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

Stormgate, announced during Summer Game Fest 2022 as a free real-time strategy game, was supposed to be a new opening for fans of the RTS genre. The project is managed by Frost Giant studio, founded by Blizzard veterans - Tim Morten and Tim Campbell. The devs didn't hide their ambitions: they wanted to create Elden Ring in the world of strategy.

But that moment hasn't come yet. After the Early Access release on Steam in July 2024 and the full free-to-play launch, the game started getting mixed reviews. Right now, Stormgate has only 50% positive reviews on Steam. This is a huge blow, considering the impressive $35 million in funding, including a successful Kickstarter campaign.

Ever-increasing demands and modern market to blame

In a post on LinkedIn, Tim Morten pointed out that Stormgate's issues stem from various external factors. The developer blamed the current gaming market and contemporary players for the failure. He thinks that the bar for "good enough games" has risen a lot, and even decent titles are not achieving commercial success these days.

Morten mentioned market saturation, less time that players can devote to games, as well as the increasing importance of artificial intelligence, which facilitates development and increases competition.

Reviews on Steam leave no illusions

The issue is that, as the Steam reviews show, players tend to see the reasons for failure in other places. Many people are complaining about the campaign for which we have to pay, technical issues, lack of polish, weak voice acting, bland story, and inconvenient mission objectives.

In one of the comments we read:

Meanwhile, another player admits that "this game is just bad. Almost everything about it is wrong. The only positive aspect of the entire game is the music. Good music, but poor sounds, bugs, lags, lack of content, poor unit control, terrible dialogues, and just boring, bland gameplay. And I wanted it to be good."

Players react

Morten's statement resonated widely on the Internet. A heated discussion broke out on Reddit, where players didn't hold back their harsh words for the developer. One of the players wrote:

Some openly admit that they regret supporting the title on Kickstarter. There are also opinions that, instead of a "lesser clone," it would be better to simply run the 15-year-old StarCraft II, which still offers more fun.

Even though half of the players still like Stormgate, it's not enough to make a big impact in the market. The ambitious project from Blizzard veterans was supposed to revive the genre, but it ended up being another example that, in the gaming world, famous names and high funding are not enough. Blaming the market and players instead of critically looking at one's own mistakes did not help - it actually harmed the game.

Stormgate

August 5, 2025

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• Overview

• free-to-play
• indie games
• RTS
• community / fans