General

New game categories have been added to filter Tower Defense and Tug of War custom maps.

Balance

Thor
This unit will now prioritize attacking ground combat units over Medivacs.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a desync that could occur when trying to watch replays that had a dependency on bank files.

All StarCraft II accounts have been granted one free name change. If you’d like to change your character name, log in to Account Management and choose your StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty game license. On your game license screen a “Character Name Change” button at the bottom will initiate the request. After confirming that you’d like to change your character name, simply log in to StarCraft II and you’ll be prompted to select a new one. Please be sure to use this name change wisely.

In other news, Blizzard’s Official StarCraft YouTube channel has been updated with 3 new videos, providing lengthy introductions to each of StarCraft 2′s three playable races.

The Zerg:

The Protoss:

The Terran:

Blizzard’s StarCraft 2 : Wings of Liberty FAQ for BLizzCon 2010 focuses mostly on the custom maps Blizzard’s designers have been developing, as well as providing us with a few vague statements about its Heart of the Swarm plans. In case some of you haven’t been following – StarCraft 2 Heart of the Swarm is the much anticiapted first expansion for StarCraft 2 – the second part of the trilogy.

Q: When can the general public play the official StarCraft II custom maps showcased at BlizzCon 2010?

A: The custom maps created by the StarCraft II development team are currently in a preview state, and require additional development time as well as other work such as localization, before we can release them to the public. We plan to release these maps for free over Battle.net, one-by-one, over the coming months.

Blizzard’s StarCraft II Custom Maps and Editor Panel has provided fans and visitors with many answers and was also used to unveil four internally developed custom projects, including an Official, long-term supported, Blizzard DoTA!

Blizzard’s custom map production philosophy is based on the following trinity:

1. Find the “fun factor.”
2. Make sure the map is easy to learn.
3. Actively seek and encourage feedback.

Courtesy of SCL

Despite the fact that Blizzard is yet to receive major feedback, it does seem to take the first two statements in the list quite seriously, showcasing original, easy to learn and fun custom scenarious during the panel:

Left 2 Die
This is an evolution of the “Outbreak” Wings of Liberty Campaign mission, where the colonists on Meinhoff were infested by a zerg virus. In this cooperative mission, you and a friend will unlock, purchase, and use new technologies necessary to survive nighttime assaults by unique zerg units, repel their attacks, and purge the infestation.

Left 2 Die is a cooperative map where players hold out against hordes of zombies

Special infected are larger, more powerful enemies with special abilities

The base can be easily overwhelmed if players don't work together

Blizzard’s take on the WarCraft’s most popular mod and one of the most popular custom scenarios of any game in the world, Defense of the Ancients, looks absolutely awesome. Understanding the potential of integrating professional level DoTA play into Battle.net, it seems Blizzard has decided to take matters in their own hands.

Towers can pack a punch

The final objective - destroy the enemy base's center

Aiur Chef is perhaps the most peculiar mod Blizzard has even introduced – it’s an 8-player FFA map that focuses on … creating the best possible dish using the ingredients found on each map.

Aiur Chef
This is a whimsical eight-player free-for-all in which you control a chef and must scour the map for ingredients to create succulent dishes. Each round has a secret theme ingredient and three recipes to complete. Completing recipes grant you different rewards such as points, powers, or items. The chef with the most points at the end of three rounds is named the next Aiur Chef!

Explore the map for ingredients

Collect ingredients and return them to kitchen stadium to cook

Compete against opponents for points over three rounds

StarJeweled
StarJeweled combines two distinct game types into a unique 2v2 experience. The right side of the game is a match-three style puzzle game. Matching jewels and clearing them away generates energy. Energy is then used to spawn special units and activate abilities; defeat the enemy base to win.

Starjeweled is a 2v2 game that combines match-3 puzzle gameplay with tug-of-war style combat

Marines constantly spawn from each side to attack the enemy

Next on the menu, Blizzard’s StarCraft II Secrets of the Masters panel revealed many of the semi-hidden Battle.net ranking mechanics – most importantly that the goal of the system is to create 50%:50% W/L records for all players. A gaming eco-system where game are constantly pinned against opponents of similar skill level, until they either graduate to higher levels or drop down a notch.

