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StarCraft: Ghost: What Went Wrong?

Forum Index > SC2 General
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1 2 Next All
Plexa
Profile Blog Joined October 2005
Aotearoa39261 Posts
July 07 2016 20:23 GMT
#1
Full Article: http://www.polygon.com/2016/7/5/11819438/starcraft-ghost-what-went-wrong

Robert Huebner was on top of the world.

The Tokyo Game Show. 2002. Less than two years prior, Blizzard gave Huebner and his team at Nihilistic Software the green light to start development on a new game.

The deal was, in many ways, an experiment. In working with Nihilistic, Blizzard gave a good amount of control over one of its major franchises to an external development studio, a rare move for the company.

Blizzard wanted to make a dent in the growing console market, and Nihilistic provided an opportunity to do that. The original Xbox was less than a year old, and the PlayStation 2 was dominating console sales. Nihilistic wanted to grab the players who preferred a couch to a PC. It was bold. It had to be.

In 1998, Blizzard made a mark on the industry with StarCraft, a real-time strategy title that topped PC sales charts and became a cornerstone for the professional game circuit. Nihilistic wanted to take that franchise and give players a fresh look at the game's world through the eyes of a popular character.

All that added up to StarCraft: Ghost.

Two years in, Huebner and his team were enjoying the fruits of their hard work. The entire staff — about a dozen at the time — had flown to the Tokyo Game Show, where playable versions of the game were available on the show floor. With StarCraft hot on the competitive gaming scene, Warcraft 3 just released a few months prior and World of Warcraft still years away, a console game featuring a new take on an existing universe allowed Blizzard to maintain its momentum.

"Tokyo was the high point," says Huebner.

Less than two years later, frustrations that had boiled beneath the surface came to a head. A conversation with Huebner and Blizzard in a conference room at E3 2004, mere feet away from crowds eagerly playing new levels, more or less marked the end of Nihilistic's work on the game.

The story of StarCraft: Ghost is a complicated one that spans two development studios, a buyout by Blizzard and declarations that, even though no work was being done on the game, it was never technically canceled. Polygon recently spoke with nine developers involved to look back at the project.
Administrator~ Spirit will set you free ~
Psychobabas
Profile Blog Joined March 2006
2531 Posts
July 07 2016 20:32 GMT
#2
thanks
Cricketer12
Profile Blog Joined May 2012
United States13973 Posts
July 07 2016 20:32 GMT
#3
Termination of Starcraft Ghost was a really depressing time...
Kaina + Drones Linkcro Summon Cupsie Yummy Way
LongShot27
Profile Joined May 2013
United States2084 Posts
July 07 2016 20:48 GMT
#4
Polygon...seriously....
If all men were created equal there would be no reason to declare it.
lestye
Profile Blog Joined August 2010
United States4159 Posts
July 07 2016 21:04 GMT
#5
Really awesome stuff. It's really nuts when you think of Blizzard pre-WoW and post-WoW, its nuts how much they had to learn and grow in such a short period. This article reminds me of the recent interview by Rob Pardo where they had to say no to Icefrog because they were so focused on WoW.

But yeah, Starcraft Ghost's cancellation was a blow to me. Not only because I was looking forward to it, but i had become a huge fan of Metal Arms by Swingin' Ape Studios, which they bought. So I kinda felt like it was 2 cancellations in one.

On July 08 2016 05:48 LongShot27 wrote:
Polygon...seriously....

I know they've had awful clicky baity, but they've also had some amazing pieces, like this one. I think we should applaud them when they do something awesome and tell a story that I know a lot of people want to know: what happened in development.

"You guys are just edgelords. Embrace your inner weeb desu" -Zergneedsfood
bjornkavist
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Canada1235 Posts
July 08 2016 02:36 GMT
#6
I have a second cousin that worked at Bliz at the time of Starcraft Ghost and D2 and he basically said the game was unsalvagebly terrible and riddled with glitches that made any alpha version near unplayable. Still would be interesting to see some of it come to light one day..
https://soundcloud.com/bbols
Puosu
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
6985 Posts
February 16 2020 22:03 GMT
#7
the game's leaked, apparently.
TelecoM
Profile Blog Joined January 2010
United States10668 Posts
February 16 2020 23:03 GMT
#8
On February 17 2020 07:03 Puosu wrote:
the game's leaked, apparently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQVsejt_bE

