battlefield and no longer take command from above. Impressed by the passion and what Nihilistic Software showed, Blizzard agreed to cooperate.
A year and a half later, the StarCraft: Ghost project on PS2, Xbox, and GameCube was introduced at Tokyo Game Show 2002. Set 4 years after the Brood War events, the game will give players to follow Nova, one soldier Ghost commandos with the ability to psychic and manipulate the surroundings. Nova will have to fight directly and encounter races like Zerg, Protoss, and Terran. Fans and critics appreciate the project, especially Blizzard’s return on consoles and Ghost’s ambitious gameplay. StarCraft: Ghost allows players to access each screen in many different ways and tools. Simultaneously, characters and the world around them both adhere to the original design of StarCraft and are new by changing the player’s perspective. The only thing missing in the reveal of the project is the game storyline.
While Blizzard promises the plot of Ghost will be very important and profound in StarCraft, it seems that what is presented does not represent the plot much. However, there is no reason not to expect a potential and ambitious project like Ghost, especially when the expected release date of StarCraft: Ghost is in late 2003. Nihilistic Software will not lack time to perfect and polish the game to get the best quality, worthy of a foothold in the legendary StarCraft game.
But things are not so simple. Nihilistic Software says Blizzard is continually asking to change and repurpose designs, six months after the presentation may or may not be there. Ghost is always delayed for release and often appears insignificant game events such as E3 and Tokyo Game Show. Trailers and demos are continually introducing new features and extras, such as vehicles to move and fight or the ability to hide enemies. StarCraft: Ghost is becoming more and more famous and expected too high. It is unclear when a new official release date is set.
Until June 2004, Blizzard suddenly said Nihilistic Software would stop working with the company and leave the project. This is a piece of shocking information for the community, especially when StarCraft: Ghost was just shown at E3 that same year and continues to be well received. Blizzard reassured the community, saying Nihilistic Software had completed its work, which was in contract with Blizzard and StarCraft: Ghost, released on time.
In July of the same year, Blizzard teamed up with Swingin ‘Ape Studios to complete StarCraft: Ghost. So what caused this project to fall from its near completion to the bottom of death?
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