Blizzard Entertainment announced plans to enter into an agreement with Swingin' Ape Studios for the collaborative development of multi-platform titles based on Blizzard licenses. Their first project will be to continue work on the upcoming tactical-action console game, StarCraft: Ghost.
Starcraft : Ghost has experienced a few setbacks recently with the original developer, Nihilistic, pulling out of the project and with Blizzard announcing that the game would not be released until 2005. The appointment of Swingin' Ape, recent developers of Metal Arms: A Glitch In The System (VU Games), will help boost morale following a catastrophic start of the summer for the project.
The announcement hints that the partnership will extend beyond Ghost, with Blizzard's president and co-founder, Mike Morhaime, stating We're confident that this partnership will result in titles that achieve the level of quality that players have come to expect from Blizzard products.
It is very likely that Ghost will serve as a very severe stress test for Swingin' Ape and any future partnership will depend on the success, or lack of, of that project. That is why Blizzard carefully adds : Further details regarding future projects and platform specifics will be announced at a later date.
