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They also might have just gone more all in on display models instead of game models at that stage too.
There's a whole slew of reasons why we never saw a game before; heck perhaps a few started and never came to anything and we just never heard of it.
Or maybe someone at Bliz just didn't like the idea and never allowed/pushed for it and now there's been changes.
SC as an IP still holds a lot of power and who knows this might be a start of a reboot of general interest in the run up to SC3
Jack Flask wrote: Also, all of the relevant Terrans have clear face shields. The Medics in clear green plastic and the Marines in clear orange.
Thanks for clarifying that - I hadn't seen the photos you provided. Interesting that they have in fact focused on clear plastic components, including weapon effects. The unpainted Terran Marine's visor looks as though it's full of air bubbles, which isn't great.
I did see bubbles in the clear resin pics of Zeratul but I don't think those are bubbles in the marine visor. They show up in the same spots on the visor in every clear picture of the Marines so I think its a molded in pattern to look like the hex grid that the SC2 marines have on their portrait in game.
If you look closely at the medics in the picture it looks like they also have a consistent pattern molded into the bottom edge of their visor, seemingly a HUD or something.
SU-152 wrote:IMHO they chose a totally wrong scale for this game. Miniatures are just too big and model count just too low for the battles of the SC universe.
But they had to stick to the GW trend of bigger bigger and bigger minis. And Archon stated they want to compete against WH40k. So sad. It could had been amazing.
You're the second person I've seen say that, but I haven't talked to any Starcraft fans who want that. SC is already a mass battle PCRTS, so if you want that scale you can just open the game and launch a match.
The appeal of having 32mm miniatures that that finally I can customize and display my own little collection of Terrans/Zerg/Protoss and use them to play narrative games with my friends, which I've dreamt of since playing SC1 on a CRT monitor in elementary school.
Sure these could have been closer to 28mm, but most modern sci-fi games have slowly crept up to 32mm because of GW.
Plus having these in the same scale as 40k means we can settle this old score :
And you could also do that at 10mm? or 15mm?
So you mean fans do not want to recreate the battles of SC on the tabletop? then why not release for example a game of fleet combat in the SC universe instead?
Also, how do they plan to fit 3 or 4 siege tanks on the table at this scale? or Ultralisks?
Instead of the misleading marketing they did, they should have called this StarCraft: the skirmish game. And it would be totally fine because in each of the campaigns in SC 1& 2 there were a couple of missions where the player only has a character and a dozen or two of troops.
No... I have multiple 10mm and 15mm miniatures. Trying to claim they are at all customizable outside of just painting them is not a serious suggestion.
Again, no... I already own SC. Why would I want to play a worse version of that on the tabletop? Because unless you're going to build hundreds of 3d boards and write mechanics for Fog of War, uphill miss chance, and resource accumulation then you've just made a slower, harder to play, more RNG dependent version of SC. None of the StarCraft fans I know want that, but they are very excited to put decals on the side of a 32mm Siege Tank
I also don't know how the marketing is misleading? It's a miniatures game based on the setting of StarCraft called... "StarCraft: The Miniatures Game". It's also objectively not a Skirmish Game by any commonly used definition, you're controlling multiple squads and vehicles.
Thargrim wrote: I fiigured ultralisks would be scaled down a bit. I coulda sworn I read an article saying this game has two modes, one on 3x3 and another larger 3x6 sized mode. I'm glad they are going for a combat patrol sized game as a standard though. Im tired of big armies. There likely won't be multiple siege tanks on the tabletop at once, you can probably spawn in one using the supply resource. If it gets destroyed spawn in another later in the match after more supply is generated, unless I'm misunderstanding how this game works.
We'll see, but Archon was asked that in their reveal stream and they said almost everything would be made at close to truescale with the Ultralisk likely being the largest model they make. The Colossus, a lot of the flyers, and buildings would show up as strategy cards instead.
No idea if they'll go back on their word about that because the Ultralisk is really massive.
