Blizzard’s annual Blizzcon convention is in full swing with tons of announcements, new features and more about their games including StarCraft II. In an official press release, Blizzard announced that the popular sci-fi, strategy game will be free to play later this month with a slew of new content.
CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment Mike Morhaime states “StarCraft II is one of the highest-rated PC games of all time, and we’re excited to give even more people around the world a chance to find out why it has inspired such a passionate global community.” In order to bring more players to StarCraft II’s community, Blizzard now offers the entire Wings of Liberty campaign free for all players. Those who come into the game as free players can unlock the ranked ladder with 10 first wins of the day in Unranked or Versus A.I. play. Those who are not free players can also unlock the ranked ladder by purchasing any campaign or War Chest season. War Chests can be purchased for $9.99 (per race) or $24.99 (all three races). The chests help players unlock exclusive content, skins, comics and more as they gain more experience while in matches and missions.
Other free additions include weekly mutations and Co-op commanders which are free to play until players reach level 5, while Raynor, Kerrigan, and Artanis are completely free without the level cap. The newest Co-op commanders added to the Wings of Liberty campaign are Mira Han, a space pirate and Matt Horner, Jim Raynor’s second-in-command. Player’s can also look forward to new Co-op mission additions with the Part and Parcel mission and leaderboards which list scores for all co-op games.
Multiplayer updates will come to StarCraft II after Blizzcon concludes. Some of the changes include redesigns and additions of certain abilities; Terran Raven’s have a new ability to repair mechanized units while Zerg Infestors, Lurkers, and Vipers have changes to their Parasitic bomb ability and Protoss see the addition of a ‘Shield Battery Structure.’ All Co-op and multiplayer updates have been listed on Blizzard’s official website.
The entire Wings of Liberty campaign is free, but the single-player Heart of the swarm, Nova Covert Ops and Legacy of the Void campaigns are available separately for $14.99 each or $39.99 when purchased as a bundle in the Campaign Collection. Units from Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void campaigns will appear in the ranked ladder.
That’s not all, as Blizzard announced that “For a limited time, players who already own Wings of Liberty (as of October 31, 2017) but have not yet purchased Heart of the Swarm will be able to get the latter campaign free by logging in to the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app and claiming their free Heart of the Swarm gift between November 8 and December 8, 2017.” Those who owned StarCraft II before October 31 will also receive an “Eidolon Ghost Skin and three portraits commemorating their founder’s status in the game after StarCraft II goes free starting on November 14.”
StarCraft II is available for Windows, Mac, and PC.