StarCraft 2 or World of StarCraft, What Will It Be?

Many speculations have arisen over the past few days, but one thing's for sure: come this May 19, Blizzard is going to WOW us (no pun intended), hopefully with a new StarCraft game announcement. The moment of truth is expected to reveal itself during Blizzard's third Worldwide Invitational event, set to begin in Seoul, South Korea on May 19. "We're looking forward to creating another memorable show for [fans] this year as well", hinted Mike Morhaime, president and cofounder of Blizzard. But while the event's announcement from a couple of months ago said nothing about any new games, in late April rumour had it that the Korean event would finally mark the revelation of the real-time strategy sequel StarCraft 2.

Now, the tide is slowly turning. Following reports that Blizzard is currently hiring for "next-generation massively multiplayer online games" (so much is true), CVG claims to have learned from "well placed US sources" that the game Blizzard plans to announce on May 19 is actually a StarCraft MMO.

Sure, there are plenty of reason to believe otherwise and to stick with the StarCraft 2 RTS rumour. For one thing, space MMOs such as EVE Online or Earth & Beyond have never gotten too close to the 1 million subscribers mark. And you could also argue that Blizzard would not risk losing players from World of Warcraft, and to have two less-populated MMOs. But such assumptions have little weight, really, when you think about the potential of the StarCraft universe.

But hey, we wouldn't mind either way, as long as they actually make the announcement this month. Which is still nothing more than pure speculation...

Oh and speaking of speculation, since Blizzard is also hiring for a new Mobile Wireless Development Department, BlizzPlanet is already dreaming about browsing the WoW Auction House or at least playing Lost Vikings on mobile phones. So much for "real life", if their dreams come true!

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)