I think you're understanding the rules correctly. They described it as playing like a very zoomed in version of a battle where as units get killed your reinforcements are moving from your base and joining mid-fight. No idea about a 3x3 vs 3x6 mode, but they are also making a separate StarCraft Board Game next year (or 2 years from no?), similar to how they used the Masters of the Universe license to make MoTU:Battlegrounds and the more boardgamey MoTU:Fields of Eternia
When it comes to massive models clearly sales are king. If the game really sells well and has an active playerbase and lots of money moving through and a sign that individual customers are willing to spend high values; then there's a chance that they might do really big stuff.
Same as any firm really, GW only does Titans and such because they've got the sales to back up those big investments.
They also, decades back, had the money to invest and not risk the business if it failed.
So yeah Archon if they see lots of sales might take a gamble on something bigger than the Ultralisk and see if it works - if it does boom we might see more; if it fails its only a blip not the end of the world.
Honestly the biggest risks would be Blizzard increasing the licencing costs or cancelling the agreement/not renewing at a point of renewal.
I'm gonna guess that the licensing fees were much more expensive then.
Hasbro / MB (?) had the license for an SC boardgame back in 2012.
Spoiler:
Jarek their CEO talked about it in one of there recent-ish streams. They only started focusing their production on plastic after separating from Prodos Miniatures around 2016-2017 and prior to that were doing basically everything in resin. They weren't confident in their ability to do StarCraft justice while still learning plastic production which was why they started doing larger models and transparent plastic sprues in their Dungeons & Lasers Kickstarters as a way to practice for large models like the Ultralisk.
Then Covid happened so it was hard to get a meeting with Blizzard, but finally they managed to work out a licensing contract in 2022... and then Microsoft put in their bid to buy out Activision Blizzard which got dragged into court by the FCC over trust charges until the end of 2023 which put everything on hold until last year.
Overread wrote: When it comes to massive models clearly sales are king. If the game really sells well and has an active playerbase and lots of money moving through and a sign that individual customers are willing to spend high values; then there's a chance that they might do really big stuff.
Same as any firm really, GW only does Titans and such because they've got the sales to back up those big investments.
They also, decades back, had the money to invest and not risk the business if it failed.
So yeah Archon if they see lots of sales might take a gamble on something bigger than the Ultralisk and see if it works - if it does boom we might see more; if it fails its only a blip not the end of the world.
Honestly the biggest risks would be Blizzard increasing the licencing costs or cancelling the agreement/not renewing at a point of renewal.
Maybe, but I'm more talking about Archon's claims that everything will be close to truescale. I quick Photoshopped up this comparison using the canon size chart made by the artist that worked with Blizzard on the official art in the StarCraft Field Manual.
Spoiler:
If a Marine model is roughly Primaris Intercessor size (38mm heel to head), then a SC2 Ultralisk miniature would be close 400mm tall and 580mm tail to Kaiser Blade tip, which is dwarfed by a Colossus. I'd have to ride to events in your backseat with a seatbelt on...
Sgt. Cortez wrote: I mean LEGO announced Star Trek sets this year and teased them with a TNG style Picard... it seems you can't be too late with your nostalgia driven IP's.
That has more to do with Mega/Mattel having held the Trek license in the building toys sector for 10+ years than that Lego is "too late".
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/10/27 13:02:00
You know you're really doing something when you can make strangers hate you over the Internet. - Mauleed
Just remember folks. Panic. Panic all the time. It's the only way to survive, other than just being mindful, of course-but geez, that's so friggin' boring. - Aegis Grimm
Hallowed is the All Pie The Before Times: A Place That Celebrates The World That Was
Sgt. Cortez wrote: I mean LEGO announced Star Trek sets this year and teased them with a TNG style Picard... it seems you can't be too late with your nostalgia driven IP's.
That has more to do with Mega/Mattel having held the Trek license in the building toys sector for 10+ years than that Lego is "too late".
Bluebrixx, rather. They lost the license likely because of LEGO intervening. Still, I remember 20 years ago when LEGO started Star Wars I'd have been much more interested in Trek, today it seems more directed at parents than children. Or simply a dick move to kick out a competitor.
Bluebrixx had the license and already got it renewed a 2nd time but when they were ready to add mini figures to their sets, they lost it and now Lego makes the sets
and from what I have seen, worse but more expensive
Harry, bring this ring to Narnia or the Sith will take the Enterprise
I'm gonna guess that the licensing fees were much more expensive then.
