Blizzard’s Mystery Game is the StarCraft MMO

by Dan Landis on June 27, 2008 at 6:34 am

It’s official! Okay, no, it’s not. Blizzard has been teasing the gaming world with its evolving homepage ice picture, and after this latest update, the planets certainly appear to be aligning for the announcement of World of StarCraft, or whatever they decide to call the new Massively Multiplayer Online game set in the StarCraft universe.

The StarCraft MMO has been rumored for a long time. It was reported as a sure thing for a brief moment in time back in May 2007 that it would be unveiled in South Korea at a Blizzard event, but that didn’t happen. Now with the upcoming release of StarCraft 2, what better time to release the StarCraft MMO than when they already got StarCraft on the brain?

Back to the picture, however, we’ve pretty much all decided there was a face there. It was originally suspected to be a Diablo head, indicating Blizzard’s new game was Diablo 3. Now the face, with glowing blue energy eyeballs, most likely is the face of a Protoss.

You can even see the faint glowing diamond between the eyes. Now let’s superimpose these two pictures:

Looks pretty clear to me. If that’s not good enough, take a gander at this:

The rune to the bottom left of the “face” is quite clearly the exact same as the Protoss symbol. Blizzard has already stated that they will be announcing a new game at their Worldwide Invitational, so it’s not just indicating StarCraft II again. They’ve also had job openings listed for “Next-Gen MMO” on their site for a while now. This all seems to point very rigidly in the StarCraft MMO direction, don’tcha think?

UPDATE: Turns out, no. While the flash image turned out to be completely unrelated to StarCraft (or an MMO), Blizzard confirmed that there is a fourth project in the works that is not yet announced, but is apparently the “next-gen MMO”. I think you can guess what my prediction on that is.

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Tags: Blizzard, MMO, next-gen mmo, protoss, wwi

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John Kershaw
on June 27, 2008 6:47 am

Interesting, however, the other symbols represent the other games in the Blizzard relm. There is also alot of weight behind the Diablo 3 argument.

Goddamit! I don’t even care about these games and I’m getting worked up.

Also, wtf is with the evil penguin?
Dan Landis
on June 27, 2008 6:51 am

I’m sure they’re just trying to throw you off. Then again, the one thing I thought of was that it’s a World of BlizzardCraft, an MMO that has characters from all of their worlds. Then again this could all just be an ad for the WWI and nothing more. Oh, speculation, you are a wily bitch.

Maybe as it cracks further we will see a character on the left and right side of the Protoss guy, maybe a Zerg and a Terran, or a Diablo and a Dwarf. There’s still a small part of me that’s got money riding on The Lost Vikings.
Kesvalk
on June 27, 2008 7:04 am

this seems to be arthas eyes after the merging with the lich-king

but, if this is the site of a whole new MMO, then i bet on the Starcraft MMO… the only eye that glows blue in blizzard universe apart for arthas’s are the protoss…
Ry-Guy
on June 27, 2008 7:22 am

Apparently someone hasn’t kept their ear to the ground about this one.

Basically a lot of insider information is pointing all at Diablo 3. I saw today’s image and intially thought that looked like Diablo’s eyes.

Also all of the other symbols appear to represent Blizzard games.

On top of that, the ice theme is not far fetched for the Diablo-verse. Considering the second game’s expansion seemed to play in an ice themed world.

Anyways, the World of Starcraft has always been a rumour and yes it would be a neat game but at the same time would you want to split your population (and revenue) between two MMOs when your one is no where close to its end life cycle? Seems silly to me since there never has been any concrete details of a WoS in the works…
needtocontrol
on June 27, 2008 7:41 am

Hmm, maybe Diablo and co. have been lying dormant awaiting the realignment of some cosmic something or other, so they can reappear and wreak havoc and malicious evil upon an unsuspecting space-faring race that has long since forgotten the struggles of their ancestors against demonkind.

I’ve not played Starcraft much but it seems to me that that the Protoss could well be descended from from a race of bipedal cows, the most secretive of creatures from the world of Diablo.

Obviously, the stars are now in alignment foretelling the rebirth of an ancient seer, who will sound almost, but not quite like Sean Connery, to guide the creation of the Horadric Space Station in order to consign Diablo and his evil sequel’s er, brothers to the void forever (again).

I eagerly await confirmation :o)
BigBallsBarry
on June 27, 2008 8:20 am

Lost Vikings. No question.
ikaro
on June 27, 2008 11:49 am

If is a crossover? Blizzard games? Starcraft + Diablo in a unique game!
Paperclip1
on June 27, 2008 12:49 pm

You can superimpose ANYTHING on those eyes as long as they’re equidistant and have it look convincing.

