Gaming & Culture —

Why StarCraft isn’t coming to iPad, consoles anytime soon

The big question: will we see StarCraft on the iPad? Blizzard answers the …

After playing the version of Red Alert released for the iPad, it's clear that the device's large, beautiful touchscreen is a natural fit for real-time strategy games. Now it's just a matter of someone stepping up and doing it right. During our time at Blizzard, we asked the question that has been flooding our inbox: is StarCraft coming to the iPad? To any devices that aren't a PC?

Dustin Browder, the lead designer of StarCraft 2, answers without any hesitation. "I don't know. We're certainly not working on it now." My sails have been officially deflated.

The question, and this is a big one for Blizzard, is whether it can create a real experience using the touchscreen. "Will we give users the same quality experience? 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." If the company can't create something that's as good as the PC version, it won't happen.

The same problem exists with console versions of StarCraft: the game is simply wedded to computer monitors and the mouse and keyboard. "We haven't found a control scheme that we like that would allow you to play at the same level or close to the same level, and so no console," says Browder.

Apple's hardware, at this point, is simply an unknown. "The iPad? I haven't looked at it; it launched when we were finaling here. It's possible that's a control scheme that would work for us. It's possible that it isn't... we're not going to put it out there just to make a couple bucks."

How about Natal, or the PlayStation Move?

Browder says he has been able to check out the Wii-style devices, but doesn't go into specifics about which ones he has used. "I was not super-enthusiastic about that for StarCraft, I'm much more enthusiastic about games designed for those experiences." Browder claims you have a choice with alternate control schemes: either design specifically for those controls, or accept a lower quality level. "If we made a real-time strategy game for console, it would be designed for console, right? With that controller," Browder says. "For that television experience, sitting back, and designed for that. StarCraft is designed for this [he pantomimes leaning forward into a computer monitor, typing], close-up, hot-keys, the whole thing."

It's worth noting that at GDC Sony claimed to have hacked StarCraft to work with the PlayStation Move.

While these answers may be disappointing to those of us who were hoping to relive our glory days of StarCraft or Diablo on our iPads, we are glad that Blizzard is saying it will only create such an experience if the company can match the quality of its PC titles. What's clear is that if such a game is announced in the future, we'll be seeing something that takes full advantage of the hardware it's put on... and that's exactly how it should be.

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Channel Ars Technica