The film industry has taught us that certain motion picture franchises/adaptations need to be released in trilogies these days for moviegoers to fully appreciate their EPIC scope. Perhaps videogames might be looking toward achieving some of that epic-ness by adopting similarly tripartite release schedules.
It's now confirmed StarCraft II is going to be released as a trilogy of games. Reception to this announcement from the fanbase has been mixed, with plenty of conspiracy theories floating around as a result. Developer Blizzard addresses one of these, shooting down rumors that new partner/owner Activision was a factor in shaking up StarCraft II's release as we know it in order to leverage a lucrative franchise.
Blizzard PR rep Bob Colayco explains that Activision played absolutely in no part in making StarCraft II a trilogy release, instead pointing out how Blizzard always intended the upcoming PC RTS to feature at least two expansion packs. These would eventually become the additional, fully-fledged releases that make up the remainder of the trilogy. Each campaign will still boast at least 26-30 single player missions, and players will still be able to choose the other races for multiplayer; the additional games will add more goodies and refinements.
"Effectively, what are we really talking about here? We’ve always done our RTS games with one expansion pack. So now we’re releasing two. Is it really that weird?"When we ship StarCraft II, the multiplayer will be included. You’re getting all three races there. It’s not like you’re only getting the Terran race, and you’re taking Terran vs. Terran until you put all three together like Voltron or something."
Of course depending on the pricing this still adds up in dollars to spend, but Blizzard is confident the sum of the parts will be greater than the whole... or at least worth the potential 90 single-player missions. Colayco also couldn't clear up whether or not players will be expected to pay for "extra services" possibly related to StarCraft II on Battle.net as will be the case for Diablo III, so we'll have to wait and see what sort of micro-transaction-based damage awaits us all in the end.
