Blizzard thinks SC2: Heart of the Swarm is moving to 2012

Dustin Browder, producer of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, doesn’t think the expansion will hit the market in 2011. Work is underway, according to Browder, but he still thinks expectations need to be adjusted.

“I don’t think you’ll be playing it this year, I think that’s very unlikely,” answers Dustin Browder on a question from Eurogamer whether Heart of the Swarm, the first expansion of strategy game StarCraft II, will hit the market in 2011. “But we’re working as hard as we can,” he added. An internal Blizzard Entertainment document, which was leaked in December, revealed that the developer had two games planned for 2011. In addition to Heart of the Swarm, RPG Diablo III would also appear. That expectation has since been revised.

This was also apparent from the words of Thomas Tippl, the financial director of publisher Activision Blizzard. He announced a week ago that the expectations for 2011 did not take into account a game from Blizzard. However, both publisher and developer hope that another Blizzard game will be released in 2011. The hope is mainly pinned on Diablo III. Rob Pardo, head of development, told Kotaku that the goal is to finish the RPG in 2011. “Our goal is to get it done. But you know, we’re going to make sure it’s a good game. That’s the most important.” The only thing Pardo wanted to promise was that the game would be ‘awesome’, not when it would be finished.

CFO Tippl promised investors that if no Blizzard game hits the market in 2011, two will be released in 2012. He didn’t name names, but Heart of the Swarm and Diablo III are the most likely candidates. In addition to the StarCraft II update and Diablo III, Blizzard also has a fourth expansion for mmog World of Warcraft in production and is working on a new mmog, which has been given the working title Titan.