Blizzard Worldwide Invitational: Yahoo! Report Day One

For weeks, gaming news sites have been abuzz with speculation about this weekend's big announcement from World of Warcraft developer Blizzard. We've known for ages that there was going to be some bombshell dropped -- would it be a new online RPG? A new Diablo game? A completely new game altogether? Well, now we finally know: it's Starcraft 2.

Starcraft 2

Given the location of the announcement, the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational Starcraft tournament in Korea, it's not a huge surprise. The original game, released in 1998, proved a colossal success in the country, with sales figures topping the 3.5 million mark - not bad for a nation with one sixth of the population of the USA. Top Starcraft players are household names, and big tournaments are nationally televised.

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As for the game, it bears a significant resemblance to a shined-up, 3D version of the first Starcraft game. This, too, is not a huge surprise. Blizzard doesn't like to innovate. Blizzard likes to take well-proven concepts, polish them until they absolutely glow, and unleash them upon its horde of worldwide fans, inevitably to colossal acclaim. Any other developer would happily dismember their grannies to have Blizzard's solid gold track record.

Play Blizzard Report: Games in Korea Play Interview: Starcraft 2 Developers Play On-Scene Report: Starcraft 2 Fan Reactions

But let's face it: Starcraft 2 is going to be good, innovative or not. Blizzard doesn't make bad games -- just look at the fate of Starcraft: Ghost, a console-based action-stealth spin-off of the first Starcraft title, canned (sorry, "indefinitely postponed") last year after repeated delays and poor showings. Every game Blizzard has released, in the last decade, has topped sales charts and been a smash hit with the critics too, a combination that's all too rare.

When will it be released? Here, again, we see a classic Blizzard move: They're not telling.

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Your guess is as good as ours, but just as Blizzard has a rep for quality, it has a rep for taking its sweet, sweet time over it. As they're raking in the dollars from the nine million users of World of Warcraft, the company hardly needs to race out another product to survive. What could be better than a company with a secure financial future, an exciting new game in development, and a practical guarantee that the result will be loved by countless fans all around the world? Hmm. I wonder if they're hiring?

• Day Two Coverage
• Read full details on StarCraft II presentation