Example: http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/8034/faithv23tk1.jpg

Your evidence is, unfortunately, far from conclusive.
HyruleGangsta
on June 27, 2008 1:04 pm

The eyes alone are not enough to sell me, but the symbol has me crossing my fingers…
Kyle
on June 27, 2008 4:09 pm

dude! paperclip that is so cool. way to crush this rumor.
xD

Im hoping for either, just NOT a diablo MMO.
Dan Landis
on June 27, 2008 4:33 pm

Ry-Guy,

We have kept our ears very close to the ground. I clearly stated in my article that this game has been suspected to be Diablo 3, and Dylan Duarte here at Ripten has previously reported that to be the case.

And yes, I do think Blizzard would run 2 MMO’s, and no, I don’t think it would split their user base. Most people who started WoW back in 2004 have quit. It is always attracting new people, but it is always losing people also. A new universe would be much fresher than an expansion pack, so Blizzard would likely see return customers. Of course some people would leave WarCraft for StarCraft, but a lot of other people would get both. You also have to consider the very large population of StarCraft fans that don’t care about WarCraft, like the entire population of South Korea. They are obsessed. They even have StarCraft branded Doritos.

StarCraft and WarCraft would likely play very differently considering the character units from the RTS games. WarCraft is swords and sorcery while StarCraft is lasers and siege tanks. I don’t think the StarCraft MMO would be that heavy on melee combat.

Paperclip1,

Of course the evidence isn’t conclusive, neither is the evidence that it is Diablo 3 or Wrath of the Lich King. It is all just speculation at this point. Blizzard has clearly stated that they are announcing a new game. Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II have been announced, so I ruled out a death knight head and associated a Protoss head with the MMO instead of StarCraft II.

I still think it’s possible that it’s Diablo 3, but it looks more like the StarCraft universe to me. I think there is a good chance that the evil purple penguin and the Blizzard splash image are actually representing different games, and Blizzard might announce BOTH Diablo 3 and the StarCraft MMO.

I also think it’s possible that the splash image will only reveal the release dates for WotLK and/or StarCraft II, but that would be very lame considering how they’ve been building it up. And as I said before, this imagery could all just be misleading us so we never suspect the game it turns out to be, and that would be The Lost Vikings.

The only conclusive evidence here is that we’ll just have to wait and see.
Oldschool_Wolf
on June 27, 2008 4:36 pm

Are you sure that is ice? it could be the stuff that is used for resources in starcraft, minerals.
Dan Landis
on June 27, 2008 5:01 pm

Interesting. I did think it was ice the whole time, but I just assumed the ice represented Blizzard.
Bryan
on June 27, 2008 5:12 pm

Paperclip, I doubt that you’ll say, but can I ask where you got that image?
Krispy Demon
on June 27, 2008 5:14 pm

Ry-Guy:
“Anyways, the World of Starcraft has always been a rumour and yes it would be a neat game but at the same time would you want to split your population (and revenue) between two MMOs when your one is no where close to its end life cycle? Seems silly to me since there never has been any concrete details of a WoS in the works…”

If you think about it, releasing anything would be splitting their user base. You don’t think people might quit WoW to play Starcraft 2? Look at SOE, they have many many MMOs under their banner. Maybe Blizzard will do the same thing where you can pay an extra fee to get access to both WoW and Starcraft MMO. And frankly, I don’t think having a fantasy MMO and a Sci-Fi MMO would really split their user base, considering there are plenty of people out there who are still waiting for a good Sci-Fi game because high fantasy is STUPID. Also, as Dan has stated, South Korea practically worships Starcraft as some sort of deity, so I really don’t think releasing another MMO would hurt them at all.
Bryan
on June 27, 2008 5:20 pm

By the way, just wondering… what is a symbol from Starcraft doing in a Diablo ad? Just to represent Blizzard? I suppose that could be it. :( But at least we know there’s a next-gen Blizzard MMO coming sometime.
PVRfrite
on June 27, 2008 6:41 pm

Yes, there are StarCraft II symbols, but what about the others?There are two symbols of Diablo II runes that have been found on the image…me, I think they will SURELY do something about diablo II, and something with another game.
PVRfrite
on June 27, 2008 6:41 pm

euh…about diablo III, sorry
PVRfrite
on June 27, 2008 6:44 pm

Dan Landis, im okay with you i think it’s some kind of tracks to say that they will anounce two games.
PVRfrite
on June 27, 2008 6:48 pm

yes, it could be a protoss, or maybe that : http://www.enregistrersous.com/images/130317315220070428040811.jpg
DePeNDe
on June 27, 2008 7:11 pm

Man, i want your drugs, seriusly.
Bryan
on June 27, 2008 10:05 pm

“i think it’s some kind of tracks to say that they will anounce two games.”

Hey, that’s a thought! Could be, we’ll see…
BeauRosser
on June 28, 2008 2:55 am

World of Starcraft would be sexy. Traveling from planet to planet via spaceship would be the hotness.
Dilios
on June 28, 2008 12:32 pm

owned!!
Chad Lakkis
on June 29, 2008 4:56 pm

Thanks for stopping by to share your insightful feedback Dildos.

Chad-

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