소우주11의 L.C.L의 바다

소스: NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/technology/21warcraft.html?_r=1&oref=slogin [새창에서 열기]


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Much of South Korea and gamers around the world spun into a tizzy over the weekend as Blizzard Entertainment, perhaps the world’s most successful video game company, announced that it was developing a sequel to its popular computer strategy game StarCraft.

The original StarCraft, which pits humans against two alien races in a science-fiction environment, has sold more than 9.5 million copies since its introduction in 1998. The game has become practically the national sport for South Koreans under age 40. It has been credited with helping propel the deployment of Internet connections that are far faster than those generally available in the United States.

Competitive gaming, known in South Korea as E-sports, has millions of young Korean participants, and the country has at least three television networks devoted to gaming (akin to ESPN and Fox Sports in North America). Top professional StarCraft players like Lim Yo Hwan are national celebrities on the order of film stars and pop music idols.

Over the weekend, thousands of fans jammed the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul for Blizzard’s 2007 Worldwide Invitational StarCraft tournament, where the company announced that it was working on StarCraft II.

On video game Web sites and message boards around the world, the announcement eclipsed reports about Sony’s Gamer Day in San Diego last week and speculation about Nintendo’s media briefing tomorrow in Seattle.

“We know that the announcement of StarCraft II has all but caused the Internet to explode,” editors wrote at Joystiq.com, a popular gaming blog.

“But can you imagine what it must be like in Korea? Seriously, can you imagine? It would be like people in the United States finding out that there was a sequel to ‘American Idol’ that would also power their cars.”

Blizzard, based in Irvine, Calif., is a subsidiary of Vivendi of France. In an industry that usually focuses on consoles that plug into televisions, like the PlayStation 3 from Sony and Xbox 360 from Microsoft, Blizzard has built a billion-dollar business on games for desktop PCs. It has a record of smash hits based on its StarCraft, Warcraft and Diablo franchises.

World of Warcraft, the company’s online fantasy role-playing game, has attracted more than eight million subscribers (who generally pay more than $10 a month), in a genre where 250,000 users is considered major success.

Blizzard did not announce a release date for StarCraft II. Company executives said the game would not be released this year, but that it would run on both Windows and Macintosh computers when it is made available.

“We are going to take real-time strategy games farther than we have in the past and farther than anyone else has in the market,” Paul Sams, Blizzard’s chief operating officer, said in an interview.

Mr. Sams declined to comment on speculation among video-game specialists that the company was also working on a third installment of the Diablo fantasy action series.

The company is expected to make another major product announcement at its fan fair in Southern California in early August.

In South Korea, where major banks and telecommunications companies sponsor StarCraft leagues and teams (much as major American companies vie to associate themselves with the National Football League), fans cheered at every opportunity during the announcement.

“The graphics of StarCraft II seems so much better,” said Kim Young Chul, 25. “No, I don’t play the World of Warcraft or Warcraft 3. Only StarCraft.”
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너무 길어서 디아블로 파트만 적을께요.-.- ㅈㅅ..

Mr. Sams declined to comment on speculation among video-game specialists that the company was also working on a third installment of the Diablo fantasy action series.

The company is expected to make another major product announcement at its fan fair in Southern California in early August.

이 부분이구요. 본문에선 약간 아래쪽에 위치해 있구. 대충해석하면.

샘은전부터 만들던 디아블로 3번째에 대한 말은 삼가 하였다.
회사는 지금 다른 중요한 게임 발표를 할것으로 예정되어 있고 8월초 켈리포니아에서 할 예정이다.

고스트 아니면 디아3인데.. 제 생각엔 디아 3인듯.
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디아3는 상당히 가능성이 희박한게...디아 개발진들을 한국쪽에 뺏기다 보니
무산된걸로 알고 있는데..그렇다고 개발 완전 중지인 고스트일리는 없을테고...

8월 초가 되봐야 알겠네요