StarCraft 2 is going free-to-play

[satanboy]

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime revealed during the company’s annual BlizzCon convention on Friday that StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty is going free-to-play. From November 14, the Wings of Liberty story campaign will be absolutely free to play. The same is true of versus mode. Commanders Kerrigan, Raynor and Artanis will be completely free as well but all other commanders will only be free up to level five. After that, you’ll have to pay to unlock them.

Those who already own the main game will be gifted the Heart of the Swarm expansion. Game director Tim Morten said they feel like they’ve got a great game that they want more people to play. He added that taking away some of the barriers – primarily cost – will hopefully give a larger audience the chance to play StarCraft 2.
Morten was quick to address the issue of microtransactions. "For a lot of people, when they hear 'free-to-play,' they think that means we're introducing a bunch of new microtransactions, secondary currency, and things like that," Morten said. "We're not doing that."



Also coming to StarCraft 2 is a new pair of commanders – Mira Han and Matt Horner – and a new co-op mode map called Part and Parcel. A remastered version of the original StarCraft launched over the summer for $15.

techspot

 

[Creag]

Commanders Kerrigan, Raynor and Artanis will be completely free as well but all other commanders will only be free up to level five. After that, you’ll have to pay to unlock them.

Co-op has been free to play for Raynor, Kerrigan and Artanis for a while now. My lad has loved playing these. I bought Commander Fenix last month for him (+/- €4.99) . He'll be chuffed to see he can play all others up to level 5.