Tag Archives: Starcraft 2

Train2Game News: Games Industry News – 22.03.13

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StarCraft 2 It is the end of the week so it is time for the Train2Game games industry news round up!

Today is the start of the Insomnia48 convention. Gamers are flocking to the gaming festival, for a weekend of gaming highlights including the ESET UK Masters StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm grand finals. With some of the best competitive gamers in the world vying for a share of the £10,000 prize pot, the tournament represents the pinnacle of the UK eSports scene. Jetting in from countries such as South Korea, Romania, Switzerland and Germany, the 12 gamers that have qualified over the last few weeks represent the cream of the international eSports crop and will provide some of the most exciting competitive StarCraft entertainment possible!

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment today announced a Season Pass for the upcoming DC Comics fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us. The Injustice: Gods Among Us Season Pass grants purchasers access to four of the game’s upcoming downloadable characters for the price of three.

In further Injustice: Gods Among Us news, the developers are giving comic book and beat-‘em-up fans the opportunity to settle the age-old-question of “who will win?” in person at special Injustice: Gods Among Us tournaments being held in GAME stores around the UK during the month of April. The Injustice: Gods Among Us Tournament UK Final is in London and the International Final is in Paris.

Kickstarter has now had over $107 million dollars pledged to games with over $22 million of that just this year alone. Kickstarter cites the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter in February 2012 as the game project that really got everyone’s attention. While there are plenty of success stories on Kickstarter, it glosses over the fact that not all of these games are successfully produced. This proves that everyone can have trouble with developing a game, it is not an easy task and it shouldn’t be taken lightly!

Finally a different way to play some of your favourite PC games has surfaced. Peripheral company Stelulu Technologies have developed a controller that can use with your feet. The interestingly named, Stinky Board, has four buttons underneath that can be pressed when you lean your foot on them. The buttons can be mapped to any key on your keyboard and “in-game modifiers” are supported like Alt, Ctrl and Shift. That means up to 16 actions can performed and the device can automatically detect and load saved profiles. Additionally, the tension of the board can be adjusted and the board itself is made out of steel, aluminium and “heavy duty plastics” to withstand the kind of foot-related abuse you might expect when someone keeps dying over and over again in their favourite FPS.

Blizzard release Starcraft II custom map ‘Burning Tide’

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Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty Burning TideBlizzard have released Burning Tide, the first custom map for their highly successful Real Time Strategy game Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. The 3 vs 3 map was announced on the Starcraft II Battle.net blog. The Starcraft II blog says:

“We’re proud to announce the release of Blizzard Entertainment’s first new StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty custom map: Burning Tide!”

“Featuring timed lava surges and collectable mineral caches, Burning Tide is a 3v3 map that combines several thematic elements from the epic single-player campaign mission “The Devil’s Playground.”

“Like the campaign mission, the goal of this game is greed, and the first team to reach the specified resource total wins! Players hoping to achieve victory on this map will need to work together, carefully managing their team’s unit production and safeguarding their vulnerable workers as they defend against enemy forces.”

Starcraft II players can access Burning Tide in the custom games list in the game client. It’s likely that Burning Tide will be the first of many custom maps released by Blizzard for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty. Any interested Train2Game students can get a taste of Burning Tide by looking at the screenshots on the Starcraft II Battle.net blog.

Activision Blizzard is extremely pleased with the success of Starcraft II, with Wings of Liberty being the fastest selling strategy game of all time, selling 1.5 million copies in the first 48 hours of release. Starcraft II then went on to sell three million copes in the month after its much anticipated release on July 27th.

So Train2Game, will you be playing Burning Tide? Or have you done so already? Are you pleased Blizzard are releasing more multiplayer challenges for Starcraft II?

You can leave your thoughts about Burning Tide and Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty here on the Train2Game blog, or on the Train2Game forum.

Starcraft II sells over three million in a month

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Starcraft IIStarcraft II: Wings of Liberty has sold over three million copies worldwide in just its first month on release according to publisher Activision Blizzard.

The long anticipated Starcraft II was released simultaneously worldwide on July 27th with many eager Starcraft fans attending midnight launches in order to be among the first to get their hands on the RTS sequel.

Starcraft II was a massive success, with 1.5 million copies Blizzard’s title being sold in the first 48 hours of release, making Starcraft II the fastest selling strategy game of all time.

Naturally, Starcraft II had no trouble topping the UK Charts in its first week on release, an impressive achievement given that downloaded copies of Wings of Liberty weren’t counted in the chart at the time.

These strong sales have given Starcraft II the momentum required to push past the three million copies sold mark, further cementing Wings of Liberty’s position as the most successful PC game of 2010 so far. With three million copies sold, it seems unlikely that anything will be removing Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty from its position of most successful PC game of the year.

Activision Blizzard will no doubt be well on the way to recouping the supposed $100 million Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty cost to produce.

Naturally, CEO of Blizzard Entertainment Mike Morhaime is pleased with the success of Starcraft II.

“We appreciate all the enthusiasm that players around the world have shown for StarCraft II.”

“It was important to us to deliver an overall gameplay experience that was accessible, balanced, and fun, and it’s been gratifying to see how strongly the global community has already embraced the game.”

With Starcraft II being divided into three instalments, it’s likely that Activision Blizzard will have more success with the franchise in future. However, there’s no word yet on when the second part of Starcraft II will be released.

So Train2Game, have you picked up a copy of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty in the month it’s been on sale? If so, is it really that amazing?  How much are you looking forward to the next instalment of the Starcraft II franchise? And will anything else released this year topple Starcraft II from its position of most successful PC game of 2010?

You can leave your thoughts on Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, or the Starcraft franchise in general, here on the Train2Game blog or on the Train2Game forum.