The Battle.net matchmaker is an adaptive system, which means that the more a player plays, the better the system gets to ‘know’ his or her skill level, with the ultimate goal being for each player to be paired with opponents of equal skill so they win around half of their games. The matchmaker tracks wins and losses and creates a hidden skill rating for a player over time (which is actually a rolling average composed of several different numbers).

Leagues are explained as being simply 20%/20%/20%/20%/20% per-region divisions:

Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond, respectively.
There are 5 leagues (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond), and all StarCraft II players in a region are split into these leagues by 20% increments. So, Diamond league players represent the top 20% of players in their region.

BlizzCon Rocks!

The panel’s biggest announcement was the planned upcoming ladder wipe, and the improvement due to be unveiled in Season 2!

• New UI Profile elements.
• Artwork based on player’s division rank.
• Historical season performance records.
• Top players get more detailed profiles and featured replays.
• A single placement match to reclaim your division placement.
• Masters League.
• Grandmaster League.

On top of all these new features, two new leagues will be introduced to highlight the top players in each region: the Master League, which places roughly the top 5% of Diamond players in their own league, and the Grandmaster League, a very special, elite league which is comprised of the top 200 players in each gameplay region, which will be visible to other players

During Secret of the Masters panel, Blizzard has also revealed the following :

• The hidden player rating consists of several parameters, and is not planned to be revealed.
• Will consider introducing a per-race player rating in the future
• Replay sharing feature will become available in 2011
• Chat channels are due to be re-introduced before the end of 2010

Dustin Browder, StarCraft 2′s lead designer, was kind enough to answer a few quick questions exclusively for SC2Blog:

1) Can you disclose what % of gamers venture into multiplayer/battle.net without playing the Single player campaign and vise versa – how many players finish the campaign and don’t both with multiplayer at all?

I don’t know the exact numbers but it’s about fifty percent. About forty to 50 percent finish the campaign and a good number more than that play the first couple of campaign levels, and fewer as the campaign advances to the final level. Building the campaign was important in creating the multiplayer, and a lot of people still get involved in the storyline. Some argue that with how many people play Starcraft, campaign is not important, but we still want to keep bringing in more new players. There are always new players to be brought in.

2) The race win % gaps between the leagues can get significant – meaning it would be very tough to balance the game to fit all levels. What’s Blizzard’s most realistic goal on this? Is one level of play more important than another?

We start fixing at the Diamond level. Diamond is the most important. It doesn’t interfere with the lower leagues… well, maybe it interferes with bronze but it only matters if it the game cheeses up a lot at that level. It’s really as long as they’re having fun. There are usually 4 or 5 ways to deal with things like speed, range.. except in a couple of cases where it’s kind of tight. But we usually find a way to usually it doesn’t interfere with any of the other leagues.

Dustin’s own recent blog post on Battle.net has indeed shown that Diamond level gameplay is the most balanced of all leagues. But there are some big balance gaps in other leagues, sometimes opposite to the balance state in Diamond!

With Blizzard revealing most of their short-mid term StarCraft 2 plans, the only missing piece of the puzzle is Heart of the Swarm, which was virtually absent from all StarCraft 2 panels and events.

Q: Why didn’t you showcase Heart of the Swarm at BlizzCon 2010?

A: The development team is already hard at work on Heart of the Swarm, but we’re still in a relatively early stage of development on the first StarCraft II expansion set. We look forward to showing off the game in the coming months.

Q: When will you release Heart of the Swarm?

A: We know that players are eager to find out what happens to Jim Raynor and Kerrigan next in the epic StarCraft II saga, but it’s too early to share a release date at this time.

Q: Will there be a Heart of the Swarm beta test? When?

A: We’ll announce more information about potential beta testing as we draw further into development on Heart of the Swarm.

