Details for the StarCraft II PC game were finally released to
rapturous applause from about 10,000 fans packed into the Olympic
Park gymnastics stadium in Seoul Korea on Saturday.
The special event was part of the Worldwide Invitational (WWI)
gaming tournament organised by StarCraft's developer, Blizzard
Entertainment. South Korea is Blizzard's single largest market and
this is the third year in a row that the company has held the WWI
in this country.
In Australia and around other parts of the world, Blizzard is
better known for its other title called World of Warcraft a
massively multiplayer online role playing game that's widely
regarded as the most addictive game around.
World of Warcraft currently has more than 10 million active
subscribers around the world, 100,000 of these in Australia.
Yet, StarCraft's popularity in Korea is unrivalled. It's
practically a national sport where tournaments are televised during
prime time and top professionals are paid big money to play.
The original StarCraft was released in 1998 and to date has sold
more than 9.5 million copies worldwide. It's a real-time strategy
game that pits three species (Terran, Protoss and Zerg) against
each other.
Players assume the role of one of the races and battle others
online or in a network environment.
The sequel has been highly anticipated. Blizzard's presentation to
the stadium crowd began with a teaser trailer before launching into
a demonstration of the new features in the game.
Few details were available before the announcement, with Blizzard
going to great lengths to keep the project a secret.
Rumours of a fourth race being added to the game proved to be just
that. Blizzard decided to keep the existing three to keep the focus
on balance and game-play.
The announcement was followed by local pop music and dance acts
with all the ceremony of an Olympic event.
Blizzard is expecting to attract about 50,000 visitors over the
course of the two-day event that includes hot air balloon rides,
concerts, tournaments, a merchandise store and of course, plenty of
gaming.
Simon Tsang is attending the Worldwide Invitational as a guest of
Blizzard.
