More Monthly Fees For StarCraft II

It’s not only Russia who will get a monthly subscription option for StarCraft II and Battle.net.

Blizzard announced yesterday in a press release that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will be available in Brazil for a suggested retail price of $49.90 BRL (£18.55 GBP or €22 EUR) and give a six months access to Battle.net (the only way to play StarCraft II’s multiplayer mode). Thereafter, players can choose a 30 or 60 day subscription plans where monthly costs have yet to be revealed.

The famous RTS game will be localized into Brazilian Portuguese and it will be possible to pay a one-time charge to purchase and download an unlimited-access version of the game. The retail price and the one-time charge together equates to about the same cost as the US price of $59.99 USD (£41 GBP, €47 EUR).

Players who prefer to make a one-time payment for unlimited access to the StarCraft II single-player campaign and multiplayer play on Battle.net will have the option to purchase and download an unlimited-access version of the game directly from Blizzard Entertainment at pricing similar to the US price of $59.99USD.

This is very similar to the deal that Russian players will get and Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard, said they “want to make sure players have the flexibility to experience the game according to their own preferences and play style,” and the pricing options to different regions is one of the core pieces of that.

Basically, Blizzard wants to be able to sell their game at Western price points even in regions where games traditionally are not that expensive due to a low average income, and games often are wildly pirated. The developer rather have a small amount of money than none. The main drawback with this is how gamers are limited to regions in the early days of the game’s release. Especially Australian and New Zealand gamers. However, Blizzard has promised to open up gameplay between regions in a content patch some time after release.