BlizzCon 2010 itself was an awesome celebration for fans, gamers and Blizzard staff – check out to following gallery for pictures from the many panels, contests , concerts and tournaments that took place during the event.

For the Zerg race, the present looks grim (but the future seems bright!) – Blizzard’s numbers show that less than a quarter of all players play as Zerg.

Protoss are played 38.5% of the time.
Terran are played 38.0% of the time.
Zerg are played 23.5% of the time.

These cross-league statistics leave no doubt as to which race drew the shortest popularity stick. Indeed, the Zerg have become increasingly harder to play as the meta-game settled in with both Terran and Protoss openings being “simpler” than the Zerg’s fragile early game.

In reality, however, players that willingly pick Zerg are not the underdogs comapred to their Terran and Protoss opponents. The Diamond numbers are actually quite reassuring, displaying a fairly balanced 3-way relationship, while Platinum is currently favoring Zerg in terms of win percentage.

Win % in Diamond (accounting for player skill)

49.6% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
52.8% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
49.6% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.


Win % in Platinum (accounting for player skill)

56.3% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
47.3% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
44.5% win for Terran when fighting Zerg.

Win % in Gold (accounting for player skill)

61.0% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
61.1% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
49.5% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.


Win % in Silver (accounting for player skill)

63.6% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
50.7% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
51.6% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.


Win % in Bronze (accounting for player skill)

59.0% win rate for Protoss when fighting Terran.
55.1% win rate for Protoss when fighting Zerg.
45.4% win rate for Terran when fighting Zerg.

Interestingly, while the Zerg are not as popular – likely due to being slightly less comfortable to play with, as Chris Sigaty himself had said recently - it is the Protoss vs Terran match-up that appears to be in need of balancing, especially across the lower leagues. We’ve highlighted those numbers in green. Curiously, Diamond-level Terrans enjoy a slight advantage over the Protoss – probably because of much better use of EMP, abundant M&M drops, and efficient Reaper micro at these higher levels.

Dustin also took the time to preview some of the balance changes planned to be included in the next patch:

•    We’re increasing roach range. This will allow roaches to be more effective in large groups, giving the zerg more options in the mid to end game.

The Roach has received many nerfs throughout its life in StarCraft 2, and this change will definitely help settle the score in its favor. By giving extra range to the Roach, large groups of these units become much more viable. Not only can more of them shoot over their brethren on the field, but they’ll also offer nice support when Ultralisks join the battle and clog-up the front lines with their massive size. Busting up walled ramp-chokes will surely become an easier task as well with more Roaches firing.

•    Fungal Growth will now prevent Blink, which will give zerg a way to stop endlessly Blinking stalkers which can be very challenging to deal with in large numbers.

•    The Barracks are going to require a Supply Depot, which will impact a lot of early terran reaper pushes.

•    The reaper speed upgrade will require the Factory, which is meant to weaken a lot of the early terran reaper attacks that dominate so many matches, especially in team games.

Despite being completely ignored by players in the mid and late game, the Reaper is slated to be hit with more early-game nerfs. While on paper, Reapers have the potential to be great economy harassers and tech-deniers, their extreme fragility makes even the puniest defensive measure a prohibitive obstacle – and these can be found anywhere beyond the first few minutes of a game. It’s unclear what Blizzard has in store for the Reaper, but for now, it will definitely see a lot less play.

•    We’re making a number of increases to the health of zerg buildings, which will make the very vulnerable zerg technology structures more resistant to raids.  We don’t expect these hit point changes to have a super significant impact on the game, but the current numbers felt way too low.

All in all, this patch will definitely make the Zerg’s life easier. However, since it doesn’t address any of the complications in Zerg play that we mentioned in our post on the subject, it’s not clear that it will actually increase the amount of Zerg players. That will remain to be seen.

Improved Matchmaking for Teams

While the matchmaking system as a whole is looking very strong, one area we identified for improvement was matchmaking for arranged teams that were still in placement matches. We found these first few matches for arranged teams were giving them an unfair advantage against their opponents. Since so many new arranged teams were being created every day, this was resulting in a noticeable amount of imbalanced matches for team games. The corrections we’ve made should show an improvement for many team players, especially in the sub-Gold leagues.

