Blizzard cans Cube Ghost

By Tom Bramwell Published 3 November, 2005

Starcraft game now PS2/Xbox-only.

Blizzard has cancelled Starcraft: Ghost for GameCube, citing the lack of a viable online gaming service, but says that GameCube and Revolution are still possibilities for future projects.

Mutterings at Blizzcon last week suggested the Cube version had disappeared, and yesterday Battle.net forum moderator MicahW offered the following response: "In order to provide the game envisioned by the console team a set and readily available online solution was needed. Unfortunately the GameCube has no online service and since so much work is going in to the online portion, it would be additional work to release only part of the intended game."

SC: Ghost, which has been in development for yonks, shifting between several developers - and currently underway at Blizzard-owned Swingin' Ape Studios (the chaps responsible for Metal Arms) - was originally due to release on PS2, Xbox and Cube. However, the mod' adds, we shouldn't infer anything untoward about Blizzard's attitude to Nintendo from this cancellation.

"Nintendo systems certainly aren't something that we are against supporting. Blizzard in its entirety is based upon earlier games for Nintendo systems. The GameCube and Revolution will still be considered for future products, unfortunately Ghost will only be made available on the Xbox and PS2 at this time."

You can find out what we made of Starcraft: Ghost's multiplayer Blizzcon showing elsewhere on the site today.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Teeth #1 6 years ago

    This was still in development? Blimey.

  • jellyhead #2 6 years ago

    I know, they're taking their sweet time aren't they?

  • Celeborn #3 6 years ago

    Blizzard in delayed game shocker

  • Hog-lumps #4 6 years ago

    Does this mean the single player mode is not substantial enough to warrant a game of its own?

    (edit typo)
    Edited by 1 at 03/11/05 @ 09:46

  • Kami #5 6 years ago

    So the online is more important than the single player?

    ...

    oh dear...

  • Dizzy #6 6 years ago

    > So the online is more important than the single player?

    Welcome to 2005

  • Treze #7 6 years ago

    > > So the online is more important than the single player?

    > Welcome to 2005

    Does your alternate reality have flying cars?

  • absolutezero #8 6 years ago

    Balls to online gaming.

    None of my consoles are hooked up to the net, it would take me around 5 mintues to do but I don't feel the need in the slightest.

    Just over 10% of Xboxes are Live enbaled in the states. Online gaming is the future though. WE WILL MAKE IT THE FUTURE THERE IS NO CHOICE.

  • linksdad #9 6 years ago

    So they are going to make the best use of the extensive and widely used ps2 online network then?

  • Xerx3s #10 6 years ago

    Errr, thought they canned it ages ago.

  • Dizzy #11 6 years ago

    >> Welcome to 2005

    >Does your alternate reality have flying cars?

    I am amazed you even use the internet? You buy newspapers? Turn on TV to get your news? Go to WHS for your books? Walk to Virgin mega store to get your CDs? Only use the post office for sending letters to friends? Get patches by calling customer support with your telephone?

    This is the connected world people... Online cannot be ignored... even if you perfer single player experience, todays games have to also cater for the online people. That 10% will only go up.... 10 years ago everybody thought mobile phones were useless... welcome to 2005.

    And online consoles is not about online playing only... it is about being connected... downlaoding levels, checking friends, VoIP?, etc... etc... Please stop pretending it is only about playing against each other online. very soon it is going to be very natural to just hook up your console to the internet, even if you never play against anybody else.
    Edited by 1 at 03/11/05 @ 13:02

  • smelly #12 6 years ago

    gawd.. i dunno about everyone else, but i like my console gaming experiences to be simple.. doing all that sounds too much like all the hassle you get with pc gaming for my liking.

  • The-Bodybuilder #13 6 years ago

    Who can delay a game for the longest period? rare or blizzard?

  • Treze #14 6 years ago

    >>> Welcome to 2005

    >>Does your alternate reality have flying cars?

    >I am amazed you even use the internet? You buy newspapers? Turn on TV to get
    >your news? Go to WHS for your books? Walk to Virgin mega store to get your
    (...)

    Dizzy you seem to have forgoten the
    >>>> So the online is more important than the single player?

    In Ghost's case it might be but as of 2005 it is not. Maybe it will be in the near future but just not yet.

  • Roamer #15 6 years ago

    "And online consoles is not about online playing only... it is about being connected... downlaoding levels, checking friends, VoIP?, etc... etc... Please stop pretending it is only about playing against each other online. very soon it is going to be very natural to just hook up your console to the internet, even if you never play against anybody else. . "

    I'll use my console for playing games only, thank you very much. And if I want to play against someone, I'd prefer it to be some of my friends as opposed to some dim-witted, 14-year old american internet geek. There's something to be said for games as a social pasttime, an aspect that arguably disappears if all multiplayer is confined to the online realm. At the end of the day, you're still sitting alone in your living room.

    There's another problem, by the way. Game journalists are invariably hardcore gamers, and as such seem to prefer playing online, as they often review games as a solo-project. This means that scores on the multiplayer aspect of game reviews are often skewed towards the online component. The Xbox doesn't seem to have any multiplayer games to speak of - mostly online games, disappointingly, which is why I've decided against buying it every time I've been tempted. Worse still, for those games that do offer offline multiplayer, the reviewer fails to mention the feature. That's why, on game-packaging, there should be one stamp for online and one stamp for multiplayer.

    Nintendo seems to be the only company still paying some homage to people who prefer social games...

  • Kami #16 6 years ago

    I'm just confused, if it's single-player, then make it single-player. If it's a multiplayer/online game, that's fine.

    But I'm wary, because over the past few years I have noticed in games, being the jack-of-all-trades isn't the wisest approach. Direction is really a necessity I feel for the industry, knowing WHAT a game is...

    And so far, from Starcraft: Ghost... I don't get any sense of what it's direction is. It's got plenty of time to find that direction (and judging from what I've read about it, plenty of time to fix plenty of other things too!), but I was always under the impression that it was mainly a single-player campaign. Now they're saying that a lot of work is going to the online portion...

    I just don't get it... then, I prefer single-player on consoles anyway, my online duty is with my PC and will be for the foreseeable future... maybe Blizzard knows what it's doing.

    ... but I'm not so sure...

  • t #17 6 years ago

    You buy newspapers?

    Yep. As a matter of fact, i find reading a newspaper quite relaxing. Something you can do at a cafe, on the train. And a paper is easier to read than carting a laptop around.

    Turn on TV to get your news?

    Sometimes. See above.

    Go to WHS for your books?

    Yep again. There is a little thing called browsing. You know, you walk around a book shop, pick up a book, leaf through it. Decide whether or not to buy it. Sure you can order stuff online IF you know what you are after.

    OMG i can do all this on teh intarwebs? TEH FUTURE IS NOW!

    A dislike for online gaming, or online news, or online purchasing does not make one a de-evolved troglodyte, regardless of your insinuations. Sure, you may be enamoured with everything 'internet', but for a lot of us it's all very 'meh'.

    Oh, and you have to love the irony in MS' advertising of xbox live: "it's good to play together"