'StarCraft II' Goes Free-To-Play Later This Month

StarCraft II is becoming a free-to-play title starting November 14, Blizzard revealed during today's BlizzCon 2017 Opening Ceremony.

Blizzard president and co-founder Mike Morhaime was on hand to make the announcement, explaining that the full "StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty" campaign will be available for all players to play for free going forward.

If you already have "Wings of Liberty," he said, you'll get the Zerg-themed campaign "StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm" for free as well. If you're interested in picking up your copy of "StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm," you'll need to log into your Battle.net account to claim it between November 8 and December 8.

In addition, all players will gain access to the full ranked multiplayer ladders and every co-op commander in-game up to level 5. To unlock the multiplayer ladder beyond that, you can earn 10 First Wins of the Day (a win in your first multiplayer match of the day)  in either Unranked or Versus A.I. mode.

There's also some new content coming to StarCraft II in the form of a new co-op mission called “Cart and Parcel,” though there weren't any other details divulged about what it may contain just yet. There should be additional information coming later during a StarCraft II panel later during the show.

After completing the "Wings of Liberty" campaign, if you don't nab "Heart of the Swarm" for free, you can pick it up along with the other single-player campaign content such as "Legacy of the Void" and "Nova Covert Ops" for $15 apiece or bundled together for $40.

There's also a special award coming in for anyone who already purchased any StarCraft II campaign before Oct. 31: a Ghost skin and three new portraits to add to your collection. If you’ve been considering jumping into StarCraft II, now’s a great time to do so.