Blizzard Releases StarCraft II Demo (Yes, demo)

By Marcus Yam
published

Wanna check out what this StarCraft thing is all about? Now is your chance.

Not sure if this "StarCraft" thing is for you? Or were you a big fan of the original StarCraft but you're not so sure about this new game that uses such fancy things such as "polygons"? Well, you may be in luck.

Blizzard has released a playable demo for StarCraft II that contains the first three missions from the full game. Yes, it's been nearly half a year since the release of the retail game, but we're pretty sure that making a demo wasn't high on Blizzard's priority list when it already had millions of pre-orders.

Nevertheless, for those who were waiting for a chance to try it (but didn't have a friend who had a sharing code to give) can finally try StarCraft II for free.

Grab it here.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
40 Comments Comment from the forums
  • firebee1991
    Bringing demos back would be one of the most ethical and effective way to combat software piracy. Nobody could claim that they just pirate games to decide if they want to buy them, and software corporations could ethically pursue criminal charges against all pirates. Win-win.
    Reply
  • kartu
    I wonder, how good or bad are the S2 sales, given how user/LAN party unfriendly it has become, compared to the S1 (where you not only were able to play off-line, but also could _officially_ play on LAN with up to 3 of your friends with only 1 copy of the game bought).


    2firebee1991
    Xbox360 about 40 million consoles, 100 million games sold annually, HACKED FOR YEARS
    PS3 about 40 million consoles, 100 million games sold annually, hacked only a couple of month ago

    What "piracy" is someone fighting please?
    Reply
  • bebangs
    too late.
    Reply
  • I must admit something. I downloaded this game from a torrent site. However I was so happy with it that a few weeks later I went into a shop and bought it so that I can fully enjoy it and because I felt it was worth it.

    I dont think I would have bought it if I werent able to download it for free first.
    Reply
  • rantoc
    Its a great game, just on spot what i expect from Blizzard. No disapointment with it!
    Reply
  • eddieroolz
    Maybe I'll download this to shut my friends up. They've been nagging me all along to try this even though I'm utterly not interested.
    Reply
  • alidan
    i was thinking of pirateing this, just to see what would happen to my computer at the highest settings, because this is a demanding game (yea graphically no, but real world, yea, and not demanding because of crap unoptimized code like crysis either).

    now i dont have to. thanks blizzard.
    Reply
  • Ciuy
    All Blizzard moves are well calculated and precise.
    Reply
  • aaron88_7
    kartu.2firebee1991Xbox360 about 40 million consoles, 100 million games sold annually, HACKED FOR YEARSPS3 about 40 million consoles, 100 million games sold annually, hacked only a couple of month agoWhat "piracy" is someone fighting please?And which console is Starcraft 2 available for? Oh, yea, neither has the power to run it...
    Reply
  • distanted
    firebee1991Bringing demos back would be one of the most ethical and effective way to combat software piracy. Nobody could claim that they just pirate games to decide if they want to buy them...Yes, because there's nothing that motivates a thief to do the right thing like the loss of credibility. Most will simply switch to a new argument, like saving the rain forest by avoiding software packaging. But, I am glad to see a demo of this game.
    Reply