So said Battle.net project director Greg Canessa at GDC Online in Austin, Texas, today, according to a report from GameSpot. That puts StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm tentatively on schedule for March or April 2012, about when we were expecting the game anyway, going by previous estimates from high level Blizzard employees.
While Blizzard rarely confirms dates this far in advance, its a more definitive date than “the next few years”, the previously mentioned release window for Heart of the Swarm, Diablo III and the developer’s still unannounced next-gen MMO.
Canessa told GDC Online attendees that those working on the Battle.net side would be working on new features, including “trading replays, broadcasting replays and upgrading profiles,” according to GameSpot’s extended account.
Just think, we could be done with the story of StarCraft II by as early as end of 2013! That’s nothin’!
Next Starcraft II due early 2012? [GameSpot]
Michael
Friday, October 8, 2010 at 12:44 PMDang, I was hoping for only a 12 month gap. Blizzard are gonna need to provide a fair bit of content via patches between now and then to keep things fresh and keep people interested IMO. 18 months between expansions is a long time.
Blake
Friday, October 8, 2010 at 1:15 PMBecause Starcraft has always had a problem with keeping people interested…
Steven Bogos
Friday, October 8, 2010 at 12:48 PMIndeed. For those of us who’ve already finished with the game (I smashed through the SP, played a bit of MP but couldn’t keep up) it’s quite a long time.
Hopefully, HOPEFULLY, we’ll see Diablo 3 before then, to keep me tied over!
Mig
Friday, October 8, 2010 at 12:57 PMEpisode 3 damnit!!!… oh wait.
Ryan Thomas
Friday, October 8, 2010 at 1:46 PMhahaha
Gobbomob
Friday, October 8, 2010 at 2:04 PMlol, i can’t even touch WoL right now. :P
Steve0410
Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 5:09 PMThis makes me almost certain that the next episodes will just be that, episodes. They’ll contain further chapters to the story but won’t add any multiplayer changes (like how Brood War completely changed the balance with new units for every race).
If it’s going to take 36 months, or 3 years to finally get a complete version of competitive SC2, people will have lost interest.