StarCraft II lead producer Chris Sigaty has quashed our hopes of an SC2 beta by this Christmas.
Talking to OMGStarCraft (great name for a site), Sigaty said:
“Not this year. I can at least confirm that it’s not going to be this year. … We’re working really hard on Battle.net itself, of course it’s a Battle.net beta. As we get through that, hopefully as soon as possible after the new year, but there’s no specific date at this point.”
Curses! There go my hopes of selling SC2 beta keys to pay for my Christmas dinner.
Watch the full interview at OMGStarCraft.
Following the news out of BlizzCon that StarCraft II will be a trilogy split between the Terrans, Zerg and Protoss comes the revelation that the releases could be years apart.
Blizzard Lead Producer Chris Sigaty and VP Rob Pardo revealed that, ideally, the games will be a year apart, but Sigaty told MTV Multiplayer that it could take more than one.
Sigaty’s reasoning for potential delays is that each entry in the trilogy has its own full-fleshed story and in-engine cutscenes, which apparently take forever to create.
The cynics among you (joined by me) will note that this sounds a lot like a Half Life 2 scenario, A.K.A “the game will take 10 years to complete.”
There is, however, a non-fanboy argument for these kinds of releases. The amount of time it takes to create content for AAA titles doesn’t scale with technology, so as textures, models and AI become more complex, their cost goes up rapidly.
From a gamer’s perspective, it’s disappointing, but it seems that otherwise the game could have easily ended up taking a decade.
Read: ‘World Of Warcraft’ Game Director Working On New MMO, Hints At Console Game
