14 DAY TRIAL // It's pretty clear by now that gamers will never know when a Blizzard-made videogame is out until they actually get to a store and pick it up. StarCraft II was set to be delivered in the final three months of 2009 but only now are long time fans enjoying a multiplayer-oriented beta for the new real time strategy title. And it seems that the company behind it is still thinking about putting it out before the end of June this year.
Chris Sigaty, a producer working on StarCraft II, said in the new edition of the BlizzCast, which focuses squarely on the beta and its issues, that “We were targeting three to five months for the beta, we're really at a three month period of time for the beta at this point. We are still targeting the first half of this year.“
It's quite a tight schedule that Blizzard appears to be laying out for itself. The beta launched in February, and that might count as the first month, meaning that players will have the whole of March and April to play and offer their feedback.
Then, the company, which might introduce some changes to the balance as soon as this week, will have another two months to make the changes they deem necessary, fix any bugs and then balance the whole experience in order to have it out and playable by the end of June. Still, Blizzard players should not plan any game launch vacations around the end of the that month.
Those who cannot wait anymore might be interested in picking up a beta key from eBay and other online trading sites, where they can expect to pay more than 300 dollars for one. It seems that Blizzard is not banning these traded keys from the beta at the moment.