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Zerg Tyranids on their way to Dawn of War 2
It's hard to imagine Blizzard caring when they're so busy counting their money, but the Zerg are finally coming home to roost. Everyone's favorite icky alien race from Starcraft was obviously inspired by the Tyranids from the Warhammer universe. There are even lingering rumors of a lawsuit between Warhammer founder Games Workship and Blizzard back in the days before Starcraft. According to urban legend, Blizzard was working on a Warhammer game when Games Workshop backed out of the deal and pulled the rights. Blizzard shrugged and used all the design work they'd done for their own license under the thinly veiled name "Warcraft", with the sci-fi version naturally called Starhammer. No, wait, Starcraft. Depending on who's version of the legend you believe, Blizzard later won or lost a lawsuit.
At any rate, this vicious race of bugs/crabs governed by a ruthless hive mind is on its way to its rightful home in the Warhammer universe as the fourth playable faction in the upcoming sequel to Dawn of War. They'll join the Space Marines, the Orks, and the Eldar in Relic's hybrid RTS/RPG, due out next year. The official line for why they were never included in the earlier games is because the technology couldn't handle it, presumably meaning Tyranids arrive by the hundreds or not at all.
By Templar at 1:54 PM ON 08/20/08
Starcraft came out in 1998. Games Workshop which produces the Warhammer 40k line had Tyranids - Genestealers, way back in the early 90's. I remember the old box sets of these figures. I can clearly see the rip off going on, but then again, what is original anymore these days? Remember the Starcraft 2 trailer with the Marine gearing up? Now think back to the Iron Man movie back in May 08. Anything look familiar there?
By Turin Turambar at 4:15 PM ON 08/20/08
Hey Tom, this is the fourth race, not the third. First they presented the Space Marines and Orks, after the Eldar, and now the Tyranids.
By Tom Chick at 4:42 PM ON 08/20/08
Doh, how could a fella forget Orks? Thanks for the correction, Turin!
By moose with a j at 8:03 PM ON 08/20/08
wooohooo Blizzard is finally getting its just deserves.
By Cacaoatl at 12:05 AM ON 08/21/08
It doesn't matter who stole the idea from who.Warhammer 40k was ever that original either. You can count amongst its "inspirations" such sci-fi properties as Dune, Lord of the Rings, Starship Troopers (the novel not the movie), Star Wars, and Babylon 5. Oh and by the way, moose with a j, the saying is "just desserts". If you are going to sneer at someone do it right.
By LordCommanderMacharius at 1:39 AM ON 08/21/08
Warhammer came out in 1983, and Warhammer 40k came out in 1987, with Space Hulk released in 1989... These games are old enough to be your average warcraft/starcraft players father. I wonder if in 21 years anyone will even remember warcraft. I wont.
By abc at 2:25 AM ON 08/21/08
Actually someone forgot to mention the Necrons.
By Stratovarius at 3:08 AM ON 08/21/08
Tyranids come to Dow Universe.Booyeah.But i want necrons:[
By Chromeburn at 4:01 AM ON 08/21/08
Genestealers were a rip-off of the alien movies. They later became a bastardized version of Heinlein's troopers and various other sci-fi classics. Warhammer pretty much rips off most of their ideas then throw them into their canon of accumulated junk and bad books. But Blizzard rips of warhammer. Starcraft is all warhammer 40k zerg=tyranids, marines=marines (armor and all), eldar=protoss etc. Even World of warcraft is based on warhammer fantasy. They even had advisors from games workshop when making the game. Whats depressing, is that people forget, or don't care, about the great works these watered down ideas came from. But then again, gamers aren't exactly the most educated, world changing bunch.
By Sparfeld at 12:53 PM ON 08/21/08
I just looked on Westlaw (a massive legal database) for any mention of a lawsuit involving Blizzard and Games Workshop, and for what it's worth, there doesn't seem to be any record of such a thing. Unless the lawsuit took place outside the US, I think it's just a myth.
By TheDeadlyShoe at 1:24 PM ON 08/21/08
It may have been more legal posturing than formal lawsuit, Sparfeld.
By Eflannum at 2:55 PM ON 08/21/08
That rumor is totally false Tom. Starcraft started out early in its development as a license that's true but it wasn't Warhammer 40k. Believe it or not the Zerg actually owe more to Starship Troopers than to Warhammer. One of Allen Adham's (Blizzard President during that time period)favorite books was starship troopers which featured marines in power armor fighting bugs. There is also mention of a psychic race called "skinnies" in that book which was where the Protoss first came from.
By Tom Chick at 4:58 PM ON 08/21/08
It's worth noting that I couldn't find any public record of an actual lawsuit (although I only did a brief Google search), which is why I mentioned it as a rumor and urban legend. Still, it's hard not to see more comparisons to Tyranids than the Starship Troopers bugs, if only because we have so many visual representations of Tyranids that correspond to the Zergs. As for the Protoss=Eldar argument, I've never really been convinced on that front.
By Eflannum at 5:18 PM ON 08/21/08
Yeah, I can totally see why everyone thinks that, but I tend to believe its more of the case of the games workshop guys and blizzard both ripping off the same sources. Starship Trooper, Alien, etc. I just know that while we were developing Starcraft Warhammer 40k didn't come up all that often compared to say Starship Troopers, Aliens, Star Wars, Various Anime, etc... It certainly wasn't a conscious effort on the part of anyone at Blizzard to rip off Games Workshop (speaking only about the period of time I worked there obviously). We are all certainly influenced by whatever we think is cool while we're working on something. A lot of the scenario design in Starcraft owes a lot to Vandal Hearts which I was playing a lot of while we were talking about the Starcraft single player stuff.
By Jolu at 9:11 AM ON 08/24/08
Interesting indeed Eflannum! Mind telling what the license was for if it wasn't 40K? Was it still a GW license?
By eflannum at 5:56 PM ON 08/24/08
Not sure if I can divulge the exact license but it wasn't Games Workshop related in any way.
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