Hasbro / MB (?) had the license for an SC boardgame back in 2012.
[spoiler]
Jarek their CEO talked about it in one of there recent-ish streams. They only started focusing their production on plastic after separating from Prodos Miniatures around 2016-2017 and prior to that were doing basically everything in resin. They weren't confident in their ability to do StarCraft justice while still learning plastic production which was why they started doing larger models and transparent plastic sprues in their Dungeons & Lasers Kickstarters as a way to practice for large models like the Ultralisk.
Then Covid happened so it was hard to get a meeting with Blizzard, but finally they managed to work out a licensing contract in 2022... and then Microsoft put in their bid to buy out Activision Blizzard which got dragged into court by the FCC over trust charges until the end of 2023 which put everything on hold until last year.
Overread wrote: When it comes to massive models clearly sales are king. If the game really sells well and has an active playerbase and lots of money moving through and a sign that individual customers are willing to spend high values; then there's a chance that they might do really big stuff.
Same as any firm really, GW only does Titans and such because they've got the sales to back up those big investments.
They also, decades back, had the money to invest and not risk the business if it failed.
So yeah Archon if they see lots of sales might take a gamble on something bigger than the Ultralisk and see if it works - if it does boom we might see more; if it fails its only a blip not the end of the world.
Honestly the biggest risks would be Blizzard increasing the licencing costs or cancelling the agreement/not renewing at a point of renewal.
Maybe, but I'm more talking about Archon's claims that everything will be close to truescale. I quick Photoshopped up this comparison using the canon size chart made by the artist that worked with Blizzard on the official art in the StarCraft Field Manual.
Spoiler:
If a Marine model is roughly Primaris Intercessor size (38mm heel to head), then a SC2 Ultralisk miniature would be close 400mm tall and 580mm tail to Kaiser Blade tip, which is dwarfed by a Colossus. I'd have to ride to events in your backseat with a seatbelt on...
Archon does have a plastic Tarrasque, which approaches the dimensions of a SC1 Ultralisk (roughly) at that scale I assume.
Sgt. Cortez wrote: I mean LEGO announced Star Trek sets this year and teased them with a TNG style Picard... it seems you can't be too late with your nostalgia driven IP's.
That has more to do with Mega/Mattel having held the Trek license in the building toys sector for 10+ years than that Lego is "too late".
Bluebrixx, rather. They lost the license likely because of LEGO intervening. Still, I remember 20 years ago when LEGO started Star Wars I'd have been much more interested in Trek, today it seems more directed at parents than children. Or simply a dick move to kick out a competitor.
In the EU, it was Bluebrixx, in NA, it was MegaBrands. LEGO required both to finish with their licenses.
But my point was that LEGO couldn't do them earlier because Mega held the Star Trek license from 2004 to 2018(then Bluebrixx from 2021 to this year), which meant it wasn't available to LEGO for 21 years between the two other companies.
This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2025/10/27 20:19:30
You know you're really doing something when you can make strangers hate you over the Internet. - Mauleed
Just remember folks. Panic. Panic all the time. It's the only way to survive, other than just being mindful, of course-but geez, that's so friggin' boring. - Aegis Grimm
Hallowed is the All Pie The Before Times: A Place That Celebrates The World That Was
Sgt. Cortez wrote: I mean LEGO announced Star Trek sets this year and teased them with a TNG style Picard... it seems you can't be too late with your nostalgia driven IP's.
That has more to do with Mega/Mattel having held the Trek license in the building toys sector for 10+ years than that Lego is "too late".
Bluebrixx, rather. They lost the license likely because of LEGO intervening. Still, I remember 20 years ago when LEGO started Star Wars I'd have been much more interested in Trek, today it seems more directed at parents than children. Or simply a dick move to kick out a competitor.
In the EU, it was Bluebrixx, in NA, it was MegaBrands. LEGO required both to finish with their licenses.
But my point was that LEGO couldn't do them earlier because Mega held the Star Trek license from 2004 to 2018(then Bluebrixx from 2021 to this year), which meant it wasn't available to LEGO for 21 years between the two other companies.
Interesting, don’t think megabloks ever really made it across the pond and they produced very few sets, no wonder I haven't heard of them yet.
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