When two Diamond league players casually pair up for a few games, the placement matches can easily become a 5:0 freeroll for the arranged team and a hopeless encounter for the random Silver league players facing the duo. The new and improved mechanism will provide challenging matches for high-level teams from the get go.

Improved Placement for Teams

Another related issue we’ve received feedback on and experienced firsthand is the difficulty of placing in a high league while in an arranged team. We made two changes that should improve the experience. 1) The improved matchmaking mentioned above will help teams find opponents of similar skill sooner and, as a result, help to more quickly place teams in the league in which they belong. 2) We also found we were being too conservative in how teams were being placed in leagues and have made some adjustmentsto allow teams to be more easily placed in higher leagues. 3v3 random and arranged teams will likely notice this change the most.

A complimentary aspect to facing higher-level opponents is progressing faster through the ranks, placing the team in a fitting league after fewer matches.

Team Matchmaking Improvements
We found conditions where the matchmaking system was forcing certain teams and players to wait longer than needed for team matches. Those conditions have been addressed and the wait times should be reduced without affecting the quality of the matchmaking.

A very interesting and insightful FAQ has been posted by a user named ExcaliburZ on the Battle.net forums. The post is one of the highest rated forum posts in the US and includes answers to the following, very commonly asked questions:

Q: If I’ve never played 1v1, but I’m 2v2 Diamond, who will I face in 1v1 Placements?

A: Your performance in other brackets is considered when initiallyseeding your placement matches. In this case, you’d likely be paired with a Diamond player to start.

Q: Do I need to reach a particular point value to get promoted?

A: No. Promotions happen independently of your displayed rating.

Q: I won 10 games in a row! Why am I not promoted yet?

A: Your MMR and sigma may not have reached stability, or the system is simply unconfident about you. Expected outcomes cause you to stabilize the fastest. Your MMR will continue to rise until you hit your skill ceiling, at which point your win ratio will decrease and your rating will start to stabilize.

Q: I’m in Bronze. Is it possible to get promoted directly to Gold?

A: Yes. It’s possible to go from any league to any other league, wherever your MMR and sigma stabilize.

Q: Is it possible I haven’t been promoted because my APM or end-game score isn’t high enough?

A: Both factors are irrelevant because they can be gamed. The only contributing factor to promotion is the end outcome (win or loss) and the skill level of your opponent (his MMR). This is confirmed by Blizzard’s Leagues and Ladders FAQ, found in a sticky at the top of the Multiplayer and eSports forum.

While Blizzard has not officially confirmed most of this information, many have researched these details thoroughly and have produced rather-conclusive results.

Click through to see the full high-res version. Big thanks go to our reader Jason for creating this great looking, helpful chart!

Blizzard has promised to bring chat rooms back within a few patches, and now, gamers not happy with their handles will be offered a name change for free soon as well. Why bother writing “free“? Well, because Blizzard will be charging for Battle.net name changes in the future.

The recent 1.0.3 patch continued the tradition of providing a minor bug fix while leaving gameplay balance intact.

Bug Fixes:

Fixed an issue preventing some players from accessing offline play from the login screen

Our Nvidia-sponsored GeForce GTX 460 StarCraft 2 flipbook contest came to an end this weekend, bringing multiple interesting submissions. As promised, the winner of the contest will be awarded with a EVGA GeForce GTX 460 768MB and the runner up will receive a SteelSeries limited edition professional grade StarCraft 2 mousepad.

The second place, along with the mousepad, goes to Stephen Barnes for submitting this animated battle, called “Death From Above”.

The winner of the contest is Nadya Emmyl from Stary Oskol, Russia, who submitted this excellent animated reenactment of Kerrigan’s last stand on New Gettysburg.

