StarCraft 2 Delayed Until 2010

Activision Blizzard has confirmed its strategy sequel has been delayed until next year.Speaking during the Activision Blizzard Q2 earnings call this evening, Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime has confirmed that StarCraft 2 has been delayed until the first half of 2010. In a later update from Blizzard they stated:Today we announced that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will not be ready for release by the end of 2009. Over the past couple of weeks, it has become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new Battle.net for the launch of the game. The upgraded Battle.net is an integral part of the StarCraft II experience and will be an essential part of all of our games moving forward. This extra development time will be critical to help us realize our vision for the service.

Our mission is to develop games that deliver an epic entertainment experience. As part of that commitment, we will always take as much time as needed to ensure that our games and services meet the expectations of our players and the standard for quality that we set for ourselves as developers. As we work to make Battle.net the premier online gaming destination, we’ll also continue to polish and refine StarCraft II, and we look forward to delivering a real-time strategy gaming experience worthy of the series’ legacy in the first half of 2010.Bad news for fans eagerly awaiting the game but it does mean there’s time for more polish and enough time for a lengthy beta test.There was also further Battle.net discussion which is being described as being similar in scope to Xbox LIVE with ” social networking features, cross-game communications, unified log-in and account management and more,” according to Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime.The delay of StarCraft 2 has been attributed to further development of the Battle.Net platform and not down to any delay in the game’s development schedule.