Starcraft 2 Might Have Pre-Paid Game Time...

I'm sure that many of you are aware that a new Starcraft 2 Beta patch came out earlier today. This new patch brought some new balance changes, a Battle.net revamp, and of course tons of bugs. While playing some 2v2 with a friend I was experiencing lots of lag, and so I decided to re-log, however, a funny thing happened. Upon entering my account info I was greeted with this message:

Now I know that Blizzard has said that Starcraft 2 is going to free to play as long as you have an internet connect, but pop-up is leading me to believe there's more to it.
This could mean a premium service that could launch right along a free to play version, something that Blizzard is currently trying with they're World of Warcraft Acution House App for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Starcraft 2 Won't Launch With Cross-Sever Support

If you're afraid that you'll get stomped by pro Starcraft players from South Korea when Starcraft 2 launches, don't worry.
It seems that Blizzard's next big game won't come with cross-server support right out of the box. The main reason for this decision was becuase of server stability. Blizzard doesn't want their players to be tossed into a match half-way across the world, and then experience intense amounts of lag.

Although Blizzard assures it's fans that after the new battle.net and match-making system has been up and running for a while, they will happily look into cross-server support.
Although this does lower the amount of players you're going to be playing with, I'm sure Sc2 will pull such huge numbers that you won't ever think of that being a problem.

The Starcraft 2 Beta Launches In The Galaxy

Yesterday Shacknews reported that, "Blizzard revealed the next beta patch should be launching this week along with the much-anticipated Galaxy Editor, which will allow gamers to create their own maps and script their own scenarios."

The Galaxy editor will be a full map editor allowing users to create custom maps, and even brand new game types. However, players won't be upload their creations to Blizzard's cloud servers just yet, that will have to wait til Sc2 launches at retail.
As well as this new patch, a Mac version of the Starcraft 2 Beta should launch later week as well.

Starcraft 2 Beta Client Coming To Mac In April

I know a lot of you are Starcraft fans, and so I thought I'd share some of this SC2 news.
Blizzard held a question and answer segment over Twitter a little while back, and some interesting news came out of it.

When a fan asked "Mac beta please? Any information!" Blizzard moderates responded with "We are currently working on a Mac version of the beta and hope to release it sometime in April. Hang in there!! :)"
 The PC client for the SC2 beta has been out for a little less than a month now, and seeing how Blizzard always supports both PC and Mac this isn't super surprising news, but it's sure nice to get some re-assuarance everyone once in a while.
Along with this announcement, and Valve's announcement of Steam coming to the Mac OS, it might actually be a good time for Mac gamers!

Source

Starcraft 2 Beta Client Is Up and System Requirements Are Announced.

It seems that the wait, for the beta, is finally over. A couple "Authorized Blizzard Fansites" are already posting their screen shots of their beta downloads. Among them is SCLegacy.com,who's screen shot is pictured bellow.

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Here are the official beta requirements. Keep in mind that these are for the beta only, and won't necessarily be the same for the final release.
PC Minimum Requirements:
• Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Windows 7
• 2.2 Ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon processor
• 1 GB system RAM/1.5 GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128 MB NVidia GeForce 6600 GT/ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024x768 minimum display resolution
• 4 GB free hard space (Beta)
• Broadband connection

Its Official! Startcraft 2 Beta Starts This Month!

At a recent investors call Blizzard Co-Founder and CEO announced that the Startcraft 2 Beta will start this month. Here's what he had to say:
"The beta test will be conducted on a global scale," he said, specifying that the beta will operate in North America, Europe, Korea, Taiwan, New Zealand and Australia

I can't wait to Zerg rush the beta the second it hits, be sure to check back often this month for more SC2 news as the Beta draws closer and closer. If you don't get a chance to check out the beta, don't worry, Starcraft 2 is scheduled for a mid-2010 release.

New Battle.net / Starcraft 2 Beta coming... "Soon"

While we're all waiting for the Summer of 2007 to come around so that we can all get our StarCraft 2 Beta on, Blizzard has kindly given us some new info on whats to come with the brand new Battle.net service. The new and imporved Battle.net service will be a brand new experience for all Starcraft 2 users to experience..."Soon". It will offer things like cross-game chat, the Real ID service, updated matchmaking and the StarCraft II user mod marketplace.

With all of this hype about the new Battle.net Experience people are beginning to suspect that the Starcraft 2 Beta might also launch within a matter of time. I for one can't wait to get my hands on Starcraft 2 again after playing a bit of it at last years Blizzcon. To strengthen the Starcraft 2 Beta rumor, Blizzard has posted a video with Greg Canessa, project director for Battle.net where we see a quick glimpse of a Starcraft 2 Beta screen!

Once the beta does hit, be on the look out for many "Beta Exclusive" posts coming your way, by your friends from TeamTwie.