Blizzard All-Stars held up by new business model

We haven't heard much from Blizzard's own entry into the Dota clone arena, Blizzard All-Stars, since the developer settled/lost its trademark dispute with Valve, but fear not, "it's still actively being worked on." That's the word from StarCraft II production director Chris Sigaty, who says it's held up while Blizzard works on bits for its business model. While Blizzard still won't formally confirm it'll be free-to-play, it's looking awfully likely.

21

We haven't heard much from Blizzard's own entry into the Dota clone arena, Blizzard All-Stars, since the developer settled/lost its trademark dispute with Valve, but fear not, "it's still actively being worked on." That's the word from StarCraft 2 production director Chris Sigaty, who says it's held up while Blizzard works on bits for its business model. While Blizzard still won't formally confirm it'll be free-to-play, it's looking awfully likely.

"A lot of the stuff that's remaining right now that we need to focus on are the systems necessary to pull off a game with a different business model than StarCraft 2," Sigaty told Eurogamer.

"StarCraft 2 is a box. We intend to do something different with the business model in Blizzard All-Stars, something more closely resembling the other types of games in that genre, the MOBA-style games that are out there today, and being able to sell smaller amounts of things to players, the things they want."

The standard MOBA model is a free-to-play game which makes money from selling character unlocks and cosmetic pretties like skins and hats, as seen in Dota 2, League of Legends, and heaps more. Blizzard All-Stars was originally planned as a free custom game mode for SC2, but plans have grown as time wore on.

"We'll go into more details about that in the future but I suspect you will not have to have StarCraft 2 to play [it]," Sagity said. We're definitely emphasizing it as its own product in the future."

Filed Under
From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 22, 2013 11:30 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Blizzard All-Stars held up by new business model.

    We haven't heard much from Blizzard's own entry into the Dota clone arena, Blizzard All-Stars, since the developer settled/lost its trademark dispute with Valve, but fear not, "it's still actively being worked on." That's the word from StarCraft II production director Chris Sigaty, who says it's held up while Blizzard works on bits for its business model. While Blizzard still won't formally confirm it'll be free-to-play, it's looking awfully likely.

    • reply
      January 22, 2013 11:47 AM

      how much room is there in the MOBA market place anyway?

      • reply
        January 22, 2013 12:45 PM

        This would be filling the scifi niche but I do wonder as well what the breaking point is. These games need a community around them to thrive and right now people seem to be congregating around Dota2 and LoL.

      • reply
        January 22, 2013 12:58 PM

        Seems like it's just LoL, with DotA2 picking up the more hardcore scene.

        HoN is there and has events, but has even less visibility than DotA2. LoL eclipses everything by multiple orders of magnitude, though.

      • reply
        January 22, 2013 1:28 PM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          January 22, 2013 1:33 PM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            January 22, 2013 4:21 PM

            Awesomenauts, while not Popcap, I think is about as close as it gets. Granted, I suppose EA does own them now, it's only a matter of time before they grind Popcap into a quick burst of moneyjuice.

        • reply
          January 22, 2013 2:36 PM

          I'd recommend Guardians of Middle Earth. It does away with the complex in-battle upgrade purchasing, the community is much more laid back, and playing using controllers is less distracting (though less accurate). There's somewhat less strategy involved, though: smaller-feeling maps, quicker battles, and you can wander the map killing creatures and upgrading towers very early in game. This gives it a much less "elite" feeling than LoL or Dota2, so it depends on your preferences.

          Disclaimer: I play GoME and want the community to grow so I can have more fun, too.

        • reply
          January 22, 2013 5:07 PM

          The genre itself is unapproachable from a casual level. I don't see how it can be done. If anyone says that LoL is highly approachable from a casual perspective, they can go fuck themselves.

      • reply
        January 22, 2013 8:04 PM

        In all honesty, if someone out there can make a moba game that can effectively play on a new map and make it work well, then that will be more than enough reason to switch over.

        • reply
          January 22, 2013 8:05 PM

          But this would be like trying to somehow get football rules to work on a baseball diamond. impossible? No. Possibly laughably bad? Very.

    • reply
      January 22, 2013 1:03 PM

      I guess this is going to be a bit more than a tech demo for the new Battle.net marketplace or whatever then.

      • reply
        January 22, 2013 4:35 PM

        I wouldn't doubt it, given what we saw from Diablo III's RMAH. Not to mention the SC2 F2P rumors from a while back.

    • reply
      January 22, 2013 1:30 PM

      Just want to point out that we can call this game BALLS for short.

    • reply
      January 22, 2013 4:27 PM

      I wondered where Jay Wilson would end up.

    • reply
      January 22, 2013 5:16 PM

      wasn't this supposed to be a blizzard authored sc2 custom map? did that ever even come out? and now it's going to be a full game i guess?

    • reply
      January 22, 2013 5:16 PM

      "Business model"? Interest just dropped from mild to zero. There's no way this is going to come in and be competitive in the Dota clone market. They haven't tried to make money from the other SC2 custom game types they have released.

      • reply
        January 22, 2013 5:21 PM

        It'll get a million players just because it says Blizzard in front of it.

      • reply
        January 22, 2013 5:29 PM

        this is a shit-tonne more work than the other custom game types, and all the other clones have a business model, so what's the difference

    • reply
      January 22, 2013 6:14 PM

      Blizzards case Terminated? http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=91202572&pty=OPP as of 5/24/12 looks like to me. Unless there is some other one.

      • reply
        January 22, 2013 6:15 PM

        Oh gotcha, read to fast over your "settled/lost" part. HERP

    • reply
      January 22, 2013 7:38 PM

      [deleted]

Hello, Meet Lola