[s]battlenet[/s]
Earlier this year, Blizzard's Itzik Ben Bassat implied a new StarCraft game in an interview, but he also referring to some coming changes for Battle.net. When asked how Blizzard intended to apply the success of World of Warcraft to their other games, he said that Blizzard is asking themselves, "how do we take Battle.net, and convert that from the great narrowband experience to an absolutely unbelievable broadband experience that it will be?" Most modern games now require broadband for online play, so it seems to be a logical step forwards. Blizzard sees online play as an integral part of their strategy. "There are so many opportunities and possibilities that we see in online gaming and that's what we're going to focus on", says Bassat.
Somewhat in keeping with this strategy, Blizzard has a new jobs posting for a "Core Senior Programmer", who will work on "core technology that will be leveraged across all Blizzard games." Consider that each game currently has its own implementation of Battle.net. There currently is no Battle.net launcher. The job also inlcudes the "design and development of systems such as patcher, installer, downloader and launcher for all Blizzard games", which leads me to believe that Blizzard may be working on a modern gaming network powered by common software, much like Valve's Steam, which runs everything from Counter-Strike to Ragdoll Kung Fu. This is a bit of a long shot, but considering the problems Blizzard had initially with WoW, including the lack of servers, it makes business sense to have a robust system designed to handle all sorts of online gameplay.
StarCraft will not be forgotten, either. The job calls for experience with at least two out of three major operating systems - including Linux, Mac and Windows. The description states that it will involve continued "development support for Blizzard legacy games, including StarCraft, Warcraft III, and Diablo II". However, the "legacy" attitude towards StarCraft makes me more inclined to agree with Entropy - "the forgotten sons; we are the 'narrowband users. '" Blizzard's last great contribution to StarCraft 1 may well be patch 1.15 - with a strong anti-hack from Ashur, but StarCraft 2 may yet prevail - included in Blizzard's April Fools joke was the following - "After the real-time strategy classics StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War, this bold new project marks a long-awaited return to the genre." With StarCraft's tenth anniversary a year off, let us hope they return quickly.
Links
StarCraft Legacy - Battle.net Evolution
Blizzard Jobs - Core Senior Programmer
StarCraft Legacy - Blizzard announces its next RTS (April Fools)
I admit that I'm a bit of a sucker for SC2 rumours, but there is substance to them. Some possible insights into the future of Battle.net, and a small hint about SC2.
Earlier this year, Blizzard's Itzik Ben Bassat implied a new StarCraft game in an interview, but he also referring to some coming changes for Battle.net. When asked how Blizzard intended to apply the success of World of Warcraft to their other games, he said that Blizzard is asking themselves, "how do we take Battle.net, and convert that from the great narrowband experience to an absolutely unbelievable broadband experience that it will be?" Most modern games now require broadband for online play, so it seems to be a logical step forwards. Blizzard sees online play as an integral part of their strategy. "There are so many opportunities and possibilities that we see in online gaming and that's what we're going to focus on", says Bassat.
Somewhat in keeping with this strategy, Blizzard has a new jobs posting for a "Core Senior Programmer", who will work on "core technology that will be leveraged across all Blizzard games." Consider that each game currently has its own implementation of Battle.net. There currently is no Battle.net launcher. The job also inlcudes the "design and development of systems such as patcher, installer, downloader and launcher for all Blizzard games", which leads me to believe that Blizzard may be working on a modern gaming network powered by common software, much like Valve's Steam, which runs everything from Counter-Strike to Ragdoll Kung Fu. This is a bit of a long shot, but considering the problems Blizzard had initially with WoW, including the lack of servers, it makes business sense to have a robust system designed to handle all sorts of online gameplay.
StarCraft will not be forgotten, either. The job calls for experience with at least two out of three major operating systems - including Linux, Mac and Windows. The description states that it will involve continued "development support for Blizzard legacy games, including StarCraft, Warcraft III, and Diablo II". However, the "legacy" attitude towards StarCraft makes me more inclined to agree with Entropy - "the forgotten sons; we are the 'narrowband users. '" Blizzard's last great contribution to StarCraft 1 may well be patch 1.15 - with a strong anti-hack from Ashur, but StarCraft 2 may yet prevail - included in Blizzard's April Fools joke was the following - "After the real-time strategy classics StarCraft and StarCraft: Brood War, this bold new project marks a long-awaited return to the genre." With StarCraft's tenth anniversary a year off, let us hope they return quickly.
Links
StarCraft Legacy - Battle.net Evolution
Blizzard Jobs - Core Senior Programmer
StarCraft Legacy - Blizzard announces its next RTS (April Fools)
