Dustin Browder, game design director for EA's Battle for Middle-earth announced his leave in a few days from EA, and his new position as a Blizzard Employee to be effective on March 14th. Browder will be under the direct work with Rob Pardo on an unveiled game. Browder doesn't know at this point what game he will be working on, but his great expertise in RTS games, rises few eyebrows in the community. Speculations are starting to arise since the only RTS people can think of is Starcraft 2 or Warcraft IV -- which is unlikely. Another speculation heard from fans in many forums is that Blizzard could get Diablo series into an RTS. Browder will be a Senior Designer in Irvine, not in San Francisco.
Blizzard North was known to be working on 2 games until the executives resigned back in June 31, 2003 and later the new vice-president announced that one of the games were shelved after 30 employees resigned a month later. Most of the remaining team was merged with the second game project which is kept in secrecy. Although seeing a Diablo RTS is improbable, we have also to consider that Starcraft-- a traditional RTS is now being developed as a Console Shooter gamer and Warcraft RTS game is now a MMORPG-- terrain that Blizzard is stepping into for first time. Therefore, with Blizzard you can never know. They are innovative and have no fear to explore new grounds. We will find out soon enough. Dustin Browder was credited for:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth (2004)
- Command & Conquer: Generals (2003)
- Command & Conquer: Generals: Zero Hour (2003)
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Dominion Wars (2001)
- Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 (2000)
- Battlezone (1998)
- Vigilante 8 (1998)
- Heavy Gear (1997)
- MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries (1996)
- MechWarrior 2: Ghost Bear's Legacy (1995)
Read the full article at Gamespy. We submitted this news to SCLegacy as we consider this is a big news of interest to the Starcraft fans. We will try to dig more details after Browder starts his duties at Blizzard. Stay tuned!
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