Blizzard's StarCraft II Delayed Big Time

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

No StarCraft II for you this Christmas.

This afternoon Blizzard announced that the first installment of StarCraft II--entitled Wings of Liberty--will not hit retail stores at the end of the year as originally reported. In fact, the game is now slated for the first half of 2010. The company blames the game's delay on the upgrading process for Battle.net, saying that it's taken longer than expected to prepare the revamped service.

"The upgraded Battle.net is an integral part of the StarCraft II experience and will be an essential part of all of our games moving forward," Blizzard's PR team explained. "This extra development time will be critical to help us realize our vision for the service."

Blizzard goes on to say that the company mission is to develop games that deliver an epic entertainment experience, and that means taking the extra time to ensure that games such as StarCraft II live up to Blizzard's highest standards. Hopefully the extra time will allow Blizzard to re-think its stance of excluding LAN play, and implement the support before the new release date.

"As we work to make Battle.net the premier online gaming destination, we’ll also continue to polish and refine StarCraft II, and we look forward to delivering a real-time strategy gaming experience worthy of the series’ legacy in the first half of 2010," the company added.

So much for vegging in front of the PC during the holidays.

[Updated 08/05/09: Updated for clarity and error in date.]

Kevin Parrish
90 Comments Comment from the forums
  • blarneypete
    Yawn.. Is anybody surprised? As for me, I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for Duke Nukem Forever! :P
    Reply
  • IronRyan21
    WTF! I don't even know what to say. Delay, Delay, No Lan, Delay........
    FFS Blizzard, hire some more people.
    Reply
  • jfreggie
    That's ok Blizzard... take your time with it. After its realease, it's just going to sit on the store shelves as we punish you for not giving us LAN support!
    Reply
  • megabuster
    Delay??!! New Engine, better graphics please.
    Reply
  • erichlund
    Perhaps I'm not reading correctly, but isn't the first half of 2010 the period from January through June? A release in March would be, in my book, the first half of 2010. July 1 would fall under second half of 2010, if just barely.
    Reply
  • Regulas
    @jfreggie
    That's ok Blizzard... take your time with it. After its realease, it's just going to sit on the store shelves as we punish you for not giving us LAN support!

    and trying to sell us a game in three instalments. Keep it Blizzard until I can pick it up with all the parts included.
    Reply
  • BallistaMan
    Release it with LAN support at the end of the year, then patch in Battle.net later when it's ready. I could live with that. :P
    Reply
  • Kaiser_25
    BNet is so fail
    Reply
  • sdcaliceli
    For those of us that like to play custom maps on battle.net through Warcraft 3 got the shaft yesterday when this "update" went through. Now even the most popular of maps, DOtA 6.61b does not work. Blizzard, i hate you.
    Reply
  • cekasone
    I am not surprised. To be honest I think blizzard wants to ride out World of Warcraft before they release a new game. And with the lack of LAN support, many people may hold off on the game even when it finally is released. Also, whats up with Diablo III?
    Reply