At the beginning of the year StarCraft II (SCII) was considered the most anticipated PC game of 2009. Its predecessor is arguably the most popular RTS ever released, and so the sequel was the subject of much attention from the PC gaming fraternity.
Blizzard was originally planning on releasing a multiplayer beta for the game earlier this year, with a final release pegged for Q4. Unfortunately in August Activision announced that the game had been pushed back to an early 2010 release. The reason given for the delay was that Blizzard’s new Battle.net build was taking longer than expected, and since the game relies on Battle.net to handle its multiplayer component, a 2009 SCII release was simply not possible.
It will come as no surprise to many that Blizzard will not even be launching the beta program before the year is over. Fudzilla reports that inside sources have stated that an early 2010 beta is now scheduled, and it is likely that the program will kick off in late January or early February.
The same source revealed that the developer is still on track for a Q2 2010 release, although in typical Blizzard fashion, a release date has not been confirmed. When asked about a release date, Blizzard maintains their famous “when it’s done” philosophy.
Activision Blizzard has recently been slated for ditching dedicated server support for Modern Warfare 2. It faced a similar backlash earlier this year when it declared that SC II would ship without LAN functionality. There is little currently known about the future of Battle.net in SA, and it remains to be seen if we will face the same multiplayer woes that have characterized the launch of Modern Warfare 2 for PC.
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