That being said, Blizzard has already released two StarCraft 2 patches and is keeping an updated list of known issues here. Up until now, none of the documented issues, fixes and patches have affected unit abilities or multiplayer gameplay. However, playing a 2v2 with a flickering screen and scrambled voice communication is clearly not the optimal gaming experience.

StarCraft 2 patches so far:

PATCH 1.0.1

Bug Fixes

*     Campaign saves have been optimized.

*     Fixed an issue with sound not playing on some 7.1 systems.

PATCH 1.0.2

Bug Fixes

*     Fixed an issue where campaign mission victories would not always trigger properly.

*     Fixed an issue where some players were unable to access single player features.

The list of technical issues acknowledged by Blizzard at this point, however, is significantly longer:

1. Graphical issues

Issue:

You may experience random corrupted graphical issues affecting units, structures, terrain and transmission.

Solution:

None at the moment.

Issue:

You may experience corrupted graphical issues when the Paged Pool Memory is running low.

Solution:

Quit unnecessary background applications and processes then restart the game client. For additional information please read the following article:

Issue:

You may see missing buttons to create previously unlocked units, characters become white spheres or only able to start older missions on the Starmap.

This is due to save game corruptions and connectivity issues when saving.

Solution:

This is being patched shortly to prevent further occurrences but for now you should attempt to load an older save game that is not corrupt.

If this is unsuccessful you will need to restart the campaign.

2. Sound and Voice Chat issues

Issue:

In-game sound might not play properly on some hardware devices set to 7.1 Surround on Windows Vista / Windows 7.

Solution:

Set sound output speaker options to 5.1 Surround or lower.

Issue:

Players are able to send but not receive in-game voice on Windows 7 computers equipped with the Realtek HD Audio sound card when the Output Device in the Sounds Menu option is set to Speakers.

Solution:

None at the moment.

Issue:

Changing the OS speaker mode on Windows Vista and Windows 7 whilst the game is running causes all in-game sounds to stop.

Solution:

None at the moment. Temporary solution: Change the OS speaker mode prior to launching the game.

3. Galaxy Editor issues

Issue:

The Terrain editor may lag or stutter when dragging the mouse around the map.

Solution:

None at the moment.

Issue:

Changing certain values in the Galaxy Editor is causing a crash while in detail view.

Solution:

None at the moment.

4. Mac issues

Issue:

The game may occasionally crash on OS X 10.6 with Nvidia drivers.

Solution:

None at the moment.

Issue:

Playing with an USB headset will drastically lower in-game performance (FPS).

Solution:

None at the moment.

5. Miscellaneous

Issue:

A language pack error may occur under certain conditions.

Solution:

Ensuring your system clock is correct can help resolve the error.

Issue:

Players will be unable to download or use the digital installer when attempting to download or install the game to a hard drive formatted in FAT32.

Solution:

Download or install the digital client to a NTFS formatted hard drive.

Issue:

Error Message: „The Battle.net Account does not include an associated copy of Starcraft 2.” after registration of the CD-Key.

Solution:

Please change the password at the battle.net website. Make sure you use the correct game client EU game client for the EU StarCraft II Account or US/US

Blizzard is not the only company facing pressure over StarCraft 2′s performance, as hardware manufacturers scramble to update their drivers to be compatible with the game. ATI stands out after releasing the Catalyst 10.7a Beta Driver virtually solely for the purpose of supporting anti-aliasing in StarCraft 2 – a feature we had no problem with when reviewing Nvidia’s Geforce GTX 460 and GTX 470 graphics cards using a standard set of drivers.

The second phase of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta test is now underway. We’re delighted to invite you back to the battlefield and hope that you will join us through July 19 for more terran, protoss, and zerg action.

As stated previously, all data from beta phase one has been reset. This includes characters, match history, ladder rankings, and achievements. Beta participants will therefore need to recreate their characters and, if joining matchmaking games, complete a new series of placement matches.

We thank you for all the feedback you provided during phase one and are excited to hear about more of your experiences in phase two. Welcome back to beta, and we’ll see you on Battle.net!

Patch 16 was released along with the restarting of the beta, bringing with it a few relatively minor changes and some more undocumented ones.

