Behemoth studio and creator of the StarCraft RTS series, Blizzard Entertainment, is notorious for its long development cycles. It’s an integral part of the studio’s “quality first" mindset. But it’s also an ethos that is, to some extent, stopping Blizzard from putting SC on the iPad.
Speaking recently to Ars Technica, lead designer of SC 2 Dustin Browder put the breaks on any thoughts that the studio is actively developing for the device: “I don’t know," he said, “We’re certainly not working on it now."
The reason is wrapped up in control. SC 2 is a PC RTS, and while some devs have been able to have success with their strategy releases on Apple’s latest device, Blizzard isn’t so sure their game’s experience will translate.
“Will we give users the same quality experience?" Browder asked. “We don’t put multiple SKUs out there and have like, the good SKU, and the ‘Meh, we exploited this SKU, we made some money.’ We don’t want that SKU, the version that’s not the good version."
Would Blizzard make millions if they released an iPad version of SC? It’s possible. This is the studio that makes millions on digital animals for their PC MMO World of Warcraft, after all. But for now, Blizzard seems content on doing what it does best: making polished and entertaining PC games.
