- Reaction score
- 1,667
When Starcraft II came out five years ago, it smashed sales records. It was as big a release as PC games get, selling millions of copies within its first month — some of those actual boxes. For the next couple years, it held pole position in the rapidly growing market for competitive games.
That might have been the high point for real-time strategy games. Since then, Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (or MOBAs) have devoured the RTS audience while other genres have grown their own sizable audiences.
Starcraft’s old rivals, meanwhile, have fallen off worse than it has. After a decade of decline, onetime rival Command and Conquer no longer exists; Blizzard’s other RTS rival, Relic Entertainment, got lost in the wreckage of publisher THQ. They’ve since lost the rights to Warhammer and botched the release of Company of Heroes 2. And the only successor to historic RTSs such as Age of Empires II and Empire Earth seems to be, well, Age of Empires II HD — which happens to be the only recent RTS success I can think of besides Starcraft II. A dark age indeed.
That might have been the high point for real-time strategy games. Since then, Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas (or MOBAs) have devoured the RTS audience while other genres have grown their own sizable audiences.
Starcraft’s old rivals, meanwhile, have fallen off worse than it has. After a decade of decline, onetime rival Command and Conquer no longer exists; Blizzard’s other RTS rival, Relic Entertainment, got lost in the wreckage of publisher THQ. They’ve since lost the rights to Warhammer and botched the release of Company of Heroes 2. And the only successor to historic RTSs such as Age of Empires II and Empire Earth seems to be, well, Age of Empires II HD — which happens to be the only recent RTS success I can think of besides Starcraft II. A dark age indeed.
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