GENERAL

Rally points now behave as a move command, instead of an attack move command.
Enabled the ability to manually add a StarCraft II character friend using the player’s character code. Character code is a server-assigned numerical code that is displayed within the Add Friend panel.
Battle.net Achievements & Rewards have been updated.
All Quick Match modes are now available: 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, and Free For All.
All A.I. difficulties are now available for play.
Cooperative matchmaking versus A.I. players is now available as a play mode.
Enabled cross-game social features between World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.

The rally point change is the big news of this section. Previously, units rallied out of production buildings would automatically attack all enemy units in their way, often nullifying themselves immediately because they would meet with larger forces. This would frequently make rallying useless, since each new unit had to be handled anyway. Instead, units will now move to where they’re told to go, ignoring enemy units.

ZERG

Infestor

Frenzy spell removed.
Infested Terran spell added.

Overseer

Infested Terran spell removed.

Ultralisk

Now immune to stuns and mind control.

Continuing the trend from the recent patches, the Ultralisk has received another buff. Along with the speed upgrade and the ability to ignore the Protoss Sentry’s Force Fields, Blizzard is certainly gearing the Ultralisk to be an unstoppable juggernaut – just like its design implies. It will be interesting to see if this latest buff will be enough for this purpose.

A few other undocumented changes have already been spotted in the new phase of the beta, both for the interface and the game itself. We’ve gathered a list of changes:

GENERAL

• All menu sound effects changed
• Many changes to all races sound effects
• Changed graphics settings, removed highest level of shaders
• Engine performenace optimized (not confirmed)
• “Beta” removed from title screen
• New music added
• StarCraft installation directory drops from 10gb to 3.5gb as the patch deletes all previous versions
• Only 2 placement matches are required (down from 5 before and 10 at the start of the beta) A display bug incorrectly shows that only 2 placement matches are required while 5 are needed in effect
• Xel’naga towers now look like eyes on the minimap

GAMEPLAY

• Tabbed browsing through production buildings has been removed. Instead, units are assigned to the most efficient building. Early reports inform about many issues with this.
• Neural Parasite is no longer unlimited, lasts about 12 seconds
• Infested Terrans last 30 seconds (from 20)
• Infested Terran can be cast while the Infestor is burrowed
• Roaches can no longer move under Force Fields while burrowed
• Stalkers can no longer blink over “unpathable” terrain, meaning no more blinks across islands

Time to hit the servers!

Arguably the biggest concern, seen on the Battle.net forums on a day-to-day basis, was the lack of chat channels during the beta and Blizzard’s stance on the issue throughout StarCraft 2′s development. Kapeselus of Blizzard’s Europe RTS community team has recently addressed the issue, and much to the community’s delight, we should be expecting chat channels patched soon after StarCraft 2′s release on July 27.

There will definitely be “chat channels” coming in one of the patches after the release. The system will be based around groups, where you will be able to join public channels that are based around your interests, which can be virtually anything. Also the system will include private chat channels (in plans for release in the first few months after the release), where you will be able to meet with your friends.

Unique identifiers will be making a return. However, players will no longer be able to select their own .XXXXX suffix – those will be auto-generated by Battle.net upon account creation, making impersonation quite stupid and expensive.

As for identifiers they are returning for the second phase of the beta. The previous system did not work as intended to some degree and based on feedback received the developers decided to implement a variation of this, which is going to attach character codes. These will be three digit numbers added to your nickname and they will be seen in the UI screens. Thanks to this you will be able to add friends manually, just like previously with identifiers. On top of that you can still add friends using all other methods (using the score screen or RealID).

The number will be automatically generated. Please keep in mind that you won’t be able to see this code everywhere, but only on certain screens. (i.e. it won’t get in the way and it won’t ruin the “look” of your nickname, don’t worry! )

The explanations posted were very encompassing and sincere, clarifying the reasons behind Battle.net 2.0′s feature selection. Even gamers who grew up using chat channels could see how modern social-networking setups differ from the long-existing chat-channel based Battle.net interaction and how they may appeal more to mainstream gamers, less accustomed to arranging games and tournaments using IRC and IM chats.

