If you've been jealously guarding your money since 2010, wait for that day Starcraft II will finally be cheap enough to try, you're in luck. At Blizzcon over the weekend, Blizzard announced that the game would be moving to a free-to-play model, offering a significant portion of single-player and multiplayer content for free starting November 14th.
How explained on the Battle.net blogplayers will be able to download Starcraft IIThe original Wings of Liberty single-player campaign is free. Players who previously paid for Wings of Liberty will instead be able to receive the Heart of the Swarm expansion for free, and players who previously purchased the expansion will receive an exclusive Wraith skin and three new portraits.
Players will also be able to gain full free access to ranked multiplayer, including units from all three expansions for the game. This mode will be locked until players achieve a single win in ranked or AI play for 10 separate days (“our way of maintaining the quality and integrity of ranked play,” Blizzard explains).
Co-op players will be able to use three commanders completely free – Raynor, Kerrigan and Artanis, and the rest will be free until level 5, after which they will need to be purchased separately. Blizzard will continue to make money from Starcraft II selling these commanders for co-op play, additional single-player campaigns for $15 each (or $40 for a set of three), and other “premium upgrades” such as commentator packs, special skins, and war chests.
