Blizzard hasn't looked at the iPad for StarCraft
Last week, the folks from Ars Technica got a chance to stop by Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, CA. They kindly asked a question that many of us RTS gamers have been wondering about ever since the iPad was released: Is there any chance that we'll be getting StarCraft to play on the iPad? Sure, there are lots of games we'd like to play on Apple's revolutionary device. Real-time strategy seems a perfect fit for a touch interface, though, and when you talk about RTS, you're talking about StarCraft. Either a port of the old game, or maybe even a few teaser levels for the new version would be awesome to see in the App Store.
Unfortunately, it's not in the cards quite yet. StarCraft II's lead designer, Dustin Browder says it's not beyond the realm of possibility at some point, but the team is "certainly not working on it now." Like all of us, they're intrigued by the idea of the iPad, but they aren't quite convinced that it's ideal for their gameplay. "It's possible that's a control scheme that would work for us," Browder says. "It's possible that it isn't... we're not going to put it out there just to make a couple bucks." That's a shame, because I'd definitely pay a couple of bucks for it.
Still, the iPad is new, and Blizzard hasn't sworn off the device. Browder says that they, polishers and perfectionists that they are, would rather focus on matching experiences to devices rather than the other way around. That's fine, then. Command & Conquer isn't really what we expected from a marquis title. Hopefully someone else will come along and provide a premiere RTS experience on Apple's tablet.