I agree that Facebook integration was something that some players found controversial, but at the same time I disagree that this is something buyers are not looking for.

Even _if_ majority of people don’t have friends to add there are still some who will welcome an opportunity to use this (even here or on teamliquid of all the places ). I don’t think that looking only on one side of the issue is the right approach, especially when you can make a case that for example majority of buyers don’t care about chat channels.

You just don’t have the data and there are definitely a lot of people out there who just want to log in and play (I know a few myself). Does this mean that implementing chat channels is a mistake, as there are more pressing features that need to be there? Certainly not and I am sure you will agree with me. I am also not comparing the magnitude of both these features, just a hypothetical situation, especially given Facebook integration definitely didn’t take priority over chat channels and wasn’t hard to implement, as it is a very simple option.

The community’s second-biggest concern, a social, eSports and pricing issue all in one, is the localization of StarCraft 2 accounts and built-in measures for preventing cross-regional play, as was disclosed in the Russian StarCraft 2 pricing announcement.

….the game will be fully localized and playable only on Russian Battle.net servers, and players will be required to pay an additional fee to play on international European servers.

Kapeselus addressed the issue again, stating Blizzard’s intention to patch additional features and infrastructure improvements in after StarCraft 2′s official release.

We are aware of players’ concerns about the cross-region play and they are being addressed. As stated previously out long term plan with Battle.net is to allow players to play together. This unfortunately cannot be achieved at this point, due to various challenges and issues connected to it, making it more difficult to implement than in the past.

On the other hand we are looking into solutions which will allow interested players to get access to different regions without buying another full copy of the game. There will be support for this on the Account Management site in the first few months after the release.

During the beta, it was not uncommon for tournament participants to use alternative accounts, burrowed from friends, in order to compete against opponents from across the sea. Blizzard, obviously acknowledging the fact that such a common situation must not force players into an awkward workaround, has set a goal for enabling cross-region play.

We are looking into ways of letting you switch between servers, no matter whether you buy a European or American version of the game. As for the second question you won’t be able to play in the same game using different servers, as we have never had global servers for our games. It is our goal for the future, but won’t be there for release.

Benzen of Blizzard’s forum community team posted a lengthy reply to pricing concerns, which were mounting as Blizzard revealed its multiple region and subscription based pricing plans for Russia and Brazil.

How is the cost of the limited version reasoned? The money has to be used to support Brazilian datacenters?
One of the main goals was to make our game accessible to a wide array of players (novice to veterans), this also applies to pricing options that we have.

As a scenario, if you know you’re going to play StarCraft II and are expecting to play for a while, you have the option to purchase and download the unlimited version online, directly from us. However, if you’re a new player or, if you’re unsure about how long you’re going to play for, you also have the option to purchase the limited version of the game at a reduced price. Then if you decide you want to play more, you have subscription options readily available for you.

Nothing has really changed in terms of being able to purchase the full version of the game. We’ve simply added additional purchasing options so that the game is accessible to a wider audience.

I wish to elaborate on this as there seems to be quite a bit of confusion surrounding this. Currently, there are no plans to allow upgrading from limited to unlimited. However, it is something we’re looking into.

As I’ve mentioned before, in the scenario where you know you’re definitely going to play the game (and for a while at that), you have the option to purchase the unlimited version. We want to make this game very accessible to everyone and we feel that having diversified payment options will help facilitate this.

While the reasoning behind the pricing structure is sound and clear, the flipside is a bit harsh on regular gamers in Brazil. The unlimited version costs twice as much, almost $60, while the 6-month limited version is priced at $27. With no way of upgrading between the two after making a purchase, gamers on a budget will have quite a pricey decision to face when StarCraft 2 hits the stores.

With the nearing StarCraft 2 release and the second phase of the beta hitting any day now, updates will soon return in full gear. Get ready for the summer of StarCraft 2!