StarCraft: Ghost canned

By Tom Bramwell Published 27 March, 2006

Could return on next-gen.

Blizzard has decided to "indefinitely postpone production" on StarCraft: Ghost, its action-oriented StarCraft spin-off for consoles, "while evaluating opportunities for utilising the additional power of the new and upcoming console systems".

In a press release sent out late on Friday, Blizzard said it was announcing plans "to focus the company's console-development efforts on the next generation", but for a game as maligned as Ghost the news is more likely to be met as acknowledgement of the game's long-running problems.

President and co-founder Mike Morhaime said the developer has "been impressed with the potential" of stuff like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and, "In addition to allowing us to determine the best course for StarCraft: Ghost, this review period will help us lay the groundwork for our future console games."

Any further plans for Ghost "as well as platform and release information" will follow at some point in the future. Judging by the release, Blizzard is still keen to do something StarCraft-related on consoles; it just won't be Ghost in its current state.

Originally unveiled at the Tokyo Game Show in 2002, StarCraft: Ghost had been in development at Nihilistic Software, only for Blizzard - notoriously protective of its games' quality - to announce in July 2004 that the firm had "completed its contribution", with development handed to Swingin' Ape Studios (who Blizzard later acquired outright) around the same time.

Despite its much publicised problems and delays, Ghost development continued - and it even featured at Blizzard's inaugural convention, BlizzCon, last October in playable form.

Picture of Tom.

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 (39) Latest comment 6 years ago

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

  • Eldritch #1 6 years ago

    I'm stunned. What a waste.

  • neuroniky #2 6 years ago

    Blizzard as we have always known has stopped existing some time ago. Say hello to: World of Blizzard, the new cash-milking company devoted only to WoW. No surprise the majority of old studio developer left Blizzard in the meantime...
    Bad news, not because SC:G looked any good, but because of what this seems to suggest on the future of the company's other IP...

    Hellgate me to London as soon as possible, please.

  • steoc4 #3 6 years ago

    I thought it was a good thing, they're making so much from WoW they can afford to delay games as long as they want to get them just right.

    Wasn't WoW itself cancelled and restarted in this way many years ago when it was first being developed? Blizzard have a record of doing it right or not at all.

  • The_Aardvark #4 6 years ago

    Say hello to Blizzard stepping back into their areas of proven competence with rumours of a new installment in the Diablo franchise and similar extensions to follow.

    SC:G was never a good idea for a developer specialising in RTS and RPG games.

  • jepf #5 6 years ago

    "Blizzard have a record of doing it right or not at all."

    That's no problem for Blizzard because they really only have two games: the hack&slay-adventure and the hack&slay-RTS.

  • Roamer #6 6 years ago

    Releasing an online game for the original Xbox six months from now would make little sense, after all, so I think this is a sensible decision.

    Hellgate: London? As soon as possible.

  • TheMoonRat #7 6 years ago

    It's not as if Blizzard haven't done this before: Warcraft Adventures springs to mind

  • Eldritch #8 6 years ago

    Glad that you mention Warcraft Adventures.

    As far as I can see, there's a market for these games. Why don't they use external teams to actually exploit their licenses? Like id does with nerve and grey matter. And why don't they make a Diablo in the StarCraft universe?

  • Blerk #9 6 years ago

    What a shocker! Not.

  • Eldritch #10 6 years ago

    Come to think of it: Maybe SC:G was becoming too much of a C&C Renegade for them not to can it.

  • Eraser #11 6 years ago

    lol, why did they bother at all

  • Milbe #12 6 years ago

    Tens of people payed for years to work on a canned project? Even if they were playing games the whole time, they should have some ideas how to make a proper game by now...

  • jlaakso #13 6 years ago

    Dammit, I was really looking forward to this. I love the design we've been shown (don't know about gameplay, though).

  • Kiigan #14 6 years ago

    I just want more Starcraft, really. Any chance of that, Blizzard?

  • Aretak #15 6 years ago

    I predicted this is where Ghost would end up a couple of years ago.

  • kangarootoo #16 6 years ago

    I'd forgotten this was even still out there. Hope no-one got laid off.

  • MyPointIs #17 6 years ago

    PDZ all over again

  • absolutezero #18 6 years ago

    The way they re-made the game to make use of online modes rubbed me up the wrong way anyway.

    I think Ill just wait for Rogue Trooper.

  • paketep #19 6 years ago

    Idiots.

    If they had developed it for the PC, we would have been playing it two years ago.

    I'm waiting for Hellgate now, thanks.

  • Xerx3s #20 6 years ago

    FFS! Cut the fucking WoW crap! Give us Starcraft or diablo! :\

  • Hunam85 #21 6 years ago

    Didnt we all know this a year ago :p

  • EraSerX #22 6 years ago

    This is a good thing. Rather no game, than a crappy game...

  • Thamuhacha #23 6 years ago

    >FFS! Cut the fucking WoW crap! Give us Starcraft or diablo! :\

    More likely to be "World of Starcraft" and "World of Diablo" ... unfortunately :-(

  • space_ace #24 6 years ago

    or release the beta freely... hah not a chance

  • dudefella #25 6 years ago

    What's with all the irrational World of Warcraft hate? You all know this is how Blizzard is, they demand perfection from their games. And World of Warcraft is a damn fine game, I'm betting most of you bashers haven't even played it.

