Blizzard Entertainment, creators of StarCraft, World of Warcraft, and Diablo, announced today that StarCraft II is going free-to-play… sort of. Think of it more as a super-extended demo of a larger game that will, in the end, cost you money to experience the entire…uhm, experience.
Announced as StarCraft II: Starter Edition, anyone with a Battle.net account and an interest in Zergs can dive in after a simple download of the game. With Starter Edition, you’ll be limited to your access of the game, specifically allowing you admission to the tutorial, the first four campaign missions of Wings of Liberty, the first two basic and advanced challenge missions, and the opening cinematic to Heart of the Swarm.
In terms of access to multiplayer content, Starter Edition only allows you to play as one race, the Terran, but through all three stages of battle in Training mode. You can also play a single VA.I. versus type, though unranked and ranked matches are strictly forbidden to non-paying miscreants like yourself.
However, you can play as many Starter Edition-specific custom games as your little fluttering heart desires. The same Starter Edition-restrictiveness applies to Arcade matches, so you won’t have full access to all games, but you’ll have access to some. Blizzard intends to circulate new types of arcade games into the Starter Edition pool, but to gain access to all, you’ll have to… you guessed it… pay up.
As for Replay functionality, you’ll have full access as you would with a regular purchase of the game – with the exception of certain “support features” like ‘Take Command’ or ‘Resume from replay’. Other social features are included as well, and can be seen in-motion in the video above.