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StarCraft II: We're trying to create an e-Sport

Dustin Browder on the RTS modding phenomenon.

Wesley Yin-Poole avatar
Interview by Wesley Yin-Poole Former Editor-in-Chief
Updated on
17 comments
EurogamerIs there a chance it may not happen?
Dustin Browder

Who knows, dude? Anything is possible. We've cancelled whole games before. Warcraft Adventures never made it out and that game was basically done. But we are working very hard on it. We have a bunch of people dedicated to it. I have every hope and belief and faith in its success and we're absolutely committed to getting it done.

EurogamerCan the RTS evolve significantly from what you've done with StarCraft II?
Dustin Browder

If you hate this answer, I apologise: It's already evolving in so many exciting ways. I'm speaking here about my competitors' products, so I could be totally wrong about what they're trying to accomplish, but I'm going to make some guesses.

If you look at Dawn of War, this is a game that's trying to create a very cinematic experience. They're being very successful at that. It's a fun gameplay experience as a cinematic experience. If you look at StarCraft what we're trying to fundamentally create is an e-Sport, something that's not only fun to play but is fun to watch other people play. The values are fundamentally different. The interface looks the same, but how you play and experience it is completely different.

If you look at a DOTA, a League of Legends, would you call that a RTS game? It's kind of a real-time action game, but it's got some strong strategy components to it. So we're seeing some exciting evolution of the genre in that direction. Do tower defences count as RTS games? I would say they do because they're less action and more strategy than even a game like League of Legends.

I'm playing so many tower defences on my iPad it's insane. We're seeing this fragmenting of the genre in lots of different directions. I'm excited to see RTS, not necessarily Command & Conquer or StarCraft, go in so many different directions and pick up such a large audience all over the place.

EurogamerWhat is the future for specifically base-building, army-building, hero-management RTS? You're seeing different directions. I hope people will continue to innovate. I have no idea what's going to happen with the guys from Ensemble who are doing an online version of Age of Empires. That seems like, woo! Who knows what that's going to be? They're doing different pay models, something more integrated online, more cooperative in its approach. It sounds fun.
Dustin Browder

It seems to me the genre is exploding in recent years. We're doing this e-Sports driven experience. Our fans in custom games are doing all kinds of crazy mods. Remember, Warcraft III put to the forefront, fundamentally, both tower defence and DOTA. Who knows what's going to come out of custom games in StarCraft? Maybe nothing. Maybe some of the most amazing games you've ever seen.

Maybe I'm biased working on it, but where I sit the future for RTS is both diverse and very bright. If you're not going to give RTS credit for DOTA, for tower defence, if you can't see the differences between a Dawn of War and a StarCraft, I guess it all looks the same.

But to me they're all very different games with different goals, all producing very different types of fun for very diverse audiences. I'm excited about it.

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