Who's surprised? I'm certainly not.

Today we announced that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will not be ready for release by the end of 2009. Over the past couple of weeks, it has become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new Battle.net for the launch of the game. 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. This extra development time will be critical to help us realize our vision for the service.

Our mission is to develop games that deliver an epic entertainment experience. As part of that commitment, we will always take as much time as needed to ensure that our games and services meet the expectations of our players and the standard for quality that we set for ourselves as developers. 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.

We will share more details about the beta, Battle.net, and StarCraft II’s launch in the future. Keep an eye on the official website at http://www.starcraft2.com for updates, and as always, thank you for your continued enthusiasm and support for StarCraft II and all of Blizzard Entertainment’s games.

Source.

Next year suddenly just got a lot busier game wise...

we will always take as much time as needed to ensure that our games and services meet the expectations of our players and the standard for quality that we set for ourselves as developers.

Blizzard are lucky enough to be in a position to be able to do this. I am all for this approach to software development when it comes to things like games.

So i wonder if this is going to coincide with the release of Diablo 3 as well... corner 2 markets with one release perhaps???

Do you think they'd be that insensitive? Releasing SC2, Diablo 3 and an inevitible WoW expansion (not announced, but you know there's bound to be one due around the same time) would likely cause the world-wide divorce rate to jump exponentially..

Surly not. Why compete with yourself? I for one wouldn't buy both at the same time, I'd get pwned by my woman. :D

Bahahhaha that would be highly amusing Toll! So a triple decker release you think darkjedi ... would be the first that i've heard of...

Not all at once, but within 6 months of each other would be murder. Personally I suspect the to-be-announced-at-blizzcon WoW expansion will probably hit late this year/early next year, with SC2 around the april-june quarter.. D3 for Christmas 2010 would be amazing (but unlikely)..

That said, like Toll pointed out, Blizz aren't stupid & wouldn't compete with themselves like that.

D3 for Christmas 2010 would be amazing (but unlikely)

:(

Who's surprised? I'm certainly not.

I am pleasantly unsurprised. It is good to see a developer actually delay a release to get it right.

I am pleasantly unsurprised. It is good to see a developerpublisher actually delay a release to get it right.

FTFY, Publishers not always the same as Developers.
Activision Blizzard are their own publisher so they get to make the call.
A lot of developers have the call made for them instead and so crap gets released.

EA

could starcraft 2 become another Duke Nukem Forever?

last edited by infi at 10:26:50 06/Aug/09

They could quite easily release a wow xpack and SC2 at the same time, they're catering to different segments of the gamer market.

D2 and SC2 though? no.

could starcraft 2 become another Duke Nukem Forever?

Nah. This is unsurprising, and par for the course for Blizzard.

Their 1.0 releases are other developer's 2.4. It takes time though :)

FTFY, Publishers not always the same as Developers.
Activision Blizzard are their own publisher so they get to make the call.
A lot of developers have the call made for them instead and so crap gets released.

Who gives a f*** what excuse is made and who is to blame. If a game is released unfinished it is released unfinished.

Personally I suspect the to-be-announced-at-blizzcon WoW expansion will probably hit late this year/early next year, with SC2 around the april-june quarter.. D3 for Christmas 2010 would be amazing (but unlikely)..

If the reason given for delaying SC2 is a bnet upgrade then they would want it upgraded for the next WoW expansion as well. They are also pretty competitive with their ex pack releases and will probably wait for KOTOR before releasing it. Early next year... maybe, but certainly not this year.

Aion better be good enough to keep me going until 2010 in that case.. otherwise I might ..... *shudder* convert to a console.

If the reason given for delaying SC2 is a bnet upgrade then they would want it upgraded for the next WoW expansion as well

WoW doesn't run on Battle.Net.

Lookout for Rioting in Korea

Aren't they migrating WoW accounts to bnet?

Who gives a f*** what excuse is made and who is to blame.

I'm sure the people who work on the game give a f***, you think developers want to release poor quality, unfinished stuff? I guarantee you they get more pissed off about it than you do.

Aren't they migrating WoW accounts to bnet?

Yeh they've done some work centralising accounts and authentication.

The point being though that changes to B.Net to support SCII is likely entirely divorced from WoW, as the WoW realms are only very thinly connected to battle.net.

Having played good quality client-server games in HoN I wonder if the BN upgrades which seem to be extensive include the option for this sort of play. Upgrading the network from a matchmaking service to a true game server for SC2 would be a massive undertaking.

I'm sure the people who work on the game give a f***, you think developers want to release poor quality, unfinished stuff?

The consumer doesn't give a s*** though Khel, and maybe Actizzard's (Blizzvision? Actard?) humongous pile of money might give other publishers some pause.

last edited by Hogfather at 12:14:09 06/Aug/09

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last edited by FaceMan at 12:18:42 06/Aug/09

maybe Actiblizzard's humongous pike of money might give other publishers some pause.

Valid point, but one that's lost on the majority of the other big publishers. I suspect however it's also one that's coming from the Blizzard part of the business, not Activision.

we've all seen what happens to unfinished games which have been released..

Well this news has made me give up the idea of getting a new comp and Ive ordered a Peavey guitar amp instead.

I admit it - I laughed when I read this, at the misery of all Starcraft fans >:)

They might have a good reason to release in 2010 and even if would like to play it before, its better to play a game who is really good instead of realeasing an alpha version (such as ARMA II).
But im looking forward to the release of SC II

=)

the dota of sc2 will cost extra money !! oh well it good to support the makers of maps.