LOL what that looks like Doom / Quake with SC units. Hmm =O
AKA: TelecoM[WHITE] Protoss fighting
Snakestyle11
Profile Joined December 2018
191 Posts
February 16 2020 23:15 GMT
#9
Feels like it was just a worse version of Halo when halo was big. No wonder it got cancelled. It would have hurt their image more than help.
Shuffleblade
Profile Joined February 2012
Sweden1903 Posts
February 16 2020 23:21 GMT
#10
On February 17 2020 07:03 Puosu wrote:
the game's leaked, apparently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQVsejt_bE

Holy god that looks shitty, btw you dont need the posture of a gorilla to be sneaky. You can actually stand up straight, I was so sad when it was cancelled but lets just all agree it was for the best.
Maru, Bomber, TY, Dear, Classic, DeParture and Rogue!
NoobSkills
Profile Joined August 2009
United States1598 Posts
February 16 2020 23:22 GMT
#11
Don't really think Blizzard at that time had to worry about image. They had what?, 4 of the top games in the world? I'm not sure about what happened or what ghost would have been, but even if it was a flop blizzard still would have been top dog. To me it looks like a mass effect with a blizzard storyline. Which could have been cool. As far as a multiplayer portion of it i have no idea.
Slydie
Profile Joined August 2013
1913 Posts
February 17 2020 00:39 GMT
#12
On February 17 2020 07:03 Puosu wrote:
the game's leaked, apparently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQVsejt_bE


I am a bit curious about which version this was, but my guess is that it is one by Swingin' Ape having the final touches. The identity crisis they talked so much about in the article is evident all over the video. Nova is essentially an agile marine in a slow, boring action game.
Buff the siegetank
BonitiilloO
Profile Joined June 2013
Dominican Republic614 Posts
February 17 2020 01:34 GMT
#13
i'm glad the game was cancelled it had a awful graphics, hope they can do it with today's graphics
How may help u?
Dillon1
Profile Joined April 2015
118 Posts
February 17 2020 05:17 GMT
#14
I'd play the shite out of it if they made a modern 1st person starcraft game

cmon just picture being a hydralisk.

Or a zealot even.

Mission 1. Guide these probes to a nearby Nexus ..
reward: Improved psiblades , or a charge ability XD
mierin
Profile Joined August 2010
United States4943 Posts
February 17 2020 05:19 GMT
#15
On February 17 2020 10:34 BonitiilloO wrote:
i'm glad the game was cancelled it had a awful graphics, hope they can do it with today's graphics


Don't care about the graphics too much honestly.
JD, Stork, Calm, Hyuk Fighting!
Harris1st
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Germany6879 Posts
February 17 2020 06:12 GMT
#16
This looks like it has been done with the sc2 map editor TBH.

Like that MMO back in the days. What it called? Starcraft Universe?
Go Serral! GG EZ for Ence. Flashbang dance FTW
WombaT
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Northern Ireland25013 Posts
February 17 2020 12:49 GMT
#17
On February 17 2020 09:39 Slydie wrote:
Show nested quote +
On February 17 2020 07:03 Puosu wrote:
the game's leaked, apparently.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQVsejt_bE


I am a bit curious about which version this was, but my guess is that it is one by Swingin' Ape having the final touches. The identity crisis they talked so much about in the article is evident all over the video. Nova is essentially an agile marine in a slow, boring action game.

I’d be curious myself. I’d need to watch the trailers again and I don’t think they showed a huge amount but what I remember was quite varied.

Doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to me to play as a ghost and not be if not primarily, then at least sizeably stealth-focused.

'You'll always be the cuddly marsupial of my heart, despite the inherent flaws of your ancestry' - Squat
Puosu
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
6985 Posts
February 17 2020 13:53 GMT
#18
The game files have been archived on archive.org.

https://archive.org/details/starcraftghostxbox
argonautdice
Profile Joined January 2013
Canada2716 Posts
February 17 2020 16:26 GMT
#19
I feel like Starcraft Ghost as it looked leaked would've been boring. It'd be more awesome if you can play as all the different units: a hydralisk, a zealot, a mutalisk, a carrier, etc., with different combat systems and scales of battle.
very illegal and very uncool
zestzorb
Profile Joined August 2010
Thailand776 Posts
February 17 2020 18:12 GMT
#20
It's a very interesting read, the way Blizzard was developing games back then. Now look at what they did to Reforged
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