The Year Of Blizzard And The StarCraft II Beta

The news of StarCraft II was not the only announcement made by Blizzard. To be released later this year, Blizzard's highly acclaimed MMO, World of Warcraft, will be releasing their latest expansion with Cataclysm.

Bobby Kotick, CEO and President of Activision made this comment, “In calendar year 2010, we expect our net earnings and operating margin growth will be driven by our product slate that includes Blizzard Entertainment’s Starcraft II and the World of Warcraft expansion pack, Cataclysm.”

Here is the breakdown of what to expect from Blizzard in 2010:

  • World of Warcraft strong going into expansion pack year
  • Global subscribership of approximately 11.5M subscribers
  • Solid adoption of Value Added Services
  • Working towards regional expansion and Wrath Of The Lich King launch in China
  • 2010 shaping up as biggest Blizzard history
  • 1st time in 12 years with 2 major products expected in the same calendar year
  • StarCraft II beta testing ready to launch in February
  • World of Warcraft Cataclysm improvements to benefit experienced and new players alike
  • Innovative in-game VAS and community features for World of Warcraft
  • Battle.net – designed to be the premier online gaming destination
  • Connects the Blizzard Entertainment community
  • Foundation for future Blizzard Entertainment online games
  • Advanced communication features for players to chat across World of Warcraft realms and across Blizzard Entertainment games

My Take:

Will this be the year where Blizzard brings back millions of players back into the world of StarCraft after such a long time? I for one cannot wait for StarCraft II to be release, especially after getting a small taste of it at Blizzcon 2009. The new Battle.net sounds interesting but will have to wait and see how that will work over all. Is this Blizzard's way to take an idea from Steam and use it? Also the new expansion pack will be very interesting for old and new players alike.