    Any other company would've released a half-broken SC:Ghost because it would have sold anyway, you spoiled brats. Get over yourselves.

  • Eldritch #26 6 years ago

    I don't have anything against WoW or Blizzard. I just think it's a waste to sit on your licenses and not exploit them properly. Why don't they let some external studio finish the game? Surely, there must be SOME studio which can pull it off.

  • Thamuhacha #27 6 years ago

    WoW is OK. I just don't enjoy massively multiplayer stuff.

    The least enjoyable bit of Diablo II was online for me. I hope they come up with a great action RPG game (on console and PC). But I fear a MMOhack'n'slash is in the works

  • Kami #28 6 years ago

    Eldritch has a point... Nintendo did it with their Metroid franchise, handing it to Retro Studios. Who managed to pull off two absolute blinders, both Primes rank very highly in my fave games of this generation...

    But as for SC: Ghost... that whole online modes thing bugged me. Perhaps it is best that this happened... it wasn't looking sublime in comparison to some games as I recall, and the problems in its production were the worst-kept secret for some time...

  • Kiigan #29 6 years ago

    Certainly I think it is for the best that they've canned the game - it is a great shame that decision wasn't made a long time ago when it was painfully obvious to anyone outside the companies concerned that the game just wasn't coming together.

    Warcraft III was okay, but I personally thought the RPG elements diluted the strategy of the game. WoW is okay too, but the MMO thing isn't for everyone and I wasn't impressed with queuing to get onto servers etc last time I tried it out.
    While it is nice that Warcraft fans have been so well taken care of with Warcraft III and WoW and it is nice that a developer of Blizzard's pedigree came along and made the MMO experience a lot more accessible for newcomers... it would be nice to get back to some of the other franchises such as Starcraft and Diablo. They've both been left to rot, and they both have still very active online communities of players.

    Here's hoping for a Starcraft 2 announcement one of the days, or a Starcraft DS announcement :)
    Edited by 1 at 27/03/06 @ 18:49

  • TheJanitor #30 6 years ago

    ffs, i wanted this! been waiting since 2003 or something. damn blizzard. i hope it'll be released on ps3...

  • Teeth #31 6 years ago

    Thinking back across the progress in development of this game fills me with a horrifying deja-vu-type dread. I look forward with grim anticipation to reading the blog entries of people who worked on it.

  • firm3d #32 6 years ago

    Honestly, I could cry ... if I weren't such a big butch manly man-like man, of course! *manly cough*

    Of the three big franchises Blizzard has Diablo was always my fave, with Starcraft a close second ... and Warcraft a distant third. This was something for me to look forward to from Blizzard while much of the company ploughed development time into a project that didn't appeal to me.

    I hope Ghost truly is postponed and not cancelled.

  • Xerx3s #33 6 years ago

    ">FFS! Cut the fucking WoW crap! Give us Starcraft or diablo! :\

    More likely to be "World of Starcraft" and "World of Diablo" ... unfortunately :-("

    Yeh. :(

    Those money hungry bastards (the shareholders atleast). I dont like MMO's, all i want is a nice little singleplayer fun with a MP option for me & me mates. Is that to much to ask? Playing diablo II for the 100000000th time on a lanparty is getting kinda boring...

  • littlemo #34 6 years ago

    Maybe their waiting for the 10th anniversary of SC and they'll pull something completely out of the blue... then again maybe they'll spend more time fixing up their far from perfect MMO...

  • Thamuhacha #35 6 years ago

    >I dont like MMO's, all i want is a nice little singleplayer fun with a MP option for me & me mates.

    Yep. It's come to a pretty poor state of affairs when I found myself actively looking forward to tripe likr BG: Dark Alliance 2 for my fix of MP fighting'n'levelling-up action. Blizzard have the cash and people to do this, surely?

  • Merlinho #36 6 years ago

    Xerx3s, DIII will be ahead of any new MMORPG, of that there is no doubt. SCIII probably for that matter too.

    As the article nicely points out but few people have commented on, Blizzard have actually acquired Swingin' Ape Studios, the EXTERNAL studio who were developing SC:G. The reason for postponement is the uncertainty of launching a game during the changeover to next gen. Most companies would hurry it out but Blizzard want to launch a product as perfect as possible, and that means nextgen. Swingin' Ape will surely continue to develop it for nextgen, and future console games for that matter.

    Blizzard have always had a policy of releasing 1 game a year. That makes this year WoW expansion, DIII next year, any bets?

  • Lagto_Soa #37 6 years ago

    I think it's funny that Starcraft was immortalised in the Walk of Game just this month. Maybe it's a related curse - if so, Tomb Raider Legend is next on the cancellation list. w00t!

  • kangarootoo #38 6 years ago

    "Those money hungry bastards (the shareholders atleast)"

    Errr, thats every big company everywhere pretty much. The fact that some do stuff you like and some do stuff you don't is as much a happy coincidence as anything else. Profits are the main motive for all of them.

  • Drakron #39 6 years ago

    WoW eaten up Blizzard resources to the point if WoW busts they have no security net and they will vanish.

    That is were WoW comes from ... the knowledge that any StarCraft, WarCraft and Diablo titles are unlikely to come any time soon.

    And this is hardly a suprise, this game became almost a big joke as Duke Nuken Forever in terms of being vaporware and the "next-gen" comment is simply a excuse and not much diferent that Duke Nuken Forever "we switch engine!" excuse.