StarCraft’s co-creators are blaming players and the modern market for their new game failure. The problem is that the accusations are not unfounded

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Stormgate, a free-to-play real-time strategy game revealed at Summer Game Fest 2022, aimed to revitalize the RTS genre for longtime fans. Developed by Frost Giant Studios, founded by former Blizzard developers Tim Morten and Tim Campbell, the team openly stated their goal was to create a strategy game with the same epic scope and immersive quality as Elden Ring.

The game hasn’t reached its full potential yet. Following its release on Steam in July 2024, both in Early Access and as a free-to-play title, *Stormgate* has received mixed feedback. Currently, it only has a 50% positive rating on Steam, which is disappointing given the significant $35 million in funding it received, including a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Ever-increasing demands and modern market to blame

Tim Morten shared on LinkedIn that the problems with *Stormgate* aren’t necessarily the game’s fault, but are due to outside influences. The developers have suggested the current gaming landscape and today’s players are the reasons for its struggles. They believe expectations for games are much higher now, and even well-made titles aren’t finding success.

Morten pointed out that the gaming market is becoming crowded, players have less free time for gaming, and artificial intelligence is playing a bigger role – both helping developers create games faster and making the competition tougher.

These days, achieving success is more challenging and uncertain. You’ll need to work incredibly hard to stand out from the competition and effectively reach your audience. Even with that effort, luck will play a bigger role than before, and the time you have to make things happen will be limited.

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Reviews on Steam leave no illusions

Honestly, I’ve been checking the Steam reviews, and it seems like a lot of players aren’t happy with a few things. The biggest complaints I’m seeing are about the paid campaign – people feel it’s not worth the money. There are also a lot of mentions of technical problems, things feeling unfinished, the voice acting not being great, a pretty boring story, and missions that are just frustrating to complete. It’s a shame, because the core idea seemed promising!

In one of the comments we read:

After over two decades since Warcraft III and fifteen years since StarCraft II, this real-time strategy campaign feels surprisingly bland and lacking in energy. While enthusiasm is appreciated, it wasn’t enough to make this a truly successful game. Overall, it’s a mediocre experience – a 6 out of 10.

One player bluntly stated the game is simply not good, finding almost everything flawed. They did praise the music, but highlighted numerous issues including bad sound effects, bugs, performance problems, a lack of content, clunky controls, awful dialogue, and ultimately, unengaging gameplay. The player expressed disappointment, saying they had hoped to enjoy the game.

Players react

Morten’s comments quickly gained attention online, sparking a lively and critical debate on Reddit. Players strongly voiced their frustrations with the developer, and one of them wrote:

He believes the game would have been successful if players had invested more money, allowing him to achieve certain goals. However, it’s more likely that poor financial management, unrealistic promises, and failure to deliver on those promises are the real reasons it failed, but he blames the players anyway.

Some backers have publicly said they regret pledging money to the game on Kickstarter. Others believe it would have been better to just play the 15-year-old *StarCraft II*, which many still find more enjoyable, rather than support what they see as a weaker copycat.

Despite continued interest from about half of its players, *Stormgate* hasn’t gained significant traction. The game, created by former Blizzard developers with high hopes of revitalizing the strategy genre, demonstrates that a well-known team and substantial funding aren’t always enough to succeed. Instead of improving the game, focusing on external factors and criticizing players actually hurt its chances.

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2025-09-15 13:32