StarcraftUniverse
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A fully realized Starcraft MMO is in the works, but it needs to be Kickstarted first
If you're a dedicated World of Warcraft player, you may have already spent a good deal of time wondering when developer Blizzard would give its StarCraft property the MMO treatment as well. StarCraft Universe is that MMO, but it's not being made by Blizzard; a group called Upheaval Arts is creating the game as a mod for StarCraft II, and if its Kickstarter campaign meets its goal, you'll be able to play it on your Mac (or Windows PC) early next year. StarCraft Universe takes the real-time strategy franchise and gives the player control of a single character, complete with class abilities, questing, leveling and all the other mechanics MMO players have come to expect. The campaign is roughly halfway to its US$80,000 goal amount, and has a further 20 days of fundraising left to go. If you're interested in the mod, but don't currently own StarCraft II, you'll be happy to hear that Universe can be played using the trial version of the game, which can be downloaded for free.
Something's coming [UPDATE]
Recently the Blizzard website main page switched over to this new splashpage. It's intriguing. Since we know that something is indeed coming, this only confirms that there will actually be an announcement of some significance on May 19th. Looking at the graphic I noticed a few things. First, The Burning Crusade is not listed separately. This leads me to believe that the announcement isn't simply an expansion, but an entirely new game. Oh, the curiosity burns within me. What will it be? Also, I see that the games Warcraft: Orcs and Humans and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness are highlighted, but not Warcraft III or World of Warcraft. Perhaps this is a game that is centered around the first two games in the Warcraft canon. Is it World of Starcraft as the leaks have said, or is it Diablo III? Is it something else? Why can't it be the 19th already! [Updated 5/13/2007 7 pm EST] In searching through forum posts about this topic, I came across a fabulous summary by Colrum of Shadowsong who references some interesting tidits on Blizzplanet. They are citing recent events, such as the hiring of RTS guru Dustin Browder in 2004 and the May 2007 release of a new Starcraft novel, as evidence that we may be seeing a new Starcraft RTS rather than an MMO. Take this how you will, but it sounds very plausible to me. Also of note, several people have said that this graphic is a countdown page. This is substantiated by the HTML source code which labels the image as "day1.jpg." Looks like we will have a countdown similar to the Worldwide Invitational website. It only remains to be seen what that question mark reveals on the 19th. [via Adrian]
