StarCraft II Beta "In the Next Few Months"

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
20,364
0
0
StarCraft II Beta "In the Next Few Months"



According to Blizzard's Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams, beta testing for StarCraft II and a revamped version of the Battle.net multiplayer service are just months away

Back in January, According to Kotaku [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88767], though, the timeline has been somewhat narrowed down to "in the next few months."

Granted, this isn't that much less vague. Given the plural of "months," we know it's more than one month away, but less than twelve - because that would be a year. So, according to Sams, we could be seeing the betas hit anywhere from April 2009 to January 2010.

Of course, that's being a bit facetious. At last year's BlizzCon 2008 [http://www.blizzard.com/blizzcon/?rhtml=y], attendees were given a card that would register them for an upcoming Blizzard beta test, in a very *coughcoughwinkwinknudgenudge* manner that suggested the game in question would be SC2. While Blizzard hasn't said anything about a BlizzCon 2009 yet, it seems reasonable to guess that they wouldn't start the beta any later than a year after last October's event - so we can lop another few months off the estimate.

My guess? I think we'll see the SC2 beta hit sometime in May or June - July at the latest - with the first installment, Wings of Liberty, hitting shelves just in time for the 2009 holiday rush. As for the other two StarCraft II installments and Diablo III? Your guess is as good as mine (and here's crossing fingers that we'll get D3 in 2010).

The information about a new iteration of the tremendously successful Battle.net, though ... well, we already knew that they were planning on monetizing it [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87849-Massive-Brings-Advertising-to-Battle-net] in some way, though won't be turning it into a subscription service. One wonders what sort of changes they will be making.

Permalink
 

Jack and Calumon

Digimon are cool.
Dec 29, 2008
4,190
0
41
I want Starcraft 2!!! We've been waiting for it almost as long as Duke Nukem Forever! 10 years! (Admittedly, we have been waiting like 12 years for Duke Nukem Forever).
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
20,364
0
0
Murmur95 said:
I thought they said D3 was going to be released before SC2
I keep hearing this rumor bandied around, but no source for it, and it's... pretty ludicrous, honestly. From the playable states at BlizzCon, SC2 was WAAAAY further along than D3.
 

Nunka

New member
Oct 10, 2007
52
0
0
Slycne said:
Lord_Ascendant said:
Soon©
copyright Blizzard Entertainment and their Release Policy
I think Valve already owns a patent on that though.
Yup, the one Blizzard owns the rights to is "When it's done."
 

Spectre39

New member
Oct 6, 2008
210
0
0
Based on the Paris WWI last year, my brother was so sure that SC2 was going to be released before Wrath of the Lich King. He's been crying ever since.
 

Jursa

New member
Oct 11, 2008
924
0
0
Nunka said:
Slycne said:
Lord_Ascendant said:
Soon©
copyright Blizzard Entertainment and their Release Policy
I think Valve already owns a patent on that though.
Yup, the one Blizzard owns the rights to is "When it's done."
While the "when it's done" and "Soon©" always ensures top notch quality and polish, it also always ensures that fans will be tearing their hair our from waiting...
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
20,364
0
0
Khell_Sennet said:
Lord_Ascendant said:
You have NO IDEA how badly that cracked me up...

Yeah, so this game... That listed as launching in March of 06, is only NOW going in to beta?

Fuck you Blizzard. You took to long, won't play it if it's free at this point. There's only room for one Duke Nukem Forever in the world.
How could a game be listed as coming out more than a year before they announced it?
 

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
20,364
0
0
Khell_Sennet said:
Musta been 07. It's been such a long wait I can't even keep the dates straight anymore. It's like locking someone in solitary for ten years, they'd swear it was a hundred.
Still, the fact of the matter is that the game was only ANNOUNCED May 07. It hasn't even been two years yet :p
 

new_age_reject

Lives in dactylic hexameter.
Dec 28, 2008
1,160
0
0
Lord_Ascendant said:
Soon©
copyright Blizzard Entertainment and their Release Policy
Oh lord I lol'd.
Lets hope we don't have a little bit of HL2 syndrome going on here.
 

Nunka

New member
Oct 10, 2007
52
0
0
Wouldukindly said:
I have a sneaky suspicion I may finally get this, and then sigh a mighty 'meh' over playing the campaign and some multiplayer. No idea why. I just have a feeling.
I've had the same feeling for a while now. Blizzard can't make amazing games forever. Something's gotta give.

And from what I've seen of the game, I think SC2 will be the end of their streak. Doom, I say! Doom!
 

oliveira8

New member
Feb 2, 2009
4,726
0
0
Nunka said:
Wouldukindly said:
I have a sneaky suspicion I may finally get this, and then sigh a mighty 'meh' over playing the campaign and some multiplayer. No idea why. I just have a feeling.
I've had the same feeling for a while now. Blizzard can't make amazing games forever. Something's gotta give.

And from what I've seen of the game, I think SC2 will be the end of their streak. Doom, I say! Doom!
Nah SC2 will be fine and awesome.
CantFaketheFunk said:
StarCraft II Beta "In the Next Few Months"

The information about a new iteration of the tremendously successful Battle.net, though ... well, we already knew that they were planning on monetizing it [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87849-Massive-Brings-Advertising-to-Battle-net] in some way, though won't be turning it into a subscription service. One wonders what sort of changes they will be making.
Why??Adds?Subscritions???
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!