Blizzard: StarCraft II Beta in Coming Months

While the wait for StarCraft II may already be agonizingly long, the promise of a playable multiplayer beta helps many of us get out of bed every morning. So when will we get it?

According to Blizzard COO Paul Sams, the StarCraft II beta is likely just months away.

“The beta will be played on a basic version of our new Battle.net architecture,” he added, “which will give us the opportunity to test the game and the service in a live environment.”

“Over time, we will be adding features to deliver a second generation Battle.net experience. We know that the demand for StarCraft II is very high. The original StarCraft has sold more than 11 million copies worldwide and the sequel has been named on several most-anticipated lists. We are aiming to release StarCraft II as soon as possible, but as with all previous Blizzard games; we won’t ship it until we feel it is ready.”

Two months? Ten months? We hope it’s not the latter, especially since we’re counting on the first entry, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty to hit sometime this year, if only for sanity’s sake.

While Blizzard is cagey on locking down a date, Sams says that we’ll get a taste of the next iteration of Battle.net when the StarCraft II beta goes public. Exactly what changes Blizzard will be adding to the online matching service that “support online tournaments, eSports, and enhanced communication between players” haven’t been confirmed. The news came as part of Activision’s fourth quarter earnings call.

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